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

Head coach Jerry York made the call after that defeat to put junior Parker Milner back in net, as he had been at the start of the season. The good mojo for the Eagles began right away, as they capped a late 4-3 comeback win against New Hampshire on January 27 with a Steven Whitney goal with under a minute to go in regulation. The next night, in the second game of a home-and-home, Boston College went to New Hampshire and beat them again, 3-2, marking the first time since early December that they had won consecutive games.

By then, it was Beanpot time, and BC’s roll continued in the TD Garden, slapping around Northeastern in the semifinals for a 7-1 victory to earn a date with BU in the following week’s final. It may seem hard to believe now knowing what we know, but with that win over NU, the Eagles had their first three-game win streak since late October/early November. Following a thorough 6-1 weekend dismissal of Vermont in Burlington, BC came back to the Garden at posted an unforgettable 3-2 overtime win over Boston University to win their third Beanpot in a row and fourth in five years. Bill Arnold was the hero with 6.4 seconds left in the first overtime (play begins at 6:42 on video).

Boston College was getting hot, and about to gain even more momentum heading into the most important time of the year. Parker Milner had come back in-net and looked stronger every game, and the team around him responded as well. After the Beanpot final, the Eagles had six regular season games to go, winning all of them to secure the #1 seed in the Hockey East Tournament. Amazingly, Milner posted three shutouts in those six contests with the Eagles outscoring their post-Beanpot opposition 25-4.

Along the way, Jerry York gained his 900th career win against Merrimack on February 17.  With the way things went thereafter, he will almost certainly set the all-time record by about midway through the 2012-13 season.

When their Hockey East quarterfinals against UMass began in early March, the Eagles were by then on an 11-game win streak.

Veteran stars like Chris Kreider and Brian Dumoulin continued to have very good seasons, there were emergent players coming up in big ways, such as Parker Milner and Barry Almeida, and there were freshman phenoms crashing onto the college hockey scene, namely Johnny Gaudreau. All of these young men and more contributed to Boston College getting their season back on track, but the best was yet to come.