WORCESTER — Understandably, David Van der Gulik didn’t want anybody to know about his hand. So after BU’s 9-2 win over the University of Nebraska-Omaha Friday, he hid his broken left paw amid folded arms while he talked to the media.
But Saturday, after his last game in a Boston University uniform, he completely took himself out of the press conference and blew by reporters outside the locker room. And it had nothing to do with his latest in a cursed series of injuries. For the co-captain, whose senior season should go down as epic for a number of reasons, the occurrences of Saturday night were simply too much to take.
Van der Gulik’s senior class was the most complete and consistent of any in years for the Terriers, and it’s ironic that the consistency transpired into each of their seasons ending in a shutout loss. All six of its members stayed, improved and contributed for all four years. But of the 161 games that were played during their four years at BU — and Brad Zancanaro played in all of them — the last one was certainly the worst.
“It’s horrible,” said junior goalie John Curry. “They’re our best friends on the team. We’ve known them longer than any other kids on the team, and they’re the best guys and I wish them luck. They’ve done a lot for this program and they should be proud of it.”
But pride was hard to find on such a humbling night, even though this group pulled BU back where it belongs nationally. Zancanaro and Dan Spang sat in front of the press conference, trying to describe what it was like to have all they worked for this season fall apart in the biggest game, against their biggest rival. But the shocked, sullen, empty looks on their faces said a lot more.
BU coach Jack Parker called Van der Gulik one of the better players to ever wear the uniform when he was healthy, and the courageous co-captain played through an unbelievable amount of pain this year — be it a sports hernia, a damaged knee or the broken hand he played with against the Eagles and Mavericks.
“He couldn’t make a pass or shoot a puck,” Parker said of Van der Gulik, who led the Terriers to a record of 20-3-2 in games he played this year. “If this wasn’t his senior year, if he was a junior, we probably wouldn’t have played him this weekend. I didn’t want to miss what could have been, at any moment, his last game.”
The precaution turned out to be wise. It was also the last moment for his linemates, Zancanaro and John Laliberte. The 5-foot, 5-inch Zancanaro was the measure of consistency and defensive tenacity, and put together a pretty impressive senior year of scoring (14-22-36). Laliberte was at times unstoppable down low and gutted out a sprained knee this season. All three finished right around 90 points for their careers.
Spang could be an All-American defenseman this year, and his fellow senior blueliner, Jekabs Redlihs, helped spark the team along with Van der Gulik after returning from a virus that had him hospitalized last fall. Stephan Siwiec wasn’t much more than a backup goalie for most of his career, but his performance in the 2005 Beanpot against BC will be long remembered, and Parker has hinted that his real importance is not noticed outside the BU locker room.
“They certainly had great careers here,” Parker said. “They won three Beanpots and a Hockey East championship and a Hockey east regular-season championship and three national tournaments and really got us back on the map after the year we had their sophomore year.”
But beyond that, the group was as hard-working and polite a class as you could find. There was never any of that arrogance that some players show, only patient leadership.
“Individually,” Parker said, “they were just great kids to work with.”
And it would have been a great end to their careers in Milwaukee, but instead, in Worcester, they put a black mark at the close of their run in scarlet and white. Not only did the team look unprepared and shell-shocked, but they did not go down with much dignity.
The frustration got to the team, and no one could control it. Punches were thrown, cheap shots given. BC coach Jerry York was incensed with two minutes to play, either livid about some of BU’s actions or desperately trying to make sure his own team kept its head on straight.
At that moment, Van der Gulik threw a punch that would earn him a ticket to end his career in the penalty box. After the buzzer sounded, he camped out on the ice next to the bench, waiting to be the last one off the ice.
Zancanaro and Spang both said Saturday that they were honored to play beside the rest of their class for four years. And in the long run, that’s what will be remembered.
Unfortunately, Saturday will be too.