This is a weekend that has been in the making since late August. When Hockey East announced its schedule, players and coaches from Boston College and New Hampshire spotlighted their showdown during the final weekend of the regular season, and they instantly imagined the ideal scenario – Eagles and Wildcats, home-and-home series, regular-season title on the line.
And sure enough, that’s how this thing will go down.
Bobby Butler is a candidate for Hockey East and national postseason recognition.
“This weekend is going to be a battle,” said UNH senior forward and Hobey Baker candidate Bobby Butler, who leads Hockey East with 24 goals and is second in the league with 45 points. “It’s going to be a test. It’s playoff hockey from here on out. BC is fun to play. It definitely crossed my mind that it’s probably going to go down to the end of the season. There’s nothing better than having a [regular-season] weekend that is like a playoff series. Everyone is realizing what this week means to us.”
UNH (15-5-5, 35 points) has been the top dog throughout the majority of the season, but BC (15-8-2, 32 points) has used a late charge to put itself within striking distance. The Eagles need to sweep the weekend series, which begins Friday in Durham, to claim the outright championship.
Boston College has been dominant since its 3-2 loss to Boston University at Fenway Park. The Eagles are 10-4-0 in that stretch, which also includes a Beanpot title. Meanwhile, UNH is 8-3-3 since Jan. 8, but a handful of minor slip-ups have allowed the Eagles to hang around. Now, BC has given itself a chance to win its first regular-season championship since 2004-05, when it nipped BU and UNH by one point.
“One of our goals at the start of the season was to be in position to win a regular-season title because we haven’t done that in a few years,” said BC junior forward Brian Gibbons, who leads the team with 27 assists and 42 points. “When you look at the schedule at the beginning of the year, you knew it was probably going to come down to that last weekend at UNH. We put ourselves in a position to win a championship.”
These late-season battles are old hat for BC and UNH, but the Wildcats don’t particularly care for that reminder. Boston College has knocked UNH out of the Hockey East playoffs in four of the last five seasons: a two-game, first-round sweep in Durham in 2009; a 5-4, triple-overtime victory in the 2008 semifinals; a 5-2 victory in the 2007 championship; and a 3-1 win in the 2005 championship.
This is also the third time in the last five years that these teams have met in the final regular-season weekend, but it’s the first time the title has been on the line. BC swept a home-and-home in 2007 to earn the second seed in the playoffs, while UNH had already clinched the regular-season crown. In 2006, UNH took three points in a home-and-home to secure the fourth seed, while the Eagles finished with the third seed.
Butler conceded his Wildcats bear the most pressure this weekend – though not because of recent years, but due to the way UNH has played in recent weeks.
“I definitely think it’s going to be on us,” Butler said. “They’re ranked higher than us, and they’ve been on fire. I think the pressure is definitely on us, but I think the boys are ready to play. It’s going to be an exciting weekend.”
Gibbons, on the other hand, isn’t all that worried. After all, the Eagles have been scorching their opponents’ nets, posting at least six goals in five of their last nine victories.
“Coach [Jerry] York always says that pressure is for air tires, so he tries to take that out of our heads,” Gibbons said. “I don’t think we feel any pressure. We’re just going to take what we’ve built over the last few weeks and try to keep that going. We know we need two wins to take that championship, and we know that’s not going to be an easy task. UNH has a great team, led by Bobby Butler. We’re just going to give it everything we’ve got and see how that works out for us.
“We just wanted to put ourselves in position to have a chance at the end of the year. Luckily, we’ve been able to do that, and I can’t wait for this weekend.”
