By mh82
Ring out the old,
ring in the new
Ring out the false,
ring in the true
George Harrison
Under the steady guidance of coaches Jack Kelley and Jack
Parker (a player on three of Kelley's 1960s teams), the Boston University
hockey team produced winning records in 14 of 15 seasons between 1964-65 and
1978-79. The Terriers would've had 15 straight winning seasons over that time
frame, but were forced to forfeit 11 victories during the 1972-73 campaign for the
use of an ineligible player. That flipped a 22-6-1 record (which included a 7-3
upset loss to the University of Pennsylvania in the first round of the ECAC
playoffs, with the Quakers being coached by former BU assistant coach Bob Crocker)
into an 11-17-1 mark in Leon Abbott's only full season behind the bench, after
being selected as Kelley's successor.
During the aforementioned 15-season stretch, BU and Cornell
were the unquestioned kingpins of Eastern college hockey, with the Terriers
winning five ECAC and three NCAA championships and the Big Red capturing five
ECAC crowns and a pair of NCAA titles.
With talent, tradition and coaching, there was no reason to
think that BU couldn't sustain its momentum and success as one of the premier
programs in college hockey.
Then came the 1980s.
It actually started with the bridge season of 1979-80, when
the Terriers, just two seasons removed from winning the school's third NCAA
championship, finished with an 11-17 record and out of the ECAC playoff picture
for the first time since 1964. BU followed that rare disappointing season up
with a 14-15 record in 1980-81, dropping consecutive overtime games to
Princeton and UNH at season's end to remain out of the ECAC postseason picture
and securing a second straight losing record for the first time since the early
1960s. Things improved somewhat in 1981-82, when the Terriers—captained by Paul
Fenton, the current assistant general manager of the Nashville Predators and a
former NHL player who had 100 goals and 83 assists in 411 games—finished with a
final mark of 14-11-3, but their 9-10-3 ECAC record kept them outside of the
league playoffs for an incredible third straight year.
Over the next two seasons the results finally improved, with
an 18-11-1 record (but a first round exit in the playoffs against UNH) in
1982-83, and a lofty 28-11-1 mark—including tying for first place in the ECAC
East division with Boston College at 15-6—in 1983-84, in the Terriers' 23rd and
final season as a member of the ECAC. That BU squad, which featured all-time
leading scorer John Cullen, All-American Second Team defenseman T.J. Connolly
and All-American First Team goalie Cleon Daskalakis, played in the school's
final ECAC championship game at Boston Garden on March 10, 1984 but fell to a
talented and top-seeded RPI club, 5-2. The following weekend, in the
quarterfinal round of the NCAA Tournament, the Terriers were beaten by Jerry
York's Bowling Green Falcons at Walter Brown Arena 8-7 in a two-game
total-goals series that went to overtime before being decided. BU had taken a
three-goal lead in the series after the first game, but it surrendered the lead
the next night and then gave up the agonizing season-ending goal in OT. The
Falcons went on to capture the NCAA title in Lake Placid the following weekend
with a marathon four-overtime victory over Minnesota-Duluth. [continue reading]
Looking back
Charlie Coyle scored his seventh goal in Minnesota's 5-3 win against Edmonton and now has 10 points in 32 games.
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