DENVER- Normally people think of the Boston College-Notre Dame rivalry in terms of football. However, Saturday night was about the two Catholic schools playing hockey, and this time for the national championship.

In front of the 18,632 people in attendance - most of them Notre Dame fans - the two teams battled it out for all the marbles. However, it was the Boston College faithful who enjoyed it the most, savoring their third national championship in school history.

“It is so hard to replicate in practice,” said legendary coach Jerry York who now has two national championships at BC. “The stage you play on, the bright lights are brought upon to the players.”

In the first period, teams were feeling each other out. Not much was happening except for a few penalties. In the second period, Nathan Gerbe struck again, twice. Gerbe had two goals and an assist in the period and in the Frozen Four he had five goals and three assists.

“He’s a dynamic player,” Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson said about the most outstanding player of the NCAA tournament. “As much respect I have for Kevin Porter, if they named the Hobey Baker after this weekend they might have changed their mind.”

Gerbe, however, had bigger things in mind than the Hobey and that was accomplished.

“I really don’t think about it at all,” Gerbe said about his stats in the Frozen Four. “It’s just numbers to me and we’ll do whatever it takes to get that. A lot of guys stepped up. Tonight was just a night where everyone stepped up a notch to get a championship.”

After Joe Whitney scored the third goal, Notre Dame bounced back to make it a game with a goal from Kevin Deeth.

The controversial part of the game hit early in the third. After a goal review, it was said that defenseman Kyle Lawson had a kicking motion when putting the puck in the net and was called a no goal. About 35 seconds later, BC struck and made it 4-1 on Ben Smith’s 25th goal of the year.

“I think that was the turning point for us,” Jackson noted. “I thought we had something going on at that time and I thought we were doing much better with the puck.”

Said Eagle goaltender John Muse, “That was a huge turning point in the game. If they got that goal they would have cut the lead to one, then Ben Smith got that fourth goal, which was huge.”

Adversity continued to strike the Eagles as one of their key defenseman; Carl Sneep went down in the second period and did not return. The team managed to overcome that and play with five defensemen for the rest of the game.

“We just had to keep things simple,” said Eagle defenseman Mike Brennan, who played in his last collegiate game of his career. “We were going to be out there [playing a lot of minutes] and you can’t be as physical as you want to be. We just had to keep things simple and move the puck that’s what we wanted to do. Carl Sneep is a great player and a big time defenseman back there. Whatever the score is and whatever happens we just have to stick to the game plan.”

Boston has seen some great teams that won titles in the past decade. BC has won two titles this decade.

“It’s similar to Denver where all four of the pro-sports play in the city,” York mentioned. “It’s great to be able to join the Red Sox and hopefully the Celtics and the Patriots. We’ve got some real connections here; the Red Sox come over and work out in our strength and conditioning room in the winter months. It’s a great time to be successful in our city now.”

For the Eagles, the third straight trip to the national championship game was a charm.

“We’ve been there for two years and we know what that felt like,” said Gerbe about the third straight trip to the national title game. “This is a great feeling. I think it defiantly helped our experience coming in and we felt poised.”

Another thing to note, the Eagle hockey team will throw out the first pitch at Fenway Park; the date and time is still to be announced.

“I hope to throw a pitch that hits the catcher,” Brennan said jokingly about throwing the first pitch at Fenway. “It’s going to be a thrill.”

Championship Notes

This was the fourth consecutive game in the state of Colorado for Notre Dame. The previous two games (before the Frozen Four) were in Colorado Springs

In the 27 meetings between BC and Notre Dame, the Eagles hold a 15-10-2 advantage.

Nathan Gerbe had seven goals in the tournament, which tied the all time NCAA tournament record. He joins Bob McCusker (Colorado College, 1957) Shawn Heaphy (Michigan State, 1989) and Tony Amonte (Boston University, 1990)

Jerry York moved into a tie for all time tournament wins with 26, joining Jack Parker of Boston University. York is also fifth in Frozen Four wins with nine.