Boston — For Michigan’s hockey team, brimming with NHL talent, most of whom could already be playing professionally, this was the opportunity they had been targeting all along. It was why so many of them opted to return to play another season in college.
But the Wolverines, the No. 1 overall seed in the Frozen Four, will not realize their goal of playing for the national championship. Denver, which never trailed, won 3-2 in overtime at TD Garden on Thursday.
Michigan (31-10-1), last won a national championship in 1998, also in Boston and in the Garden and had hoped the magic would happen here again.