April 12, 2009
By Scott Weighart - Special to GoTerriers.com
Out on the ice after Boston University's stunning overtime win to claim the national championship, junior defenseman Eric Gryba captured the moment.
"It's surreal," Gryba said. "It still hasn't hit that we came back from a two-goal deficit to tie it up and put it in overtime. Then to score in overtime: It's unbelievable. It still hasn't sunk in. This is probably the best experience of my life so far."
It had to rank with as one of the all-time highlights for the BU program. Down 3-1 against a stubborn Miami University team, Terrier coach Jack Parker called a timeout and rolled the dice, pulling goalie Kieran Millan with 3:32 to go, determined to do whatever it would take to pull out the win. It looked hopeless for the next two minutes, but Zach Cohen--an improbable hero so often this year that he is starting to look like an entirely plausible one--backhanded a beautiful top-shelf shot in high to give BU a faint hope. Then Hobey Baker winner Matt Gilroy set up Bonino for the tying goal with 17.4 seconds to set off total pandemonium in Terrier nation.
When Colby Cohen's shot caromed off a defenseman and over the Miami goalie, the Terriers finally pulled in college hockey's biggest prize for the first time since 1995, setting a new team record with 35 wins in the process. Although more careful study of the archives is in order, it also may be the most impressive comeback in the history of the NCAA Championship Game. "It's the greatest comeback I've been involved in," Parker said afterwards.
It was an amazing exclamation mark for what might be considered the best year in this outstanding program's history. The team had the opportunity to win seven titles, and it batted 1.000 by winning them all... and added a Hobey Baker award on top of it.
From the beginning of the season, the 2008-09 Boston University sported long-sleeve, white shirts. One side featured a pot of gold and a logo for this year's Frozen Four in the nation's capital. The other side proclaimed "Burn the boats!"
When asked about the expression in the early part of the season, Terrier co-captain Matt Gilroy sidestepped the question. Yet a Google search revealed that the quote came from the legend of explorer Hernando Cortes.
Several centuries before the invention of the Zamboni--way back in 1519, in fact--Cortes rooted out the whiners from his army and set sail from Cuba in an ambitious attempt to conquer Mexico. After landing in the Yucatan Peninsula, Cortes sought to inspire his men to fight with the mentality that failure was not an option.
So before the set out to seize Mexican gold, he ordered the army's boats to be burned.
Now there was no room for doubt, no possibility of retreat, no thought of anything except success at all costs.
Nearly a half of a millennium later, the adage proved to capture what made this year's Boston University team so special. Finally, after tonight's game, Jack Parker talked at length about how the team came to adopt the saying as this year's motto. Former BU assistant coach Ben Smith visited Parker at the latter's Gloucester home this summer and told him the story. Another former assistant, Bobby Richardson, coincidentally told the BU coach the same story a few weeks later.
The tale resonated with Parker. "We were trying to raise the level of commitment," Parker said. "It seemed like a pretty good idea, that I might want to use it with my team."
Thus the white shirt replace Matt Gilroy's beloved and beaten up pale blue shirt that he had worn to pieces over the previous three years--a shirt from a fundraiser honoring his late brother's memory. The team proceeded to play with that unstoppable spirit that had characterized the Spanish invaders so long ago.
Every time this team played a big game with any kind of championship at stake, they responded. It started with the Ice Breaker tournament that inaugurated the season. When North Dakota tied the game 1-1 early in the second period, it took Jason Lawrence just 17 seconds to tie it up. Twenty-one seconds later, Nick Bonino scored again, and the Terriers were off to the races with a 5-1 rout of the Fighting Sioux.
The next night was a different story with the same result. BU didn't showcase their offensive firepower, but they played suffocating defense--limiting Michigan State to a meager 12 shots to win by a tight game, 2-1.
Little did we know at that time that those two games would turn out to be a metaphor for the whole season. Sometimes the Terriers would blow the opposition out of the water, as they did with 7-2 wins over #5 Michigan back in late October before matching that exact score against Vermont and Maine later in the year. They scored eight goals up in Maine and eight more in the first round of the NCAA Northeast Regionals against Ohio State. With offensive prodigies such as Bonino, Colin Wilson, Chris Higgins as well as several offensively talented blueliners--led by eventual Hobey Baker Award winner Matt Gilroy--the Terriers showed that they could explode, frequently scoring in bunches.
Yet BU was just as likely to eke out a one-goal win behind the stellar goaltending of Kieran Millan as well as a defense-first mentality best typified by defenseman Brian Strait and Eric Gryba. The team shut out four teams and held teams to one goal on 13 other occasions.
With this balanced mix of offense and defense--combined with outstanding leadership from the upperclassmen--this team always had the talent and character to dig down and find a way to win when the stakes were highest.
The trend continued at the Denver Cup. Due to the World Junior Championships, the team was without two of its better players--Wilson and two-way defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk. It was unsurprising to see them trounce Rensselaer regardless, but beating Denver at home was another test for the Icedogs. It was the perfect time for freshman Vinny Saponari to step up with a goal and assist to ensure that BU had reached a two-for-two mark in championships in 2008-09.
The next test came in the Beanpot--for the more casual Boston fan, the only tournament that really matters each season. Everyone predicted that the BU's dominance would not be threatened in the first round by Harvard, as the Crimson had struggled all season. Instead, it proved to be another real test for the boat burners. Harvard stunned BU by taking a 2-0 lead early in the second, and it looked like the Crimson were intent on a season-salvaging Beanpot upset.
Enter Nick Bonino with two goals in just over 100 seconds. Still, the game was on the line was two minutes ago, only to have Jason Lawrence fire one of the hardest slap shots imaginable from 12 feet out. BU advances.
It was more of the same in the Beanpot Championship. Northeastern had enjoyed their best-ever season and could almost taste the beans after a 21-year fast. So what happens? Less than two minutes after the Huskies tie it up in the second, Lawrence strikes again to give BU the lead. Nonetheless, NU had all the momentum in the third and went on a power play with six minutes left... only to have David Warsofsky and Colin Wilson shatter the Huskies' hopes with two shorthanded goals in a 30-second span. Game, set, match, and it was three championships for the Terriers.
Northeastern still held the edge in the league standings, though, and it looked like the regular-season champion title would finally be one to elude the Terriers. Instead, BU got a little lucky when archrival Boston College beat Northeastern on Saturday night. At that point, you just knew that BU would step up on Sunday afternoon to win another game that they had to win to get another title. They beat Providence 3-0 to bring home more hardware.
Coach Jack Parker often has said that the Hockey East playoff championship is one of the most difficult to win, and this year's was one of the toughest ever due to the league arguably having its most competitive field in its history. Home favorites UNH and Vermont bit the dust, and Maine forced a decisive third game against BU, which played one of its worst games of the year in game two against the Black Bears.
Game 3 followed the same script. Maine ties the game 1-1 in the first period, and BU answers with a Brandon Yip goal less than two minutes later... and a Joe Pereira goal 29 seconds after that one. They ran away with it, 6-2, and were off to the TD Banknorth Garden.
It was another nailbiter in the semi-final against BC. BU looked surprisingly flat and couldn't muster much of an attack through the first 50 minutes, trailing 1-0. Suddenly, though, Zach Cohen, Brian Strait, and Colin Wilson notched the near equivalent of a field goal with three goals in a breathtaking 44-second span. BC got one back, and BU held on for dear life to win 3-2 and go on to the championship game. That was another squeaker, as the team and particularly goalie Kieran Millan made Brandon Yip's first-period goal stand up for a 1-0 win.
BU went into the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed and promptly watched all the other top seeds get uprooted. No worries in the opener, though, as the team returned to its explosive ways against Ohio State. That set the stage for another cliffhanger in which BU once again failed to play their very best but still emerged victorious against University of New Hampshire, hosting the Regional in their home state.
This time it was what we might call the "hand of God" goal in homage to former soccer star Diego Maradona. With 14.4 seconds left in regulation in a 1-1 game, Jason Lawrence attempted to pass to Colin Wilson at the far post. Wildcat Jerry Pollastrone--ironically a childhood friend of Lawrence back in his Saugus days--hustled and dove headfirst in an attempt to deny the pass--only to sweep the puck into his own net with his hand. Just like that, BU escaped to reach their first Frozen Four since 1997--while claiming their sixth of six possible titles by winning the Northeast Regional.
The NCAA semifinal gave BU another albatross to eliminate. Vermont came into the game as the only team with a winning record against the Terriers, having swept BU at Agganis Arena in a pair of 4-3 games. The result was one of the most exciting Frozen Four games in recent memory. BU jumped out to a 2-0 lead, only to see Vermont rattle off three straight goals in the second period, including a taste of the Terriers' own medicine with two goals coming in a 45-second span. Then the freshman Saponari got one back, setting up a classic third-period dual.
Vermont went ahead on Drew MacKenzie's very timely first collegiate goal at 9:40, and Parker admitted afterwards that the two previous 4-3 losses sprung to mind. Instead, Chris Higgins and Colin Wilson rescued the team's championship title hopes with two goals in 73 seconds to key a 5-4 win.
The 5-4 decision seemed entirely fitting in a city known for its identical Supreme Court votes.
Terrier fans were thrilled but hoping that the championship game might be a little less stressful. Naturally, that was not the case. Although Miami entered the tournament as the No. 13 seed, they played a fearless, physical game, and BU went into the third period tied for the third game in a row.
Then Colby Cohen won it. For the third game in a row, the Terriers scored a decisive goal by banking one off of an opponent and in. Perhaps the team should enlist 7-Up as its sponsor for this season.
Hey, whatever it takes. That was the spirit of these cardiac kids this season. They may have given their fans their share of heart attacks, but they also played with an unbelievable heart of gold--Mexican gold, perhaps--when it counted most.
