Righting the Ship Quickly
April 6, 2015 | Men's Ice Hockey
BOSTON - What a difference a year makes.
On April 9 of last year, the Boston University men's hockey team was already a full month into its offseason, eager to turn the page on the program's worst record in over a half-century.
One year later, the Terriers will be playing North Dakota in the Frozen Four semifinals, reaping the fruits of the most dramatic turnaround in program history. If that's not enough, they'll be playing less than four miles from campus in downtown Boston's TD Garden, where there have already won two championships this season.
Now they're just two wins away from a storybook ending to an improbable tale. Despite being the youngest team in Division 1 hockey, the Terriers have already had their best season since the 2009 national championship team, and they are now just the second BU team to make the Frozen Four since the Terriers did so in 1997.
Actually, several Terriers were still playing high-stakes hockey at this time last year--and enjoying great success. Future freshmen Jack Eichel, John MacLeod, and Brandon Fortunato were getting ready to compete for the US team at the Under-18 World Championships in Finland, where they eventually would defeat the Czech Republic in the gold medal game.
In the Alberta Junior Hockey League, Brandon Hickey's Spruce Grove Saints were getting to ready to sweep the Drumheller Dragons for the AJHL Cup. Now the Calgary Flames draft pick marvels about joining a team that has already won 17 more games than last season--a record turnaround.
"It's pretty surreal, actually," Hickey said after Saturday's practice. "Coming into the season, you never really know how it's going to shape up, but I knew we had a really good team from day one. I liked the way the guys gelled in the dressing room right off the bat. With everyone coming in and all of the guys returning from last year, it's a really nice fit.
And Nikolas Olsson -- then playing for the Sioux City Musketeers -- caught some of the Frozen Four action in his team's locker room in Omaha, never imagining he'd be playing in the same event a year later... or that a team from Omaha would be there as well. "I didn't really think of that possibility for a second; it never crossed my mind," Olsson said. "It just seemed like such a big event. To be a part of it is pretty sweet."
MacLeod was the first of the voluminous freshman class to commit, followed by Eichel. Both followed the team's hard-luck season from afar. As last year's team struggled through injuries and losses, they were paying attention but not overly anxious about what they would be getting into at BU. "At first, maybe I was a little concerned," MacLeod said. "But then you think of all of the tradition and how well the team has done in the past, and you start to not worry about it."
Given that Eichel impending status as a top-two pick in June's NHL Draft, he's had to dispel rumors about him jumping ship to play Junior A hockey in Quebec ever since committing to BU--some supposedly quoting "reliable sources." In retrospect, you have to imagine that these "reliable sources" represented wishful thinking from north of the border, as Eichel describes being completely unfazed by the team's record last season.
"I always wanted to come to BU," Eichel said. "Every team goes through adversity: They had some injuries; they were in the middle of a changing process. That being said, they still won a lot of big games. They were young as well. Teams aren't going to be good every year. Coach Quinn is a winner, and I knew he'd create a winning program. I talked to him throughout the season last year, and I never once doubted my commitment."
If anything, the players saw a great deal of upside to the situation. "I saw it as a lot of room for opportunity, for sure," Hickey said. "I came here and watched a few games and saw that they were going to lose a few defenseman, so it worked out really nicely for myself and all the other freshman coming in."
"I knew it wasn't a bad team or anything," Olsson said. "I knew that there were a lot of close games that were determined by one goal--a lot of one-goal losses."
Arriving early in the summer to begin working out helped the team bond well before any pucks were dropped. "No one really cares about age on our team, MacLeod said. "We all have a common goal; we all want to succeed. We knew that team camaraderie was going to be important, and we all bought into it."
When the season got underway, that camaraderie was coupled by some early wins and a growing sense that this team could exceed the expectations of those who thought the program would be in rebuilding mode all season. They could be something special.
"We thought it pretty early," Eichel said. "In the first few weeks, Coach said we had the opportunity and the ability to win a national championship. I don't know how much we believed him, but as the season went on, we won big games and became more successful. I think we all started to believe more, and now we believe more than ever."
Now the Terriers will look to see if they can add one more item to their growing hardware collection this season. "It's a blessing," MacLeod said. "Even when I committed here I never would've dreamed about being in this position. I always dreamed about it but never thought it would've come my freshman year."
It doesn't hurt that the team has a startling 17-2-2 record away from home this season. "I just think we're a good road team," Hickey said. "We've got a lot of skill, but we can also grind. That's part of our game that's really overlooked. We're a physical team; we like going to the net hard. That helps us out in these neutral and away games."
That great record incudes four wins at the TD Garden between the Beanpot and the Hockey East semifinal and final. Meanwhile, North Dakota, Omaha and Providence will all be lacing up for the first time at the Garden.
"I think you can feed off that energy, for sure," Hickey said of playing on the big stage. "When the fans are really going, it really helps the morale on the bench. When it's a quiet building, it's hard to get going."
"We have confidence playing at the Garden; we won a few trophies there earlier," Eichel said. "It's a place where we're pretty comfortable. And wherever we're playing, we're ready to go. It's a national championship."
The Terriers will be ready to go on Thursday night. After turning the page on a difficult season, they're eager to pen a memorable final chapter to this turnaround tale.
