Photo by: Rich Gagnon
BU's Postseason Run No Cinderella Story
March 25, 2018 | Men's Ice Hockey
By Scott Weighart, Special to GoTerriers.com
WORCESTER, Mass. – For those who don't follow college hockey too closely, Boston University's 6-3 loss to Michigan in the NCAA Northeast Regional might be tempting to classify as the clock striking 12 for Cinderella.
After all, the Terriers started the season 4-6-1 and were 7-10-1 as of December 8. BU didn't get over .500 for good until January 26. As a result, the team faced a win-or-go-home ultimatum in all three of its Hockey East tournament matchups. And even when they won their way into the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history, they were a No. 4 seed in the four-team NCAA Northeast bracket.
In this case, though, it was no Cinderella story. This was a team that finally played up to the high expectations—long after many outside of the program had written off the season.
The fact that that they easily could have been the belle of the ball at the Frozen Four makes it hard to accept that they aren't going to college hockey's biggest stage.
It would be one thing if Michigan dominated them here at Worcester with a trip to Saint Paul on the line. But although the Wolverines had the better of the play early on, BU looked great for the better part of the game and really outplayed Michigan more often than not. A tight game came down to a very small handful of unfortunate plays and, especially, a pair of brutal bounces.
"Right now it just hurts," said Drew Melanson, the transfer student who came to BU last fall with one year of eligibility and thus now has had his short Terrier career come to an end. "There will be time for reflection in the future, but right now—and I'm not trying to sound like a sore loser—I don't think the better hockey team won tonight.
"We had a slow start, which is unacceptable against a team like Michigan," Melanson added. "We get the bad bounce or whatever happened there on the fourth one. They get a fortuitous bounce on the third one. We have a miscommunication on the penalty kill [leading to the second Michigan goal], and that's three goals right there. We kind of just handed those to them."
For a good while, tonight's game looked like it would be yet another story of a character-driven comeback. Michigan made it 3-1 when a wide Wolverine slapshot caromed off the boards behind the net and bounced directly back into the crease, richoccheting off of Oettinger's left skate and rolling through the crease, where Brendan Warren easily tapped it in. It was the kind of bounce you only see once or twice a season.
BU had found itself facing a two-goal deficit against Boston College in the Hockey East semifinal, so the team didn't panic. Eventually Patrick Curry made it 3-2, showing incredible poise when he scooped up a rebound on the glove side of Michigan goalie Hayden Lavigne, only to swoop around the net and beat the netminder on the wraparound.
Even though BU trailed 3-2 going into the third period, you had the feeling that it was a "next goal wins" scenario. Sure enough, Melanson rose to the occasion. Nothing new there, either. After scoring only three goals in his first 36 games as a Terrier, he scored the tying goal in the waning minutes of the win over BC. On the very next night, Melanson potted the game-winner early in the third period of the 2-0 win over Providence in the Hockey East Championship. Tonight, his third goal of the postseason showed that three really is a magic number. He took a pass from Jordan Greenway and put the puck on his backhand to slip it around Lavigne to tie it 3-3 at 3:30 of the third.
Asked about how special it was to score another huge goal, Melanson grimaced. "We lost the game," he said. "But at that moment, yeah, I was pretty excited.
"I thought we really took over the second half of the game, tied it up, and I don't think there was a person on the bench who didn't think we were going to win that game," the right winger said. "Sometimes it doesn't go your way."
The planets seemed to be aligning yet again for BU, but then Michigan got the eventual game winner on another brutal bounce. "That's hockey," senior Nikolas Olsson said. "Sometimes there are bounces for one team and bounces against another. Their go-ahead goal went off Cam Crotty's foot and off a weird rush. Sometimes you have to have that to win. That's just how the game goes sometimes."
With BU pressing to tie the game yet again, Michigan wrapped it up by countering with a two-on-one rush that led to a goal, followed by an empty netter to eliminate any remaining doubt. After the final buzzer, there was a poignant moment as senior captain Brendan Hickey kneeled behind the Terrier net, wrestling with his emotions. Hickey led the team to believe that they could go all the way, so coming to terms with the reality was tough.
Olsson skated over and put an arm around his teammate, and the two of stayed locked in position for a long while as the Wolverines celebrated at the opposite end. "No words really," Olsson said, when asked to describe the moment. "Just being there for each other. We've spent the last four years together. He's become one of my closest friends. Just showing each other support."
Given the position the Terriers were in a month ago, what if you told them that they would win a Hockey East Championship to make it into the NCAAs—and then knock off a top seed in Cornell? Given the circumstances at the time, you might think that they would have said, "We'd take that."
But no.
"Take that?" Melanson said. "As a competitor, I'd hope I'd say no. Because maybe our record didn't show it, but we knew what our team had. Yeah, we made it really hard on ourselves. But I think one of the most dangerous teams in the tournament is going home tonight."
"Hopefully but probably not," Olsson said. "When you play at BU, there is a standard that's set so high, and you expect to win, and you expect to be in the Frozen Four every year. Whenever you don't reach that, it almost seems like a failure in my eyes. I hope that someday I can look at this optimistically, but it's tough right now."
But if today's outcome left a bitter taste, both players expressed gratitude for their experience as a Terrier. "I love this school," Olsson said. "Nothing else to say about it."
"It was incredible," Melanson said. "I'm just so grateful to everyone who helped make this happen—how incredibly accepting people at BU were. I fit right in."
BU could have fit right in at the Frozen Four, too. But it would have been the fit of a tightly laced hockey skate.
Not a glass slipper.
WORCESTER, Mass. – For those who don't follow college hockey too closely, Boston University's 6-3 loss to Michigan in the NCAA Northeast Regional might be tempting to classify as the clock striking 12 for Cinderella.
After all, the Terriers started the season 4-6-1 and were 7-10-1 as of December 8. BU didn't get over .500 for good until January 26. As a result, the team faced a win-or-go-home ultimatum in all three of its Hockey East tournament matchups. And even when they won their way into the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history, they were a No. 4 seed in the four-team NCAA Northeast bracket.
In this case, though, it was no Cinderella story. This was a team that finally played up to the high expectations—long after many outside of the program had written off the season.
The fact that that they easily could have been the belle of the ball at the Frozen Four makes it hard to accept that they aren't going to college hockey's biggest stage.
It would be one thing if Michigan dominated them here at Worcester with a trip to Saint Paul on the line. But although the Wolverines had the better of the play early on, BU looked great for the better part of the game and really outplayed Michigan more often than not. A tight game came down to a very small handful of unfortunate plays and, especially, a pair of brutal bounces.
"Right now it just hurts," said Drew Melanson, the transfer student who came to BU last fall with one year of eligibility and thus now has had his short Terrier career come to an end. "There will be time for reflection in the future, but right now—and I'm not trying to sound like a sore loser—I don't think the better hockey team won tonight.
"We had a slow start, which is unacceptable against a team like Michigan," Melanson added. "We get the bad bounce or whatever happened there on the fourth one. They get a fortuitous bounce on the third one. We have a miscommunication on the penalty kill [leading to the second Michigan goal], and that's three goals right there. We kind of just handed those to them."
For a good while, tonight's game looked like it would be yet another story of a character-driven comeback. Michigan made it 3-1 when a wide Wolverine slapshot caromed off the boards behind the net and bounced directly back into the crease, richoccheting off of Oettinger's left skate and rolling through the crease, where Brendan Warren easily tapped it in. It was the kind of bounce you only see once or twice a season.
BU had found itself facing a two-goal deficit against Boston College in the Hockey East semifinal, so the team didn't panic. Eventually Patrick Curry made it 3-2, showing incredible poise when he scooped up a rebound on the glove side of Michigan goalie Hayden Lavigne, only to swoop around the net and beat the netminder on the wraparound.
Even though BU trailed 3-2 going into the third period, you had the feeling that it was a "next goal wins" scenario. Sure enough, Melanson rose to the occasion. Nothing new there, either. After scoring only three goals in his first 36 games as a Terrier, he scored the tying goal in the waning minutes of the win over BC. On the very next night, Melanson potted the game-winner early in the third period of the 2-0 win over Providence in the Hockey East Championship. Tonight, his third goal of the postseason showed that three really is a magic number. He took a pass from Jordan Greenway and put the puck on his backhand to slip it around Lavigne to tie it 3-3 at 3:30 of the third.
Asked about how special it was to score another huge goal, Melanson grimaced. "We lost the game," he said. "But at that moment, yeah, I was pretty excited.
"I thought we really took over the second half of the game, tied it up, and I don't think there was a person on the bench who didn't think we were going to win that game," the right winger said. "Sometimes it doesn't go your way."
The planets seemed to be aligning yet again for BU, but then Michigan got the eventual game winner on another brutal bounce. "That's hockey," senior Nikolas Olsson said. "Sometimes there are bounces for one team and bounces against another. Their go-ahead goal went off Cam Crotty's foot and off a weird rush. Sometimes you have to have that to win. That's just how the game goes sometimes."
With BU pressing to tie the game yet again, Michigan wrapped it up by countering with a two-on-one rush that led to a goal, followed by an empty netter to eliminate any remaining doubt. After the final buzzer, there was a poignant moment as senior captain Brendan Hickey kneeled behind the Terrier net, wrestling with his emotions. Hickey led the team to believe that they could go all the way, so coming to terms with the reality was tough.
Olsson skated over and put an arm around his teammate, and the two of stayed locked in position for a long while as the Wolverines celebrated at the opposite end. "No words really," Olsson said, when asked to describe the moment. "Just being there for each other. We've spent the last four years together. He's become one of my closest friends. Just showing each other support."
Given the position the Terriers were in a month ago, what if you told them that they would win a Hockey East Championship to make it into the NCAAs—and then knock off a top seed in Cornell? Given the circumstances at the time, you might think that they would have said, "We'd take that."
But no.
"Take that?" Melanson said. "As a competitor, I'd hope I'd say no. Because maybe our record didn't show it, but we knew what our team had. Yeah, we made it really hard on ourselves. But I think one of the most dangerous teams in the tournament is going home tonight."
"Hopefully but probably not," Olsson said. "When you play at BU, there is a standard that's set so high, and you expect to win, and you expect to be in the Frozen Four every year. Whenever you don't reach that, it almost seems like a failure in my eyes. I hope that someday I can look at this optimistically, but it's tough right now."
But if today's outcome left a bitter taste, both players expressed gratitude for their experience as a Terrier. "I love this school," Olsson said. "Nothing else to say about it."
"It was incredible," Melanson said. "I'm just so grateful to everyone who helped make this happen—how incredibly accepting people at BU were. I fit right in."
BU could have fit right in at the Frozen Four, too. But it would have been the fit of a tightly laced hockey skate.
Not a glass slipper.
Players Mentioned
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