BOSTON — The NCAA men’s hockey championship game is much more than Jack Eichel vs. Jon Gillies.

But would it surprise anyone if those two play a decisive role?

Eichel is the precocious forward for Boston University, a local rink rat turned hockey legend looking to lead one of the sport’s premier programs back to glory.

Gillies is the South Portland scion of a family of goaltenders who has helped Providence College out of the college hockey doldrums and into its first championship game in 30 years.

They’ll renew acquaintances at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at TD Garden in the biggest game of their young lives.

“His humbleness off the ice carries out on the ice and makes him that much better,” Gillies said of Eichel, a teammate on the U.S. squad that competed in the world junior championships in Sweden last winter.

“He doesn’t need to be in the spotlight. He’s just a pure winner. He’s one of those special players where you know you’re not going to shut him down, but you try to contain him as best as you can. You give him the respect that he deserves without giving him too much and being scared of him.”

Eichel has 70 points in what figures to be his lone season of college hockey. Friday, he won the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s top player. The 18-year-old from North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, is expected to be the second selection in this summer’s NHL draft. He is the leader of the highest-scoring team in college hockey – one that is seeking a sixth national title.

Gillies, a 21-year-old junior, was named a second-team All-American on Friday after going 23-13-2 with a 1.98 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage. He is the third member of his family to play goalie in a Frozen Four. His father, Bruce, did so for New Hampshire. His uncle, Chris, played at Denver. Grandfather Bruce Sr. was between the pipes at Division III Norwich.

A 2012 draft choice of the Calgary Flames, Gillies will almost certainly be playing his final college hockey game Saturday.

“It’s what you start playing hockey for is the big games like this,” he said Friday. “When I started looking at the college process and thinking about the different benefits of it, this was definitely the biggest one.”

Gillies is no stranger to Eichel’s shots on goal. He faced 15 of them this season as the Friars (25-13-2) and Terriers (28-7-5) split a pair of Hockey East games. Gillies stopped all but one. He made 74 saves that weekend.

The challenge from BU, though, is not limited to Eichel. Three other Terriers – Ahti Oksanen, Danny O’Regan and Evan Rodrigues – also have scored more than 20 goals. Oksanen, a native of Finland who reluctantly gave up playing defense to switch to forward this season, fired a team-leading 165 shots on goal.

The Terriers scored four times in the semifinals Thursday against North Dakota goaltender Zane McIntyre, who took home the trophy Friday as the best at his position.

BU can humble even the best netminders.

Gillies’ reaction: Bring it on.

“They throw a lot of pucks to the net and they’re able to generate some pretty good chances. It’s definitely something to watch out for, but at the same time our team defense has been stellar all year and our guys are really good at closing off time and space, probably better than most teams,” said Gillies, who made 25 saves Thursday to help the Friars beat Nebraska-Omaha, 4-1.

“It’s really a belief in how we play the game and what our strengths are, and not getting caught up in how other teams play with a run-and-gun style.”

Gillies remembers his father taking him to game after game in which Jonathan Quick played. They trekked down to Amherst when Quick was at Massachusetts, or to Manchester, New Hampshire, and Portland to watch him play in the American Hockey League. Quick remains Gillies’ favorite goalie. He has won two Stanley Cup championships with the Los Angeles Kings.

The lesson: A superb goaltender can be the ultimate equalizer in hockey, especially when an entire winter of work boils down to one pressure-packed game.

It’s certainly not lost on BU Coach David Quinn, whose team beat Providence 4-1 on the road, only to see Gillies dominate in a 2-1 victory in Boston the next night. Gillies is masterful at limiting second chances.

“I think when you get rid of a puck quickly, a goalie has less of an opportunity to direct his rebounds. So we’ve got to be ready to shoot pucks,” Quinn said. “We have to get traffic in front of him. I’m no different than any other coach talking in this day and age in hockey. The goalies are so big (Gillies is 6-foot-5) and the nets are so small. You have to get in front, take away their vision, and make it difficult for them.”

This will be the first time Hockey East rivals have met for a national championship since 1999, when Maine outlasted New Hampshire 3-2 in overtime.

Providence, the preseason pick to win the league, enters as a decided underdog. Its 13 losses are the most for a team to reach the final since Notre Dame had 15 in 2008.

Gillies said the losses have made his team stronger. The Friars struggled to a 4-5-1 start that Gillies blamed in part on his poor play.

What followed were three consecutive shutout victories, two by Gillies, including a 43-save masterpiece against Boston College.

“I think I had to earn back the trust and the confidence of the team,” he said. “We started rolling at the right time.”

One way or another, Saturday marks the end. Only Eichel or Gillies can go out a winner.