Granite staters stone Icedogs yet again

With 15 seconds left, Freddy Meyer got the puck for the last time in scarlet and white.

Boston University’s senior captain made no desperate charge for the net, instead deciding to wheel around in his own zone as the remaining seconds of his college career interminably dripped away, knowing that the 3-0 score in favor of the University of New Hampshire was going to stand.

For the third straight game, Michael Ayers was too much. With three straight shutouts, the Hingham native owned BU ever since a three-goal third period in January led to a 5-2 Terrier victory.

Along with showcasing the present – Ayers’ late season domination of the Terriers – BU fans also got a glimpse of what is now the past, and what could be in the future.

Senior forward Brian Collins played a fantastic game, trying to make things happen on every shift and leaving everything on the ice as he futilely tried to get something past Ayers.

On his left wing, freshman John Laliberte, a healthy scratch for good portions of the season before finding a home on the fourth line in the season’s latter stages, showed flashes of the talent that made him a highly-touted recruit, as well as a tenacity that wasn’t always there this year.

By the third period, Laliberte was BU’s most dangerous player, but that danger couldn’t overcome the New Hampshire defense or its stellar netminder. Ayers swallowed up hard shots, leaving few rebounds. When a juicy one popped out, his defense kept the BU forwards off it, and cleared the puck from danger. Unlike the Hockey East championship game, BU put Ayers to the test. Once again, a goose egg meant an A for Hockey East’s Co-Player of the Year.

After the final horn blew, BU coach Jack Parker moved through his team, congratulating his players for a good year, consoling them in their time of disappointment. As he approached his goaltender, junior Sean Fields, Parker extended his hand. Fields, stretched out on the net disconsolate despite another stellar performance, didn’t react, and Parker, familiar to the difficulty of a season-ending loss after 28 years coaching that haven’t all 0ended with national championships, gave his netminder, his ‘MVP,’ a little hug as the handshake line began to form.

Last season ended with a third defeat out of four tries against the University of Maine, and for the second straight year, the Icedogs ended their season with a loss to an opponent that just seemed to have their number. Without scoring a pretty goal in two games, the Wildcats scratched and clawed, but most of all, earned their victories against this version of the Terriers.

So, for the third time in its four years at BU, the senior class of Meyer, Collins, fellow assistant captain John Sabo, defenseman Mike Bussoli, forward Ryan Priem, defenseman John Cronin and goalie Andy Warren saw its season end a single win away from the Frozen Four.

One by one, the players, looking tired and defeated, exited the Worcester Centrum. Parker exited after all his charges, hand in hand with his wife. He looked disappointed, but he also had a little smile on his face. He was proud of his team, which had never given up, and had turned what could have been a nightmarish season into a year of great accomplishments.

While the seniors may be done, Parker will coach on, and BU hockey will live on. Their legacy to this team will not be measured only with the wins and losses, the Beanpots, the NCAA appearances.

Maybe their legacy rests in the small smile of a legendary coach who knows his team earned the right to wear the scarlet and white during every minute of hockey it played this year.