While the team also lost one of two starting goaltenders in Dylan St. Cyr, they retained All-American Yaniv Perets so their situation in the crease was presumably settled.

[1] The forward lines, which had lost three of its top 5 scorers from '22, would be a work in progress but the addition of Sam Lipkin, an Arizona Coyotes draft pick, was expected to provide some needed offense.

[2] Perhaps being a bit overconfident, Quinnipiac was quite as good in their second game against Long Island but it was the third match that revealed a potential problem for the club.

Quinnipiac fought back to tie the game and avoid disaster, but the lax play was something that could not be repeated by the team if it wanted to fulfill its championship aspirations.

The rematch saw a much more defensively-conscious effort from the Bobcats and they cut North Dakota's shot total in half, winning by a relatively comfortable 6–2 margin.

Collin Graf led the way with 26 points but half a dozen other players were well into double-digits at the time including Lipkin and Jacob Quillan who were both sitting at 19.

Harvard tried to fight back in the final 20 minutes but they were only able to get a single goal past Perets which enabled the Bobcats to run their conference record to a perfect 12–0.

To ensure that didn't happen, Quinnipiac redoubled its efforts on the defensive end and posted four shutouts over the next six games, including one in the rematch with Harvard.

Finally, about midway through the second overtime, Ross Mitton knocked a loose puck past Perets to win the game for Colgate.

The Buckeyes went into full attack mode in the middle frame but the Quinnipiac defense held Perets stopped the final 30+ shots and, despite being widely outshot, the Bobcats were able to pull out a 4–1 victory to reach the Frozen Four.

Quinnipiac continued to pressure Michigan and Quillan ended up getting on a breakaway, firing the puck between Portillo's legs for his second of the game.

Early in the third, however, Sam Lipkin repeated Quillan opening goal feat and scored from behind the net after deflecting the puck in off of Portillo's skate.

After a solid backcheck in the middle of the period, Metsa fired a perfectly placed shot into the near corner of the net to give the Bobcats a 2-goal edge.

The Wolverines desperately tried to score in the final 7 minutes, eventually being forced to pull Portillo early, but all that did was allow Ethan de Jong to get an empty-net goal and send the Bobcats to the title game for the third time.

While that should have suited Quinnipiac, the Bobcats were the first to make a mistake when Jayden Lee fanned on a long pass that ended up on the stick of Connor Kurth.

Both teams continued to counterpunch for the next 20 minutes and eventually Jaxon Nelson chopped a rebound off the back wall into the top corner of the net for the second Gopher goal.

Over the next 20 minutes, Quinnipiac narrowly escaped disaster when Minnesota missed on several opportunities to score while the Bobcats were forced to press hard for the tying goal.

The controversial penalty gave Quinnipiac its second power play of the game but the Minnesota players collapsed towards their cage to block several chances for the tying goal.

Quinnipiac kept the pressure on Minnesota and, just as Cooley was skating back into the play, Collin Graf fired a shot on goal from the half wall.

While he was probably looking to cause a deflection or a rebound, the puck found its way between the pads of Justen Close and skipped into the net, tying the game with less than 3 minutes left in regulation.

In the first championship game to reach extra time in 12 years, Quinnipiac set up a play drawn up by assistant coach Joe Dumais.

Both Minnesota wingers went for the rubber but Collin Graf beat them to it and knocked it back to Zach Metsa, who was standing in his defensive zone.

While Mason Nevers headed towards Metsa to pressure the defenseman, the other winger, Bryce Brodzinski, blew a tire and was late getting back defensively.

Quillan danced between Nelson and a sprawled-out Close before backhanding the puck into an open net and winning the first national championship in school history.