#9 Ferris State played much more the role of their mascot Bulldog than that of an underdog in its pursuit of the NCAA Ice Hockey Crown in Tampa, Florida, yet it wasn’t to be for the upstarts.  Boston College completed a nineteen game winning streak, and furthermore completed four games in the NCAA Tournament allowing only two goals scored against them in the entire tournament.

Tonight, Boston College got on the board only three minutes into the first when Steven Whitney put in a loose puck off a Ferris State defensive turnover.  But Ferris State was up to the task, responding only two minutes later, when BC goalie Parker Milner blocked a shot by Andy Huff, only to have Huff’s teammate Garrett Thompson knock in the rebound to tie it, 1-1.  Midway through the first, during a BC power play opportunity, a shot by BC’s Brian Dumoulin was deflected by teammate Paul Carey into the goal to put BC up 2-1.  Despite this quick three goal start to the game in the first eleven minutes, the game was dominated by the great play of the two goalies.  Each team pressed to the goal throughout the remainder of the first, throughout the second, and through most of the third; and the goalies responded with great saves.

With only three minutes remaining in the third, BC’s Johnny Gaudreau snared the puck away from the Ferris State offensive attack at about mid ice and proceeded to create what will be a truly memorable hockey play.  Gaudreau turned up ice to the Ferris State goal, and was immediately well defended, in fact draped, by Brett Wysopal, and had another Ferris State defender nipping at his heels, trying to snag the puck from behind.  As though he had eyes in the back of his head, Gaudreau pressed forward at full speed, moving the puck from right to left, and then made an abrupt move to the right, simultaneously losing both defenders, pressing to the goal, and he back-handed a stellar shot over the block of Ferris State goalie Taylor Nelson.  And suddenly, Ferris State found itself two goals down with very little time to go, despite having stayed with BC for most of the game.  Ferris State had no choice but to add an extra attacker, and against a team as good as BC, it cost them another goal, when Steven Whitney scored his second of the game with a minute remaining, to give BC the 4-1 win, and the national championship.

I have written about BC’s dominance of college hockey before, and it would be inappropriate not to do so now.  BC has been the dominant force in college hockey for the past fifteen years, and I imagine that is the longest stretch a team has dominated the sport.  This dynasty has culminated in BC winning three of the last five championships, and appearing in the championship game five of the last seven years.  Jerry York’s formula of speed to the puck, bringing in supremely talented and highly spirited local players from Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, and then creating them into teams characterized by slick skating and stick handling has been successful beyond the wildest dreams of the crew that set the goal to radically change the success of the Boston College hockey program, and that brought York in to make it happen.

Our Pool

This year’s pool looked like it could be a runaway with Olivia Schreader getting ten correct picks out of twelve possible from the first weekend.  And Olivia had Union and Minnesota — her picks for the final game — alive at that time as well.  Her good fortune changed dramatically when neither team made it to the finals.  Meanwhile, the trio of Richard Cruz, Richard Sell, and the artist formerly known as Kaycie, all gained a pick when Boston College made it to the final game, giving them all a total of nine correct picks.  Then with BC’s win tonight, each of them gained one more correct pick, for a total of ten picks — a tie with Olivia Schreader — but they then surpassed her with the bonus second point for getting the winner correct, giving them eleven points each, one more than Olivia’s ten points.  So . . . . three people tied with ten picks and eleven points.  Time for the tie breaker rules:

• First tie breaker is one additional point for picking the eventual winner, and all three had BC, so all three get one more point; still tied.
• Second tie breaker is one additional point for each team picked to play in the final game, and all three had BC, and a wrong choice, so all three get one more point; still tied.
• Third tie breaker is one additional point for each team picked to make it to the Frozen Four.  All Three had BC and Union College, so all three get two more points.  But Richard Sell also had Minnesota, so he gets three additional tie breaker points, one more than the other two, and the tie is broken.  This year’s winner is Richard Sell, a 1974 graduate of Pacific Grove High School, and a current resident of the state of Wisconsin.  Congratulations, Richard, your Frozen Four Hooded Sweatshirt is on its way to you.

Final Standings in our Pool are (Entrants are listed according to the total number of points out of a total of sixteen possible):

Sell                   10/15   11pts   tiebreak win

Cruz, Kaycie     10/15   11pts

10:  Holte, OSchreader, Wienbar

9:    Bogosian

8:    AEsposito, JEsposito, Krajan, Kramer, MShymanski, Smigielski, Speare

7:    Peterson, Ramsey, JSchreader

6:    Allen, BBetendorf, Fairbrother, Ide, Pastor, DShymanski, Ryan

5:    MBettendorf, Huberty, GSchreader, TShymanski, Slaughter, Sweeney

4:    McLean

What a great year for college hockey, and a great year for teams such as Ferris State and Unon College.  I suppose we can wonder if anyone, any team anywhere, can overcome what BC has become.  Time will tell.  Next year will be the last year for the CCHA, and for the WCHA and Hockey East as we now know them.  After next year we will have a Big Ten (with six teams), a National College Hockey Conference, a new team in Hockey East (Notre Dame), The ECAC will continue on, as will Atlantic Hockey, and what will become of Alabama-Huntsville?  Will a conference let them in?  Well, I’m looking forward to next year, as always.

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned, and go Terriers!

— Tom