No more tunnel vision

When then-sophomore defensemen Colby Cohen scored the game-winning goal of the 2009 NCAA National Championship game, Ross Gaudet was standing at ice level in a suit, watching from the tunnel. Gaudet was well-versed in watching games that season&-he was one of two players on the 2008-09 Boston University men’s hockey team to never dress for a game. He was the only player on the team who missed the entire season without suffering a season-ending injury.

But if Gaudet, now a rising junior, had the chance to redo the 2008-09 season, he would do everything the exact same way.

“Overall, I would say it was a great learning experience.” Gaudet said. “If I could do it again, I would. I learned a lot from it so I don’t really have any regrets about it.”

This selfless response is typical for someone whose parents always taught him to be down-to-earth and nice to everybody. This emphasis on humility is somewhat unique, as Gaudet comes from a family of Ivy League alumni. His parents, Chuck and Jody, both went to the University of Pennsylvania, and his older brother Chad went to Dartmouth College before transferring to the University of Virginia to play lacrosse.

With their strong academic background, Gaudet’s parents always stressed academics over athletics. Yet Gaudet simply wanted to play hockey, and his parents’ insistence on academic excellence was not something he always wanted to hear.

“It’s tough,” Gaudet said. “I felt a little bit of pressure in high school to do well and follow in my brother’s footsteps. My parents just want me to do well in school. They don’t really care if I do well in hockey. They’re happy for me, obviously, when I’m doing well, but they just want me to get my education and get a degree.

“At times I wish they would be like, “Yeah, don’t worry about school, just focus on hockey.’ I understand though that at any time I can get hurt, and I need something to fall back on.”

It certainly looked like Gaudet would need something to fall back on during his freshman year at BU. He came to Commonwealth Avenue as one of the lesser-known recruits. He had not been drafted, and with a team full of talented forwards, there did not seem to be much room for him in the lineup. A mediocre year for the junior-hockey team the Bridgewater Bandits, where he recorded 28 points in 35 games, did not help Gaudet’s chances.

But Gaudet’s high school career showed a lot of promise. He tallied 153 points over four seasons with the Austin Preparatory School Cougars, leading them to the Massachusetts Super 8 semifinals in his senior year. Gaudet was decorated with awards, earning a spot on the 2007 Boston Globe Super Team as well as the 2007 Catholic Central League MVP honors. Perhaps most importantly, Gaudet won the Hobey Baker High School Character award, an award presented to high school hockey players who exemplify the phrase, “the team before me.”

Gaudet would need to display those selfless characteristics during his freshman year.

An illness kept him off the ice early in the season, but once he was healthy, there was simply no room for him in the lineup. The Terriers’ top two lines of the 2008-2009 season featured five drafted players, four of whom (Colin Wilson “09, Brandon Yip “09, John McCarthy “09 and Nick Bonino “10) have since played in at least one NHL game. Gaudet could do no more than watch from the sidelines as his teammates won a national championship.

“We had such a good team and so many good forwards that I just ended up not being able to fit into the right spot,” Gaudet said. “At times it would get frustrating, and it was tough, watching all the success. I learned a lot, though. I practiced with a bunch of great guys so I learned a lot from them.”

After the championship celebrations ended, Gaudet began working to get himself ready for ice-time. Gaudet stayed in Boston for both summer sessions in order to take classes and work out with BU strength and conditioning coach Mike Boyle. He spent about five hours a day Monday through Friday working out in the gym and skating in addition to his summer class work.

The time in the gym paid off. Gaudet showed up to captain’s practices in the beginning of fall semester in great shape.

“You could notice that he had definitely made improvements over the summer,” said senior forward Luke Popko. “I know it’s kind of tough to really tell how someone will play in the game just watching them practice all the time, but you could really tell he was going to have a good year and contribute a lot.”

Gaudet had one more speed bump left in his road to the line-up. Before the season began, he dislocated his shoulder and was unable to make his debut until Oct. 30 at University of Massachusetts-Lowell.

For his first five games, Gaudet was held scoreless. His only appearance on the scoresheet came from a penalty, a two-minute minor for boarding in a game at Northeastern University. In his press conference after a Nov. 8 game against the University of Maine, BU coach Jack Parker hinted that he would take Gaudet out of the lineup for a game in order to give freshman forward Ryan Santana some playing time.

That never happened. The next weekend, Gaudet was in the lineup for a home-and-home series with Merrimack College. The Friday game was what Parker at the time called “rock bottom.” The Terriers lost their fourth straight game as Merrimack scored five unanswered goals en route to a 6-3 victory. Gaudet was one of only three players who Parker had thought had played well.

The next night, Gaudet scored his first collegiate goal 2:47 into the game. He remained in the lineup for the rest of the season.

While Gaudet started to hit his stride at BU, the Terriers continued to fall in the standings.

When they left for winter break, the defending national champions had only managed to win four games. They were in the midst of their worst stretch of the year, winning only two of their previous seven. Each player went home thinking about what he needed to improve in order to help the team, Gaudet said.

“I went back to practice with my little brother’s high school team, just to skate around and have some fun and get my mind off of what was going on here,” Gaudet said. “All of the kids on my brother’s high school team were congratulating me and telling me how great it was to play BU hockey. It just made me realize how fortunate I was, and it made me realize that we had to turn the season around and work harder.”

When Gaudet returned from break, he was clearly ready to play. Parker put him on a line with junior forward Joe Pereira, and the two clicked. In a weekend when the Terriers played both Providence College and Merrimack, Gaudet notched three points on two goals and an assist, and Pereira factored into every one of those points.

“We’re both similar types of players,” Gaudet said. “We both pride ourselves on how hard we work. We’re more of an energy line than a skill line. We just ended up being lucky enough to get a few goals when we played together.”

Pereira had a different explanation for their success.

“He has a good winger to pass him the puck,” Pereira said jokingly.

Gaudet finished the season with 12 points, nine of which came in the second half of the season. His .250 shooting percentage was the best on the team.

Yet despite Gaudet’s success, the Terriers could not seem to put together back-to-back effort-filled games. BU struggled to mentally prepare itself for a semifinal game against Maine, eventually losing to the Black Bears and ending their season. In a press conference after the season, Parker referred to the team’s mental struggles as a “championship hangover.”

Gaudet could easily have shied away from a lot of the blame. After all, he had not played in a single game during the championship season, and Parker often singled Gaudet out during the season as one of the only guys to give a good effort.

Yet Gaudet does not think he is any less to blame than his teammates, and he’s working just as hard as the rest of the team to make sure this season does not repeat itself next year. The team already has 6 a.m. workouts three days a week, but Gaudet takes the early mornings in stride.

“It’s tough getting up, but it gets the day going so it’s not too bad,” Gaudet said. “The workouts are definitely good. Everybody is coming in ready, and everybody is putting in their best effort right now.”

That effort is something that Gaudet hopes will help the Terriers go deeper into the postseason next year. If they make it to the Frozen Four again, perhaps this time Gaudet will be on the ice instead of watching from the tunnel.