MANCHESTER, N.H. — Following what ended up being his final game in the maroon and gold, Eamon Powell gingerly crept up to the podium stage donning his captain’s badge for the last time.
His pads were removed, but the jersey stayed strapped around his chest, as though the “B” and “C” lettering were molded into his very being.
https://x.com/graham_dietz/status/1906535159861485575
The Boston College men’s hockey graduate-student defenseman put his head down in order to shield the remnants of tears streaming from the corners of his eyelids. Powell had nothing but praise for the program that made his dreams come true.
“I grew up wanting to be an Eagle, ever since I was a little kid,” Powell said. “These last five years [have] been really special.”
Despite outshooting Denver in the third period 15–2, the No. 1-seeded Eagles (27–8–2, 18–4–2 Hockey East) came up empty-handed against the reigning national champions for the second year in a row, falling 3–1 in the NCAA Manchester Regional Final at SNHU Arena.
Denver defenseman Zeev Buium flipped in an empty-netter with four seconds remaining, cementing a Frozen-Four-clinching victory that made the No. 3-seed Pioneers (31–11–1, 15–8–1 National Collegiate) the first reigning national champions to win a National-Championship rematch in the NCAA Tournament.
https://x.com/graham_dietz/status/1906525249572594176
Previously, the reigning champions were 0–7 in rematches of that nature.
“Any loss at this stage in the year is tough,” Powell said. “Obviously, both years is brutal, just looking back on the groups we’ve had.”
BC was only shut out once last season—by Denver goaltender Matt Davis in the 2024 NCAA National Championship. The senior out of Calgary, Alberta, seemed locked into the same impenetrable zone on Sunday night.
The moment Teddy Stiga flipped in a backhand shot through Davis’ five-hole, however, everything about the atmosphere at SNHU Arena changed on a dime.
“Like Coach Brown alluded to, I think Teddy’s goal kind of lifted the team, gave us some momentum heading into the third,” Powell said. “We’ve always been that third-period team all year. We never were going to shy away from anybody. And we made the best push we could.”
With the score 2–0 in Denver’s favor and BC on the brink of elimination with just a period and change to go, Stiga’s breakaway goal with 53 seconds left in the second frame inserted color into a previously bleak climate.
But the color didn’t last long.
Despite grinding hard to get pucks in deep and force shots on net in the third frame, Davis and the Pioneers’ defense held BC’s top scorers to zero goals.
“They’re a very good team defensively, so it’s hard to get quality shots,” BC head coach Greg Brown said. “But we were able to generate chances and get a lot of pucks to the net. And [Davis], again, was very good … Our top guys hardly ever get kept off the scoreboard.”
Before Buium sent in the empty-netter, taking the wind out of BC’s sails for the last time this season in front of an attendance of 6,802—the majority of which made the trip from Chestnut Hill, about 60 miles south—hope still remained with the 6-on-5 opportunity once the Eagles pulled Jacob Fowler.
The Eagles just never had enough steam to jump over that final hurdle.
“Obviously, [as] the national champion, we knew coming in it was 0–7 in the title rematch,” Denver head coach David Carle said. “Now it’s 1–7. So there’s a lot of things stacked up against us and made this challenging. Really hard to end a team’s season twice in a row, and we were able to accomplish that.”
Denver got on the board with 1:41 to play in the first period, as Eric Pohlkamp was left unmanned while drifting into the slot. Pohlkamp wristed the puck off the left post and in to give the Pioneers an early 1–0 advantage.
Then, just four minutes into the second frame, James Reeder notched his 11th goal of the season with a five-hole tally through Fowler. The goal marked another disappointing display of defensive pressure, which defined the second period for the Eagles.
“I think coming into that first intermission, we were able to regroup a bit,” Davis said. “They were definitely trying to play physical in the first and get under our skin a little bit. [In] the second, we felt like we had good energy in the room and a good understanding of how we needed to play.”
Despite suffering the season-ending loss, which capped off a five-year career for Powell in which he played a total of 170 games—the most of any player in program history—Powell still felt mostly just pride toward BC’s culture.
“I think just the culture, the tradition of [BC] hockey and the success the program’s had,” Powell said. “But away from hockey, just the culture I came in with Coach York and Coach Brown kind of carried that. That’s what makes BC such a special place.”
As captain, Powell tried to ensure the group stayed tight-knit year-round.
“[‘No Daylight Between Us’] was the motto for the team all year, no matter whether it was in the classroom, on campus, in the rink, you would always see the guys together, laughing and having a great time,” Powell said. “That’s what I tried to do as captain.”
