LOVELAND – Lady Luck favors the bold. In the clutch, while others squeezed hockey sticks with clammy anxiety, the boldest player on the ice here Saturday was University of Denver winger Carter Savoie.
“Just right place, right time,” Savoie said, acting as if bumping into his goal that gave DU a 2-1 victory against Minnesota-Duluth was a happy accident, nothing more than what he insisted was a “lucky bounce.”
While I appreciate Savoie’s modesty, don’t believe it for a minute. Lady Luck only dances with the bold.
In the waning moments of the third period of a tie game, when Duluth coach Scott Sandelin wasn’t the only man in the joint figuring we were headed for overtime, Savoie looked down at his skates. Lo and behold, he discovered a puck obeying nothing except its own crazy geometry by caroming off the back glass on a wild DU shot, and ambushing Minnesota-Duluth goalie Ryan Fanti in the back of his leg before finally landing fortuitously on Savoie’s stick.
And how did Savoie react to this unexpected manna from the hockey gods?
He nonchalantly poked the puck in the back of the net, allowing the Pioneers to advance out of the finals of the West Region at the Budweiser Events Center, where everywhere you looked was either DU crimson or gold.
“You create breaks. Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don’t. That’s this tournament, right?” Sandelin said. “Sometimes you get some luck. And sometimes you don’t … I think (the Pioneers) got a little bit of luck.”
One crazy bounce of the puck is all that separated the unbridled joy of DU’s 17th trip to the Frozen Four from the painful tears that pooled in the eyes of Bulldogs senior Kobe Roth.
With the outcome in doubt, Savoie planted himself in the crease. And that was more than a happy accident.
“He arrives on time,” DU coach David Carle said. “And thatap what he did there.”
It ain’t luck if you’re a master of your own fate.
I don’t pretend to have a clue if Savoie was born with the clutch gene. But this much I know is: The 20-year-old DU sophomore, who scored 53 goals in 54 games in junior hockey prior to joining the Pioneers, has the same relationship that Happy Gilmore enjoyed with the golf ball.
Savoie is a puck-whisperer that can coax the rubber down a slippery road and past the most intimidating net-minder to its happy home.
Call me crazy. But after watching DU advance out of the West Region with consecutive one-goal victories, this was a weekend when I swear the Pioneers were wrapped in warm hugs by friendly ghosts.
The last time DU played NCAA tourney games in its home state was 2004, when the team honored alum Keith Magnuson, a rugged defenseman that had perished at age 56 in an automobile accident during the winter.
“Was it a good outcome last time?” asked Pioneers center Cole Guttman, well versed in the storied history of a program that has claimed eight national titles.
Eighteen years after raising a national championship trophy in tribute to Magnuson, Guttman and his teammates took the ice as a No. 1 seed in the tournament on the glistening ice sheet of the Budweiser Events Center, a splendid little building that was brought to life by former DU coach Ralph Backstrom, who passed away in February 2021.
“There’s a lot of history in our program. And we talk about it a lot,” Carle said.
Prior to the third period of a tie game between conference rivals meeting for the sixth time this season, the rafters shook to the beat of “The Pretender,” a song from the Foo Fighters, who are mourning the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Don’t know about you. But I believe the only difference between bad and good luck is what you make of a situation that can bounce either way. And the lyrics of “The Pretender” shout: What if I say I’m not like the others … What if I say I will never surrender?
At 13 minutes, 44 seconds of the third period, with a trip to the Frozen Four on the line, DU defenseman Sean Behrens ripped a wild shot off the back glass. The puck bounced off the back of the Duluth goalie, who had looked nearly unbeatable all game long.
Was it blind luck? Or the pure skill of a pure goal scorer?
All I know: Savoie is not like the others. He will never surrender to pressure in a big moment.
He lit the lamp.
And ghosts got up to dance. For the 17th time, DU is headed to the Frozen Four.
