Jan. 13, 2006 began like every other normal day for Terrier hockey fans since the end of the 1997 season – embarrassingly mediocre.
Although there have been some solid accomplishments, such as the Hockey East regular-season championship in 2000 and the surprising second-place finish last year, the ‘Dogs have not made noise on the national scene in eight years. This current season was beginning to look very familiar: moments of brilliancy (such as a 1-0 victory over two-time defending national champs the University of Denver and a 6-2 destruction of local rivals Boston College) followed by periods of shameful ineptitude (4-1 and 5-1 losses to Providence College, 3-2 loss to Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, etc.).
Bored and anxiously looking forward to that evening’s game against the University of Maine, we passed our time by stalking cute girls on Facebook and browsing through the various student groups. Much to our surprise, we found the “Kenny Roche is a Hockey God” group, created by Terrier fanatic and Roche connoisseur Doug Axelrad.
Roche, while not exactly considered a hockey god by anyone outside his immediate family, came to BU as a much-heralded forward drafted by the New York Rangers.
Although he had a solid freshman season (9-9-18), he suffered a sophomore slump like most Terriers in the years since the graduation of Chris Drury – and posted disappointing numbers (5-6-11) while failing to show any improvement.
With only three goals and five assists at that point in the season, it was looking like another less-than-stellar season for both Roche and the Terriers, but that didn’t stop us from joining the group, especially since K-Ro himself was a member.
Coming off a 4-0 shutout of hated cross-town rivals Northeastern University, BU needed a victory that night against Maine to attempt to piece together a win streak. Carried by Roche’s two goals, BU shut down the Black Bear offense and weaved its way through the daunting defense to notch a 3-2 victory.
Even though he cost Terrier Nation free chips and salsa at Qdoba by failing to knock in an empty-net goal in the closing seconds of the game, we were excited by the flashes of dominance he displayed, as well as the fact that for the first time in several years, the Terriers had won a season series against Maine. The following night the sweep was complete, Roche added another goal and an assist and the streak was on.
It has been almost three weeks since we became a part of the “Kenny Roche is a Hockey God” group, joining the many hardcore fans already enlisted. Since we made that fateful decision, K-Ro has begun to deliver on all the hype accompanying his arrival on Commonwealth Avenue two years ago — he has recorded seven goals and three assists in the last six games.
His dominance over Maine, Merrimack College and UMass-Amherst has guided the Terriers to the nation’s longest current winning streak at seven games and counting, a No. 8 ranking in the national polls and the fifth slot in the Pairwise Rankings (upon which selection to the NCAA Tournament is based).
With first place in Hockey East within reach, should the Icedogs continue their awesome play and also receive some help from BC, as well as the possibility of a very high seed in the national tournament, this season still holds a lot of promise for both the team and K-Ro.
There is also a lot of promise for the “Kenny Roche is a Hockey God” Facebook group. Because of his recent play, it can be expected that the size of the group will grow and will continue to increase as long as he continues to display his god-like skills on the ice.
Axelrad and the rest of the members of the innovative group who joined before K-Ro’s recent scoring explosion now appear to be either quite knowledgeable or ridiculously lucky. However, we like to think it was our joining the group that provided the kickstart needed to begin the recent hot streak for both K-Ro and the Terriers.
With this being the Year of the Dog as celebrated Sunday with the Chinese New Year, the national championship should be all but in the bag. Whether or not this comes to pass, one thing is certainly true – no one bangs the stick harder than Roche. Whatever that means.
Josh Lerner, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. He can be reached at [email protected].
Chris Pasquale, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. He can be reached at [email protected].