This Day in BU Hockey: March 26

1994: Making its 5th consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament,  Eastern top-seed BU faced Wisconsin in a quarterfinal match-up with Wisconsin and produced a convincing 4-1 win over the Badgers at Knickerbocker Arena in Albany.  BU's stifling defense limited Wisconsin to 14 shots, 13 of which were turned away by Derek Herlofsky.  Jay Pandolfo scored the game-winner--his fifth of the season. Mike Prendergast scored twice and Ken Rausch had the fourth goal. BU moved on to the Frozen Four in St. Paul for a semifinal contest against Minnesota.

1977: BU defeated New Hampshire, 6-5, in the Frozen Four consolation game, after losing to Michigan, 6-4 in the semifinal. The game was the final one as Terriers for Rick Meagher and Mike Eruzione, who finished their careers as #1 and #2 on BU's all-time scoring list: Meagher (90-120-210); Eruzione (92-116-208). Today, they are 4th and 5th on the list. Meagher was named first-team All-American for the third consecutive year and earned the Gordon "Mickey" Cochrane award as BU Athlete of the Year for 1977.

1976: Top ranked BU lost to Minnesota, 4-2, in the NCAA semifinal in Denver in a game  
known as "The Brawl." BU had entered the game with a 25-3-0 record after routing Harvard, 8-4, in the ECAC semifinal and Brown, 9-2, in the conference title game. The bench-clearing brawl in the game's opening minute, eventually led to a game misconduct for BU's top scorer and co-captain Terry Meagher (30-25-55) and Gopher defenseman Russ Anderson.

Tim Rappleye's book, "Jack Parker's Wise Guys," describes the brawl and the game in detail (long excerpt). The new Mike Eruzione autobiography, "The Making of a Miracle," written with blog contributor Neal Boudette, also details the events of that game from the viewpoint of one who would later be coached by then-Minnesota coach Herb Brooks.

Looking ahead
A pair of 2022 recruits, Lane Hutson and Devin Kaplan, both from the North Jersey Avalanche 16U, have been selected for next year's NTDP U17 roster. Their 2019-20 stats:
--LD Hutson 65 GP, 27 goals, 71 assists,
--RW Kaplan 32 GP 19 goals, 39 assists