College Hockey National Championship Odds: Who Will Win the NCAA Hockey championship?

The regional brackets for college hockey are all wrapped up, and we now have our four ‘Frozen Four’ teams: Denver, Boston University, Western Michigan, and Penn State. 

Many of hockey’s most famous blue bloods were eliminated in the regional tournament. 

The biggest “upset” of the weekend was the reigning champion Denver Pioneers taking down #1 Boston College — a team with 12 NHL draft picks on its roster — to head back to the Frozen Four. 

Michigan State, which had the second-shortest odds behind BC heading into the regionals, also lost 4-3 to fourth-seeded Cornell, who scored a power-play game-winner with 10 seconds to go in regulation. Cornell eventually lost to Boston University in the final regional game.

Here’s an update for the National Championship Odds before next weekend’s Frozen Four in St. Louis. 

NCAA Hockey National Championship Odds

NCAA Hockey Championship Favorite

University of Denver (+200)

Denver’s win over Boston College broke a seven-game losing streak for the defending national champion team in a title rematch, something David Carle made sure to mention in his postgame media availability. 

If you don’t understand why Denver is the favorite then you don’t know much about their goalie Matt Davis. 

Davis put on another masterclass performance in Sunday’s game against BC, stopping 35 shots. Between this game and 2024’s national championship game, Davis has stopped 70 out of 71 of the Eagles’ shots. Beyond that, he’s never allowed more than one goal in an NCAA tournament game. 

Combine Davis with the fiery Minnesota Wild draft pick defenseman Zeev Buium, who gave a taunting salute to the BC bench after scoring in Sunday’s game, and head coach David Carle, it makes total sense why Denver is viewed as the favorite. 

They drew a high-powered offense in Western Michigan for the semifinal game, who ranks second in goals per game behind Denver. But if Davis is still hot, Denver can ride him all the way to another championship. 

NCAA Hockey Championship Contenders

Western Michigan (+250)

Western Michigan won its first ever conference championship this season, since they joined the NCHC in 2013. St Louis will also be the first Frozen Four the team has reached also. 

But don’t think that means the moment is too big for the Broncos. They actually defeated Denver less than two weeks ago in the conference playoffs, winning 4-3 in double overtime. Before that they took down another legendary NCAA program in North Dakota in the opening round of the conference tournament. They beat #11 UMass 2-1 to get to the Frozen Four. 

Western Michigan’s power play has become especially lethal in this tournament run, with three of their goals in the tournament so far coming on the man advantage. Junior forward Liam Valente has been leading the charge on that front, with two goals in the tournament so far.

It’ll be a tough road for the Broncos to win the championship but with their recent experience against Denver it’s entirely possible they could pull off another upset. 

Boston University (+280)

In the seven years that Boston University Head Coach Jay Pandolfo has been in college hockey — four as a player at BU, three as a coach — he has made the Frozen Four in all seven years. 

If Pandolfo were coaching in basketball or football, he’d probably already have an eight-figure lifetime contract by now. But, maybe he gets one from BU anyways.