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A sports legend typically takes time to develop. Whether it’s the added context of time or the accumulation of greater exploits and more vivid anecdotes, the mythology only gains steam. However, there is an exception.

A national tournament that crowns a college champion creates instant legends among fan bases, alumni and communities across the country.

There’s even more clout associated with a championship run when it takes a program into uncharted territory and reaches heights never touched in preceding years.

That’s the sort of rare air the Western Michigan University hockey team enters Saturday night at Enterprise Center.

It’s also the type of unique experience that stays with men like Blues head coach Jim Montgomery more than 30 years after his college days at the University of Maine and with Blues defenseman Matthew Kessel, a key figure in a historic season for UMass just four years ago.

There’s undoubtedly a uniqueness to every situation, but there’s also a commonality in that the Frozen Four creates the opportunity for a lifelong impact.

In Montgomery’s case, the Frozen Four served as a benchmark for both his playing career and his coaching career.

As a coach at Denver University, Montgomery coached that program to five consecutive Frozen Four appearances and a national championship in 2017. His success at DU propelled him to his first NHL head coaching position with the Dallas Stars.

Montgomery’s successor and former assistant, David Carle, took the Denver program to its fourth Frozen Four in seven years this season. Carle led Denver to national championships in 2022 and 2024.

“For two programs I’ve been associated with, both in the best eight programs in the country in the same year, I’m glad of my roots,� Montgomery said last weekend. “I’m very proud that I was able to be part of something at both.�

In 1993, Montgomery served as the senior captain for a juggernaut Maine that included future NHL star and Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Paul Kariya.

Considered by some as the greatest college hockey team in history, Maine set NCAA records for scoring (goals per game, assists per game and points per game). Until 2013, they were the only New England team outside of the Boston area to win an NCAA hockey championship.

Maine went 42-1-2 that season, and the lone loss came in overtime. In the national championship game, Maine trailed Lake Superior State in the third period. Then Montgomery had a legacy-defining moment when he scored three goals — all assisted by Kariya — and lifted Maine to a 5-4 win. Montgomery earned Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

“At the moment it was everything that we had worked for at the University of Maine,� Montgomery said of winning the first title in that program’s history. “It’s all that mattered to us seniors, was trying to win that — what we hadn’t done. Then what I think it gave me is to really understand what makes a championship team. The coaching aspect. We had, I thought, beside David Carle maybe the greatest coach in college hockey history in Shawn Walsh.

“What I learned from him and what I learned from the group — we had a special superstar player. I still think Paul Kariya is the best one-year player ever in college hockey. So special player, special team, special coaching, and how you need everything to go right. We hadn’t trailed all year, I think, and in the Frozen Four we came back from two two-goal deficits to win. So there’s a mentality, and special teams have that.�

This season, Maine advanced to the regional semifinal of the NCAA tournament. When the university was hiring its current head coach, Ben Barr, it turned to Montgomery, a member of the school’s athletic hall of fame, to serve on the search committee.

Coincidentally, Barr played a pivotal role in Kessel being part of an NCAA championship team. Kessel originally committed to play for the University of Miami (Ohio), but when that program changed coaches prior to his arrival Kessel went to UMass.

Barr, then associate head coach at UMass, had coached Kessel’s brother at Western Michigan. That’s the connection that made Kessel part of a UMass program itching for its first national title.

“It was definitely incredible to be part of a good team like that,� Kessel said. “Right before I got to UMass, they had a great team with Cale Makar and some other guys like Mario Ferraro, but they came up short in the finals. So going into UMass my freshman year, I knew that was obviously their goal — to get back to the Frozen Four, finish the job and get a championship there.�

The COVID-19 pandemic cut short Kessel’s freshman year. His sophomore season came during an unprecedented time in college sports with no fans or limited fans in arenas throughout the season.

“There was just school and hockey that year with everything going on,� Kessel said of that time. “It was a special way to cap off the year like that, winning it.�

Kessel, who had the fourth-most points of any defenseman in the nation that season, earned a spot on the NCAA All-Tournament team.

Still not that many years removed from that title run, several of Kessel’s former teammates are still playing hockey competitively. They still keep touch, and they’ve even discussed getting together as a group this summer.

Kessel still messages former teammate Garrett Wait around tournament time and reminds him he’s “a legend� because Wait scored an overtime goal in the national semifinal that sent UMass to the national championship game.

“Winning a championship like that makes your teammates, make your guys from that year keep in touch quite a bit,� Kessel said. “It’s probably my favorite hockey memory, winning that with that group of guys.�

There can be something that shines almost eternally about the glory of winning the Frozen Four for those who’ve experienced it. That’s what’s on the line Saturday night in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½.