After not winning a game when scoring fewer than three goals all season, Denver did it four games in a row en route to its record 10th NCAA men’s hockey national championship.
The Pioneers shut down Boston College, the No. 1 overall seed, 2-0 in the title game Saturday night at St. Paul, Minnesota.
Goalie Matt Davis had 34 saves in handing the Eagles their first shutout of the season. Davis finished the tournament with 138 saves on 141 shots (.979 save percentage) and a 0.85 goals-against average.
Jared Wright got the Pioneers on the board at 9:42 of the second period and Denver made it 2-0 just more than five minutes later when Rieger Lorenz converted a beautiful feed from freshman defenseman Zeev Buium.
Denver won its second national title in three years and its 10th overall, the most of all time. The Frozen Four teams — Denver, BC, Boston University and Michigan — have won a combined 29 national titles, with Denver’s 10 the most all time. Michigan has won nine titles, with Hockey East rivals BC and BU winning five each. BC’s last title came in 2012, BU’s in 2009 and Michigan’s in 1998.
LOS ANGELES — No. 20 USC pulled off a remarkable fake punt against Northwestern in Friday night’s 38-17 win by sending out third-string quarterback Sam Huard in the same uniform number as the Trojans’ punter.
Wearing a No. 80 jersey, Huard came on the field with the punt team in the second quarter and completed a 10-yard pass to Tanook Hines. The first down extended the Trojans’ second drive, which ended with a TD run by Jayden Maiava.
This bit of trickery was quite legal, apparently: Huard wore No. 7 earlier this season for the Trojans, but he is listed as No. 80 on the USC roster for this week after Lincoln Riley’s team quietly made the change.
USC punter Sam Johnson also wears No. 80. College football teams frequently feature two players wearing the same number.
Huard, who is a couple of inches shorter than the 6-foot-3 Johnson, grinned widely as he high-fived teammates on the way off the field. He is a former five-star recruit who began his college career at Washington.
Bowling Green pulled off a similar stunt in last season’s 68 Ventures Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.
Third-string Falcons quarterback Baron May switched his uniform number before the game from 8 to 18 — very similar to punter John Henderson‘s No. 19 jersey.
Late in the first quarter, May came on the field instead of Henderson and threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Malcolm Johnson Jr. — although Arkansas State overcame it for a 38-31 victory.
Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
No. 22 Missouri will be without star tight end Brett Norfleet (shoulder) when the Tigers host undefeated No. 3 Texas A&M on Saturday in Columbia.
Norfleet, a junior from O’Fallon, Missouri, has started in each of the Tigers’ eight games this fall and enters Week 11 leading all SEC tight ends with five touchdown receptions. His 26 catches on the season rank third-most among Missouri pass catchers, trailing only wide receivers Kevin Coleman Jr. and Marquis Johnson.
Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz told reporters that Norflett sustained a separated shoulder in Missouri’s 17-10 loss at Vanderbilt on Oct. 25. Drinkwitz later described Norfleet as “day-to-day” during the Tigers’ bye in Week 10, and the veteran tight end was listed as questionable in Missouri’s student-athlete availability report Thursday night.
Norfleet’s absence comes with Drinkwitz and the two-loss Tigers essentially facing a playoff elimination game against the Aggies on Saturday. Missouri will also be without starting quarterback Beau Pribula in Week 11 after the Penn State transfer dislocated his ankle at Vanderbilt. Freshman Matt Zollers, ESPN’s No. 6 pocket passer in the 2025 class, is set to make his first career start Saturday, facing Texas A&M coach Mike Elko and an Aggies defense that ranks 18th nationally in defensive pressures (137), per ESPN Research.
“For our team, it’s really about us focusing on helping Matt execute at the highest level possible,” Drinkwitz said this week. “We’re excited about Matt’s opportunity and what he’s earned. He has done a really good job in practice of leadership, stepping up, embracing the moment, embracing the opportunity.”
Missouri (6-2) kicks off against Texas A&M at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
Jake Trotter is a senior writer at ESPN. Trotter covers college football. He also writes about other college sports, including men’s and women’s basketball. Trotter resides in the Cleveland area with his wife and three kids and is a fan of his hometown Oklahoma City Thunder. He covered the Cleveland Browns and NFL for ESPN for five years, moving back to college football in 2024. Previously, Trotter worked for the Middletown (Ohio) Journal, Austin American-Statesman and Oklahoman newspapers before joining ESPN in 2011. He’s a 2004 graduate of Washington and Lee University. You can reach out to Trotter at jake.trotter@espn.com and follow him on X at @Jake_Trotter.
Kansas State running back Dylan Edwards has left the Wildcats and is expected to enter the transfer portal, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Edwards has been hampered by injuries this season and has played in just four games. He has only 34 carries for 205 yards.
In 2024, Edwards finished with 546 rushing yards while averaging 7.4 yards per carry with seven total touchdowns.
He began his career in 2023 at Colorado before transferring to K-State.
The Wildcats (4-5, 3-3 Big 12) are off this weekend.