Boston College 2011-12 in Review, Part III: Men’s Hockey

Part I: Football
Part II: Men’s basketball

After two days of being depressed by two teams with a combined total of 30 losses from September to March, isn’t it time we lighten the mood? Today, we focus on the national champion Boston College Eagles men’s hockey team, coached by the one and only Jerry York.

The season began with a great deal of promise, as the Eagles were the preseason #5 team in the country and were the favorites to win Hockey East yet again. Indeed, with the announced returns of Chris Kreider and Brian Dumoulin, there was every reason to believe that this Boston College team could be as good as any other in recent memory, if not better. This is in spite of losing key cogs like John Muse, Cam Atkinson, and Jimmy Hayes.

On October 7, 2011, the puck dropped on what would be a very special season for the Eagles. They faced Michigan State and then North Dakota the following day in the Ice Breaker Tournament in Grand Forks, beating both teams and taking their first of many trophies.

It was not until Boston College came home for their opener that they suffered a loss. Denver, a pesky foe but one whom the Eagles swept in the previous season, went to Conte Forum and beat BC, 4-2. A trademark of a Jerry York team is one that is in it for the long haul and doesn’t panic, though. The Eagles came right back from that October 14 defeat and rattled off six wins in a row, capped off by a dominant 5-1 win over Maine on November 4. By then, the 8-1 Eagles were the #1 team in the country.

Entering the middle part of the regular season, the waters got choppy. Beginning with a November 5 loss at UMass, the Eagles had a stretch of games through January where they compiled a record of just 6-9-1, losing their #1 ranking and slipping almost out of the top ten. Included in this period were two losses to Boston University out of three meetings, the first of which was an embarrassing 5-0 loss on home ice, a last-second overtime loss at Notre Dame (followed by a football loss the next day), and a 4-0 shutout loss to UMass on January 13. Rock-bottom, however, was a weekend two-game sweep at the hands of the Maine Black Bears in Orono in which BC gave up 11 goals. The only bright spot was Barry Almeida’s hat trick in the second game, a 7-4 loss.

By then, the Eagles were in flux with their goaltender situation, sitting down Parker Milner earlier in the down period in favor of Brian Billett. Billett had a few good games in a row, but when he could no longer sustain his initial magic, Jerry York mixed senior backup Chris Venti into the lineup.

As the story goes, captain Tommy Cross called the team together after this Maine sweep and essentially told them (not quoted, probably not paraphrased) to pull their heads out of their asses and fight their way back. Their play, as far as they saw it, was unacceptable and their season was slipping away. Little did they or anyone else know that their 7-goal disaster in Maine would be their last loss of the year.