Icedogs eye new arena, freshman class

It is large and imposing, but it still has some holes. It has shades of red on the outside and shiny new features on the inside just waiting to be discovered. It dominates the Boston University landscape, but no one really knows what to expect just yet. Terrier fans everywhere are wondering about it, even with months to go until its premiere.

“It” is not the new Harry Agganis Arena, but the 2004-05 Terrier hockey team.

For the first time in recent memory, the Terriers will head into the summer filled with more questions than answers. After a more-than-disappointing season by all accounts, not even a moral victory – a 2-1 series upset over rival Boston College in the Hockey East quarterfinals – could salvage a 12-17-9 season. Sure, there was the elation after the BC win, the “oh-so-close” feeling after a 1-0 season-ending loss to Maine at the FleetCenter and the Miracle-like celebration on the Whittemore Center ice after an overtime goal locked up a playoff spot.

But the fact that the Terriers – a team with just as much, if not more, history than any college hockey program in the nation – needed a frantic overtime goal to lock up the No. 8 seed in the Hockey East playoffs should be the first clue that no one in scarlet and white is willing to sit by and watch a repeat performance.

“I want to make sure everybody knows that we’re not going to just sit through another season like we did this year,” said newly appointed captain Brian McConnell. “We just need to get the attitude back that it was a bad year and we don’t want it to happen again.

“It’s pretty miserable around here when we don’t have good years,” McConnell admitted.

So now that the roller coaster has screeched into the station, McConnell and his charges are ready to start over.

Six departing seniors will be replaced by 10 – that’s right, 10 – new recruits, many of whom will be entering with heavy expectations piled on their shoulders, and one of whom will carry the extra weight of the letters B-O-U-R-Q-U-E on his sweater.

A 32-year-old, low-ceilinged, sticky-floored, creaky-seated arena that can hold just more than 3,500 fans will be replaced by a brand-new, luxury-boxed, Jumbotron-sporting barn that can seat nearly twice that number.

But perhaps the most important change – at least for those more interested in the action on the ice than in the variety of lattes at the nearest concession stand – will come when that first skate blade hits the Walter Brown Arena ice at the stroke of midnight sometime this September.

“I’ve been trying to prepare for at least two years here, and it’s something I’ve been dreaming about for a long time,” said the expected owner of that skate blade, current sophomore goaltender Stephan Siwiec. “I’m not saying that right now I’m the penciled-in starter, but I’m going to work my butt off for that chance and hope that it can happen.”

According to Siwiec, the Terriers are already working their butts off, under the tutelage of strength and conditioning coach Walter Norton Jr. The team currently meets with Norton at least four times a week, and according to Siwiec, working out together in the offseason has brought the team that much closer and made them look in front of them instead of behind them.

“He’s kind of made the atmosphere really conducive to everyone working together, cheering each other on, even just working out in the weight room,” Siwiec said. “And I think that’s going to transfer onto the ice.”

But when the Terriers look toward the ice in front of them, at least come January, they will see a new era of BU hockey that has everyone talking. While a rejuvenated squad that lives up to expectations would be a welcome sight for Terrier Nation, the rising brick and glass façade at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Harry Agganis Way is the new face of an athletic department – and university, for that matter – in the midst of change.

When the first wrecking ball crashed into the Armory in 2002, the plan was to drop the puck at then-unnamed Harry Agganis Arena to open the 2004-05 campaign. But while the university has only officially announced that the arena will open in “January 2005,” all signs point to an early January visit from the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, who will return the favor of last year’s Terrier visit to Minneapolis by helping to close down Walter Brown Arena one night and watching the curtain open on Harry Agganis Arena the next. Schedules available online show both teams with games scheduled for the weekend of Friday, Jan. 7, thus making Jan. 1 and 2 the logical choices.

And if Terrier fans think they’re excited to switch from Section 8 to Sections 108 or 118, they might want to watch their favorite Terrier’s face light up when asked about his future home.

“We can’t wait. Just hearing about the rink – coach telling us about some of the things they’re putting in there,” said freshman and Hockey East All-Rookie Team Selection Kevin Schaeffer. “Walter Brown Arena is a great place – you learn to love playing there – but it’s time for a change. We’re really excited, should be real exciting to play there, maybe give us a spark toward the end of the season.”

If the Terriers are looking for a spark a little earlier in the season, there’s a good chance it will come from one of the most talked-about recruiting classes in school history, including the guy with the Beantown hockey bloodline: forward Chris Bourque. The 5-foot 8-inch lefty from Cushing Academy will bring a nasty shot and teammate Boomer Ewing to the banks of the Charles, fortifying a front line that had more than a little trouble scoring last season. Add Saskatchewan-native goaltender Karson Gillespie, forward Brian McGuirk and defenseman Dan McGoff, and you’ve got just a sample of a rookie crop that has some current Terriers talking.

“A little change of pace will help us out,” Schaeffer said. “We’re getting a lot of help – the freshmen are all good players. I know a lot of ’em, I played with a lot of ’em. I think after one bad year, no one wants to have the same bad year we had this year.”

Unfortunately, until the Terriers put some wins on the board, high-definition scoreboards and players named Bourque will not make Terrier fans forget about “the same bad year we had this year.” And according to McConnell, it’s going to take some effort for the Terriers themselves to put this “bad year” behind them.

“I think that’s one thing the whole team needs to work on. Everyone’s a real good player here, they got recruited by every school, just like all the guys at BC, Michigan, Minnesota,” the captain said. “Just think about how confident you are, make sure you’re thinking about being an offensive player forward-wise. [Sophomore forward Brad] Zancanaro, [sophomore forward David] Van der Gulik and [sophomore forward John] Laliberte all led the league in scoring where they came from, so they all have a lot of skill and I think next year we’ll have a lot more offense than we did this year.”

And no matter what the rink and the stands surrounding it look like, no matter how the names on the backs of the sweaters are spelled and no matter what team is on the other bench, the net is still 72 inches wide and 48 inches high. A puck in the back of that net still counts as one point, and if you score more goals than your opponent scores on you in a given night, you earn a notch in the win column.

Things may be different, but for Terrier fans and players alike, there’s hope that BU hockey will return to the way it was.