BC Speed Just Too Much For Wisconsin

Our Pool Results Were Much Closer Than The Frozen Four

Boston College was everywhere that Wisconsin was, and managed to be where Wisconsin wasn’t, at the same time.  The results were awful for the Badgers.  Both teams came in highly ranked on both offense and defense.  Boston College came in with the exact style of play that Coach Jerry York has established there for 13+ years now, and it is, to say the least, a winning formula.  The BC game is all about speed, speed, speed.  That applies to both offense and defense.  And along with it comes a level of agility that can make a 6’0″ tall, 170lb. stellar athlete, look a little slow, if not awkward.

This game was not a lot different than the Miami game on Thursday.  Watching BC is not a lot different than watching Butler play basketball;  BC uses its speed to be everywhere the opponent is, to disrupt their offense, and to keep it from ever getting any traction.  The difference between BC’s hockey team, and Butler’s basketball team, is that once BC has done that, they then use their speed to confound the other team’s defense.  On Thursday, Miami was thrown off all the first quarter; in the second they surrendered two quick goals to BC, but then played very tough, and it looked like they might dig their way out of a the hole when they scored early in the third.  But five minutes later Miami seemed to melt down as BC was suddenly everywhere, and scored three goals in the span of 1:35.  BC scored four  goals in that third period.

Against Wisconsin it was nearly identical.  BC had Wisconsin off balance in the first, and BC scored on a power play goal midway through the period, just like they did against Miami.  Wisconsin did not wait for BC to score in the second to come to life.  After the smaller Eagles had been physically agressive on the Badgers in the first, Wisconsin came out  and held ground  in the second.  But so did BC,and the teams played to a 0-0 stalemate in the period.  And then came the third.  Two BC goals within two minutes, early in the third pretty much cemented the game.  BC was again where they needed to be, a step  ahead of Wisconsin.  Sophomore Cam Atkinson scored twice in the period, his second making it 4-0.  With about five minutes to go, BC added and empty-netter to go up 5-0, and from there is was really a matter of counting out the remaining 300 seconds.

BC has clearly established itself as the dominant force of the era.  What is the era?  I suppose we could say 1998 to now, and probably then some.  Sure, Denver won it two years in a row, and so did Minnesota.  But BC has been in the Frozen Four nine times in thirteen years.  Seven times in the final game  (four in the last five years), and three championships.  You can not say enough about the impact hiring Jerry York  as coach in the 1995 season has had on them.  BC has realized what Notre Dame hopes to realize from their hiring of Jeff Jackson.  And York’s formula is pretty unmistakable — fast, silky skating, first to the puck, take the other guys out of their game physically and/or by speed, and size does not matter.  It looks a lot like a team I used to sit and watch in the 70’s.

Our Pool Results Were Much Closer Than The Frozen Four

Let’s see, last we checked, Mark Krajan had ten correct picks out of twelve  games.  The next closest had only eight.  Seems like it would take a miracle to catch and pass Mark.  Mark proceeded to get the finalists, BC and Wisconsin, for twelve picks out of fourteen games.  And so did Jim Slaughter, bringing his total to ten points against Mark’s twelve.  Mark had Wisconsin to win, and Jim had BC.  So Jim gained one more pick, for 11, but two points, for 12, tying Mark’s 12 points.  The first tiebreaker is one additional point for the correct winner, which brought Jim to 13 points in overtime, and 12 for Mark.  Had the games only been so exciting themselves!  Congratulations to Jim.  Go have your Irish Coffee.  I have your official NCAA Frozen Four t-shirt here, and I will mail it to you this week.

As I said earlier, I’m surprised that only one of twenty-six picked BC to win it all.

Final Standings in our Pool:

Slaughter  11/15  12pts  tiebreak  win

Krajan        12/15  12pts

9:  Allen, Bogosian, Diem, O’Connell

8:  Ide, Pastor, TShymanski, Stier, Sweeney

7:  Bettendorf, Esposito, Holte, Rarden, Peterson, SShymanski, Speare

6:  Breen, Carlisle, Ryan, Schreader

5:  Bremer, Fairbrother

4:  Kramer, Smigielski

That’s it.  The end of another season.

But, we’ll be back, so stay tuned.  And go Terriers!