DURHAM, N.H. – It had to already be the wee hours of Saturday by the time a deflated Terrier team entered a hotel in southeastern New Hampshire and was confronted by Boston University coach Jack Parker – who was, surprisingly, bearing not insults, but gifts.
The now-No. 4 Icedogs were surprised, considering that they had just left their 11-game winning streak 60 miles behind, buried under a large pile of University of New Hampshire goals in Parker’s own rink, and it’s not this coach’s style to give his players presents just after they, as he said, looked like boys playing with men.
But there he was, handing out T-shirts, proving that the 33-year head coach still has a few new tricks up his sleeve.
“When he started passing them out,” said senior wing John Laliberte, “everyone was looking around, like, ‘What the hell is going on?'”
“We tried not to be too negative with them,” said Parker, whose team ended up earning a crucial split with UNH, bouncing back from a demoralizing 7-4 loss Friday at home with a crisply played 3-2 win at the Whittemore Center. “But the way we played [Friday] was … It was hard for me to keep my body language from showing even in today’s pregame skate.”
But perhaps the T-shirts made up for Parker’s grumpy mood. They were made in honor of BU’s four straight road games that began with Saturday’s contest, and they proclaim that the Terriers (19-9-2, 15-7-1 Hockey East) are “Road Warriors,” displaying a New Hampshire license plate on the back. The state’s famous motto is modified a bit, reading “Win Three or Die.”
“It was kinda random,” Laliberte said, “but whatever works, I guess.”
It worked Saturday, when BU won its sixth straight road game and third straight at the Whittemore Center, which has been a house of horrors for just about every other Hockey East team.
The reason for that was seen early, when the Wildcats (16-11-5, 12-7-4) pounced all over the Terriers out of the gate, quickly pinning them in their own end. BU desperately fended off the UNH attack for six and a half minutes, but then co-captain Brad Zancanaro burst out and found David Van der Gulik for the score on BU’s first shot.
“We kinda knew they were gonna come out hard,” Laliberte said. “That’s a big momentum shift when you can quiet them down in the first period like that.”
Laliberte quieted them again a few minutes later when he picked the puck up in his own end and took it all the way for his first goal since returning from a sprained knee. The senior used a pretty toe drag to get around a defender at the blue line, then buried a quick, high shot.
From then on, it was a different game, with the Terriers territorially in control. Early in the second, Kenny Roche found Bryan Ewing cutting to the far post and hit the sophomore with a perfect pass. Ewing nonchalantly tapped it in for the 3-0 lead.
“I thought we played the way we’ve been playing on our streak,” Parker said.
UNH climbed back into it when Greg Collins (brother of BC’s Chris) batted home a loose puck late in the second and made it really interesting when Brett Hemingway scored on the power play midway through the third. But BU won a few key defensive zone faceoffs late, and Mike Radja missed high on UNH’s one great chance to tie it.
Maybe as important to the win as the T-shirts was the team meeting Van der Gulik and Zancanaro held before Saturday’s game – without Parker.
“We just wanted to make sure everyone was not panicking,” Van der Gulik said. “We haven’t lost in a while, and sometimes it’s a little hard to take when you haven’t done it in a while.”
Friday’s loss would have been tough to take no matter the circumstances. Coming out looking fired up to extend the streak, BU seized a 3-0 lead in the first six and a half minutes of play. But the Wildcats got one back immediately as John Curry was overrun on a UNH 4-on-2.
“I liked the first six minutes,” Parker said. “My team liked it too much.”
Whether it was overconfidence or not, UNH clawed back, 4-3, by the end of the second, when BU freshman Chris Higgins was in the locker room with an upset stomach. But it really got ugly for the Terriers in the third. Seven minutes in, the Wildcats tied it on a wild bounce in front, and a minute after that, freshman defenseman Jamie Fritsch buried a slap shot on the power play for the lead.
Flailing wildly out of control trying to score, BU allowed UNH’s Josh Ciocco to slip behind the defense, and Matt Gilroy hurried back to harass him. Referee Jeff Bunyon awarded Ciocco a penalty shot, which the forward converted to all but bury the Terriers. Hemingway’s empty-netter matched the most goals BU has allowed in a game this year.
Comparing the effort to BU’s Beanpot win over Boston College last Monday, Parker said, “I thought we looked like the distance between Arctica and Antarctica.”
You could have said the same about BU’s two efforts this weekend, when the Terriers – who now sit just two points behind BC for first place after the Eagles were swept in Maine – might have proved their resiliency.
Higgins made the trip to New Hampshire and played when it looked like he wouldn’t. Curry bounced back from his worst game in months with a 25-save Saturday. And the Terriers, especially defensively, seemed to completely forget Friday’s “debacle,” as Parker called it.
“I’ve seen it already. I’ve seen it in games, bouncing back,” Parker said. “I’m pretty sure this is a different team than was playing in December and November.”
He might be a different coach, too.