Chalk up 106 and 107.
The Boston University hockey team’s weekend sweep of a home and home series against archrival Boston College marked the 205th and 206th meetings of the Commonwealth Avenue rivals, and this year’s series provided a refreshing twist for the Icedogs.
They won the season series outright — taking two of three from the Eagles — for the first time since 1996-97. And though they won the series that season, it’s not as though the Icedogs completely dominated the Eagles, winning one and tying two of the three-game regular season set, along with a victory in the Beanpot final.
To find a season in which BU won at least two regular season games in the series, one must look all the way back to 1994-95, Jerry York’s first season in charge of the Eagles, when the Terriers took all three games.
Also notable was the location of Friday’s 2-1 BU victory. For the first time since Dec. 7, 1997, an Icedogs win over the Eagles came at Conte Arena. What does that mean? It means that Chris Drury and Chris Kelleher were wearing the C’s on their jerseys, and Carl Corazzini — last year’s captain and leading scorer — was a freshman wearing number 8. Where were this year’s captains, seniors Mike Pandolfo and Chris Dyment? In their senior seasons at St. Sebastian’s and Reading High School, respectively.
Pat Aufiero was in Michigan playing for the United States Development Program at the time, and it was his brilliant first goal on Sunday that sparked a 10-second burst of scoring that would be all goaltender Sean Fields would need. For the second straight night, the sophomore only allowed one shot past him. Aufiero sounded relieved to have the sweep, and most especially, the win in Chestnut Hill.
“Over there is a tough place to play,” Aufiero said. “I don’t think we’ve won there in four years since I’ve been here. That was a big win for us. It gave us a lot of confidence.”
That confidence translated into Sunday’s 3-1 win, but BU is now looking for that confidence to extend farther, through series with Hockey East leader University of New Hampshire and Hockey East struggler Merrimack College. And just as importantly, the team is looking to have confidence against the defending national and Beanpot champions in 13 days, when for the fourth time this year, the puck drops for a BU-BC matchup.
“We’re gonna go in there pretty confident after beating them twice,” Aufiero said. “I think we’re really looking forward to Beanpot and playing them again.”
However, as much as the Beanpot means to all four teams involved, what truly matters is the NCAA tournament and BU’s move up a notch to sixth in the nation, and also up to second in Hockey East. The four points the Icedogs took from the Eagles were integral, not only for BU’s morale, but also as something the other Hockey East teams must take note of.
“[The sweep] just makes it a huge statement to our team and to the rest of the league,” said BU sophomore forward Gregg Johnson, who scored the game-winner on Sunday.
Not only does the sweep ensure that BU is riding high after a bit of a skid, it also means that the team avoids what could be a confidence and morale-killing weekend against its biggest rivals .
“You win or lose against BC it really gets you high or low,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “To get the sweep really helps you out.”
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