BC Hockey Team In Frozen Four

It is the end of March. Jerry York is the head coach at Boston College and his Eagles have packed their bags and are headed out west for the Frozen Four. It is the Eagles seventh appearance in the Frozen Four since 2000; their twenty-second appearance ever. Thus, a BC team that wasn’t going to play on ESPN around Easter time would be abnormal.

It will be business as usual for York and his disciples. This brand of BC hockey is typical in some senses and quite different in others. In both 2001 and 2008, the Eagles won the Beanpot, Hockey East Championship and the National Championship. Both title runs also started in Worcester. Eagle fans hope this pattern repeats itself this year, and ends in the same way on April 10th.

While the Eagles have completed the first two steps of the almighty trifecta, the last step is the hardest and most prized. This year’s squad is greener than Bill Gate’s wallet. Nineteen of the twenty-six players are either freshmen or sophomores.

That youth was seen at times this weekend in their defeats over Alaska-Fairbanks and Yale. They had several mental lapses that must be attributed to their youth. The excessive amounts of sophomoric penalties on Saturday were mind-blowing and costly. They will not be able to afford being a man down when they take on the Miami Redhawks. Miami was the overall number one seed, and BC can’t afford to fall asleep against them. BC gave up three unanswered goals to end Sunday’s affair, something which must be harped upon during this lengthy down time.

And while most of these Eagles probably still live on upper campus, they do still have exceptional talent. They are fast and can score in a hurry. While the offense was somewhat stagnant on Saturday, they exploded Sunday evening. Cam Atkinson seems to be emerging as the next great BC scorer. While he’s certainly not on the Gionta or Gerbe level yet, he registered his 25th, 26th and 27th goals of the year on the Lord’s day. He had his third hat-trick in his last 10 games. My personal favorite was his top shelf snipe as he was being dragged down by a helpless Yale defender.

Gerbe’s scorching scoring pace in the ’08 tourney led to a fresh new banner in Conte Forum. While Atkinson may not be as consistent as Gerbe was, he certainly shows flashes that make eager students in yellow shirts shake their heads.

A team needs a go-to scorer when the lights shine a little brighter. Luckily, if Atkinson is off his A-game, or the team gives up seven goals and needs to score more than usual, there are other forwards who can light up the scoreboard. His linemates, Joe Whitney and Brian Gibbons, are part of lucky thirteen’s line and were a part of a nine-point line on Sunday. These two Mass boys are no slouches in their own right and will be counted upon if the Eagles are to seek a match up with the Badgers of Wisconsin or the Tigers of RIT.

The Eagles will have until April 8th to draw up schemes to beat Connor Knapp of Miami. Their goaltender stopped over fifty shots in their double OT defeat of the Michigan Wolverines. Although we should spend time strategizing new ways to score on the power play, our offense seems to be looking up after Sunday. This is especially true when defensemen are scoring on zone-clearing slap shots that are fired off from behind one’s own blue line (i.e. Carl Sneep on Sunday scoring on a 130 foot “shot”).

The defense is young and that shows in their lack of consistency. However, if Sneep and Dumolin can continue to play well for two more games it may not matter. Dumolin has a +32 on the year, top on the team.

Goaltending is also essential and Muse must sharpen his focus. He has played very well at times over the past two games, but also had big mental lapses. The first goal of the game Sunday occurred because of a gargantuan rebound that he coughed up. The fourth goal of the day was also a weak five hole that cannot be allowed.

He has shone before in the Frozen Four. One only has to look back to ’08, his freshman season, when he stoned North Dakota and Notre Dame. If Muse can limit his rebounds and prevent any soft goals, the Eagles have a legitimate shot to knock off the Redhawks.

The current iron fences in the Mods were built in response to the terror caused by unruly SuperFans in the wake of the 2001 National Championship over North Dakota. Let’s hope that the wee hours of April 11th will cause more protection needed, as students would be celebrating their second championship in three years.

In Jerry we trust.

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