It was a pretty long, crazy road with lots of upsets, and insane comebacks, but in the end, far and away the best team in the country ended up with the national title in what was a great game, and a great showcase for the sport.
That's not to say there weren't some surprises along the way. I'll be the first admit that I never thought Colby Cohen's 'Shoot first, breathe later" style of play would work out at BU. One hilarious trip through the archives turned up me saying that Cohen "could cause more problems than he's worth." I'm not sure how you place a value on a national title winning goal,but it's worth a lot.
The guy who assisted on Cohen's goal, Kevin Shattenkirk, was named to the All-American team last weekend, and probably goes down as one of the biggest "what could have been" recruits in Michigan history. Shattenkirk and some of the other guys Michigan missed while waiting on him(Nick Petrecki, who recently signed with the Sharks, Ian Cole, also an All-American) went on to have spectular careers, while the guys Michigan ended up with(Kevin Quick, left school after a year for stealing from a teammate, Scooter Vaughn, considering a switch to forward or leaving the team) have not. One defenseman probably wasn't the difference for Michigan these past two years, but it couldn't have hurt.
It was also nice to see Duluth-native Chris Connolly score BU's first goal. Connolly toiled for three years after graduating high school in junior hockey, two in the less-than-prestigious NAHL. Not many players get to end a long journey like that by scoring a goal for the best team on the biggest stage in amateur hockey.