The Boston University hockey team got one huge load off its back Thursday, a little more than two hours before the BU seniors gave the jerseys off their backs.
But like it’s been all year, there’s still a pretty decent sized gorilla clinging to their shoulders – one they couldn’t shake again Thursday.
A win (that they deserved, outshooting No. 7 University of New Hampshire 34-19) would have finally clinched a playoff spot, and thanks to an unlikely 3-3 tie between the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and Merrimack College, would have sent the Terriers into Saturday still with a chance at the sixth seed.
But despite vastly outplaying the Wildcats (18-11-6, 10-7-6 Hockey East) for much of the game and ending goalie Michael Ayers’s 129-save, 272:38, four-plus game shutout streak against them, the Terriers (9-15-9, 5-13-5) still had to come from behind just to settle for a 3-3 tie on Senior Night at Walter Brown Arena. After a new school record-setting ninth tie of the year, the best case scenario for BU is an eighth seed and a first round visit to Boston College.
“We got a goal on Ayers,” BU coach Jack Parker said in celebration. “We got three goals on Ayers, so it was a big night for us that way. I would have liked to have gotten more than a point, but that’s certainly a lot better than we played last time in this rink [in a 6-3 loss to Northeastern University], so that’s the type of game we’re supposed to play and we’ve got to play.”
It’s tough to decide which of sophomore winger Dave Van der Gulik’s two goals was bigger.
The first one – a wrister with eyes through traffic off a New Hampshire turnover – ended “The Streak” late in the first period, cut the New Hampshire lead to 2-1 and set off an audible sigh of relief from the BU bench.
“Before the game, we had a little joke in the dressing room that when the first guy put the puck in everyone was gonna hop the bench because it was such a big deal,” Van der Gulik said. It didn’t happen, though. “Getting that off our minds – if that went on, we couldn’t score on him for a few periods, I’m sure it’d be real jittery, so it was real important that we got it early.”
But his second – off a great Jekabs Redlihs pass for Van der Gulik’s team-leading 12th of the year with just 5:40 left to tie it at three – was perhaps the more important tally, as it earned the Icedogs at least the point and pushed them three above Northeastern for the last playoff spot.
“I had just got off the bench, saw that they had control in the corner, so I kinda snuck in backdoor,” Van der Gulik said. “[Redlihs] fed it in right to me, so I didn’t really have to do a whole lot on that.”
After thoroughly dominating territorial control of the puck early (BU outshot the Wildcats 22-6 in the first two periods) thanks to stellar neutral-zone defense, the ‘Dogs found themselves down 3-2 late in the third after Justin Aikins’ 18th goal moseyed through Sean Fields’s five-hole off the backhand to put New Hampshire ahead.
It probably shouldn’t have even been that way. While “The Streak” still weighed on the hard-working Terriers’ minds in the first, the Wildcats were busy taking a 2-0 lead on just three first-period shots. The first was a Pat Foley neutral-zone dump-in that took a crazy bounce off Tom Morrow’s skate and in, and the second was another somewhat soft Mark Kolanos wrister that might have caught some residue from Fields’s deodorant on its way through.
You could say the Wildcats didn’t have a single good scoring chance through two periods.
New Hampshire coach Dick Umile called the first goal “lucky,” while Parker called it “greasy.” Really, it was just another bad BU bounce.
“That’s been our season,” Van der Gulik said. “We’ve not gotten the bounces that we want, so we’ve kinda gotten used to it a little bit.”
They looked used to it, and they had the motivation to battle back with resilience that – when it has been there – has been quite impressive this year. Dan Spang’s heavy slapper found its way off a defender and high over Ayers’s glove to tie the game at two in a BU-dominated second, setting up Van der Gulik’s heroics in a much more evenly played third.
“I loved how my team played tonight,” Parker said. “I loved how they competed tonight and I loved how they kept coming back.”
With the scarlet and white’s relative dominance, New Hampshire’s best player Thursday still had to be Ayers (31 saves). The senior played even better after “The Streak” was broken, as he appeared more comfortable, stoning Bryan Miller with the pad late in the second after a quick pass from captain Mark Mullen and standing strong overall in front of the BU onslaught.
“I’m glad it happened, to be honest with you,” Ayers said of the streak-ender. “I just wanted to get it over with. Not get it over with – I didn’t want them scoring on me – but I just didn’t want the hype. I just wanted to play hockey.”
The Terriers and Ayers both played some good hockey in a hard-hitting, well-played game, but BU still didn’t get all that it needed to truly get a good night’s sleep Thursday night. The ‘Dogs still have some work to do.
The playoff scenarios are still complicated with just one game left. But what’s for sure is that with a BU win or a Northeastern loss or tie in either game of a home-and-home with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst tonight and Saturday, the Terriers are in.
Van der Gulik said the Icedogs aren’t going to worry about Northeastern’s end of the bargain – they’re going to take care of their own business.
“It doesn’t really matter what they do – we’ve got to go get another point,” said Van der Gulik, who said he personally won’t be checking up on Northeastern’s game tonight. “We’ve just got to concentrate on our next game – you can’t really control [what Northeastern does].”
Parker brought up perhaps an even more valid point – momentum going into what would be a brutal series at Conte Forum.
“We’d like to get in the playoffs obviously,” Parker said, “and we’d like to go into the playoffs feeling good about ourselves. And certainly this game tonight makes us feel better about ourselves.”
If they feel good about themselves and get a few bounces, they have proven to be a pretty darn dangerous team.
A team that – if it can get the playoff gorilla off its back – one could bet BC wouldn’t be thrilled about playing.