Column: In a year that needed one, Massachusetts writes the perfect hockey movie ending

In the Disney movie that will inevitably be made about this year's NCAA Division 1 men's hockey national champion, Massachusetts, there will be no shortage of dramatic moments to choose and highlight. 

Obvious ones exist, like losing the team's top goalscorer and goaltender right before the semifinal rematch against the two-time defending champions, the team that ended the Minutemen's dream in 2019. Coming back against that UMD team. The overtime winner from an unlikely combination, a Minnesota transfer in a tournament featuring three schools from the "State of Hockey" and the player suspended from the 2019 championship game. 

Getting back both top players prior to the championship game would be another dramatic high. So would Phillip Lagunov's highlight-reel shorthanded goal, crescendoing into the ultimate highlight of UMass shutting out St. Cloud State 5-0 and winning the national championship for the first time in school history.

Heck, this season itself, more than any, is one giant dose of drama that requires resilience weekly. 

This year's tournament ended up being unique with three teams eliminated by outside forces instead of inside an ice rink. The national champion was always going to be the team that survived the circumstances the best. In the end, that was Massachusetts. 

There is no asterisk on this title, just a slightly longer conversation about why this year's national championship is different than any other. That would be the case no matter who won. To not would be a disservice to the worthy champions who went through a year unlike any other, one featuring additional challenges on top of any normal ones any champion faces. 

Still, what makes Massachusetts' 2021 national championship is how normal the Minutemen's run felt in a season and NCAA Tournament that was anything but. 

UMass ended up being a dominant team, going unbeaten in its final 14 games and registering comparisons to 2014 Union or 2017 Denver's recent runs. Filip Lindberg allowed one goal in three games (Matt Murray allowed two in the UMD OT win) and the team scored 17 goals. After surviving an early shot off the crossbar and several St. Cloud State opportunities, Massachusetts went to work surgically taking apart a Huskies team that no one else was able to keep from coming back.

On the ice was enough of a story that it would be easy to overlook how Lindberg was not available for the semifinal, or the personal toll a yearlong global pandemic has taken. Head coach Greg Carvel mentioned it postgame, discussing how his father-in-law, a UMass philosophy professor, had recently passed away, in addition to Maine head coach Red Gendron, who passed away suddenly Friday, a one-time Massachusetts assistant. 

(College hockey honored Gendron with a moment of silence before the championship game.)

Carvel's team was bigger than its individual parts yet it would be wrong to ignore the talent of some of those individuals. Lindberg broke several NCAA Tournament records. Bobby Trivigno and Marc Del Gaizo showed their development from 2019. Zac Jones and Matthew Kessel developed into the next big Minuteman D while Carson Gicewicz and Garrett Wait became the latest transfers to make their mark. 

The best teams in college hockey in this era feature a mix of NHL-ready talent, college experience, high-end goaltending, and veteran leadership. Carvel built upon the Cale Makar/John Leonard/Mario Ferraro trio to get where he is now. It's no surprise that the Massachusetts championship team was one that does not feature a Hobey Baker Award winner or top national goalscorer.

It's hard not to be happy when Saturday's game concluded for all the UMass writers and fans I've known over the years. The program's recent success has been built upon flashes of fantastic moments surrounded by decades of despair. Winning a national championship becomes that much sweeter when the destination is paved with heartbreak, making it fitting for it to come following a season and program that captured all the highs and lows of college hockey,

Personally, however, the Massachusetts movie moment that sticks out features none of the current players. It involves a win, the only one the Minutemen had in a 23-game stretch to end a five-win 2016-17 season.

At the time, UMass snapped a five-game losing streak by defeating Alabama Huntsville 2-1 in OT at the Mariucci Classic. It was not as close as the score indicated. UAH, who went on to win nine games all season, dominated possession and shots, outshooting the Minutemen 30-19. The only shot UMass had in OT was the one that went in.

Despite winning, it was not a celebratory postgame with Coach Carvel. He was not happy with the performance, pointing out his best player on the ice was Brett Boeing, who played his first game transferring in from Michigan Tech. In his first season at UMass, it was nowhere near where he wanted to be. He made that apparent. After the postgame talk, he said there were future plans. He liked who was coming in next season and knew where this program was going. Things would be better.

Again, this was the high point in the midst of one giant low.

I remember coming away from the conversation impressed with Carvel, but also thinking, "I can't believe he left St. Lawrence for this. Hope he's right because it's a story I've heard too many times before." 

Turns out, this is one story I had not. Carvel was right. Boeing ended his career as one of four 2016-17 players playing in the 2019 national title game, the rest graduating or cut. As for his coach, things were better, going from one win in his final 23 games of his first year at UMass, to four at the end of Carvel's fifth season, leading the Minutemen to a national championship and sustained program success.

And the perfect movie ending.

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