More than 20 years ago when I began covering college hockey a very wise coach told me the best teams are built from the goal out.

He contended it didn’t matter how much you could score if you couldn’t stop the other team from doing so. He constructed his teams as such and has won four national championships and appeared in the Frozen Four nearly a dozen times in that span.

So it should be no surprise that three of the five finalists for the Mike Richter Award for the nation’s top Division I goaltender took up residence in Chicago this week, nor should it surprise that two of them will face off for all the marbles on Saturday night at the United Center.

Denver is known for its puck possession style that typically results from a pressure-cooker approach. The Pioneers make a point of getting to loose pucks first, and if you happen to have the puck they force you to make decisions outside of your comfort zone. (see Notre Dame game, April 6, for reference).

One reason they can do that is they have a cadre of elite skaters with high hockey IQs and good pairs of mitts. Think guys like Will Butcher, the senior defenseman who just so happened to win the Hobey Baker Award on Friday as the nation’s top defenseman.

Another reason they know they can play the pressure game is their last line of defense – junior goaltender Tanner Jaillet – is as good as it gets in college hockey. That also was confirmed Friday when the mild-mannered puck-stopper captured the Richter Award over a group that included his Thursday opposite, Notre Dame’s Cal Petersen, and his Saturday opposite, Minnesota-Duluth’s Hunter Miska.

Just don’t ask Butcher, the first defenseman since Boston University’s Matt Gilroy in 2009 to win the Hobey, or Jaillet to talk about themselves. It won’t happen.

“I believe this award to be a team award. I accept it on behalf of my entire team at DU,” Butcher said Friday.

Every time I’ve spoken with Jaillet he’s been quick to deflect praise to his teammates.

“Last year they were good, too. This year they’ve been incredible,” he told me for a story for Colorado Rubber Magazine a few months ago. “The one thing I think has been noticeably different is their commitment to blocking shots, and that’s not only our defense but our forwards, too. I really appreciate that.”

Other keys, Jaillet said, were his teammates keeping opponents to the outside, the forwards back checking hard and very few second shots.

“It’s making my job easier,” he added. “All I have to worry about is making that first save and they’ll clear everything out for me. It helps when everyone’s doing their part in the D zone.”

Both players are nothing if not consistent.

Of Jaillet’s 37 starts, he allowed two or fewer goals in 28 of them. His overall numbers – 27-5-4, 1.83 goals-against average and .928 save percentage are all among the best in Division I. Simply stated, he gives the Pioneers, who score nearly 3.5 goals per game, a chance to win in virtually every start.

Butcher, meanwhile, has 37 points in 42 games. He had points in 26 of those games, and it’s a good bet he impacted all or nearly all of the other 16. He had just six games all season in which he was a minus player, and only two were more than -1 (-3 in the second game of the year, a 3-1 loss to Boston College and -2 in a 3-1 loss to UMD in December).

It’s the Bulldogs who stand in the way of the ultimate goal for Butcher, Jaillet and their teammates on Saturday.

“We came here to win a national championship, and that’s our one goal,” Butcher said. “This (the Hobey) is just icing on the cake.”

Incidentally, the wise coach was a college teammate of Butcher’s dad Joe on UW-Stevens Point’s 1989 national championship team.

Notable

The honors for DU weren’t finished with the Hobey and the Richter, however. Butcher was joined on the first-team West all-American team by freshman center Henrik Borgstrom. Jaillet was the West’s second-team goalie. Butcher was a second-team selection last season by the American Hockey Coaches Association.