Frozen Four: Miller leaves lasting legacy at Yale

Yale senior forward Andrew Miller ended his college hockey career in style Saturday night at the Frozen Four at the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Penn. The Bloomfield Hills, Mich. native scored a goal on a breakaway and added an assist as the team he captains won the school's first ever NCAA Championship.

Miller tallied two goals and added four helpers in the NCAA Tournament with all but two of the assists coming in the Frozen Four. The last assist of his college career, his 114^th, made him the all-time leader in assists at Yale. His efforts earned Miller the honor of being named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2013 Frozen Four.

At five-feet-nine-inches tall, Miller might not ever make the NHL, but his college career was nothing short of spectacular. He was part of teams that stockpiled an ECAC Regular Season Championship, an ECAC Tournament Championship, and three NCAA Tournament appearances, which all culminated in Saturday's NCAA Championship. He scored 42 goals and added 114 assists for 156 points in 141 games played over four seasons.

His ability to find his teammates is remarkable, and obviously the numbers speak for themselves. His coach had some extremely high praise for him after the national championship game.

"He's one of the best playmakers that I've ever seen at any level. His vision is incredible. His ability to put the puck in a timely manner to a teammate is great as well," said Yale coach Keith Allain.

Miller has a little Bill Belichick in him, giving short and typical sports cliché answers when asked certain questions by the members of the media gathered for the press conferences throughout the week.

He might not be the loudest player in college hockey, but his leadership ability has come a long way since arriving on the New Haven campus. It took a lot of leadership for this team to regroup from a tough weekend in Atlantic City to go on the run Yale did in the NCAA Tournament. "We spoke earlier this week that Andrew came in as a great player, but this year he took a huge step forward in terms of his maturity and his leadership," said Allain.

Miller will find an NHL suitor in the coming weeks. Whether he makes the NHL is still to be determined, but he will make a very good playmaker in the AHL if nothing else.

And who knows, someday, the Political Science Major might add to Yale's list of five alums who have been President of the United States.

Jeff Cox covers college hockey for SBNation. Follow Jeff on twitter @JeffCoxSBNation for all the latest college hockey news.