When it was finally over, the entire Boston University hockey team skated towards the red-and-white clad fans sitting in the far corner of Verizon Center.
The BU band played. The students sang. And the players sighed in relief that they have one more game to play yet.
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On the other side of the ice, a half-dozen Vermont players skated slowly in circles, bent over at the waist and unwilling to look up. The Catamounts had beaten their Hockey East conference rivals twice this season. But in the game that mattered most, they just couldn’t put the Terriers away.
Down by one with less than seven minutes to go in a Frozen Four semifinal, Boston scored two goals in a span of 1:13 – the first by senior forward Chris Higgins and the second by sophomore center Colin Wilson, who whacked home a rebound to put his team ahead at the 14:19 mark.
From there, the Terriers (34-6-4) held off Vermont (22-12-5) in the final minutes and advanced to Saturday’s 7 p.m. championship game against Miami (Ohio). They will play for the NCAA title for the first time since 1995 and for the program’s fifth national championship overall.
“The pictures of the national championship teams are there as we walk down our hallways,” said senior captain and defenseman Matt Gilroy, a finalist for the Hobey Baker award as college hockey’s outstanding player. “We look at them every day. The tradition is there. And we’d love to add to it.”
Thursday’s second semifinal was a wild affair. The Terriers took a 2-0 lead on goals by Wilson and senior forward Jason Lawrence. But the Catamounts answered quickly in the second. Sophomore forward Stacey Wahsontiio scored first at even strength. Then — within a span of 45 seconds – sophomore forward Justin Milo and sophomore defenseman Josh Burrows each scored to put Vermont up 3-2.
“We knew we had a lot more to give [after the first period],” said Vermont senior forward Dean Strong. “It was amazing to see our team battle back like that.”
The Terriers appeared rattled. Freshman goalie Kieran Millan skated around his crease, shaking his head in frustration,. Millan, who entered the game with a 1.85 goals-against average, gave up four goals in a game for only the fourth time all season.
But he settled down the rest of the second and Boston finally tied things up at 3 with just 81 seconds left in the period on a goal by Vinny Saponari. It was a critical moment — “the biggest goal of the game,” thought Boston coach Jack Parker – because it stopped Vermont’s momentum cold.
It also set up a dramatic final 10 minutes. Freshman defenseman Drew MacKenzie scored for the Catamounts on the power play – his first goal of the season — to put them back up 4-3 at 9:40 of the third period. But the roller-coaster ride continued just over three minutes later when Higgins took a pass from Lawrence and beat Vermont goalie Rob Madore glove side with a wrist shot. Moments later – with the BU crowd in a frenzy — Wilson won a faceoff and drove the net, slamming home a rebound after a Higgins shot from the top of the left circle for the winning margin.
“We had a taste of it toward the end of the game there and unfortunately it slipped through our hands,” said Vermont coach Kevin Sneedon.
With a minute to play, after an offsides call, Gilroy, the veteran, skated over to Millan, the freshman goalie, to settle his young teammate and prepare him for Vermont’s final rush with the extra attacker on the ice.
Millan just looked at his captain and smiled. “Get out of here,” he said. “Don’t worry about it.”
Boston didn’t. The final minute duly killed — without even a decent scoring chance for the Catamounts — and the Terriers were back in the championship game for the first time in 12 years.
