ALL-TIME GREATEST
There’s no doubt in Jack Parker’s mind. In his opinion, this was the greatest game of all-time.
“They talk about the Maine-Lake State game, and they talk about our game against Northern Michigan as being two of the greatest [national championship games],” Parker said. “I think this tops them all.”
Boston University rallied from a two-goal deficit in the final minute before beating Miami, 4-3, in overtime Saturday night to win the national championship in the most dramatic of ways. So, Parker believes this one is better than Northern Michigan’s 8-7 victory in triple overtime in 1991 and Maine’s 5-4 win in 1993.
It’s tough to argue against him. After looking stagnant in the Miami zone for much of the game’s first 59 minutes, the Terriers got their first extra-attacker goal from Zach Cohen with 59.5 seconds remaining, and Nick Bonino completed the comeback with a one-timer from the right point with 17.4 seconds to play. BU goalie Kieran Millan spent 2:40 of the final 3:32 on the bench.
“The national championship was up for grabs,” Bonino said. “We’re not going to stop until the final buzzer sounds.
“When they scored and it’s 3-1, you look at the clock and you see four minutes, and you just go, ‘I can’t believe this is happening. How is this happening?’ But we battled through it, obviously, and it’s something we weren’t really ever presented with all year, a two-goal deficit in the last two minutes, four minutes. There’s just a bunch of resilient guys on this team, a bunch of fighters, BU hockey players, and we were able to get the job done.”
Colby Cohen finished the job with a slap shot that deflected off Miami defenseman Kevin Roeder and into the net at 11:47 of overtime.
“The way we did it might have given Coach a heart attack, but I wouldn’t want it any other way,” BU captain and Hobey Baker winner Matt Gilroy said. “The dramatics of it … I’m in awe of it. It’s a great feeling.”
There was a different feeling on the BU bench prior to that, though. Trent Vogelhuber gave Miami a 3-1 lead with 4:08 remaining in the third period, and it looked like the Terriers’ dream season was about to end in nightmarish fashion. For a few minutes, those questions regarding the status of BU’s rank among the all-time great teams in program history had disappeared. The roster chock full of professional talent and two Hobey finalists looked ordinary, struggling against Miami’s suffocating defense.
But then the extraordinary happened.
“With about a minute left, that’s when I started going, ‘Oh, no,’” Colin Wilson said. “I went out there, and we had a couple chances and didn’t score. There was about a minute left, and that’s when I started doubting a little bit. Then we went out there and scored two quick ones.
“There was a lot of things going through my mind. I was going, ‘Wow, I wish this was a seven-game series,’ and maybe we’d get it done again. At the same time, there was a lot of desperation out there, and that’s what led us to score those goals.”
Heading into overtime, the Terriers believed the game was in hand, and it was just a matter of time before someone potted the winner. After all, they started moving the puck a lot better and began peppering the Miami net with a relentless attack. BU had 19 shots in the game’s first 59 minutes and 13 shots in the final 12:47, with nine in overtime.
And during the postgame celebration – one of many – Parker hugged Bonino and told his sophomore star he played for the greatest team in Boston University history, one that includes four other national championships.
“To be honest with you, I can’t believe it happened,” Gilroy said. “We were down 3-1, and I was like, ‘Oh, boy.’”
“We stayed strong,” Jason Lawrence said. “We stayed even-keeled. We knew we could come back, and we did. Going into overtime, we had the momentum. We knew we were going to win the game. It was awesome.”
- Jeff Howe
POWER PLAY STRUGGLES DOOM MIAMI
For most of the first 59 minutes of Saturday’s NCAA championship game, Miami had Boston University exactly where they wanted them. After a feeling-out period in the opening frame that saw the Terriers take a 1-0 lead, the RedHawks ramped up their effort in the second and third periods, tying the game and eventually taking a 3-1 lead with less than five minutes remaining in regulation.
That success in the middle stages of the game came in spite of a power play that found a way to keep the puck in Boston University’s end but couldn’t find the back of the net in seven tries. This deficiency might have seemed less significant when Miami held a two-goal lead without any assistance from that half of the special teams. But once the Terriers stormed back with two extra-attacker goals in the final minute of regulation, the 0-for-7 mark certainly stood out like a sore thumb in the box score.
Although he saw the power play struggle and his team give up two late goals, Miami captain Brian Kaufman was still confident that the RedHawks’ offensive success could repeat itself in overtime.
“There was definitely still a good amount of confidence (between the third period and overtime),” Kaufman said. “We felt it was the same thing going into the third period, a tie game – it was going to take one shot to win it. We were confident that we were going to be able to go out and do that, whether it took one minute or a couple more periods, it just didn’t work out that way.”
Once the game was in overtime, the bounces seemed to go Boston University’s way consistently, including the one that no one watching will ever forget. After Colby Cohen ripped a shot towards the net, Miami defenseman Kevin Roeder slid to block it, but it took a bad hop off him and over netminder Cody Reichard to give BU the victory.
Had Miami’s power play been able to provide a larger safety net for the RedHawks, that bounce may have never happened. But that won’t lessen the sting that Reichard felt after helplessly watching the puck bounce in the opposite direction from his body.
Forward Tommy Wingels, who was outstanding throughout the Frozen Four, made sure that Reichard knew the blame didn’t fall on him, and that he won’t soon forget the contribution the freshman netminder made to get them to that point.
“There’s so much going through your head,” Wingels said. “I told Cody that it wasn’t meant to be and that I was so proud to be your teammate and to be a Miami RedHawk. That’s why I am wearing my jersey right now and I’m sure that’s why Brian (Kaufman) is. We’re just so happy to be a part of Miami’s hockey team.”
- James V. Dowd
TAKING TIME
Boston University curiously called their timeout with 3:24 remaining in the third period, immediately after a television timeout. Jack Parker said it was done because he hadn’t made up his mind on whether or not to pull goalie Kieran Millan in favor of an extra attacker.
“When the TV timeout was going on I was undecided if I was going to pull him. The coaches and I were talking about it. I decided not to pull him, and then as they started to leave I said to call timeout, I want to pull him right now,” Parker said.
Miami didn’t call a timeout in the game, although one might have been useful in the final minute of the third period. Enrico Blasi said he was happy with the group of players that were out there and that they were prepared.
“I can tell you we had the right guys on the ice. We knew exactly what they were going to do. We were trying to keep our guys focused. They executed,” Blasi said. “You know, tried to keep our guys up, and unfortunately, they got caught up in the moment and BU made a play that we talked about on the bench, actually.”
- Joe Gladziszewski
SEEN AND HEARD AT VERIZON CENTER
• Not only was tonight’s overtime win by Boston University the first title match to require extra time since 2002, but the Terriers are the first team to win the national championship and have the Hobey Baker Award winner (Matt Gilroy) since ’02, when Minnesota defenseman Jordan Leopold was presented with the Hobey the day before the Gophers won the first of its two consecutive crowns. The only other players to win a national championship and the Hobey in the same season was Maine’s Paul Kariya, who turned the trick in 1993 and North Dakota’s Tony Hrkac in 1987.
• As for Gilroy’s future, a source tells INCH that Columbus, Toronto, and Vancouver are among the suitors for his services, with the bidding starting at $2 million annually.
• There must be something about the night before Easter in Washington D.C. that brings out the hockey heroics. Most hockey fans remember the Easter Epic, the four-overtime thriller between the Washington Capitals and New York Islanders in the Patrick Division semifinals. The Isles’ Pat LaFontaine ended the match early Easter Sunday, scoring on Washington goaltender Bob Mason, who played collegiately at Minnesota Duluth.
• Credit to NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee chairman Steve Cady for his enthusiastic introduction prior to presenting the championship trophy to Boston University. Cady is Miami’s senior associate athletics director, and the school’s hockey arena is named after him.
• Miami was bidding to become the first team to win a national championship in its first NCAA Frozen Four appearance since Lake Superior State accomplished the feat in its inaugural Frozen Four trip in 1988.
• The Verizon Center video board celebrated famous Washingtonians -most of them from the entertainment industry – during TV timeouts. One of them was comedian Dave Chappelle. While it’s true that Chappelle was born in D.C. and raised in Silver Springs, Md., he currently lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio, which is about an hour’s drive from the Miami University campus.
• Boston University junior defenseman Eric Gryba was the last man off the ice after the warm-up, all three periods and following the postgame celebration. He waited several minutes for Ben Strait to finish with a media interview to keep the order intact.
• BU’s two Cohen’s (Zach and Colby) are not related and the championship game marked just the second time all season they both tallied goals in the same game. The only other was March 15 against Maine in the third game of the Hockey East quarterfinals.
• BU’s Nick Bonino, who scored the tying goal with 17 seconds remaining in regulation, was dealt at the NHL trade deadline by San Jose to Anaheim in the four-player Travis Moen deal.
• Miami freshman Trent Vogelhuber, who gave the RedHawks a 3-1 lead early in the third period with his second goal of the season, scored his only other goal back on Jan. 10 against Michigan.
PLUS/MINUS
The Boston University band played “Brass Bonanza”, fight song of the NHL’s Hartford Whalers, during one of the game breaks. The rousing tune prompted one fan clad in a Cornell sweater to shout, “Let’s go WHAY-LERS!”
Why were championship t-shirts handed out after the game? It’s not like the players are going to take off their jerseys and put them on. Championship hats are great, but save the t-shirts for the locker room.
