Union's Gostisbehere simply outstanding

PHILADELPHIA was awarded this April's Frozen Four way back in July 2010. Four months earlier, the men's ice hockey team from a 2,100-student liberal arts school in Schenectady, N.Y., capped its best season in its 19 years as a Division I program.

Its best season. As in a 21-12-6 record and a berth in the ECAC championship game.

Who would've thought then that the team from Union College would be the one leaving Philadelphia yesterday with the NCAA championship trophy? Aside from maybe a select few, that is, kids like Mat Bodie who would start their Dutchmen careers that fall.

"When I came to this school, I truly believed that we were a national-championship team," Bodie, the team's senior leader, said late Saturday night, in a euphoric visitors locker room at the Wells Fargo Center. "I don't think I would've come here if I didn't believe that."

Union cemented its place as a hockey school with its Frozen Four appearance 2 years ago, but Saturday's 7-4 victory against five-time champion Minnesota marked its coronation. The program's fourth NCAA Tournament appearance, each coming in the last 4 years, culminated in the school's first national championship at the Division I level in any sport and first at any level since 1929, when its men's lacrosse team shared a title with Navy.

"I don't think anyone's going to be calling us a Cinderella anymore," Shayne Gostisbehere said.

Gostisbehere, amazingly Union's only NHL draftee, was the NCAA Tournament's most outstanding player. With a crucial first-period goal, two assists and a plus-7 stat his coach deemed "pretty staggering," the junior defenseman and Flyers' prospect surely made the hometown fans watching giddy. "In my opinion," Minnesota coach Don Lucia said after the game, "he was the best player on the ice tonight."

The only way "Ghost" could have made the Philly fans happier was by signing before leaving town yesterday on a bus bound for Schenectady. After Saturday's game, he said he was not thinking about whether he would sign with the Flyers or return to college for another year. He did not offer a timetable for his decision.

"Night in and night out, he makes big plays," Union goaltender Colin Stevens said. "His hands and his feet, he does things that I've never seen before. He's an unbelievable player."

As was the case in Thursday's thrilling semifinal win against Boston College, Union (32-6-4) fell behind early to Minnesota (28-7-6). Justin Kloos gave the top-seeded Golden Gophers, who were 18-0-5 this season when scoring the game's first goal, a 1-0 lead just 2 minutes, 37 seconds into the game. Gostisbehere evened the score on a wrist shot midway through the period but Minnesota answered right back 37 seconds later. Then came the game's defining stretch: three consecutive Union goals in a mere 1 minute, 54 seconds.

Union coach Rick Bennett tends to jot down a few notes during games after each goal. He was writing "pretty furiously" by the time Daniel Ciampini scored on a put-back from the low slot to make it 4-2.

"It was just an explosion," Bennett said.

The teams' 89 combined shots set a record for an NCAA championship game decided in regulation. Minnesota star sophomore Adam Wilcox, the Big Ten's player and goaltender of the year, had never before surrendered six goals in a collegiate game.

"It just got away from us," Kloos said. "We hung our goalie to dry. He's been our best player all year, and for us to put him through that was kind of disappointing. I think we just made mental mistakes."

After finishing up at the post-game news conference, Gostisbehere joined his teammates down the hallway in the locker room. He carried in the brown and gold trophy and plopped down in his stall. Teammates gathered for selfies with the hardware. Across the room, at least a dozen former Union players, some who traveled from as far as Calgary and Vancouver, marveled at the program's progress.

"Incredible," one said. "Who would've ever thought?"

Union finished on a 16-0-1 stretch. Its 32 wins were its most in the team's 71 seasons. It also set program records for longest unbeaten streak (17) and winning streak (12).

"It's absolutely amazing to see the strides that they've made over the past 10 years," said Glenn Sanders, the captain of a 2003-04 Dutchmen team that went 14-17-5. Back when he was playing, the season didn't surpass the second week of March. "It's absolutely amazing."

On Saturday night, Union College hockey officially outgrew its underdog label.

"The only way we're a Cinderella team is just name recognition," said Bodie, one of five Dutchmen seniors. "I really think no one in our room ever believed we were a Cinderella story this year. We believed we belonged with the big boys, and hopefully some people start to realize that Union hockey is here for good now."

Saturday night's attendance of 18,742 marked the sixth-best for a Division I men's ice hockey national championship game . . . The Frozen Four attracted about 15,000 out-of-town visitors and generated an estimated $10 million of economic impact, according to Comcast Spectacor.