The Game That Never Was

The Game That Never Was

By David Warner, BU ‘73

On December 13 1972, there was the game that never was.

There have been many memorable games played between Cornell and Boston University. The 1972-73 team included six seniors (Larry Abbott, Ray Cournoyea, Steve Dolloff, Mike LeGarde, David Warner, David Wisener) who were a part of the 1971 and/or the 1972 NCAA championship squads. In December 1971, we were edged by Cornell, 3-2, at the Syracuse Holiday Tournament final as the Big Red avenged the previous season’s 6-5 ECAC consolation game loss, which put BU into the 1971 NCAA tournament. Later, Cornell came into our new Walter Brown arena for the season finale and beat us again, 3-2, for our only home defeat that season. That win earned Cornell the top seed in the upcoming ECAC tournament at Boston Garden.

Going into the 1972 ECAC tournament, we had only lost four games all year, two of those to Cornell. Everything that was to happen from here on out was magical and would impact hockey at BU for the next 35 years.

Those two losses were enough for us to remember and, as a group, rise up and smother Cornell, 4-1, in the ECAC final and shut them out 4-0 in the NCAA championship game. The 1971-72 BU team was like no other. There was a confident locker room attitude that carried out to the ice surface. This team was explosive on offense and stingy on defense. There were 18 players that had been on both NCAA teams. It might just have been the greatest collegiate team ever assembled. Editor’s note: Coach Jack Kelley said of the ’71-72 team, “I always felt this group could win any game when they put their minds to it.”

The 1972-73 team found itself minus a staggering nine letterman lost to graduation and four other key players who turned pro before their senior years. Ric Jordan and Bob Brown followed Coach Jack Kelley to the new WHA New England Whalers organization, Ron Anderson signed with the Bruins; AHL team and Bill Flynn went to the International League.

Still, things were not really that bad because the sophomore class was as good as or better than graduated letterman when they were sophomores. They were a scoring machine. Paul O’Neil would score 35 goals in 28 games, while Vic Stanfield and Bill Burlington would end up All-Americans the following season. Freshman Peter Brown would become an All-American in his senior year. All totaled, the 71-72 and 72-73 teams had eight current or future All-Americans: John Danby, Dan Brady, Steve Dolloff, Ed Walsh and Bob Brown are the others.

On December 13th, we traveled to Cornell’s Lynah arena with a 6-1 record and a number one national ranking. There, we handed Cornell its worst home defeat in school history: a 9-0 drubbing. While it was a solid team effort, one Terrier stood out with three goals, sophomore Dick Decloe. The hattrick gave him nine goals in eight games and it looked like he might have All-American credentials in his future, too. But the matter of a $189.33 school tax and the actions of then Cornell AD John Anderson paved the way for what became known as “L’affair Decloe.”

While Decloe, a tall lanky winger, played junior hockey in Ontario, his Jr. A team had paid a provincial school tax on Dick’s behalf, unbeknownst to Decloe and his family. This was considered an unauthorized educational expense that would make the recipient a professional and ineligible to play college hockey. Tom Burke of The Hockey News commented “How many preppies get their expenses paid to some of the prep schools by the colleges they eventually attend?” Imagine nowadays, we have the $40,000 a year student-athlete who leaves after a year or two for a multimillion-dollar NHL contract.

One of Cornell’s players, a teammate of Decloe in Ontario, had previously been declared ineligible. Anderson and Coach Dick Bertrand conveyed the similarity of Decloe’s situation to the ECAC, ostensibly to rectify their own player’s situation. Or maybe just maybe it was those three straight losses to BU by a combined 17-1 score that pushed their buttons!!

BU’s Athletic Director Warren Schmakel reacted angrily to the Cornell actions. “I’m disappointed that Cornell didn’t contact me directly,” he said. “I don’t think they should have gone to the ECAC.” He added that he couldn’t understand why Cornell didn’t directly fight the earlier decision instead of using Decloe as a “lever” to have that decision reverse, according to The Daily Free Press.

Declared ineligible, Dick left school and returned to Toronto where he would win a Memorial Cup with the Howe brothers. Editor’s Note: Decloe later represented Holland in the same 1980 Winter Olympics in which four Terriers led the U.S.A. to its miracle gold medal.

To the six seniors, the 9-0 blowout in Ithaca became “The Game That Never Was!” The Terriers had to forfeit eleven wins. Our record went from an 11-4 to a 0-15, from national ranking to the bottom of the pile.

I suppose the seniors could have looked at our championship rings and kissed off the season. No one would have blamed us, but we decided that the “sweaty-palmed men who run the ECAC” (according to the Boston Globe’s Mike Lupica) would not deter us while we were on the ice. Four things were written on the dressing room chalkboard: Beanpot, ECAC, Cornell and the NCAA. These things were our goals! For the next 12 games, we were undefeated with an 11-0-1 mark, the best streak in the country. That run included a 4-1 victory against BC for the Beanpot championship, the third in a row for the seniors.

Before our final regular season game, the ECAC playoff seedings were announced. We were seeded fourth instead of number one, a distinction that went to Cornell. In a lackluster performance, we lost that game in Providence, 3-0. Still, we were on to the playoffs for a home game against Penn.

Perhaps we had our sights on Cornell or maybe we peaked too early having to win virtually every one of our last games just to get home ice. Or perhaps the fired up Penn team wanted to win this one for their coach, Bob Crocker. Ironically, Crocker, a BU grad and former frosh coach, had been passed over for the BU varsity job in favor or Leon Abbott when Jack Kelley left for the pros. Many of the players agreed that we had looked past Penn and only saw Cornell.

I think all of us wanted, at the least, to hip check a Big Red into the stands at Boston Garden in the ECAC final game.

Oh, I did mention earlier that it was magical time and that the “Decloe affair” would impact BU hockey for the next 35 years? Cornell set off a chain of events that isn’t talked about much. We were forced to win all those games and peaked far too early. Coach Leon Abbott lost a third ECAC quarterfinal game (the previous two, by 11-0 and 8-2 scores, were against BU while he coached RPI). Then six games into the following season, Abbott was dismissed by BU. Maybe it had to do with quarterfinal losses or recruitment procedures; no one will say. The reins were handed to Jack Parker and, as they say, the rest is history.

As for me and my fellow 72-73 senior teammates, we wish that we’d had that one last chance at Cornell. But we can look at and polish our NCAA championship rings, knowing that BU has won two more NCAA championships since then and has reached the title game three more times. The talk in Boston for many years was about the “curse of the bambino”. Just think, Cornell has not been to an NCAA final game since losing to BU, 4-0, in 1972. Maybe that is “the curse of Dick Decloe.”

GO BU!!!!

Looking back: Five rings

People continue to speculate as to where this season's team ranks amongst the other four NCAA Title winners. Each teams commends itself for various reasons. I tend to be partial in terms of the first two title winners as I am most familiar with the dynamics of those two squads. I make no judgments, but set forth some of the key points regarding all of the teams. One interesting dynamic is that each of the five teams had quality offense, solid defense, good goaltending and the many solid workmanlike players whose efforts may not have been reflected on score sheets but were valuable throughout the season.

The 1970-71 team was our first to win it all and only the 5th Eastern team to do so in the first 24 years of final four play. The team was dominant offensively scoring 210 goals while allowing but 60 in 31 games. The power play boasted an astonishing 40.2% success rate. 9 players hit double digits in goal scoring (John Danby 28, Steve Stirling 27, Toot Cahoon 24, Bob Gryp 20, Ron Anderson 20, Bob Brown 17, Wayne Gowing 16, Steve Dolloff 15, and Ric Jordan 12). 50 point scorers included Stirling 70, Danby 64, Brown 60 and Jordan 50. Team boasted solid defense. Goalies Dan Brady and Tim Regan each put up 3 shutouts and as the team averaged 6.60 goals per game while allowing 1.91. The squad was 24-1-1 in the regular season but was upset in the semifinals of the ECAC by Harvard. Winning a hard fought consolation game over Cornell boosted the record to 26-2-1 and the selection committee picked the team to be the #2 eastern seed for the final four. The team justified the selection beating Denver and Minnesota, both by 4-2 scores, to win that first title.

The 1971-72 team was the first team to play in the Walter Brown Arena and became the first and to date only Eastern team to win back to back NCAA titles. It put up 155 goals (4.85 per game) while allowing 69 (2.16 per game). Danby and Brown each scored 50 points while Danby led 7 double digit goal scorers with 26. After losing the regular season title to Cornell in the last game of the year. It was totally dominant in the 5 games of the post season beating RPI (8-2), Harvard (3-1) and Cornell (4-1) to give BU it's first League tournament title ending many years of frustration in that tournament. The team won the NCAA in spite of losing 2 regulars (Goalie Dan Brady and defenseman Bob Murray) to injury. Tim Regan who had spent most of the season with the silver medal winning US Olympic team literally came off the bench to backstop the title pitching a shutout 4-0 over Cornell in the NCAA Championship game to win Most Outstanding Player honors. Danby had as good a post-season as anyone has had for BU, scoring 8 goals and 5 assists in 5 games, including the hat trick in the 3-1 ECAC semifinal win over Harvard and the hat trick in the 4-1 NCAA semifinal win over Wisconsin.

The 1977-78 team dominated much like the 1970-71 team but like that team was unable to get past the league semifinal tournament game losing to Providence 5-1. After winning the consolation game over Brown the team was 27-2 and the NCAA Selection committee determined that a qualifying game would be played between BU and Providence in Providence to determine the ECAC #2 team who would join tournament champion BC in the final four. BU prevailed 5-3 over PC at Schneider Arena and returned to Providence Civic Center for the NCAA where they beat defending champion Wisconsin 5-2 and BC in the title game 5-3. This team boasts the highest winning percentage of a BU team (.937) and Mark Fidler (30) led 8 goal scorers in double digits with Dave Silk (27) and John Bethel (25) joining him in the 20 goal club. Team scored 199 goals (average 6.13) while allowing 127 (average 3.92). Terriers converted 32% on the power play. Like its predecessors the team had solid goaltending with Jim Craig and Brian Durocher and had solid defensemen as well as those would could score from the blueline. 50 point scorers included Fidler (64), Bethel (63), Dick Lamby (59), Silk (58) and Jack O'Callahan (55). BU teams of the 1970's dominated the ECAC and won three NCAA crowns.

The 1994-95 team ended a 17 year drought along with 4 years of final four frustration in the 1990's when it beat Minnesota 7-3 in the semifinal and Maine 6-2 in the title game . The team also had the honor of winning the final Beanpot and final college game played in Boston Garden (HE Final) before the building was torn down to be replaced by the present building. The team was loaded in terms of scoring distributed over 4 lines. 10 players hit double digits in goals: Jacques Joubert 29, Mike Grier 29, Chris O'Sullivan 23, Shawn Bates 18, Mike Prendergast 17, Steve Thornton 17, Bob Lachance 12, Chris Drury 12, Ken Rausch 12, and Mike Sylvia 10. 50 point scorers were O'Sullivan 56, Grier 55, and Joubert 52. Team had seven solid defensemen maybe the most depth ever at that position. Team scored 224 goals (5.60 average) while allowing 117 (2.93). Tom Noble and Derek Herlofsky provided solid tandem goaltending much the same as its predecessor title teams. The team tied for the league regular season title but was seeded second in the quarterfinal round.

The 2008-2009 team, however, accomplished something that sets it apart from the others: win the league regular season title outright, win the Beanpot, win the League tournament, and win the NCAA. Like its counterparts the team was solid in all phases, had offensive defensemen, defensive defensemen, and role players who could transition seamlessly as needed. The team recorded the most wins in school history with a 35-6-4 record. The team consistently came up large when needed in the post season (putting the health of some of us older folks at risk) beating BC 3-2, Lowell 1-0 in the HE Title game. UNH 2-1 in the regional final inside the last 20 seconds, Vermont in come from behind fashion in the NCAA semifinal and, of course, the incredible win in the title game.

There are differences between the teams. For example, in 1970-71 and 1971-72 you could not check in the offensive zone. Freshmen were not eligible and we only began to play four lines in the regular season finale against Cornell and in the ECAC and NCAA tournaments. Today you have four lines and six defensemen.

I think also that the top flight players of one era could play in other eras as well because they brought superb skills to the table whether it be scoring, playmaking, defense or goaltending.All 5 teams had players beyond the acknowledged stars who complimented and filled out the squad.

It may be harder to get to the Frozen Four these days but for a long time you had to be #1 or#2 in the league tournament to make it. Teams like Vermont this year would not have made it to the NCAA after having been ousted in the quarterfinal of their league tournament.I think it's fair to say that there are more schools playing the game and thus greater distribution of talent.

I can also say that the NCAA Title and Frozen Four was not promoted in the way it is today. The Frozen Four while in the shadow of March madness nevertheless is on a National stage. It has reached a magnitude that was not there in 1971 and 1972. When we won in 1971 it was a fairly small celebration in the hotel in Syracuse. The next day we rode the bus home, went to the Dugout and Jimmy O'Keefe closed it to all but the team and we had a great time. In 1972 the security at the Sonesta herded people into their rooms at some point ending the revelry although others went to the Dugout.

The 1995 game was played at noon time and I recall the team heading back to Boston on the bus. The team was recognized by the Governor and Mayor Menino.

I have never seen a display of fan support and enthusiasm that I saw at the team hotel following the Miami game. The band, students cheering, alumni, parents and team all mingled enjoying what had just transpired. The parade was an amazing turnout and even at the banquet the lines seeking autographs stretched beyond the confines of the Sherman Union.

To the student fans who are leaving, you can always support the team whether near or far. We all go through establishing careers and having families and as such our ability to support the team may not be in the manner in which we would like. However when you reach my age (and don't rush it) and the children are grown and you have found some stability it is a great thing especially if you live close by and are able to take advantage of the chance to be at the games. I will never forget the organized cheering and chants at the Frozen Four both at the arena and then at the Hotel.

The five NCAA title-winning teams have a special place in the program's history because they each attained the ultimate goal. They each deserve the accolades of our fan base. But we should always remember that each and every team owes so much to those who came before who worked hard to put each of these teams into position where they could reach the lofty heights.

Finally let's not forget the Coaches, Jack Kelley and Jack Parker, who have placed their brands on the program. The wisdom and stability that each brought to BU hockey, and the contributions of fine assistants over the years have played a huge part in the success BU has enjoyed

2007-2008 Video Highlights

Nov. 24--BU 6 Cornell 3 (at Madison Square Garden)
Dec. 3o--BU 5 Merrimack 2
Feb. 15--BU 2 Maine 1 OT
Feb. 16--BU 1 Maine 0 OT
Feb. 23--BU 3 Northeastern 2
Feb. 29--BU 3 Massachusetts 0
Mar.7--BU 2 Providence 0
Mar. 16--BU 4 Lowell 2

Milestone goals and games

We're building a video clip library of memorable goals and games, beginning with a collection from blog contributor Sean Pickett. Check back periodically as new clips are acquired and added

2-9-70: With BU trailing BC 3-1 after two periods at Boston Garden, Wayne Gowing scores a third-period hattrick for a 5-4 win to give the Terriers their fifth Beanpot championship.
2-6-78: Beanpot Opener—BU thumps BC 12-5 as the Blizzard of '78 brings Boston to a standstill.
2-22-80: Miracle on Ice—Four Terriers, captain Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig, Jack O'Callahan and David Silk help lead Team USA for the Olympic upset of the ages. Eruzione's third-period goal is the game-winner and Craig bars the door to any Soviet comeback. Team USA wins, 4-3. Two days later, they win the gold medal.
2-9-87: Beanpot Championship—Mike Kelfer scores game-winner on a turnaround shot to beat Northeastern, 4-3 in overtime.
3-6-87: Mike Kelfer scores with one second left in regulation to beat Lowell, 3-2, at Walter Brown Arena.
2-6-89: Beanpot semifinal—Mike Sullivan scores shorthanded to tie Northeastern with 3:00 minutes remaining. Chris Lappin scores his second career goal in overtime for a 5-4 win.
3-24-90: NCAA Quarterfinals— Third-period goals by Mike Sullivan and Tony Amonte lead BU past Michigan State, 3-2, tying the best-of-three series.
3-25-90: NCAA Quarterfinals—Down 3-1 in the second, BU scores four times to eliminate the Spartans, 5-3 and move on to the Frozen Four. 

2-11-91 Tony Amonte's hat trick--all 3 goals in a 5:24 span of the second period--powers BU past BC, 8-4, for the Beanpot Championship, and making him the MVP award.(Full game video)
3-10-91: Hockey East Championship—Shawn McEachern scores take a Tony Amonte pass beats Garth Snow with a backhander to beat Maine in overtime, 4-3.
3-30-91: NCAA Championship game: Scott Lachance's lunging pass sets up David Sacco who knots the title game at 7-7 in the final minute of regulation, but BU would fall to Northern Michigan in 3OT by an 8-7 score.
11-15-91: Mike Prendergast scores a shorthanded, game-winning goal with 21 seconds left to beat Maine, 5-4, at Walter Brown Arena.
2-19-93: Mike Prendergast scores the game-winner in overtime at Alfond Arena as BU handed the Black Bears their only defeat of the season, 7-6.
12-31-94: Mariucci Classic Championship—Ken Rausch receives a beautiful pass from Chris Drury and scores the winner against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in overtime, 4-3.
4-1-95: NCAA Championship—Steve Thornton wins the face-off and scores the first goal of the game late in the first period. Mike Sylvia scores off of a slick Shawn Bates pass in the third period to make it 4-2 en route to the Terriers’ 6-2 win over Maine. Full-game highlights. 

2-5-96: Mike Grier levels BC's Joe Callahan in the first round of the Beanpot. Grier scored twice, including the game-winner, as the Terriers skated past the Eagles, 4-1.
1-5-97: Mike Sylvia skates out from the corner and scores in overtime to beat New Hampshire, 3-2, at the Whittemore Center.
3-22-97: NCAA Regional Championship—Chris Drury converts the rebound of a Chris Kelleher shot in overtime to send “a few good men” to Milwaukee for the Frozen Four.
3-27-97: Terriers avenged their loss to the Michigan Wolverines in the previous year's Final Four, taking down the top seed in the NCAA semifinals, 3-2, on goals by Chris Heron, Tommi Degerman and Greg Quebec.
2-9-98: Beanpot Championship—Nick Gillis tips in Tom Poti’s shot from the face-off circle to win in overtime, beating Harvard, 2-1, for the Beanpot title.
2-1-99: Beanpot semifinal—Russ Bartlett dives to redirect Chris Heron’s pass into the net for the overtime winner as BU beat BC 3-2.
12-4-99 vs Massachusetts—Tommi Degerman scores with 17 seconds left in overtime to win it for the Terriers.
1-16-00: Dan Cavanaugh scores the game-tying goal against Maine (3-3) with 3:40 to play and climbs onto the dasher in front of Section 7 at Walter Brown Arena.
3-14-03: Hockey East semifinal—Against BC, Justin Maiser knocks down the puck with his stick, turns and fires it into the net for the game-tying goal with 3:22 to go in the third. Then, completing a hattrick, Maiser scores the game-winner in double overtime (6-5) to put the Terriers in the Hockey East championship for the first time since 1997.
3-6-04: David van der Gulik scores in overtime to beat New Hampshire, 4-3, in the final regular season game, leapfrogging BU over Northeastern into 8th place to qualify for the Hockey East Tournament.
12-3-04: Jack Parker’s 700th win—Brad Zancanaro scores the game-winner to beat BC 3-2.
1-2-05: Final game at Walter Brown— Memories of WBA; Minnesota edges the Terriers, 2-1.
1-3-05: First game at Agganis Arena— Travis Roy drops the first puck and Brad Zancanaro scores the first goal as BU beats Minnesota, 2-1.
2-7-05: Beanpot semifinal— John Laliberte scores twice to lead BU past BC, 2-1.
2-14-05: Beanpot Championship Bryan Miller scores BU's first goal; then his end-to-end rush in overtime sets up Chris Bourque's game-winner as the Terrier edge Northeastern, 3-2.
2-6-06: Beanpot semifinal—Chris Higgins scores highlight reel goal (#2 on ESPN) en route to 5-3 win against Harvard.
3-18-06: Hockey East Championship Game—Brandon Yip finishes a 3-on-2 rush in overtime to beat BC, 2-1, for BU’s first Hockey East title since 1997.
2-12-07: Beanpot Championship —Brian McGuirk scores from a faceoff to give BU a 2-1 overtime win over BC for its 28th title.
4-1-09: NCAA Championship: "The D.C. Miracle." A pair of goals in the final minute of regulation by Zach Cohen and Nick Bonino bring BU back from a 3-1 deficit; then, Colby Cohen's deflected curveball in overtime makes the Terriers 4-3 winners and national champs for the fifth time. (Full game highlights)
1-8-10: Frozen Fenway: Wade Megan's second-period goal, batted out of the air, proves the game winner as BU bested BC, 3-2, at a sold-out Fenway Park in the teams' first-ever outdoor matchup.
3-17-13: Jack Parker's final game behind the bench at Agganis Arena is a 5-3 win over Merrimack in the quarterfinals sending the Terrier to the Hockey East semifinal.

2-3-15: In the Beanpot semifinal, Danny O'Regan redirects an Evan Rodrigues goalmouth pass in overtime to complete a come-from-behind 4-3 win against Harvard.

2-10-15: Junior captain Matt Grzelcyk's 40-foot wrist shot at 51 seconds of overtime gave the Terriers the 2015 Beanpot Championship with a 4-3 win over Northeastern

3-17-18 Drew Melanson's goal a minute into the third period was the game-winner as the Terriers beat Providence, 2-0, for their ninth conference title.

2-14-22 Dylan Peterson scored late in the third period as BU edged Northeastern, 1-0, to claim its 31st Beanpot Championship.

12-30-22 Captain Dom Fensore's overtime blast wins it, 2-1, for the # 8 Terriers over #9 Harvard at Walter Brown Arena. 

3-18-23 Lane Hutson's overtime tally sends BU to a 3-2 win over Merrimack for the Terriers' 10th Hockey East Championship.

3-25-23: Wilmer Skoog and Ethan Phillips give BU a 2-0 lead over Cornell in the Manchester NCAA Regional title game and behind MOP Drew Commesso. Terriers hold on for a 2-1 win.

3-30-24: After spotting Minnesota an early 2-0 lead, Terriers roar back for a 6-3 win in the Sioux Falls Regional title game, avenging the previous season's loss to the Gophers in the Frozen Four. With three assists in the title game and five points overall, Macklin Celebrini is MOP of the regional.   

3-10-25 Behind MVP Cole Hutson and 43 saves by Mikhail Yegorov, BU defeats BC, 4-1, to claim its 32nd Beanpot Championship.

3-29-25 Quinn Hutson's overtime goal clinches the Toledo Regional championship for BU, 3-2, as the Terriers end Cornell's season for the second time in three years. 

—

The Drive For Five Was Realized

by mh82

“That wasn’t a hockey game out there tonight.

That was something different.”

Coach Jack Parker, following BU’s 8-7 loss to Northern Michigan

in triple overtime in the 1991 NCAA final.

Not even the sight of players in white jerseys with scarlet trim gathering in a euphoric mass against the glass was convincing enough. At least not right away. Had it all really played out in such a dramatic manner, or was this just pushing the bounds of reality?

The mood swing in the building and plot twist on the ice were almost too much to comprehend. Just over a week has passed and yet it’s still hard to believe the sudden turn of events that unfolded on the ice at the Verizon Center on a wild Saturday night in Washington. Even the victors admitted as such over three days later.

Less than an hour before the game’s conclusion, I had sat in front of the TV feeling a sense of disappointment for the players and coaches, resigned to the fact that after carefully carving out a season's worth of accolades (with accompanying trophies as proof) by answering the bell with big win after big win, perhaps the final step to the peak of the NCAA hockey mountain just wasn’t meant to be for this 2008-09 BU hockey team, one that had already tied the single-season school record of 34 victories. Was this going to add up to another frustrating NCAA Championship Game loss, the school’s fourth since 1991?

The worthy opponent in red jerseys, Miami University, a team that had given eventual NCAA champion Boston College all it could handle in the 2008 tournament before falling in overtime to the Eagles, had been every bit as tough as anticipated. The RedHawks were playing physically (seeing BU’s Colin Wilson knocked on his back was not a typical sight), with determination, and with a thorough focus on taking care of business in their own zone, and it was looking highly unlikely that Miami was going to let a two-goal lead slip slide away – especially with the school's first national championship in any sport just within reach.

All it was going to take to drive the final stake in BU's otherwise exemplary season was sending the puck into an empty BU net, helping the RedHawks atone for coming up empty in seven power play attempts against the Terriers’ persistent penalty kill.

But despite the offensive jump that Miami had shown, and the constant defensive pressure and rattling body checks the RedHawks had delivered, they weren’t able to put the game far enough out of reach. They maintained a 3-1 lead as the final 90 seconds of the championship game ticked away, but the door was left ever-so-slightly ajar, instead of being slammed shut.

That's when this gritty group of top-ranked Terriers, as they had been doing all through their run through the 2009 postseason, reached deep and made one last push, creating an improbable Alcoa Fantastic Finish of their own while earning a place in NCAA Frozen Four lore. It was an ending that would leave the RedHawks and their supporters numb and BU fans in the Verizon Center and those gathered around TV sets in a state fluctuating somewhere between shock and outright elation, all while breathing in that sweet smell of burning timber down by the water. There are memorable rallies, and there are memorable rallies, but this one was barely on the radar before it suddenly began to take shape.

The first domino fell when BU drew to within 3-2 just inside the final minute. With six skaters on the ice and the Terrier cage wide open, Nick Bonino’s shot attempt from the side of the net was denied. Just another routine save and another step closer to an NCAA crown for the hungry RedHawks, right? Not exactly. Bonino had the presence of mind to follow up his shot with a heady play, stealing the puck away from Miami defenseman Cameron Schilling, who had corralled the rebound and was preparing to clear the puck out of harm’s way.

Instead of looking to fire away again, however, Bonino pushed the puck ahead to brawny teammate Zach Cohen – whose presence on the ice on the Terriers’ extra-attacker unit was a rare sight – stationed at the left side of the crease. Cohen’s quick backhander looked as though he was pitching hay, but the extra mustard he put on the shot caused the puck to carom off the top of Miami goalie Cody Reichard’s right pad, under and through his right arm and into the net. It was a shot that produced such an unexpected trajectory that even Willie Mosconi would've been impressed. The goal pumped some much-needed life into the Terriers, both on the ice and the bench, along with their followers in the stands. It also allowed hope to enter into the equation for Coach Jack Parker’s club, something that had been slowly fading as the game clock wound toward zero.

The RedHawks could still have ended this whole drama. That empty net was still there. Just one good defensive play, a turnover followed by the flick of the wrist, and it would all be over. Just like North Dakota’s Adam Calder had done with 13 seconds left in the 1997 NCAA title game in Milwaukee, securing the Fighting Sioux’s 6-4 win over the Terriers that snuffed out a BU rally in the final minute.

Not so for Miami.

Dogged BU soon regained possession after the faceoff, goalie Kieran Millan once again headed for the bench, and play resumed in the Miami zone. That’s when veteran smarts took over, with playmaker Chris Higgins opting to pass the puck not out to the point, but instead threading it onto the stick of walk-on turned Hobey Baker winner Matt Gilroy in the slot. Higgins made the right decision; the poised senior defenseman was not the guy Miami wanted to see with the puck. Gilroy drove left around a defender looking for a possible shot, but he still had three bodies (including Jason Lawrence entangled with a defenseman near the left post) and the goalie in front of him, with the scoreboard clock showing less than 20 seconds left in BU’s season.

Given the gravity of the moment and the desperation of the clock situation, it would've been understandable for Gilroy to shoot the puck on net, hoping to somehow sneak it into the net through all the traffic, or perhaps for a deflection off the goalie, and amidst all the chaos in front of the net caused by the loose puck, a rebound through the scrum and the tying goal.

But All-Americans and Hobey Baker winners don't think that way. Shooting the puck and risking the loss of possession and the game wasn’t an option for Gilroy, not with a national championship hanging in the balance. What he wanted was to make the best play, preferably by getting the puck to an open shooter. When he spotted Bonino out of the corner of his eye, open and positioned perfectly inside the right circle, he calmly shifted the puck to his backhand and passed it across the slot.

Knowing he had little time to pull the trigger at the open net, Bonino one-timed a shot that would’ve made former Terrier Mark Fidler proud, sending the puck flying by a lunging Miami defenseman and just past Reichard’s outstretched glove (this time there would be no Bill Pye to rob a streaking Tony Amonte, as had been the case in the waning seconds of the third period of BU’s 8-7 triple-overtime loss to Northern Michigan in the 1991 NCAA title match) and securely into the twine to knot the score at 3-3 with 17 seconds left. The red light sent BU fans in the building into pandemonium and induced more than a few leaps off couches by alumni watching on the tube. It was a play that would’ve likely invited a drawn out “ohhhh myyyyy” from former NBC sportscaster Dick Enberg.

"I just got the puck and out of the corner of my eye I saw Nick sitting wide open. You put the puck on Nicky's stick, and he's going to put it away,” said Gilroy of his nifty pass. “It went in and we went into overtime. Once we had that, I think the whole bench and the whole team knew it [the championship] was ours."

When Parker was asked what he was thinking when Bonino’s shot lit the lamp, he mentioned former Red Sox player Bernie Carbo. That was in reference to the two-out, pinch-hit three-run home run that Carbo hit into the center field bleachers at Fenway Park against Cincinnati in the bottom of the eighth inning of the classic Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, a game the Sox eventually won 7-6 on Carlton Fisk’s home run in the 12th inning.

With BU players celebrating on the bench and sensing a comeback victory had essentially moved back into the picture, it was a good time to cue up the 1980s Mike and The Mechanics song “All I Need is a Miracle” which is just what the Terriers had produced in a game-saving space of 42 seconds.

Stunned by the two-goal rally but determined to finish the job, Miami had one last rush up ice that resulted in a Trent Vogelhuber – who had scored to put Miami up 3-1 at 15:52 of the third period on a laser inside the post, a goal that at the time appeared to be the potential game-clincher for the RedHawks – shot off BU goalie Kieran Millan’s chest, with the puck dangerously dropping loose to his left. Another Miami player swooped in for the rebound and took a swipe at the puck that barely missed before Millan was finally able to cover it up with his glove, just 1.1 second (and yet another heart palpitation for BU fans) from end of regulation.

When the horn sounded it was time to exhale, regroup and head to overtime for the 13th time in NCAA title game history. An overtime (or two, or three) that would determine if a stunned Miami team could still capture its first Division I title or if the resurgent Terriers could cap off a record-breaking season by completing the D.C. Miracle.

Playing it safe and waiting for a mistake was but a myth for both teams in overtime; both were out to win the championship trophy at all costs.

Colin Wilson, who had scored the third period game-winner off a rebound in BU’s 5-4 comeback win over Vermont in an NCAA Semifinal two nights before, fought through a check along the boards and sent a hard wrister on net, only to be stopped by Reichard. John McCarthy, finishing off a trademark tic-tac-toe passing exchange, was also foiled in close by Reichard.

At the other end, Gilroy made one of the game’s clutch defensive plays, sliding along the ice and extending his stick to break up a shot attempt in the slot by the dangerous Carter Camper. A short time later, Tom Wingels, who had given Miami a 2-1 lead in the third period by knocking in a loose rebound, took a shot in the slot that bounded off Millan’s chest and off to the side of the net. Before a Miami player could cause any further havoc BU defenseman Brian Strait promptly gained possession and cleared the puck out of the zone.

The final rush of the night found defenseman Colby Cohen starting out from behind the BU net and heading up ice. Cohen shot the puck deep into the Miami zone from center ice where the Terriers’ all-freshman line was in pursuit. Corey Trivino tied up a Miami player at the end boards to the left of the net, and the puck then skidded over to Chris Connolly, who had put the Terriers on the board way back in the first period by hustling for a goalmouth tap-in.

Connolly turned and passed the puck back to mouthguard-chomping defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, positioned on the left side of the blue line. Shattenkirk moved to his right and faked a shot to draw the attention of converging Miami defenders. After faking the shot he continued moving to his right along the blue line, passing by defensive partner and fellow Colorado Avalanche draft pick Cohen. With Miami players in pursuit Shattenkirk took a quick glance over his shoulder and sent a backhand pass over to Cohen. That misdirection opened up some room as Cohen skated in the direction of the left circle. Earlier in the game Cohen had cleanly beaten Reichard with one of his trademark booming slap shots, but the puck didn’t find the net and instead hit iron.

With some open space in the circle Cohen again drew back for a slapper, looking to put a shot on net while forward Vinny Saponari was busy tussling with a defenseman in front of Reichard. As Reichard dropped down and braced himself to control a hard shot from Cohen, Miami’s heart-and-soul defenseman, Kevin Roeder, hit the ice, looking to block the shot.

The puck made contact with Roeder’s shin guard, but instead of hitting flush and deflecting back toward Cohen, or better yet, to the boards, it hit on an angle and skipped off in flight on an end-over-end arc. Reichard kept waiting and looking for the shot that never arrived, as the puck climbed up and over his head and out of sight – calling to mind those Elton John lyrics “When are you gonna come down? When are you going to land?” – before dropping over his left shoulder and into the net.

The goal judge flicked the switch, the BU bench emptied to mob Cohen, Parker and his assistants Mike Bavis and David Quinn embraced, Terrier fans roared and a crestfallen Reichard slumped in his crease, a helpless bystander who had lost sight of the puck on the game’s final play. Suddenly and unexpectedly (as is often the case in overtime) it was all over at 11:47 of the extra session. BU had completed a 4-3 return-from-the-brink victory, its first win of the season in OT, that secured the school’s fifth national championship. Unlike previous NCAA Tournament overtime losses in 1991 against Northern Michigan, 1998 against UNH and 2000 against St. Lawrence, the sticks and helmets scattered around the ice following the postgame celebration this time belonged to the Terriers, with Cohen’s shot igniting the flotilla.

“I saw a guy coming at me, and I thought about trying to fake and go around him, but the ice was already a little chewed up at that point,” Cohen said of his game winner. “I closed my eyes and shot it and here we are right now. I was just trying to shoot it towards the net. Take a slap shot and get it to the net and hope for a rebound. But I got lucky, I guess.”

Parker had nothing but praise for the vanquished RedHawks.

“We’ll sit back and watch this game and realize just how fortunate we were to win and how hard Miami played against us for 60 minutes,” he said. “They’re a hell of an opponent and everybody knows who they are now.”

Down through the years the Terriers have staged numerous memorable comebacks, both in the regular season (including against Michigan State at Walter Brown Arena in 1989 and on the road at Maine in 1993) and in the playoffs (against Clarkson in the ECAC semifinals in 1977 and against Northern Michigan in the NCAAs in 1991), but never before had a BU team staged such a memorable rally against such huge odds in the final 59 seconds.

Trying to determine the biggest win in the history of a tradition-rich program is all but impossible, but there certainly has never been a more courageous victory – even edging ahead of the one posted by underdog BU against a loaded Michigan team in the 1997 NCAAs – posted by the Terriers with more at stake than the one in the 2009 NCAA Championship Game.

No BU squad has ever walked the tight rope and responded to postseason pressure more effectively than this group did over the final month of must-win games, with five of the last six decided by a single goal:

3-2 over Boston College in the Hockey East Semifinals
1-0 over Lowell in the Hockey East Championship Game
2-1 over New Hampshire in the Northeast Regional Final
5-4 over Vermont in the NCAA Semifinals
4-3 over Miami in the NCAA Championship Game.

The win over the RedHawks pushed the Terriers into an elite group of schools, in terms of winning NCAA titles, with BU and Minnesota now tied with five championships apiece, trailing Wisconsin with six, North Dakota and Denver with seven, and Michigan with nine. No other Eastern school can match BU’s 38 NCAA Tournament game wins or the program’s 31 NCAA Tournament berths.

Was this the best Terrier team ever to lace up the skates? As radio play-by-play man Bernie Corbett astutely pointed out, if you match up the resumes of BU’s five NCAA championship squads, and mark down all their accomplishments from the beginning of the season to the end, the 2008-09 club moves to the front of the line. Every single piece of hardware the Terriers played for this season (Icebreaker Invitational, Denver Cup, Beanpot Tournament, Hockey East regular-season, Hockey East championship, NCAA Northeast Regional and the NCAA championship) they won, en route to becoming the first BU team ever to collect 35 wins. If you throw in Matt Gilroy’s Hobey Baker Award, Jack Parker’s Spencer Penrose Award and Kieran Millan’s National Rookie of the Year Award, recognition for this team was bursting at the seams. Truthfully, it was a season the likes of which may not be seen again on Commonwealth Avenue for a while.

All four of BU’s other NCAA title teams had at least one stumble in tournament play during the course of the season. The 1971 NCAA champions were tripped up by Harvard in the ECAC semifinals; the 1972 NCAA champions (who were absolutely dominant in five postseason games, outscoring their opponents 23-5) were beaten by archrival Cornell in the Syracuse Invitational; the 1978 NCAA champions (who lost but one regular-season game) fell to Providence in the ECAC semifinals, and the 1995 NCAA champions (who outscored its three NCAA opponents 19-7) dropped an overtime decision to Maine in the Great Western Freezeout.

Wednesday afternoon’s victory rally started with a Duck Boat ride for the players in Kenmore Square and ended up with the team wading its way through an appreciative and sizable throng at Marsh Plaza before being showered with confetti. Jack Parker addressed the crowd, specifically thanking the students who had attended the Miami game for their enthusiastic support, especially when the chips were down late in the game.

He then turned his attention to his championship club.

“People keep asking me, ‘Is this the best Boston University team of all-time?’ I have to say that no other team won this many trophies and this many tournaments and had the heart-stopping trek through the Hockey East Tournament and the NCAA Tournament as this club did,” Parker noted. “They also won more games than any other BU team. I think it’s easy for me to say right now that this is the greatest team that I’ve ever coached at Boston University.”

Six seniors (Gilroy, Lawrence, Higgins, McCarthy, Brandon Yip and Steve Smolinsky) have wrapped up their careers, and Wilson, after earning All-American status as a sophomore, has signed a contract with Nashville. Others may follow, so there will certainly be holes for Parker to fill in his lineup next season. But before then, there will be some time to reflect and enjoy all that went into the D.C. Miracle.

One other important question remains for the Terriers. Who from the pages of history will provide the inspiration behind the sweat once the puck drops again next season, Magellan, da Gama or Eriksson?

BU In The Big Apple

by mh82

(Editor's note: Written prior to the 2007 BU-Cornell game at Madison Square Garden)

NOV. 20, 2007—The hype surrounding the game has been building for months. Ticket sales have exceeded all expectations, surpassing the 17,000 mark. The final countdown to the “Red Hot Hockey” matchup at Madison Square Garden between Boston University and Cornell has been reduced to a matter of days, and come Saturday night, it will be time to drop the puck at Broadway and 33rd Street.

Although the Terriers have not played a game in New York City in more than 30 years, they do have a history of hitting the ice in Gotham for hockey matchups around the holidays. BU has played a total of eight games in Manhattan, posting a 5-2-1 mark.

Between December of 1961 and January of 1977, BU participated in three different chapters of the ECAC Holiday Festival, a tournament that had a run of 15 years and featured various groups of college teams competing at Madison Square Garden.

But to trace the actual origin of BU playing hockey in the Big Apple, you’d have to turn back the clock 81 years, to January 27, 1926. It was on that date, according to research by BU hockey historian Sean Pickett, that the Terriers, coached by George Gaw and led by captain Roderick Ling, dropped a 5-1 decision to a team known as the St. Nicholas Hockey Club—whose roster was made up of many former Ivy League athletes—in an exhibition match at the site of the “old” Madison Square Garden, located on Eighth Avenue and 50th Street. For more than 10 years, the Eighth Avenue Garden served as the home rink to two NHL teams, the New York Americans starting in 1925-26, and the New York Rangers the following season. The Americans eventually folded as a franchise during World War II, leaving the city to the Broadway Blueshirts.

The BU-St. Nicholas matchup was the second game of a Wednesday night doubleheader, with 8,000 fans on hand at the Garden to watch the action. The Terriers were coming off a 1-0 win over Cornell, played the previous Saturday afternoon on Beebe Lake up in Ithaca. The opening game featured Yale playing against a team from the New York Athletic Club, a contest the Bulldogs won easily, 6-0. The Terriers put a starting lineup on the ice of goalie Donald Martin, defensemen Charles Viano and Ling, and a first line of center Chester Scott (who led the team with 11 points in 14 games) and forwards Ovila Gregoire (who netted a team-high 10 goals for the 7-8 BU squad) and John Lawless. The game was played in an uneven format, with the first and third periods lasting 15 minutes and the second period the full 20 minutes.

St. Nick’s opened the scoring just over four minutes into the game, but BU’s Ling tied the game late in the first period. His goal was described thusly in the next morning’s edition of the New York Times by reporter Harry Cross. “Boston tied the score on a simple shot which fooled all hands on the ice. Captain Ling took his own sweet time carrying the disc down the ice and just dribbled a shot from the side which had scarcely power enough behind it to carry it to the net. [St. Nick’s goalie] Neidinger didn’t think it would reach him and made no effort to stop it, and it limped its way in.”

In the words of Jack Parker, it was a “greasy” goal, but nonetheless, it tied the score. A St. Nick’s forward by the name of Cushman (no first names were included in the box score) scored twice in the second period and once in the third to help his team pull away from the Terriers.

Thirty-five years later and just four days before Christmas in 1961, the Terriers made their initial appearance in the ECAC Holiday Festival. It was a rather inauspicious debut for BU in the tournament, as coach Harry Cleverly’s squad was thrashed by Clarkson in the opener, 7-0. Next up was the first of three meetings with Boston College during that 1961-62 campaign, and the Terriers and Eagles skated to a 2-2 draw. Cleverly was serving in his 17th and final season of leading BU from behind the bench, before passing the coaching reins along to one of his former players, Jack Kelley.

BU made its last appearance at the Eighth Avenue Garden in the sixth annual ECAC Holiday Festival in 1966. The Terriers had an extended stay in New York, playing three games over the course of four days, from December 17-20. BU scored 24 goals en route to three consecutive victories, securing the John Reed Kilpatrick Memorial Trophy as tournament champions. Kilpatrick was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame for his playing career at Yale, and he also earned a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame, after serving as president of the Rangers for over 25 years. In addition, he served in the U.S. Army in both World Wars.

The Terriers gave the Garden fans a glimpse of their offensive firepower in the opening game against Princeton, as Fred “Bear” Bassi pumped in five goals (he led BU with 30 that season), Maxwell “Mickey” Gray accounted for four goals and Mike Sobeski, Herb Wakabayashi and Serge Boily each chipped in with four assists in a 13-6 trouncing of the Tigers in front of a crowd of 6,548. BU scored the first eight goals of the game and never looked back, establishing the tournament record for most goals in a game. Two other players, Jim Quinn (two goals, two assists) and Peter McLachlan (one goal, three assists), reached the four-point mark.

The all-sophomore line of Wakabayashi centering Boily and Gray produced 13 points for the BU attack, and their speed, skills and cohesion on the ice would inspire a famous New York sportswriter to give their line a nickname that would last throughout their careers at BU, after he witnessed their work in person at the Garden.

“That was a pretty impressive tournament for them,” noted McLachlan. “They had a chemistry that really clicked, and they all had a whale of a season that year.”

Indeed they did as Wakabayashi led BU in scoring with 16 goals and 51 assists for 67 points; Boily was second on the team with 55 points (29 goals and 26 assists) and Gray added a successful stat line of 24 goals and 24 assists. Not too shabby for their varsity debuts.

After the Saturday night win over Princeton, the Terriers would not hit the ice again until Monday night, when they would face the University of Minnesota for just the second time; BU’s first-ever game against the Gophers was a 4-2 setback on December 20, 1963 in the Boston Christmas Holiday Festival.

On Sunday night a small group of Terriers, including the top defense pairing of Ontario cousins Brian Gilmour and Peter McLachlan, attended a taping of the Ed Sullivan Show. A regular segment of the show was when Sullivan would introduce some special guests in the audience to the TV viewers at home. Boxer Sugar Ray Robinson was well known to the audience, but there also happened to be a group of athletes from two universities in the theatre that night.

“We were to be introduced, but when it came time, Sullivan said in his unique voice, ‘And in our audience tonight, we have an outstanding team.’ ” Gilmour recalled. “All of us got ready to stand up but Ed continued, ‘The University of North Carolina basketball team.’ ” No matter. The BU players were eventually recognized and received a round of applause.

The appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show wasn’t the only chance that BU players had the chance to go on national television. Gilmour, McLachlan, Jim Quinn and a fourth player (either Bassi or defenseman Don Lumley) were chosen as contestants for the daytime game show Eye Guess, which was hosted by Bill Cullen at NBC’s Rockefeller Center studios. Contestants on Eye Guess tried to memorize and recall the location of hidden answers on a nine-box game board. The Terrier contingent didn’t fare too well, and in the words of McLachlan, “we had our clocks cleaned by a bunch of housewives who were probably regular viewers and knew what to do to win the game.”

But the BU players didn’t leave 30 Rock empty-handed.

“We received five Westclock clocks,” said Gilmour of the parting gifts from the show. “I still have one, and the other four were Christmas gifts that year. Starving college player, you know.”

Gilmour and McLachlan were a talented duo of senior defensemen, with the former earning All-American status in 1967 and the latter being selected first team All-ECAC. They were also a unique personal story. They grew up in Ontario (Gilmour in Lancaster and McLachlan in Newmarket) never knowing they were related as cousins.

“We didn’t know we were cousins until we met each other on campus for the first time,” said McLachlan. “We hadn’t met before BU.” McLachlan played in all 31 games during the 1966-67 season and had 10 goals and 25 assists while Gilmour finished third on the team in scoring with 13 goals and 41 assists.

"We spent some time together killing penalties and on the power play the first two years on varsity, but we didn’t become a regular defense pairing until our senior year,” said McLachlan. “We both favored an offensive style of play and the two of us liked to be in the other team’s zone. Sometimes we got caught up ice and Coach Kelley didn’t appreciate that.”

Playing college hockey, however, wasn’t something that McLachlan was definitely sold on. “When I was 19 I was planning on going to a Canadian college that didn’t have a hockey team. I had been playing junior hockey for several years, and had been playing competitive hockey since I was seven. Michigan and Brown showed some interest in me, but I was going to retire from playing the game at 19,” he said. “It just so happened that Jack Kelley came up to scout another player on my junior team. I must’ve had a good night because after the game he came up to me and asked if I was interested in coming down to play hockey at BU. I said, ‘sure, why not?’ It turned out to be the correct choice for me to go to BU.”

In the game against Minnesota, the Gophers struck first with a goal late in the opening period, and they were on top 1-0 at the first intermission. McLachlan’s power play goal at the 3:01 mark of the second period tied the game, but Minnesota’s Chuck Norby shot a puck past BU netminder Wayne Ryan to put the Gophers ahead 2-1 six minutes later.

BU answered with goals from defensemen Bill Hinch and Gilmour to take the lead back, but with just under five minutes left in the second period, Gary Gambucci’s goal pulled the Gophers even again. Gray, on an assist from McLachlan, gave the Terriers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish 60 seconds before the second intermission.

Playing with a 4-3 lead, BU took control of the game when Gray, a Chatham, Ontario native, lit the lamp three times in the first 11:33 of the third period, with his linemates Boily and Wakabayashi tallying assists on each of the goals. Forward Charlie Morgan made it 8-3 Terriers with 6:31 left on the clock, and the Gophers added a pair of late scores to make it a more respectable 8-5 final, as BU punched its ticket to the championship game against Clarkson, a 5-2 winner against St. Lawrence.

The Golden Knights had won eight of the previous 11 meetings against BU, including the seven-goal win over the Terriers on the same MSG ice just six years earlier. A crowd of 6,312 was on hand at the Garden to see the title matchup between the two ECAC rivals. Neither team scored in the opening period, as BU’s Ryan and Clarkson’s John Miller held the opposing offenses at bay.

Sobeski, on a nice rush up ice, put BU on the board 53 seconds into the second period after his 20-footer eluded Miller. Morgan notched his second goal in two days to put the Terriers up by two goals, but Clarkson’s Joe Demerski solved Ryan and made it a 2-1 game at the 11:39 mark. Wakabayashi, with a series of fakes in a one-on-one showdown against Miller, increased BU’s lead to 3-1 with under four minutes to play in the period.

Clarkson put pressure on Ryan in the third period, and he came up with a big save on a breakaway to maintain BU’s lead. However, Ernie Reynolds potted a goal with less than five minutes left to pull Clarkson to within 3-2, but the Terriers took care of business in their own end down the stretch and hung on for their ninth straight win (the only blemish on BU’s record had been a 4-3 overtime loss to the Eastern Olympics in a exhibition game at Boston Arena on December 10) to capture the tournament title.

Gray was named the MVP of the tournament after accounting for eight goals and an assist. Linemates Wakabayashi and Boily also did plenty of damage, finishing with one goal and seven assists apiece. It was the performance of those three Terrier sophomores that led columnist Red Smith to dub the trio the “Pinball Line” in a column he submitted to the New York World Journal Tribune.

Jack Kelley recalled his 1966-67 club and their holiday performance at Madison Square Garden. “It was the senior year of my first full recruiting class of Gilmour, McLachlan, Ryan, Bassi, Quinn and Sobeski. We also had added Jack Parker, John Cooke and Billy Riley, and our sophomore line of Wakabayashi, Boily and Gray was making a big impact, too,” he said.

“Everyone began to realize we would be a team to be reckoned with. Just before the games at MSG, our Sports Information Director, Art Dunphy, called Red Smith to tell him about an amazing trio of first-year players (sophomores at the time with no freshmen eligibility, which began in 1973-74) who passed the puck remarkably well and were having a great season.

“He convinced Smith to attend the tournament, and after seeing Herb, Serge and Mickey in action, he came up with the name “Pinball Line” because of the way they passed the puck. And the name stuck.”

BU completed the 1966-67 season as the top team in the ECAC with an unbeaten 19-0-1 record, with the tie (3-3) coming against an equally-strong Cornell team in a classic double-overtime confrontation in the championship game of the Boston Arena Christmas Tournament on December 30. But the Big Red would prove to be BU’s nemesis the rest of the season, and led by peerless work of goalie Ken Dryden, who would later earn fame and six Stanley Cup rings with the Montreal Canadiens, Cornell knocked off the Terriers 4-3 in the ECAC championship game at Boston Garden on March 11 and then 4-1 in the NCAA title game in Syracuse one week later.

The Terriers were part of the ECAC Holiday Festival field for the last time in 1977, and it also marked the grand finale of the tournament at Madison Square Garden, which was now situated at Seventh Avenue and 33rd Street after making the move from Eighth Avenue and 50th Street in 1968. The “new” Garden was located on the site of the demolished Penn Station, the giant Beaux-Arts edifice of a train station that was once used by both the Pennsylvania and Long Island Railroads and was the final destination of the famous “Broadway Limited” which ran daily from Chicago to New York.

The start of the 1976-77 season had been anything but typical for the Terriers, as the three-time defending ECAC champions dropped their first five games and arrived in New York with a less-than-stellar 3-6 record after splitting a road series at Minnesota-Duluth. Although the Terriers had been outscored 42-36 through those nine games, they were certainly not a team lacking in talent, with the likes of center Rick Meagher and forwards Mike Eruzione and Dave Silk fueling the offense and defensemen Jack O’Callahan and Dick Lamby and goalie Jim Craig bolstering the defense.

Colgate, a team that BU had beaten 13-3 at Brown Arena during the 1975-76 season, was the first opponent on Sunday, January 2. Because the Garden’s primary tenant, the Rangers, were hosting the Vancouver Canucks that evening, the Holiday Festival doubleheader got off to an early start. The Terriers and Red Raiders, who were coached by former BU player Jim Higgins, were due to face off at 11:00 am in front of a few thousand fans at the World’s Most Famous Arena.

Barry Kibsey gave Colgate a 1-0 lead at the 3:35 mark of the first period, but BU answered with a goal by Eruzione, and that’s the way it stayed through the first 20 minutes.

Coming out of the locker room for the second period, it quickly became obvious that BU had finally turned off the snooze button as the Terriers erupted for seven goals in the period against Colgate’s shell-shocked freshman goalie Drew Schaefer. Mickey Mullen started the onslaught with a goal at 1:53 and Lamby—playing in just his third game for BU after transferring from Salem State and spending the previous winter with the Olympic team—finished it off by scoring at 12:48 for his second goal of the period. Balance was the word for the Terriers as six different players scored in the period and 11 different players picked up assists.

Colgate did manage to score three times off Craig in the final period, but BU got goals off the sticks of Silk and defenseman Bill LeBlond to make the final margin 10-4, with the Terriers outshooting the Red Raiders 49-33.

“It took us a while to wake up,” Jack Parker told the New York Times. “We’re not used to starting a game at 11:00 am on a Sunday. With so few people in the stands, it sounded more like a practice session. We’re used to hearing 14,000 fans screaming in Boston Garden.”

The second game of the doubleheader featured St. Lawrence and Bowdoin, and the Skating Saints turned a 4-3 deficit after two periods into an 8-4 victory after shutting down the Polar Bears over the final 20 minutes. By the time the second game began, the attendance at the Garden had climbed to 6,548.

“BU is a good, shifty team and well disciplined,” said St. Lawrence coach Leon Abbott, the man that Parker had succeeded as BU coach seven games into the 1973-74 season. “Tomorrow night’s game should be a very tough one for us.”

Abbott’s words turned out to be very prophetic as the Terriers fired a season-high 60 shots on goal, with eight of those pucks getting past Larries goaltender Rick Wilson, leading to an 8-5 victory, as BU regained possession of the Kilpatrick Trophy as tournament champions. Eruzione, who was named the MVP, contributed two goals and two assists, and defenseman Gary Fay (one goal and two assists) and Silk (three assists) also chipped in to the BU attack. In all seven different Terriers lit the lamp and nine different BU players notched assists. Craig turned aside 22 St. Lawrence shots.

BU scored the first three goals of the second period, including two on the power play, to stretch its lead to 6-1, but St. Lawrence battled back with three straight goals to make a game of it, leading Parker to comment in the Times, “We took a couple of penalties and played sloppy defensively and let them back in.”

Fay’s power play strike with just under three minutes left in the second period built BU’s lead back up to three goals. The Terriers controlled the third period, owning a 26-5 shot advantage, and Tony Meagher’s goal helped offset a score by SLU’s Dan Walker as BU posted an 8-5 triumph.

The two victories at the Garden improved the Terriers’ record to 5-6, but Parker felt that his club still had plenty of work to do. “I told them they have to get more pumped up as a team,” he said in the New York Times. “They have talent, but they haven’t won anything yet. They don’t seem to play with any emotion.”

The BU players took Parker’s words to heart, as they won 16 of their next 21 games, with the last of those victories delivering a fourth straight ECAC crown following an exciting 8-6 win over New Hampshire at Boston Garden. That led to a fourth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, but for the fourth consecutive year history repeated itself, and the Terriers were toppled in the semifinals, this time by Michigan, 6-4.

When the likes of present-day Terriers Peter MacArthur, Bryan Ewing and Chris Higgins hop over the boards at MSG on Saturday night against ancient bitter rival Cornell, they will be looking to extend BU’s winning streak in the City That Never Sleeps to six games.

“The idea of having a get-together with Cornell was exciting, but having it in Madison Square Garden, arguably the richest sports venue there is, just adds to the panache of the whole thing,” noted Parker. “The best part about this (Red Hot Hockey])will be the fact that the players on both teams will get to experience that type of atmosphere against a big rival in a game they should remember for a long, long time.”

That Championship Season

A look back at the 1977-78 Terriers

by mh82

Flip the calendar in reverse and travel back to the fall of 1977.

In Washington, a former peanut farmer from Georgia is the first Democrat to occupy the White House since Lyndon Johnson, and Jimmy Carter is in the initial year of what will ultimately become a challenging and difficult four-year term.

Earlier in 1977, U.S. movie goers are introduced to Star Wars mania, as the George Lucas film becomes one of the most popular and highest grossing films ever.

ABC is the king of the TV airwaves, with a trio of the network’s shows, Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days and Three’s Company, filling the top three spots in the weekly Neilsen ratings.

On the radio dial—in the days long before MTV, iPods and personal CD players—a wide range of music is broadcast, including “Hotel California” by the Eagles. “Go Your Own Way” by Fleetwood Mac, “Peg” by Steely Dan, “Lido Shuffle” by Boz Scaggs, “Rock and Roll Never Forgets” by Bob Seger and “More Than A Feeling” by Boston. Movie themes also receive plenty of radio play, including “Gonna Fly Now” from Rocky and “Nobody Does It Better” from The Spy Who Loved Me. Just before Christmas, the Bee Gees would revive their career and help spur a national cultural phenomenon known as Disco by contributing songs to the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever, which also helped launch John Travolta’s acting career. Of course, the biggest music news of the year may well have been the death of a pioneer in Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, on August 16.

For baseball fans in Boston 1977 was a trying season, as they witnessed the New York Yankees winning their first World Series title in 15 years, after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games. The Red Sox, despite winning 97 games and hitting a Major League-high 213 home runs, still finished 2 ½ games behind the Bronx Bombers in the final AL East standings. The Boston Bruins, victims of a 4-0 sweep at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens in the ’77 Stanley Cup Finals, would again advance to the Cup Finals in the spring of 1978, only to fall again to Habs, this time in six games.

Several miles north of the Bruins’ home, Boston Garden, Boston University hockey coach Jack Parker assembled his 1977-78 team for preseason drills at Walter Brown Arena. On March 12, 1977, the Terriers became only the second ECAC team ever to win four straight league championships—matching Cornell’s feat from 1967 through 1970—after defeating New Hampshire 8-6 in the championship game at the Garden. The win over the Wildcats capped a thrilling tournament run by the Terriers that also included victories over top-seeded Clarkson (7-6 in the semifinals, after BU scored three times over the final 3:57 of the third period to stun the Golden Knights and their fans who were eagerly anticipating a memorable triumph over the three-time defending ECAC kings of the hill) and Boston College (8-7 in the quarterfinals, in a back-and-forth contest that was one of the most heart-pounding games ever played in the long history of WBA).

As the 32-year-old Parker surveyed the Brown Arena ice, he observed the 15 lettermen he had back from that 1976-77 team, giving the Terriers an excellent core of veteran players to begin pursuit of a fifth straight ECAC crown. Among the returnees was the solid goaltending tandem of senior Brian Durocher and junior Jim Craig. The defense also looked to be in excellent shape with senior Dick Lamby, in his first full season in a BU uniform after transferring from Salem State and spending a year with the U.S. Olympic team, juniors Jack O’Callahan and Bill O’Neill, and sophomore Bill LeBlond.

In keeping with his usual philosophy of building a team from the goal out and having his players take care of business in their own end, Parker liked the look of his team from a defensive perspective.

“We’re going into the season with more experience at defense than we had last year,” Parker told SID Ed Carpenter in the season preview section of the BU media guide. “We have four of our five regular defensemen back plus our two goalies. We’re deep, talented and experienced.”

But this wasn’t a team that was only about defense. BU also boasted a combination of firepower and grit up front with senior Matt Marden, juniors John Bethel, Bob Boileau, John Fox, Marc Hetnik, John Melanson and Mickey Mullen, and sophomores Tony Meagher and Dave Silk. A pair of junior transfers, forward John Corriveau (from UNH) and defensemen Scott Nieland (from North Dakota), added to the Terriers’ depth.

“I think we could be good by the end of the year, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be great guns at the beginning,” Parker noted. “Remember, you don’t lose people like Rick Meagher and Mike Eruzione and not feel it.”

Ah yes, the graduated seniors from the five-player Class of 1977. There were the two defensemen, Gary Fay and John McClellan, with the former serving as a power play specialist who racked up 89 career assists with his pinpoint passing and the latter a steady and dependable four-year performer on the blue line. There were the forwards, Bob Dudley and Mike Eruzione. Dudley excelled as a forechecker and penalty killer while Eruzione, who a little over two years later would become a household name around the country with his on-ice performance in a small town in upstate New York, would graduate as one of just five BU players to surpass 200 career points (he finished with 208) while also being recognized annually as the top defensive forward in New England. Then there was center Rick Meagher, the younger brother of Terry Meagher, who himself had enjoyed a strong career at BU from 1973-76, and the older brother of sophomore Tony from the 1977-78 team. Those three sons of Belleville, Ontario, would provide an excellent foundation for Parker’s early BU teams.

Rick Meagher scored 90 goals and dish out 120 assists in his four brilliant seasons wearing a BU sweater, and among the terms used to describe his playing skill and game were “flashy” and “electrifying”. Just a few of the numerous career highlights that Meagher provided for BU fans was his rink-length rush for a goal as a freshman against Minnesota in the third period of the 1974 NCAA semifinals at Boston Garden; his five shorthanded goals in 1974-75, including a pair against Princeton in a span of just nine seconds; his two goals in 13 seconds against Brown in BU’s 9-2 romp in the ’76 ECAC title game; his third-period hat trick against BC in the aforementioned 8-7 victory over the Eagles in the ’77 ECAC quarterfinals, and his four assists against UNH in the ECAC championship game four days later, in what would be his final appearance as a collegian on Causeway Street.

Meagher remains the only Terrier player ever to attain All-American status as a sophomore, junior and senior. When Meagher had the puck on his stick, good results would often follow, as many an ECAC defenseman who were burned by No. 15’s exploits learned. BU’s veteran radio play-by-play man Bernie Corbett has sometimes only half-jokingly referred to Meagher as the “Roy Hobbs” of the BU program, as in “the best there ever was.” If ever there was a Mount Rushmore of former BU hockey players constructed, Meagher would likely anchor one side of the mountain while that former Little League pitcher from Connecticut who would go on to become BU’s all-time leading goal scorer (113) and only Hobey Baker winner—Chris Drury—would anchor the other side.

Eruzione and Meagher were linemates on the ice and inseparable friends off it at BU, but they almost never had the chance to become college hockey teammates. Meagher had originally intended to attend Clarkson, but when a viable physical education program was not to be had in Potsdam, he made his way, with some urging from older brother Terry, to Beantown. Eruzione, who had every intention of attending Merrimack, was spotted by Parker in a summer league game in Billerica and was talked into giving Division I hockey a shot by his future coach. Both players went on to be named to the ECAC All-Decade Team of the 1970s, and in an NCAA Guide review of their superb careers, they were dubbed the “twin terrors of the East.”

But despite all the success that Meagher and Eruzione enjoyed as Terriers, playing on teams that had a combined four-year record of 96-29-1, winning games in the NCAA Tournament proved elusive. Although talent-laden BU squads were seemingly unbeatable in the ECAC playoffs every March, they were disappointingly bounced out of the NCAA semifinals in four consecutive years—by Minnesota 5-4 in 1974, by Michigan Tech 9-5 in ’75, by Minnesota again 4-2 in ’76, and by Michigan 6-4 in ’77.

Looking to add pieces to the team that would help find a formula for success in the NCAAs and replacing those five invaluable seniors that departed campus in May of 1977 were on Parker’s mind when he hit the recruiting trail for the freshman class that would enter BU in September. The six-member class that he brought aboard gave Parker reason to believe that the Terriers would have the chance to maintain their position as the top program in the East.

Two of the newcomers were members of Matignon’s state championship team in forward Billy Cotter and center Mark Fidler. Cotter was Matignon’s captain during his final season, one in which he scored 40 goals. Fidler scored 96 points as a senior, leading all high school scorers in the Bay State. He was also the younger brother of Mike Fidler, who in two impact seasons as a Terrier netted 46 goals before making the jump right to the NHL with the Cleveland Barons. Mark Fidler was looking to have the same impact on the BU program that his older brother had, and as it turned out, he wouldn’t disappoint. Rounding out the strong freshman class were centers Todd Johnson and Paul Miller, the younger brother of former UNH star (and future Bruin) Bob Miller, rough-and-tumble forward Darryl MacLeod and defenseman Tim Kimball.

“It’s as good a recruiting year as we’ve had,” said Parker of his rookies. “Not only is there quantity but also quality.”

So as the 24-man BU squad went through its preseason workouts in search of an unprecedented fifth consecutive league title, it did so with a huge target on its back, the result of having won 12 straight ECAC postseason games. The only thing missing from Parker’s impressive coaching resume in his first four seasons behind the bench was a victory in the NCAAs. But long before the national tournament would came into focus, the 1977-78 Terriers would have to fend off the other 16 ECAC schools hell-bent on payback for having been on the losing side of the scoreboard against BU so many times over the previous four winters.

“There’s going to be a lot of pressure on us this year,” Parker stated in the preseason. “After all, everyone is going to want to knock us off. But that’s nothing new to these kids. They’re all used to it by now.”

BU, which had opened the 1976-77 campaign in shocking fashion by dropping its first five games after allowing 30 goals—the Terriers went on to win 22 of the final 27 games en route to another NCAA berth—would offer no repeat of that performance a year later. The Terriers hosted Merrimack, the eventual Division II national champion in ’78, to open the season on November 22 and cruised to a 13-4 win, behind Silk’s four goals and four assists each from Lamby and Boileau. Silk was simply picking up where he had left off as an outstanding freshman in 1976-77, when he lit the lamp 35 times to become the most prolific single-season goal scorer at BU since sophomore Paul O’Neil also netted 35 goals in 1972-73.

By the time the first semester came to a close, BU was off to a 5-0 start and was in the early stages of what would eventually become the longest winning streak in school annals. The fourth of those five wins came at Brown Arena, 6-5 over UNH, in a rematch of the ’77 ECAC championship game. Silk contributed a pair of goals, Lamby had three assists and Craig turned aside 37 shots by the Wildcats.

After Christmas BU headed on an extended road swing, with six of its next seven games on the road. The first two games were in East Lansing, against Michigan State, and the Terriers outlasted the Spartans by 7-5 and 6-3 scores, with Silk picking up four goals and four assists for the series. The last three games of the trip included stops at traditionally tough ECAC rinks in Durham, Canton and Potsdam. The Terriers were up to the task as they defeated UNH 6-4, with Meagher picking up a hat trick and Bethel collecting four assists, and then swept North Country foes St. Lawrence (8-3, behind Fidler’s first career hat trick and a trio of assists each from O’Callahan and Lamby) and Clarkson (7-4, with Fidler and Lamby notching hat tricks). Durocher had a combined 64 saves against the Wildcats and Golden Knights while Craig stopped 32 shots by the Larries.

“I really feel that the first time I saw that we could be a good team was at New Hampshire,” Parker said of BU’s road success. “Those two back-to-back victories up north also showed me a lot.”

The first meeting of the season with Boston College came on January 21, and the Terriers doubled up the Eagles at WBA, 6-3, with Fidler staying hot with a pair of goals and O’Callahan dishing off four assists. Four days later BU embarked on another four-game road trip, with the first matchup at the Houston Field House against RPI. In a wild shootout the Terriers escaped with an 8-7 win, with Craig making a season-high 42 saves and Meagher accounting for five points, with three coming via a hat trick. BU’s road record improved to 11-0 (and 19-0 overall) with a 4-2 win at Providence in a Beanpot tune-up game on February 4, one which the Terriers allowed just 19 shots on goal, with Durocher stopping 17 of them.

Two days later the Terriers headed to the Garden for an opening round Beanpot matchup with BC. Parker’s teams had lost three of the last four Beanpot finals, so there was certainly no lack of incentive for the Terriers when they stepped onto the ice to collide with their bitter rivals from up Commonwealth Avenue. While the game was being played inside the Garden, high winds and heavy snow had been pounding Boston for a several hours, in a gathering New England blizzard for the ages. Snow fell on the Boston area for over 30 hours, resulting in over 27 inches of accumulation, crippling all modes of transportation. The entire state of Massachusetts was shuttered for four days—and in a humorous tale recounted by former BU student Todd Brachman, by day four after the snowfall ended, campus hangout T. Anthony’s only had anchovy subs left on the takeout menu—and of the 11,000-plus college hockey fans who made their way into the Garden that night, nearly 500 of them were trapped on Causeway Street for the next 36 hours due to impassable roads. The tournament would wait another 23 days until the ’78 Beanpot champion was finally decided.

As for the game, BU took advantage of an injury-depleted BC defense and filled the Eagles’ cage with rubber, as 10 different Terriers scored goals in a 12-5 romp, the highest goal total ever scored by a BU team against the Eagles. Meagher and Boileau led the onslaught with two goals apiece and Lamby and O’Callahan each picked up three assists. The Eagles managed to put three pucks by Durocher in the first period and only trailed 4-3 at the intermission, but BU went on to score eight of the game’s next nine goals. BC’s highly regarded goaltender Paul Skidmore, who had helped beat BU in the Beanpot final two years earlier, departed with a groin injury in the second period, leaving backup Mike Cronin at the mercy of the Terriers for the rest of the game.

The massive snowfall led to the cancellation of a home date against RPI on February 10, and as luck would have it, BU’s next opponent on February 16 was BC at McHugh Forum. The Terriers didn’t hit for a dozen goals again, but they did reach double figures in a 10-5 win, with Miller and Silk each collecting two goals, Lamby dishing out an incredible six assists and Craig making 41 saves. That made it 21 straight wins for BU as the Terriers prepared for a Saturday trip to New Haven to face Yale at Ingalls Rink for a televised game in Boston and on several PBS outlets in the East.

Unfortunately for Parker and his club, they left their sharp focus and game back in Boston, and a sub.-500 Yale team, urged on by the home crowd, exploded on offense against Durocher and the Terrier backliners, jumping out to an early lead and hanging on against a late BU rally for a 7-5 victory, bringing the Terriers’ unbeaten season to a crashing halt.

Having finally suffered its first defeat in almost three months, BU got back on the winning track by registering road wins over Northeastern (6-4 at Matthews Arena, behind Hetnik’s second two-goal game of the season) and Colgate (6-5 in overtime at Starr Rink, with Boileau netting the game winner in the extra session).

March 1 rolled around and so to did the Beanpot final against Harvard. The Crimson, who had topped BU 4-3 in the ’77 Beanpot final, were no match for the Terriers this time around, with Mickey Mullen’s—a scratch in 12 of the team’s first 15 games—first career hat trick and a goal and two assists from tournament MVP O’Callahan helping BU whip the boys from across the Charles, 7-1. Lamby (with two) and LeBlond accounted for the other goals while Miller had three assists and Craig made 27 saves. Harvard’s frustration bubbled over late in the game when Lamby and George Hughes dropped the gloves and went at it. Other brawls also broke out before the final horn sounded with a total of five players earning ejections.

“Hey,” Harvard coach Bill Cleary told the Boston Globe, in a game story filed by Peter Gammons, “all that should be said is that they’re [BU] too good. I’d like to forget the fight and have people remember one thing—how good BU is. They beat us to the puck all night. From beginning to end they were flying. That’s all I can say.”

The Terriers wrapped up their enviable 25-1 regular season with a 6-5 triumph over Vermont at WBA, with Melanson and Johnson, who both lit the lamp, sharing the spotlight with LeBlond, who had his only two-goal effort of the season, helping turn back the Catamounts. Durocher’s 28 stops proved to be enough for the winning margin.

Although BU ruled the ECAC during the regular season, the postseason—with every team’s fortunes returning to square one—was now set to begin. First up for the Terriers was a March 7 meeting at WBA against eighth-seeded New Hampshire. BU had swept the season series with the Wildcats, but the cumulative score was just 12-9. This would prove to be another nail-biter, but BU met the challenge and kept its season moving forward by avoiding the upset with a 6-5 overtime victory, as Craig turned back 33 shots by the Wildcats, Meagher pitched in with a pair of goals and an assist and Boileau potted his second game-winner in OT in a space of 10 days. The Terriers were headed back to the Garden for a chance at an unprecedented fifth consecutive ECAC title.

BU’s opponent in the semifinals was seventh-seeded Providence, a team the Terriers had beaten twice during the regular season by identical 4-2 scores. The Friars, just 12-9-2 in ECAC play, had advanced to the Garden by posting an improbable 8-5 upset win over second-seeded Cornell at Lynah Rink. The other semifinal had sixth-seeded BC meeting Brown, the No. 4 seed.

The Terriers had their hands full with UNH in the quarterfinals, and the Friars would prove to be a tough opponent as well, ultimately delivering a final result that would send shockwaves throughout the ECAC. Coach Lou Lamoriello’s team jumped out to an early advantage and then put the defensive clamps on BU’s vaunted attack, behind the strong work of goaltender Bill Milner. The Friars put five pucks past Durocher among their 23 shots while the Terriers could only solve Milner once all night. It all added up to a 5-1 triumph for the red-hot Friars, who had battled through injuries during the regular season and had marked their return to health by knocking off the ECAC’s top two seeds.

For BU, the loss was a devastating blow. The Terriers had held down the No.1 spot in the polls for a good chunk of the season and had not suffered defeat until the third week of February, but they would be absent from their customary position of playing for the ECAC crown on Saturday night. If the Friars continued on their postseason roll and defeated BC in the championship game, the plug on BU’s season, once the envy of every team in the East, could have potentially been pulled.

The Terriers’ fading hopes of staying alive—that phrase that the brothers Gibb popularized—for an NCAA berth came down to a consolation match with sixth-seeded Brown and possible intervention by an NCAA selection committee. Making the situation even more difficult was the fact that BU would have to take on Brown without the guidance of Parker on the bench, with the coach having to miss the game while attending to a serious family matter. That left the Terriers in the hands of assistant coach Don “Toot” Cahoon, who knew a thing or two about playing in big games, having been a member of BU’s national championship teams in 1971 and ’72.

The 1970-71 BU squad that Cahoon, who now runs the program at UMass, scored 24 goals for had faced a similar predicament. After winning the ECAC regular-season title with an 18-1-1 record, the Terriers fell to fourth-seeded Harvard 4-2 in the ECAC semifinals. Second-seeded Clarkson dispatched Cornell 4-1 in the other semifinal. BU’s season was in do-or-die mode when it faced the Big Red in the consolation game, but the Terriers came through with a 6-5 win, with two goals apiece from John Danby and Steve Stirling. Things looked a little ominous when starting goalie Dan Brady went down with an injury late in the second period, but Tim Regan came off the bench to stop each of the 16 shots that Cornell threw at the net.

When Harvard downed Clarkson 7-4 in the championship game, BU had the break it was looking for and the tournament selection committee opted to have BU join Harvard as the East representative in Syracuse, in part because of the Terriers’ regular-season record, and also because of a 4-1 win over the Golden Knights at Boston Arena on February 5. The Terriers made that decision look like a wise choice by defeating Denver and Minnesota (both by 4-2 margins) at the War Memorial Auditorium to secure the program’s first NCAA title.

So Cahoon had been through the redemption scenario as a player, and now he would have to start the Terriers on a similar journey while filling in for Parker in a must-win game. BU left no doubt it had some unfinished business left in pursuit of its 27th win, and Fidler’s hat trick and three assists each from Bethel, Silk and O’Callahan led to an offensive explosion that buried Brown, 8-4. Craig was also kept fairly busy in the cage, finishing with 34 saves. All the Terriers, with their .931 winning percentage, could do now was sit back and wait.

The first domino fell in the ECAC championship game when BC defeated Providence by a 4-2 score. Next came a marathon telephone conference call among the members of the NCAA Eastern Advisory Committee (consisting of Harvard’s Cleary, UNH’s Charlie Holt, Yale’s Tim Taylor, Clarkson’s Jerry York and Brown’s Bob Seiple), and consideration was given to BU’s overall record and its season sweep of Providence. It was determined by the committee that an NCAA qualifying game would be played to see which school would join BC in the Final Four field. Providence was slated to host the game at Schneider Arena, just a short distance from the Civic Center, where the city would play host to the 1978 NCAA hockey championship.

Nine days after they had seen their dream season nearly evaporate with an ill-timed playoff loss, the Terriers made the most of their second chance. Lamby lit the lamp twice and Fidler and Bethel each chipped in with a goal and an assist as BU never let up against the Friars and registered a clutch 5-3 victory. The Terriers took control of the game with three second-period goals and Craig, making consecutive starts for the first time all season, stopped 32 of 35 shots, including a penalty shot by Steve Evangelista with the Friars trailing 3-1. Four days later, BU would return to the Ocean State to face defending national champion Wisconsin in the NCAA semifinals.

Badger Bob Johnson and his team arrived in Providence with a 28-10-3 record, having posted WCHA playoff series wins over Minnesota Duluth and Michigan Tech. Wisconsin, which had defeated UNH and Michigan to take home the ’77 NCAA crown, boasted a pair of All-Americans in center Mike Eaves (58 assists and a team-high 89 points) and goalie Julian Baretta (the Most Outstanding Player of the ’77 NCAAs). Sophomore center Mark Johnson, the son of the coach and a future All-American and U.S. Olympian, would finish the season leading UW with 48 goals. Joining the team at the Civic Center was an enthusiastic throng of 3,500 red-clad Badger fans and the school’s powerful 70-piece band. During some downtime between games athletic director Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch was said to have gone to a local tavern, Players Corner Pub, slapped $500 on the bar and instructed the bartenders to “give a drink to any fan wearing Wisconsin red.”

WCHA teams had ended BU’s NCAA title aspirations in 1974, ’75 and ’76, so the Terriers were anxious to make amends in Providence. Six years earlier, BU coach Jack Kelley had led the Terriers to a 4-1 win over the Badgers in the NCAA semifinals at Boston Garden, en route to BU’s second consecutive national championship.

The Badgers owned the better of the play in the early going and struck first when Johnson ripped the puck by Craig—Parker had decided to eschew his season-long goalie rotation in favor of the hot hand in the net—on a power play at the 7:32 mark of the opening period. Just under four minutes later the Terriers got the equalizer when Silk picked up the puck out of a scrum in front of the net and shot it past Baretta.

In the second period the Terriers took a 2-1 lead when O’Callahan started a 3-on-2 breakout. The puck eventually ended up on Silk’s stick and he put a nifty goal-mouth pass on Bethel’s tape, leading to an easy tip-in goal. BU got a big break when Baretta, trying to steer a centering pass from Hetnik away from the crease, mistakenly knocked the puck into his own net to put the Badgers in a two-goal hole. Eaves showed off his All-American form at 12:37 on the penalty kill when he rode O’Neill into the boards, gained possession of the puck and then skated in on Craig and pushed a backhander past the BU goalie to tighten up the game.

Clinging to a one-goal advantage, BU went on the power play at the 5:43 mark of the final period. It took the Terriers only 27 seconds to turn on the red light as Silk hit Fidler in full flight down the left boards, with Fidler then opting for his favorite shot and firing a 25-foot slapper past the glove of Baretta to make it a 4-2 game. The trio of O’Callahan, Bethel and Silk finished off the defending national champs for good 36 seconds later when Silk hit the twine for the second time, finishing off a 3-on-2 break. Craig stopped all seven UW shots in the third period and finished with 22 saves for the game.

“All season long the secret to our success has been our quickness,” Johnson told the Providence Journal. “We weren’t quick tonight and I can only believe that was because BU was quicker.”

BU’s skating and tireless effort for three periods was the difference maker, according to Parker.

“We figured we were underdogs coming in. We also knew we had to skate hard and avoid running around to win,” he told the Journal. “We beat them to the puck most of the night. It sure is going to be nice playing Saturday night and not Saturday afternoon.”

The next night, BC eliminated Bowling Green with a 6-2 victory, transforming the NCAA championship game into yet another chapter in the Commonwealth Avenue skirmish between the Terriers and the Eagles. It would mark the first all-East final since BU and Cornell met for all the marbles in 1972.

“Put it this way,” BC forward Bill Army told the media, “Boston College and Boston University is a war on the ice and a rivalry off the ice. We’re playing for the honor of Boston.”

Craig didn’t have a problem stating what was at stake, either.

“You know what it is,” he told the Journal. “Our uniforms have Boston written across them and their uniforms have Boston on them. Both of us represent the city. But I want it to be this way—when hockey fans think of Boston, I want them to think of Boston University.”

A crowd of over 11,000, the largest ever to watch a hockey game at the time in the state of Rhode Island, packed into the Civic Center to watch BU and BC go at it for the fourth time during the 1977-78 campaign, with the Terriers having won the previous three meetings by a combined margin of 28-13.

It didn’t take BU very long to put a stamp on the title matchup as Lamby fired a pass to Fidler on the left side, who then skated in and whipped a 25-foot laser past Skidmore for a 1-zip lead just 38 seconds into the game. The Eagles evened the score on the power play at the 11-minute mark when the always-dangerous Joe Mullen notched his 34th goal of the season by tipping a slap shot from defenseman Joe Augustine past Craig. Just 2:26 later the Eagles grabbed the lead after Bobby Hehir knocked a 10-footer into the empty BU cage after Craig and Lamby got crossed up and lost control of the puck. Ever the quipster, O’Callahan pointed out in Sports Illustrated, “That one was for the point spread.”

Craig admitted the second BC goal was his miscue.

“That was my fault all the way,” he told the Daily Free Press. “The puck was coming toward me and Dick was trying to get it. I came out to try and clear it. We got confused and we both missed the puck.”

The Terriers knotted the score on the power play with just over five minutes left in the period when Silk beat Skidmore off a crisp pass from O’Callahan, giving the Terrier defenseman his sixth assist of the tournament, tying the NCAA mark that BU’s Bill Robbins had set three years earlier. It was Silk’s ninth goal in NCAA postseason play in just five games. A short-handed goal put BU back on top later in the period as Lamby picked off a BC pass and then sent a backhander ahead to Meagher, who was breaking down the left side. Meagher pulled the trigger and hit the net from 15 feet out, closing out the five-goal first period.

Meagher would strike again for the only goal of the second period. Boileau made a rush toward the net on a 2-on-1 break and got Skidmore to drop to the ice with a move. But instead of trying to roof the puck over the BC goaltender, he skated around the net and fed Meagher with a perfect pass in the slot. Meagher lit the lamp to give the Terriers a 4-2 advantage.

The explosive Fidler accounted for his second goal of the night just over a minute into the final session. A few quick passes by Lamby and Silk opened up a breakaway for him, and Fidler blasted a 15-footer by Skidmore to pad BU’s lead to three goals. BC tightened things up 2:30 later when Mark Switaj stole the puck from O’Neill and sent a pass to Steve Barger, who beat Craig from 15 feet out to make it a 5-3 game.

BC’s offense produced 14 shots over the final 20 minutes, but Craig stood tall in the crease, stopping late bids from Hehir and Charlie Antetomaso as well as a backhander in close off the stick of Mullen. The BU defense and Craig (28 saves) refused to fold down the stretch, and when the final buzzer sounded, a third wooden and gold-plated NCAA championship trophy was headed to the display case on Babcock Street, as the Terriers earned their 30th win in 32 games.

“The two things that pleased me the most were that it was an all-East final and that we are the best team in the nation,” Parker said in the post-game press conference. “We thought we had something to prove after we lost the ECACs. There was not a question in our mind who was the best team in the East. Then we heard Western teams were this and Western teams were that. We really wanted to play BC to make it an all-East final.”

“All four BU defensemen did a super job,” noted BC coach Len Ceglarski in the Journal, “and so did Mark Fidler. He does things you’d never expect a freshman to do, and he just never misses the net with his shot. I don’t think there’s a more complete hockey player than Mark Fidler.”

O’Callahan, Lamby, Silk and Fidler were named to the Final Four all-tournament team while O’Callahan also took home Most Outstanding Player honors.

Durocher, who watched from the bench as Craig played the final four games of the season, was the first Terrier to take a spin around the ice with the championship trophy. O’Callahan, his fellow co-captain, let him have that moment.

“I let him carry it alone because he’s a senior and he deserves it,” O’Callahan told the Free Press. “He’s had a great career.”

The outspoken OC also expressed relief that BU’s long journey from November 22 to March 25 ended on a positive note, especially after the slip-up in the ECAC tournament.

“We were 28-2 coming into this [NCAA] tournament, but we were on the outside looking in,” he told SI. “Now we’re on the inside looking out at the rest of them.”

Of course, the quick-witted and hard-nosed D-man from Charlestown also added a classic zinger at the Heights, in reference to BU’s 12 victories over the Eagles in the last 14 meetings.

“But we shouldn’t have to beat BC for the nationals,” O’Callahan told SI writer E.M. Swift, who as a Princeton goalie earlier in the decade had once allowed 14 goals in a game against the Terriers. “Hell, we can do that anytime.”

The following year, John Powers wrote a profile of O’Callahan in the Boston Globe. It appeared in print during the 1978-79 season when OC was named an All-American, along with teammate Craig, with both later going on to wear the red, white and blue USA jersey at Lake Placid. He tried to clarify his BC statement that appeared in SI the previous April.

“Here we were playing BC for the fourth time, but it was different. This was the NCAAs. So I said, what the hell are we doing playing BC for the national championship? Then someone said, you can beat them anytime, right? And I said, well, yeah. So they [BC] got all pumped up, they’re out to kill me.”

Skidmore, who earned the all-tournament nod over Craig at the ’78 NCAAs, related what it was like playing for four seasons against BU’s powerhouse teams of the 1970s.

“Just the name BU. That has some sort of psychological effect on teams. Everyone’s uptight. BU has that edge on everyone,” he told the Globe. “They beat us, they capitalize on our mistakes. When they make their initial rush they make it count. They set up. As soon as they get a shot on net, they take it. There’s always a guy in there for a rebound. They’re always skating 100 percent.”

Fidler, the standout player among Parker’s freshmen, was an easy choice for ECAC Rookie of the Year after posting a team-leading 30 goals and 35 assists in 31 games. Among those scoring totals were a team-best 16 power play goals, three hat tricks and five game-winners, tying Meagher in that category. Cotter was just one of four Terriers (along with Meagher, LeBlond and O’Neill) to play in all 32 games. Johnson, MacLeod and Paul Miller (10 goals) also skated regular shifts for most of the season.

“Certainly the development of the freshmen helped a great deal to our success,” Parker said. “But we also got great contributions from our other classes—especially the juniors as a whole. I just don’t know where we’d have been without them.”

Leading the way among the juniors were Bethel, who enjoyed the best season of his three-year varsity career with 25 goals (including nine on the power play) and 38 assists, tops among BU’s forwards; Craig, who compiled a sparkling 16-0 mark in the net with a 3.72 goals against average and .890 save percentage and who would later earn a spot on the ECAC All-Decade of the 1970s; and O’Callahan, voted the MVP of the Beanpot, the BU team MVP and the MOP at the NCAAs. He collected a team-high 47 assists and chipped in with eight goals (on a team-high 134 shots) while also garnering first team All-ECAC honors. And there was also his steady stream of quotes that always kept the Boston media satisfied. Other contributing juniors included Hetnik, a top-notch penalty-killer who had 12 goals and 25 assists; Boileau, with four game-winners (with two coming in overtime) among his nine goals; Mullen, he of the Beanpot hat trick; Melanson, a skilled penalty killer who led the team with two short-handers; and O’Neill, a reliable defender who also picked up 15 assists.

The sophomore trio of Silk, Meagher and LeBlond also pulled their fair share of the load, with Silk following up his standout freshman campaign with 27 goals (nine on the power play) and 31 assists; Meagher excelling as a penalty killer while adding 17 goals (with a pair of hat tricks) and 21 assists; and LeBlond notching eight goals and 15 assists, all while adding to his total of consecutive games (66) played.

Obviously, the veteran leadership provided by the Terriers’ three seniors was not to be overlooked. There was Durocher, who won 14 of 16 games in goal with a 3.99 GAA after overcoming injuries suffered in a car accident during the summer of ’77, as he closed out his solid BU career with a 47-13-1 mark; Lamby, the team’s highest-scoring defenseman and a key cog on the power play with 15 goals and 44 assists; and Marden, who contributed totals of 10 goals and 11 assists.

As a team the Terriers, who were a perfect 10-0 in one-goal games, outscored their opponents 199-127, including by a comfortable margin of 81-41 in the third period, when Parker’s team best exerted its will on the opposition. Although BU was outscored 7-3 in short-handed goals, the Terriers netted 51 goals in 163 power play opportunities while holding opponents to 34 goals in 154 chances.

For guiding BU to a one-loss regular season that culminated with a national title, Parker won the Spencer Penrose Award as the NCAA Coach of the Year, an award he also won following the 1974-75 campaign after leading the Terriers to a 26-5-1 mark.

“After failing the East four years in a row [in the NCAAs], I don’t know if they would have sent us again if we had won the ECACs,” joked Parker in the NCAA Guide. “It was a strange situation for us. The loss to Providence really shook us up because everything had been going our way. But the fact that we lost in the ECACs and bounced back with a bigger championship made it much more rewarding.

“It was very satisfying to win the NCAAs, especially after those frustrating losses in the first round the last four years.”

Five members of the 1977-78 team (Bethel, Craig, O’Callahan, Lamby and Silk) all advanced to play in the NHL for varying lengths of time at the conclusion of their collegiate careers.

Silk, who has gone on to a successful career in the financial field, was the featured guest speaker at the annual Beanpot luncheon in 1993. He spoke of what it was like to grow up in Scituate and go to Beanpot games as a kid, then later get the chance to skate on Garden ice and play in the tournament for the Terriers. But he also spoke of the bond that the 1977-78 Terriers had as teammates.

“One of the things that was special about the ’78 team is that it didn’t matter what we did away from the rink,” said Silk, a member of ECAC and NCAA title teams as a Terrier, as well as being part of 1980’s Miracle on Ice. “When we came to the rink and played in that game, we were family. We were all brothers. We had something special.”

A Band of Brothers in Scarlet and White—with the recognizable Terrier head adorning their chests—who delivered the school’s third NCAA hockey title of the 1970s, putting the finishing touches on a dominant decade for the Boston University hockey program.