Friday night was supposed to make everything better. The New England Patriots had suffered a devastating loss in the AFC Championship a week before, and I was still trying to recover. But the men’s hockey team was going to take care of my woes because we were going to beat Boston College and everything would be right in the Boston sports world again. Jack Parker might not wear an awkward short-sleeved hooded sweatshirt like Bill Belichick, but his team had already beaten BC once last week and there was no way the Terriers would drop two games to the Eagles at home this season.
Everyone in the arena knew what a huge game it was and everything seemed to be going our way, at first. The team had yet to lose a game in 2007 (it’s the year of the Terrier on the Chinese calendar, by the way), the game was being televised on NESN, Agganis was absolutely rocking and even the zamboni guys were on top of their game. I was finally beginning to forget about the Patriots’ loss, but less than four minutes into the battle of Comm. Ave, those damn Eagles scored and killed my spirit again.
Sure it was better than scoring on your own goal during a power play (I still love you Pete MacArthur), but BC’s two early goals in the first period hurt a lot. The crowd started getting angry and complaining that every non-call on the Eagles was bull — I mean, erroneous. I’m not saying that the referees didn’t make any bad calls during the game, but college hockey fans have to understand that this is Hockey East and not the NFL playoffs – you can actually tap a player on the helmet without getting a major penalty.
Suddenly the whole night was tumbling downhill. Not only was the team losing to its arch-rival, but more importantly, the Kiss Cam was wicked lame. Then Brandon Yip collided with one of his own teammates and had to hobble back to the bench after being in the lineup for only a couple of weeks. The team started to fall apart, having difficulty just passing the puck in its own zone at one point. Even the almighty John Curry struggled a little bit (and then had an even rougher game Saturday).
And how did the arena staff decide to try to re-energize the fans during one of the intermissions? Oh yeah, they played It’s the End of the World as We Know It.
However, I give the guys on the team a lot of credit for not giving up after getting behind early. I never thought I would say this, but they seemed like they were playing with almost too much urgency. Usually it’s the complete opposite, especially at home, where it seems like the Terriers could be unstoppable if they just played like they do at the very end of games for the full 60 minutes.
But Friday night, I could see the desire and desperation to win in their big fiery eyes. (Okay — not as big as Reche Caldwell’s eyes, but still pretty big). Yet, at times, I think the players’ intensity may have actually hurt them. Even in the middle of the game, the Terriers tried to turn almost every possession into a frantic fast break. Unfortunately, this trend resulted in a lot of turnovers and opportunities for BC to make rushes of their own.
The game was so fast-paced that I felt like I was watching a college basketball game, which certainly made the game entertaining to watch, but it also weakened the Terriers. Once the Eagles scored their first goal, they were able to relax and dictate the action. Our guys, on the other hand, never got a chance to settle down and control the tempo. They were jumping around so much that I bet they could have won the iPod Dance Contest.
Of course I would much rather have had them win the actual contest. And the really frustrating thing is that they probably could have. The Terriers were always on the verge of making a great comeback but either failed on another power play or committed a stupid penalty. Eric Gryba’s unnecessary assault on a BC player and the resulting roughing penalty — which BU fans foolishly complained about – toward the end of the third period basically wrapped the game up.
After that penalty and BC’s fourth crushing goal, my enthusiasm disappeared and I started having nightmares about the AFC Championship again. I began to seriously consider the possibility that Peyton Manning and Brian Boyle might be the same human being. Perhaps I should have stayed home and watched the Celtics instead because at least you don’t expect them to win — which means you can’t be disappointed when they lose.
Yet, as the Terriers pulled Curry with a minute left in the game, I realized that we still had a chance, even though we were down by three. We just needed global warming to speed up by about a thousand years, melt the ice and then have the game cancelled due to foggy conditions. Too bad nothing like that could ever happen.
Bennett Gavrish, a freshman in the College of Communication, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. He can be reached at bennettg@bu.edu.
