Best of the Decade: Top 25

The Moments and Stories That Made Up a Fascinating 10 Years

by Avash Kalra/Senior Writer (@AvashKalra)

By now, you've seen all sorts of "Best of" lists for the decade that was.

The best players of the 2010s, the best books, the best internet memes (did memes exist at the beginning of the decade? We can't remember). It's required for any self-respecting publication to produce these lists — typically annually, but certainly at the end of each decade (yes, even if the definition of decade is debateable).

Well, CHN is no different.

Division I men's college hockey had innumerable moments and stories worth remembering over the past 10 years, so even trying to organize any of them into a list seems silly. It's worth mentioning that arguing about these lists is even worse. For us, in a world that's much different in 2020 than it was in 2010, nostalgia — for a decade's worth of memories — is important.

On the whole, it was a time of massive change. More players than ever in the NHL, new powers like Penn State and Quinnipiac emerging on the scene, while old-school powers like Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin struggled at times through transitions. The recruiting landscape is different, the conference alignments are, in some cases, vastly different, and many legendary names retired.

So, as required, this is simply one version of the 25 most noteworthy stories and moments of the incredible decade that was in college hockey.

25. Big Games on Campus

In May 2016, the WCHA — a conference that looked a lot different in 2016 than it did in 2010 — finalized an agreement to move the entire conference postseason to campus sites. The move ended the legendary WCHA Final Five brand, which at one time was one of the most well-attended and well-regarded events in all of college hockey.

The WCHA's move came with some foresight, knowing that the conference would inevitably deal with attendance issues at neutral sites — part of an ongoing saga that, in truth, preceded the realignment of conferences and is likely to continue into the next decade. The WCHA led the way in making the change, and the Big Ten soon followed suit, moving its tournament entirely to campus sites, too.

For the WCHA, the result was immediately successful. In one of the most memorable games of the decade, Shane Hanna's double-overtime game winner against Bowling Green blew the roof off the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in 2017, with Michigan Tech winning the WCHA title in front of its home crowd.

24. Big Chill at the Big House

The first few days of the decade saw Boston University topple Boston College, 3-2, outdoors in a frigid Fenway Park. It was the first of 34 outdoor college games during the decade. Fifteen were played at Fenway.

But the banner moment for college hockey outdoors came Dec. 11, 2010, when the largest-ever crowd to watch any NCAA event in any sport witnessed Michigan earn a 5-0 shutout over Michigan State at the 'Big Chill at the Big House.' The announced Michigan Stadium attendance of 113,411 was later certified as 104,173 by the Guinness Book of World Records.

23. Air Force Grounded

In January 2018, politics directly intruded upon the sport when a three-day federal government shutdown — triggered by disputes over immigration policy and border control (clearly issues that weren't fixed by decade's end) — resulted when Congress failed to pass legislation required to fund government operations.

The shutdown led to the cancellation of 11 athletic events at the Air Force Academy, which (unlike Army and Navy) uses federally appropriated money for its athletics department. The Falcons' game against Sacred Heart was canceled just hours before puck drop, creating a scenario of uncertainty at the time for a team that would come within a goal of the Frozen Four just two months later. Similar circumstances led to the cancellation of an Air Force exhibition game in October 2013.

Six months after the government shutdown, politics intruded again. Canadian Phil Roy resigned as an assistant coach at Clarkson after his work visa was denied by the U.S. government.

22. 8-0

In April 2010, Boston College won the first national title of the decade. The Eagles' 5-0 championship win over Wisconsin at Detroit's Ford Field capped a dominant weekend for head coach Jerry York's team (BC beat Miami, 7-1, in the semifinals).

With the shutout in the title game, then-junior goaltender John Muse improved to 8-0 in the NCAA tournament. Muse also backstopped BC to the Beanpot title, Hockey East regular season title, and Hockey East tournament title as part of a dominant 2009-2010 campaign. And remember (even though it was the prior decade), two years earlier, as a freshman, Muse played every minute for BC en route to what would turn out to be the first of three titles for the Eagles in a five-year span.

In 2011, Muse fell to 8-1 all-time in the NCAA tournament with a first-round tourney loss to Colorado College, ending his memorable career for BC.

21. 150 Minutes

The only two games ever to go past 150 minutes (i.e. over halfway through the fifth overtime period) occurred this decade, and that's enough to land on this list. In March 2015, Shane Walsh scored for Massachusetts to defeat Notre Dame, 4-3, after 151:42 of play — breaking the record set by Quinnipiac's 5OT win over Union in March 2010, by just 80 seconds.

For Massachusetts, Walsh beat Notre Dame goaltender Cal Petersen to end college hockey's longest-ever game, after Petersen had already made an NCAA-record 87 saves. It was the first Hockey East tourney win for the Minutemen, at the time, since 2009. And for Quinnipiac at Union, Greg Holt ended the madness with the game winner.

In both instances, the home fans — however many stayed until the bitter end — left unhappy, with the road team winning the marathon Game 1 (in each case) of a Best-of-3 quarterfinal series. And in both instances, the team that won the 5OT affair lost the next two nights to lose their series, 2-1.

20. Charging Ahead

The Chargers — a program with uncertainty surrounding it almost every season and offseason — survived the decade.

When College Hockey America (CHA) disbanded early in the decade, Alabama-Huntsville spent three years as an independent program, and to say the Chargers struggled during that time would be an understatement. Alabama-Huntsville won just seven games combined in three seasons, and until the new-look WCHA agreed to add the Chargers in time for the 2013-14 season, Huntsville was destined to be an eliminated program.

Despite it all, they've stuck around — for now. Of course, with seven WCHA schools (all but Alabama-Huntsville and the Alaska programs) set to start a new conference in 2020-21, Huntsville will have to somehow forge a way ahead, again.

19. You Can Play

In February 2010, Brendan Burke — son of (at the time) Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke — was killed in a car accident in Wayne County, Indiana. Burke was a student manager for head coach Enrico Blasi at Miami, and his tragic death came at a time when there had been increased public awareness regarding acceptance of homosexuality in hockey — thanks to Burke's own determination after sharing his experiences as a gay man in sports.

Shortly before Burke's death, he was featured in an ESPN article by John Buccigross. And later (in March 2012), inspired by Burke's efforts, his brother Patrick and others founded the 'You Can Play' campaign aiming to combat homophobia in sports. "If you can play, you can play." The activism campaign promoting inclusion, equality and diversity ultimately became an official partner of the NHL.

18. The Upset

Yes, there had been other No. 1 seeds to lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament this decade, and yes, Holy Cross over Minnesota in 2006 (given the circumstances at the time) will likely always be considered atop the list of upsets.

But American International's 2-1 triumph over top-overall seed St. Cloud State, a 30-win team entering the 2019 NCAA tourney, has to be in the conversation, too. In their 21st season at the Division I level, it was the Yellow Jackets' first season above .500 and their first NCAA tournament appearance. St. Cloud, meanwhile, boasted a roster of veterans and was the favorite to win the whole thing.

When it was over, St. Cloud had lost in the first round as a No. 1 seed for the third time in four years. Led by head coach Eric Lang, AIC's dramatic upset in Fargo, N.D., was one of the biggest tourney wins not only of the decade, but of all-time.

17. Back to Back

Minnesota-Duluth can rightfully claim to have been the team of the decade, winning three national titles under head coach Scott Sandelin. In April 2019 in Buffalo, N.Y., the Bulldogs became the first team since Denver (2004-05) to win back-to-back national titles.

UMD suffocated Massachusetts in the 2019 national championship game, 3-0, a year after a similar roster (including netminder Hunter Shepard) did the same to Notre Dame. In 2018, remember, UMD was the 'last team in' to the NCAA tournament, thanks to a 0.0001 point advantage in RPI. That allowed the Bulldogs to go on a dramatic run in that tourney, winning each game by a 2-1 score.

Coming back a year later, dominant as ever, produced one of the most memorable postseason performances of the decade.

16. Devils in the Details

In November 2014, Arizona State announced that, beginning with the 2015-16 season, its successful club program would make the move to Division I. Greg Powers began coaching that club team, which was the defending ACHA national champion at the time of the announcement, in 2010-11 and continues to coach the Sun Devils to this day.

ASU won only three games in its first varsity season. In year four? The Sun Devils advanced to the NCAA tournament after winning 21 games in the regular season, including wins over Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, Michigan State, and Penn State.

Arizona State's move may have even more impact in retrospect at the end of the new decade, especially if it serves as a blueprint for success for other western schools looking to begin Division I hockey.

15. Title Game Hat Trick

On April 8, 2017, Jarod Lukosevicius scored all three goals for the Denver Pioneers in a 3-2 win over Minnesota-Duluth in the national title game. Playing on a line with current NHLers Troy Terry (who was famously the hero at the World Juniors during the same season) and Dylan Gambrell, Lukosevicius scored two goals in 16 seconds in the second period — the fastest consecutive goals scored by a single player in NCAA championship game history — and added his third just minutes later.

Lukosevicius scored all three goals in 7:39, the second-fasted hat-trick in NCAA championship game history. The record still belongs to Denver's coach during that title game, Jim Montgomery, who scored the last hat-trick prior to Lukosevicius, in just 4:35 for Maine in the 1993 national title game.

That title game performance for Lukosevicius was no fluke, either. The then-sophomore would go on to score 40 more goals as a junior and senior, finishing his Denver career with 62 goals and 43 assists in 158 games.

14. The Youngest Hobey

On April 10, 2015, BU freshman Jack Eichel (you see him wearing the 'C' on his Buffalo Sabres sweater now) won the Hobey Baker Award after one of the most dominant freshman campaigns in college hockey history.

Eichel, who committed to BU at age 15, led the nation with 1.79 points per game (26 goals, 44 assists) and became the first freshman since Maine's Paul Kariya (1993) to win the award. Eichel is also the youngest player to ever win it.

Along the way, there were plenty of moments to remember, but the season as a whole was meaningful for many reasons. Beyond the individual achievements, the biggest was BU's turnaround triggered by Eichel. A 10-21-4 record the previous season turned into a team that won the Beanpot, Hockey East regular season and conference tournaments. Eichel led the Terriers all the way to the national title game (which is, unfortunately for BU fans, included higher on this list).

Eichel scored two goals and added an assist in BU's 5-3 Frozen Four semifinal win over North Dakota, entering the national title game with an eye-popping plus-51 rating.

When his one and only season at BU ended, Eichel was drafted second overall by the Sabres, one pick after the Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid.

13. All-Connecticut

Every now and then, the ECAC would knock on the door. In 2013, the league that hadn't seen one of its own win the national title since Harvard in 1989 knocked the door down with two conference teams playing in the national championship — rivals and neighbors Yale and Quinnipiac.

Yale triumphed, 4-0, winning the all-ECAC showdown in Pittsburgh after Pittsburgh-native Jesse Root iced the title game with an empty-netter. It was the first time since 1978 (Boston University vs. Boston College) that teams from the same state battled for the national championship. It was also the first time any team from Yale — the third-oldest university in the country — won a national championship since its men's swimming squad did so six decades earlier.

Guided by head coach Keith Allain, Yale also became the first team ever to win the national title by beating three No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.

12. Legends Retire

Several legendary coaches retired during the past decade, including four of the top six all-time coaches in wins — Jack Parker (retired from BU after the 2012-13 season; 897 wins), Red Berenson (retired from Michigan after the 2016-17 season; 848 wins); Rick Comley (retired from Michigan State after the 2010-11 season; 783 wins); and Don Lucia (retired from Minnesota after the 2017-18 season; 708 wins). Of those four, Parker and Berenson racked up all their wins with a single program.

Dick Umile also retired after the 2017-18 campaign, after winning 596 games with New Hampshire, and Joe Marsh coached his final game during the 2010-11 season, after winning 468 times with St. Lawrence.

In all, 18 current head coaches finished the decade coaching the same team with which they started the decade. Seventeen of those coaches are in the top 100 in wins.

And of course, Boston College's Jerry York — the all-time leader in wins among head coaches — won his 1000th game this decade, with an 8-0 win over Massachusetts in January 2016. York was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame in June 2019.

The decade also saw the passing of Ron Mason and Jeff Sauer, two more of the winningest coaches of all time.

11. Oh No, OC

Boston University led Providence, 3-2, with less than nine minutes to play in the third period of the 2015 national championship game. Then came one of the most memorable but unfortunate on-ice moments of the decade, when a seemingly innocent dump-in by the Friars' Tom Parisi led to disaster from a BU perspective.

Terriers netminder Matt O'Connor caught the puck in his glove, but wasn't able to secure it. The puck dropped out and trickled through O'Connor's legs. Just over two minutes later, Brandon Tanev scored the eventual game-winner for Providence, and BU — with Hobey winner Jack Eichel — lost for the first time all season when leading after two periods.

After the game, O'Connor opted to forego his senior year at BU, signing a two-year contract with the Ottawa Senators. O'Connor made his NHL debut just six months after the forgettable title game moment.

10. Stand-in to Standout

Shawn Hunwick's improbable rise to prominence as Michigan's starting goaltender is as good a story as college hockey has ever seen.

"I had seen Shawn in practice for two years, and I liked him. But he never got consideration as a starting goalie," said then-Wolverines head coach Red Berenson at the time. The five-foot-seven Hunwick had played only 21 minutes during his entire career before being thrust into the starting role as a junior in February 2010.

Michigan entered the CCHA playoffs as the seventh seed, but Hunwick led the Wolverines all the way to the title, then to within a goal of the Frozen Four. A year later, after Hunwick earned the shutout in the aforementioned record-setting event at Michigan Stadium, he took Michigan to the national championship game. Though he came up short in that affair (an overtime loss to Minnesota-Duluth), Hunwick's efforts will long be remembered. He continued to start for Michigan despite threats of incoming goaltenders (first Jack Campbell, then John Gibson) who ended up playing junior hockey instead.

Just weeks after his college career came to an end, Hunwick made his NHL debut, playing 2:33 for the Columbus Blue Jackets because — why else? — they needed a replacement for the injured Steve Mason. It was Hunwick's only NHL appearance.

9. The Downside

Unfortunately, the decade wasn't filled with only bright moments. There were negative stories, too — although fortunately, the major ones were few and far between. In 2012, a Boston University task force, despite not finding "clear systemic issues," highlighted problems with the culture of the men's hockey program, following two sexual assault allegations on campus involving hockey players who were both removed from the team. University President Robert Brown said at the time that the "insular and elevated status can lead to unacceptable and destructive behavior, including a culture of sexual entitlement and abuse."

In 2016, four Vermont captains were suspended due to hazing involving first-year players, only 15 years after a hazing incident at the same school forced a half-season to be canceled. And in March 2019, Hockey East investigated a potential racist incident that occurred during a quarterfinal series between Providence and Boston College, with alleged racist remarks directed towards Providence's Vimal Sukumaran. Though the investigation was ultimately inconclusive to provide discipline, it was an unfortunate moment in a decade that otherwise promoted inclusion in hockey.

8. Holl Lotta Time

A defenseman scoring his first goal of the season, a shorthanded game-winner with less than a second left in regulation on a play that started with a faceoff in his own defensive zone? In the national semifinal?

Oh, it happened. And it won't ever be forgotten by Minnesota fans (who won't let North Dakota fans forget it either). Justin Holl's buzzer-beater on April 10, 2014 produced one of the top on-ice moments in Frozen Four history. With the semifinal seemingly destined for overtime, the senior defenseman corralled a loose puck after a blocked Kyle Rau shot, beating UND netminder Zane McIntyre to send the Gophers to the national championship game.

The puck famously slid into the net with 0.6 seconds left in regulation, and while the Gophers mobbed Holl in a wild celebration, UND captain Dillon Simpson and his teammates either sat on the ice or were doubled over in disbelief, in a true "you remember where you were" moment of the decade.

7. Northeastern wins the Beanpot

Seemingly chance alone would allow a team to win an annual four-team tournament at least every decade, but entering the Beanpot in February 2018, Northeastern hadn't won the trophy since 1988. That all changed, finally, with the Huskies' first Beanpot triumph in 30 years when eventual Hobey winner Adam Gaudette scored a hat-trick — a "Hobey moment" — to lead Northeastern to a 5-2 victory over Boston University.

It was a major moment in Northeastern's renaissance, and helped change the playing field, so to speak, in Boston. The Huskies advanced to the NCAA tourney, and the following year (the 2018-19 campaign), they won the Beanpot again.

6. The Wait Is Over

The North Dakota Fighting Hawks ended their 16-year title drought in April 2016 with a 5-1 title game victory over Quinnipiac in Tampa. It was Brad Berry's first year as head coach, after his predecessor and mentor Dave Hakstol had kept UND in the title hunt for over a decade. Hakstol coached North Dakota for 11 seasons beginning in 2004, making the NCAA tourney every season. During that time period, the Fighting Hawks went to the Frozen Four seven times.

The eighth time was the charm, and the signature moment came early in the third period thanks to the line known at the time as the 'CBS line.' Comprised of future NHLers Drake Caggiula, Brock Boeser, and Nick Schmaltz, the trio — known for their highlight-reel goals — combined on a Caggiula snipe less than 90 seconds into the final period to extend UND's lead to 3-1. 140 seconds later, Caggiula scored again, and UND was on its way to another national championship.

5. The Goal

First, silence, and then "Did you see that?" seemed to echo throughout Tampa's Amalie Arena — which in 2012 was hosting the Frozen Four for the first time. Leading 2-1 against Ferris State, Boston College was trying to hold off the Bulldogs to win a third national title in five years.

And that's when it happened. BC freshman Johnny Gaudreau, two years before he won the Hobey Baker Award, became a household name instantly with a remarkable individual effort that has stood the test of time. The goal itself was excellent, but the timing was impeccable.

Gaudreau collected a bouncing puck at his own blue line, and as he skated through the neutral zone, he managed to control it. Baffling the Ferris State defense, Gaudreau made a move to his backhand, lifting the puck over netminder Taylor Nelson's right shoulder, and set off a wild celebration on the BC bench. Less than three minutes later, the Eagles were national champs, again.

4. Realignment

Penn State's arrival as a Division I program beginning with the 2012-13 season is often credited with setting off a domino effect. In retrospect, it was an earthquake, and the after-shocks are still being felt.

The Nittany Lions played their first season as an independent program, before the Big Ten conference was officially born to start the 2013-14 season. At the same time, several high-profile WCHA and CCHA programs left to form the new (at the time) NCHC, leaving the remaining teams behind in a new-look WCHA. Realignment changed seemingly everything — recruiting, travel, further uncertainty regarding programs in Alaska, overtime formats, and rivalries. It also informed further conversation regarding expansion and realignment in the future.

Soon, the NCHC began to dominate the national title picture. The league has won four in a row.

3. First Time, for Everything

On April 9, 2011, senior Kyle Schmidt ended a thrilling back-and-forth national championship game at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., scoring at 3:22 of overtime to lift UMD to its first national championship in program history — and the first, it would turn out, of three titles in the decade.

Schmidt one-timed a no-look Travis Oleksuk pass to beat Michigan goaltender Shawn Hunwick, as the Bulldogs became the first first-time winner of the title since Maine won the national championship in 1993. The Hermantown, Minn., native slid down the ice for an iconic snow angel celebration, closing out his career in style after a trying season in which Schmidt broke his right hand not once, but twice.

2. Plus Seven

Union's emergence as a national powerhouse, particularly in the first half of the decade, epitomized the feel-good 'rags to riches' story. In April 2014, the Dutchmen won the national championship, toppling blue blood Minnesota, 7-4, in Philadelphia — and in doing so, became the second consecutive ECAC program to win the title after Yale won it all in 2013.

But the shining moment for Union came from a dazzling title game performance by junior Shayne Gostisbehere, who led the Dutchmen with a transcendent plus-7 performance — which as impressive as it sounds still doesn't tell the story for just how dynamic Gostisbehere was during the game. Seemingly everywhere on the ice at once, Gostisbehere scored a goal and added two assists — and made play-after-play in an on-ice display that ranks as one of the top individual performances in championship game history.

Of course, it happened in a building that he's since come to call home. The Margate, Fla., native — who as a junior was a Hobey Baker finalist and a first-team All-American — has been a regular for the Philadelphia Flyers since the 2015-16 season.

1. Expansion

The story of the decade in college hockey was how much it expanded, and it was expansion in the absolute broadest sense of the word. Simply, in 2020 compared to 2010, it's easier to follow college hockey.

The game expanded to new programs (notably Penn State and Arizona State) and to greater coverage — on television, online, and certainly on social media. Awareness and appreciation of college hockey expanded as record numbers of players "graduated" to the NHL. Former NCAA players made up 21 percent of NHL players in 2013, and that number rose to 33 percent in 2019 — a contingent that includes several Hobey Baker winners from the decade (Cale Makar, Johnny Gaudreau, Adam Gaudette, Will Butcher, Jack Eichel).

Head coaches made the jump, too. David Quinn, former Boston University head coach, now leads the New York Rangers. Former North Dakota head coach Dave Hakstol and former Denver head coach Jim Montgomery both coached in the NHL, too.

The game expanded internationally as well, with players (e.g. Finland's Henrik Borgstrom, Denver) from all over the world succeeding in the college game. And the game went abroad in return. The Friendship Four in Belfast, Ireland, has been wildly successful locally. Closer to home, the Frozen Four went to new places — Tampa Bay, Chicago — and certainly there'll be other new cities (Las Vegas?) on the horizon in the next decade.

And so college hockey goes, boldly forth from the 2010s into the new decade. In 10 years, we can look in hindsight to the 2020s.

Until then, despite all the best moments of the past decade, the best is hopefully yet to come.