Frozen Four Thread

[claver2010]

Also, your eyes are going to burn watching the TV Saturday.

We're going to wear our golds

Ferris their reds

[bignick33]

Anyone know what the BC sections were/are?

[Bryn Mawr Eagle]

2-1. Mom looks like she has an oral fixation that I would take full advantage of.

I was hoping for a full body shot - the mom not the daughter.

They both like a pearl necklace too. Heh.

[HJS]

As for the depth, I've said that the reason York is able to constantly have teas like this is despite all the talent the superstars for the vast vast majority are staying 3 & 4 years. Look around the country, it's 1 or 2 and done. It makes a huge difference. Then you combine seniors who didn't bitch about not getting a ton of playing time as underclassmen despite their skill & buy into the team concept. Look at Barry Almeida, first 2 years he with Matt Lombardi & Price formed a shutdown line. Now as a senior, he's scored nearly as many goals this year (22) has he has his other 3 combined (23)

I believe some of the reasons why BC is able to keep kids a little longer is that the NHL seems very comfortable with BC's program and York's ability to develop the kids. As a result, I think that there is significantly less pressure placed upon BC kids to join some crap minors team in Albany. In comparison, if a top prospect was at FSU, the NHL squad that drafts him will want him in their system pronto as Ferris' neutral-zone trapping ain't doing shit to help his career.

[b0mberMan]

Dude, Minnesota sucked balls.

You don't know hockey.

Doesn't this argument happen about this time every year?

[claver2010]

From today's PuckDaddy blog:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/ncaa-frozen-four-ferris-state-stop-boston-college-124726901.html

NCAA Frozen Four: Can Ferris State stop the Boston College juggernaut for title?
By Ryan Lambert

This was probably the worst game the BC Eagles have played in a month.
And they won 6-1.
Boston College entered this NCAA tournament as the hottest team in the country and has done nothing to dissuade those who believed it would walk straight through whatever opponents were unfortunate enough to fall at its feet on the way to the national title game.
Air Force put up a noble fight but in the end succumbed to a team no one seems capable of refusing. Minnesota-Duluth was bent to BC coach Jerry York's malevolent will the next night.
And now Minnesota, poor Minnesota. It's almost cruel that BC gave them some measure of hope in this game. Yes, the Eagles roared out of the gate, as the line of Steven Whitney, Barry Almeida and Flames prospect Bill Arnold shredded the Minnesota defense on a brilliant odd-man rush for a Whitney goal and BC lead at 6:03 of the first, but that, like punching a bully in the nose, only seemed to anger the Gophers.
[Box Score: Boston College 6, Minnesota 1]
Minnesota rained shots on BC netminder Parker Milner, who was brilliant in this one in ways that he wasn't often asked to be this season, and dominated possession. Though the scoreboard through one period read 1-0 to the top team in the nation, anyone who watched the game would have said it should have been at least tied, and probably tilted in the Gophers' favor, with shots standing at 10-5.
That trend continued into the second period, as Minnesota drew a penalty just two minutes in and once again opened fire on Milner. Shots through the first 26 minutes or so stood at 15-6; and, frankly, that might have even flattered the Eagles.
Maybe it's that I see these guys play a dozen or more times a season, but so skilled is this Boston College team — which has been to five national title games in the last seven seasons, winning the last two in which it has appeared — and battle-hardened and reliable and outright exceptional that one never quite got the impression that any of this pressure was especially troubling.
Not that the Eagles could have been happy with it, but they also probably spent the majority of their time on the bench waiting for the moment to come when they could break the game open.
Much like the earlier semifinal, that moment came on an early second-period penalty, when Nate Schmidtt got busted for hooking at 6:27. On the ensuing faceoff, BC's Kevin Hayes lined up across from Minnesota captain Taylor Matson, won the draw back to Bruins draft pick Tommy Cross, who got it over to Whitney, who got it back to Hayes, who sniped the far upper 90 to make it 2-zip BC. In the space of eight seconds, just like that.
Yet still, Minnesota persisted. Apparently the Gophers didn't get the memo from the hockey gods that allowing BC to stake itself to a 2-0 lead is a death sentence, and they continued to pressure Milner and BC's second-in-the-nation defense. But if the game wasn't over on Hayes' eventual game-winner, it surely was when, after the ice evened out a bit for much of the remainder of the second period, Milner made another red-light stop right out front on Jake Hansen, which prompted Erik Haula to punch the glass in frustration.
If the Milner save wasn't the symbolic end to the game, the BC goal that followed just 22 seconds later surely was. He'll-be-a-New-York-Ranger-this-time-Saturday Chris Kreider salted the game away on a beauty two-on-one goal with Destry Straight, his 23rd of the season, and with just 2:15 left in the second period. Paul Carey's insurance-on-the-insurance marker with 17 ticks left didn't help matters either.
Things got testy, as they tend to do in situations such as these, in the third. Hansen finally solved Milner just 1:26 into the period — shattering the goalie's shutout streak at a staggering 193:39 — and Carey answered with his second of the night 22 seconds later (yes, again). Then tempers flared even more soon after Brian Dumoulin added BC's sixth, with Matson taking a baseball swing at Billy Arnold, then punching him in the face. Minnesota's Nate Condon got five and the gate for contact to the head, which is a weird kind of penalty in college hockey reserved mainly for when roughing or elbowing or high sticking just isn't severe enough a call.
BC wiled away the remaining nine or so minutes without much happening, and that was likely because no one wanted to get hurt or suspended for Saturday's national title game.
The Eagles have now won — get this — 18 games in a row, and have trailed opponents during that streak for a combined total of — get this — 5:33. This is terrifying efficiency in all areas of the ice, and you might have been able to brush that off as a run of games against weaker opponents at one point, but now look. Duluth and Minnesota, the two best offenses in the country, were all but silenced by the smothering Eagle defense. The one goal it allowed deflected off a stick blade and a skate at the top of the crease. Both opponents also boasted strong defenses, and both found them dismantled to the tune of 10 total goals against.
If this is the best NCAA hockey has to offer in the way of competition for the Boston College Eagles, other teams might want to start thinking about putting together an all-star team in hopes of edging them out.
Perhaps, though, this conclusion is logical. Ferris State, which won the earlier semifinal, has long been framed as an immovable object, well-coached in its defensive systems and resolute in sticking to them come what may. And no matter how many times since the beginning of February it has been asked to prove it, BC has always emerged as the embodiment as the irresistible force.

[flyingelvii]

As for the depth, I've said that the reason York is able to constantly have teas like this is despite all the talent the superstars for the vast vast majority are staying 3 & 4 years. Look around the country, it's 1 or 2 and done. It makes a huge difference. Then you combine seniors who didn't bitch about not getting a ton of playing time as underclassmen despite their skill & buy into the team concept. Look at Barry Almeida, first 2 years he with Matt Lombardi & Price formed a shutdown line. Now as a senior, he's scored nearly as many goals this year (22) has he has his other 3 combined (23)

I believe some of the reasons why BC is able to keep kids a little longer is that the NHL seems very comfortable with BC's program and York's ability to develop the kids. As a result, I think that there is significantly less pressure placed upon BC kids to join some crap minors team in Albany. In comparison, if a top prospect was at FSU, the NHL squad that drafts him will want him in their system pronto as Ferris' neutral-zone trapping ain't doing shit to help his career.

BC also recruits smaller players who typically have a harder time transitioning to the pros for a variety of reasons. A lot of the bigger bodies seem to jump ship earlier. As Theo Fleury once said, "Small guys have to prove they can play while big guys have to prove they can't."

[twballgame9]

As for the depth, I've said that the reason York is able to constantly have teas like this is despite all the talent the superstars for the vast vast majority are staying 3 & 4 years. Look around the country, it's 1 or 2 and done. It makes a huge difference. Then you combine seniors who didn't bitch about not getting a ton of playing time as underclassmen despite their skill & buy into the team concept. Look at Barry Almeida, first 2 years he with Matt Lombardi & Price formed a shutdown line. Now as a senior, he's scored nearly as many goals this year (22) has he has his other 3 combined (23)

I believe some of the reasons why BC is able to keep kids a little longer is that the NHL seems very comfortable with BC's program and York's ability to develop the kids. As a result, I think that there is significantly less pressure placed upon BC kids to join some crap minors team in Albany. In comparison, if a top prospect was at FSU, the NHL squad that drafts him will want him in their system pronto as Ferris' neutral-zone trapping ain't doing shit to help his career.

BC also recruits smaller players who typically have a harder time transitioning to the pros for a variety of reasons. A lot of the bigger bodies seem to jump ship earlier. As Theo Fleury once said, "Small guys have to prove they can play while big guys have to prove they can't."

I think both of these points are correct, and I would add that BC's players are largely true college age players and not 23 year old freshmen.

[HJS]

From today's PuckDaddy blog:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/ncaa-frozen-four-ferris-state-stop-boston-college-124726901.html

NCAA Frozen Four: Can Ferris State stop the Boston College juggernaut for title?
By Ryan Lambert

Minnesota rained shots on BC netminder Parker Milner, who was brilliant in this one in ways that he wasn't often asked to be this season, and dominated possession. Though the scoreboard through one period read 1-0 to the top team in the nation, anyone who watched the game would have said it should have been at least tied, and probably tilted in the Gophers' favor, with shots standing at 10-5.
That trend continued into the second period, as Minnesota drew a penalty just two minutes in and once again opened fire on Milner. Shots through the first 26 minutes or so stood at 15-6; and, frankly, that might have even flattered the Eagles.
Maybe it's that I see these guys play a dozen or more times a season, but so skilled is this Boston College team — which has been to five national title games in the last seven seasons, winning the last two in which it has appeared — and battle-hardened and reliable and outright exceptional that one never quite got the impression that any of this pressure was especially troubling.

He hasn't watched much BC hockey lately, has he?

[shockdoct]

Bignick, bc section is 129 and diagonally up from there.

[Endless Mike]

Also, your eyes are going to burn watching the TV Saturday.

We're going to wear our golds

Ferris their reds

I'm enjoying the golds more and more. I hope they keep them instead of the maroon jerseys.

[flyingelvii]

Those Ferris jerseys look like expensive men's league ones.

[Endless Mike]

Those Ferris jerseys look like expensive men's league ones.

That shade of red with basic yellow lettering on the front makes them look like the Soviet Union.

[pick6pedro]

From today's PuckDaddy blog:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/ncaa-frozen-four-ferris-state-stop-boston-college-124726901.html

NCAA Frozen Four: Can Ferris State stop the Boston College juggernaut for title?
By Ryan Lambert

Minnesota rained shots on BC netminder Parker Milner, who was brilliant in this one in ways that he wasn't often asked to be this season, and dominated possession. Though the scoreboard through one period read 1-0 to the top team in the nation, anyone who watched the game would have said it should have been at least tied, and probably tilted in the Gophers' favor, with shots standing at 10-5.
That trend continued into the second period, as Minnesota drew a penalty just two minutes in and once again opened fire on Milner. Shots through the first 26 minutes or so stood at 15-6; and, frankly, that might have even flattered the Eagles.
Maybe it's that I see these guys play a dozen or more times a season, but so skilled is this Boston College team — which has been to five national title games in the last seven seasons, winning the last two in which it has appeared — and battle-hardened and reliable and outright exceptional that one never quite got the impression that any of this pressure was especially troubling.

He hasn't watched much BC hockey lately, has he?

You truly are a retard.

[claver2010]

Also, your eyes are going to burn watching the TV Saturday.

We're going to wear our golds

Ferris their reds

I'm enjoying the golds more and more. I hope they keep them instead of the maroon jerseys.

I absolutely love them. Put a BC patch on the shoulders and it's perfect.

[BuffaloEagle]

All the talk about Ferris is their defense, which yea, but holding Denver, Cornell, and Union to a goal a piece isn't the same as AF, UMD, and Minnesota.

Does anyone believe they have the firepower to score? They're going to have to Air Force it up.

[claver2010]

So some of BC's finest made an article in Michigan, including a mysterious stranger touted for...wait for it.....the voice of reason?

http://www.mlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/04/whats_a_ferris_state_underdog.html

[Endless Mike]

I love it when people get butthurt about things like this.

I predict the team that plays better is going to win the sporting match. PUT IT ON THE BOARD!!

[DavidGordonsFoot]

So some of BC's finest made an article in Michigan, including a mysterious stranger touted for...wait for it.....the voice of reason?

http://www.mlive.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/04/whats_a_ferris_state_underdog.html

was hoping angrydick would get quoted, disappointed.

[b0mberMan]

A dude really gets paid to just compile insults from twitter and repost them? I

[mod6A]

A dude really gets paid to just compile insults from twitter and repost them? I

that guy is a fool. just wait till his boss opens that fedex package on monday morning.

[claver2010]

BTW, I assumed it was mentioned here but jesus, Minnesota's captain on Arnold in the 3rd.

You could see that coming from a mile away they went way above & beyond finishing their checks. Then their captain takes a whack, then a two handed chop, then punches Arnold in the face.

Lucky Petrecki isn't on the team, he'd be eating through a feeding tube. If I was going to go after a player on BC, Arnold wouldn't be the first. Mullane was chirping the entire time leading up to the ensuing faceoff.

[flyingelvii]

Was he chirping? It looked like they were just having a calm chat or something. Arnold did have the very effective scoreboard chirp, twice, to the Minnesota guy, which made me laugh.

[claver2010]

I assume such, Mullane isn't exactly the quietest player on the ice. But typical goonery from the WCHA

Last night would also be an instance where Gibbons wouldn't see the ice as it would take him about 4.6 seconds to take a stupid penalty

[wolverineneshl]

Tomorrow night, let it fly and pommel FS. After last year and MSU in 2007, take nothing for granted and take no prisoners. Captain Tommy Cross will see to it. Take care of business BC, and bring home that shiny trophy.

[claver2010]

Kreider-Hayes-Straight should do work tomorrow night.

The height of their Dmen:

5'10 - 5'10
5'8 - 5'9
5'9 - 5'10

Experience:

Sophomore-Senior
Freshman-Senior
Freshman-Freshman

[claver2010]

Dumoulin 1st team AA
Almeida 2nd team

[Dick Rosenthal]

Matt kirzinger, the FSU center made himself my personal project for tomorrow night. Dude called our defense "suspect". Doing some research on him now. I suspect he is going to learn a lot about himself and his prospects for the future tomorrow night.

[tailgater94]

I've never even heard of Ferris St until last week.

[claver2010]

11 years ago today...

Euphoria And A Cigar
By Dave Hendrickson • Hockey East Columnist • April 7, 2001

ALBANY, N.Y. — Outside the Pepsi Arena an elderly man wearing a maroon and gold Boston College tam-o’shanter spoke to a friend before the game.

“I gave up cigars for Lent this year,” he said. “But if they win …”

He patted his breast pocket, grinned and looked to the sky.

“I think He’ll understand.”


Jerry York and the Boston College Eagles ended the Curse of ’49 Saturday night against UND. (Photo by Jayson Moy)
Perhaps so. There had been enough Close But No Cigar frustrations for BC fans in the NCAAs over the years that a stogie during Lent to celebrate a title might well be excused.

It had been a long time since legendary coach Snooks Kelley led the Eagles to their last national championship in 1949. That was only the second year of the NCAA tournament, and being 1-for-2 must have felt pretty good at the time. Unfortunately, the Eagles had gone 0-for-51 since with enough heartbreak for a lifetime of soap operas.

There were unsuccessful trips to the title game in 1965 and 1978. Then the most agonizing stretch of them all ran from the mid-eighties through 1991. Some of the collegiate sport’s most dominating talent — All-Americans or future NHLers like Brian Leetch, Craig Janney, Tim Sweeney, Greg Brown, David Emma, Kevin Stevens, Doug Brown, Bill Guerin, Steve Heinze, Marty McInnis, Scott Harlow, David Littman and Ted Crowley — failed even to reach the championship game.

The latest era of frustration began when this year’s seniors were freshmen. They lost to Michigan in the 1998 title game, to eventual champion Maine in a 1999 semifinal and to North Dakota in last year’s championship game.

Close but no cigar.

The monkey on the Eagles’ backs had grown into a gorilla and with each banana peel that Boston College slipped on, the weight grew heavier. Opposing fans, especially those of archrival Boston University, would torment BC with chants of “1949! 1949!” in the same fashion of the Boston Red Sox and 1918 or the New York Rangers and 1940 — that is, until they finally exorcised that demon with the 1994 Stanley Cup.

“We know the last time that BC’s won a national championship,” said Brian Gionta one day earlier. “But that’s not our concern. For these guys, we know that’s our last goal this season to accomplish.”

Indeed, it was the only challenge left standing for this year’s Eagles. They’d won the Beanpot, ending a Boston University stranglehold in the Battle for Boston, and then gone on to take both the Hockey East regular season crown and the conference tournament. They then advanced to a rematch with North Dakota in this NCAA title game. All that was left was just one more win.


Bobby Allen (left) and Krys Kolanos address the media after the title game. (Photo by Adam Wodon)
However, the Curse of the ’49ers showed early signs of reappearing when the vastly undersung Mike Lephart limped around in street clothes during practice the day before the title game. With depth up front being one of the clear Eagle advantages, his doubtful status was an ominous portent of another potential Close But No Cigar finish.

Lephart not only suited up, however, he scored a potentially decisive second goal to give BC a 2-0 lead in the second period.

“I had trouble walking on it, but I had the feeling that it was one of those things where it would hurt to walk but would feel fine once the adrenaline started going and I started skating,” said Lephart. “That’s exactly what happened. I wasn’t going to miss this game for anything.”

Lephart’s goal seemed to turn the omen into a mirage. The Curse became just a figment in imaginative sportswriters’ minds.

A mirage and a figment, that is, until with five minutes left in the game and a 2-0 lead, BC was assessed a too many men on the ice penalty. Brian Gionta had lost his stick and as he raced to the bench motioned for another. Mistaking his gesture for one that he was leaving the ice, Tony Voce hopped over the boards and took off for the offensive zone along with Gionta.

North Dakota coach Dean Blais gambled 40 seconds into the power play by pulling goaltender Karl Goehring for a six-on-four advantage with the puck in the BC zone. Mindful that the Fighting Sioux had gone 55 minutes without scoring a goal, Blais rolled the dice.

It would give the shorthanded Eagles a free shot at the open net when they went to fire the puck out of the zone. All they would need would be one possession and a fortunate rink-long shot and the game would be history.

So close and yet so far. Close but no cigar, at least not yet.

North Dakota’s Travis Roche fired from the point and Tim Skarperud deflected it into the net to make it a 2-1 game and trigger heart palpitations in BC loyalists everywhere.

Too many men on the ice? Of all the daggers to the heart since 1949, this would surely be the unkindest cut of all.

Long-time Bostonians suffered flashbacks to the Bruins in 1979 when they were poised to finally end the jinx the Montreal Canadiens held on them, until a similar penalty allowed Guy Lafleur to tie the game on the resulting power play and win the series and eventually the Stanley Cup in overtime.

Having pulled within one, North Dakota pressured until Blais again rolled the dice and again came up a winner. He pulled Goehring again with 1:23 left — early by many coaches’ standards — and survived one wide shot on the open net.

Another faceoff developed in the Boston College zone. Initially, 38.2 seconds showed on the clock, but the officials ruled that the Sioux were owed a few more seconds. Intending to bump the time up to 41 seconds, the timekeeper mistakenly posted 41 minutes.

Which is exactly how it felt from an Eagle perspective.

So close and yet so far. Close but no cigar, at least not yet.

Just 4.6 seconds later, Wes Dorey deflected an Aaron Schneekloth shot in to tie the score and bring BC’s boogeyman all the way out of the closet.

Without a doubt, this would be the unkindest cut of all. Too many men on the ice … Shutting out a team except for two extra-skater goals … Four straight times to the Frozen Four and four times coming up empty.

This had gone past Close But No Cigar status. There was a cigar, all right, but it was an exploding one.

“Our first reaction was, ‘I can’t believe this happened again!’” said Lephart.

Added BC coach Jerry York, “We were rightfully down walking into the locker room after the goal that tied it.”

However, York harkened back to a talk Boston Bruins coach Mike Keenan gave the Eagles in January. Keenan had coached the New York Rangers in their quest to end their own Curse of 1940 and had faced a similar fate when the New Jersey Devils tied the Rangers with five seconds left in a seventh game that would send the winner to the Stanley Cup finals.

Keenan talked to the Eagles about mental toughness and that seventh game, saying, “All I said in the locker room at that time was, ‘No matter how bad you felt about what just happened, think about how good you’re going to feel if you score the OT goal.’”

The striking similarities helped the Eagles regroup and at 4:43 of overtime Krys Kolanos banished chants of “1949!” and discussions of any Curse to the trash bucket. He broke in off the left wing and scored off his “bread and butter” move that utilizes his wide wingspan to maximum advantage.

When a writer asked Kolanos if he’d known he was going to use that move, goaltender Scott Clemmensen broke into laughter.

“He knew he was going to use it,” he said. “He does that move on me all the time in practice and I can’t stand it.”

Presumably, Clemmensen can stand the Kolanos move just fine now. As can the Boston College fans whose hearts had been in their throats since the too many men agony.

Near Kolanos, a BC fan held up a sign that read, “Now We Can Die In Peace,” a carbon copy of the sign a Rangers fan held in 1994.

At 10:26 Eastern Daylight Time, the public address announcer uttered words that were music to so many ears: “And now the NCAA Division I champions … Boston College.”

Symbolic of the tight-knit nature of the Eagle squad was injured Ales Dolinar also on the ice celebrating, propped up by Tony Voce on one side and Marty Hughes on the other.

“[Our] team chemistry is the greatest amount of team chemistry I’ve ever seen in all my years of sports,” said assistant captain Bobby Allen. “I’ve played all kinds of sports and played a lot of hockey. There’s a tremendous bond between a lot of the guys on our club. Whether we won or lost, we were still going to have a bond.

“But this solidifies it forever. We can come back in 10 years and have reunions and say, ‘Hey, we were national champions in 2001. Nobody can ever take that away from us.’ I just feel privileged that I had a chance to play with [these] guys because they’re a real special group.

“Perseverance pays off. We’ve had a tough four years getting there and not finishing it off. It finally feels good to finally be the top team in college hockey.”

Clemmensen extended that to Eagle players of the past three years that had to settle for Close But No Cigar.

“We’d be remiss if we didn’t comment on some of the players who have been with us in the past,” he said. “The only regret I have here at BC is that some of those past players that I played with starting in my freshman year like Jamie O’Leary and Brendan Buckley and last year’s class with [Mike] Mottau, [Jeff] Farkas and [Blake] Bellefeuille built this BC program up and put so much mystique around it.

“My only regret is that they didn’t get to hold that trophy above their heads because they played a big part in where the BC program has come. They own a piece of it as well.”

Chemistry, talent and mental toughness all played a part. After three Close But No Cigar finishes, Boston College is finally the national champion.

And somewhere outside the Pepsi Arena, an elderly gentleman in a BC tam-o’shanter puffed with great satisfaction on a cigar, hoping that up above the offense — when taken in context — would be forgiven.

http://www.uscho.com/2001/04/07/euphoria-and-a-cigar/#ixzz1rMjOxsmf