After some rough patches, Eagles are gliding along
DENVER - If it's April and time for the NCAA Frozen Four, it must be Boston College against North Dakota, right?
It certainly seems as if the teams running up against each other has become a rite of spring.
When the squads square off tomorrow at 6 p.m. in the national semifinals at the Pepsi Center, it will mark the seventh time in the last 10 NCAA tournaments they have met. They have collided twice in the quarterfinals (1999, 2005), twice in the semifinals (2006, '07), and twice in the championship game (2000, '01).
Eagles coach Jerry York said the top programs tend to see each other over and over.
"This is the fourth straight year we've played North Dakota," said York. "So that's all our senior class has known.
"Our field is so small, 16 teams, that you're going to play those teams. It's eerie when you think about it, it's our third straight semifinals against North Dakota."
Early in the season, BC didn't appear to have the consistency to make it even as far as the NCAA regionals. The Eagles were stumbling along through Thanksgiving, with a six-game winless streak that ran from Nov. 2-23 (0-3-3). Their only win that month was Nov. 30 against archrival Boston University.
BC played much better the rest of the year but hit another rough patch in mid-February, after beating Harvard in overtime in the Beanpot championship Feb. 11. Over the next seven games, the Eagles had one win (1-5-1). During that skid, the seniors were alarmed enough to take action.
"After our UNH weekend, we had a closed-door meeting," said forward Matt Greene, referring to Feb. 22-23, when the Wildcats beat them twice by a combined 7-1. "When you have a closed-door meeting, the season isn't going well. The coaches aren't there, it's the captain's responsibility to turn things around, and [Mike Brennan] did.
"We all pulled it together after that. We had maybe two closed-door meetings this year. That's not the way you want the season to go, but it's the sign of a good captain to get things in the right direction. As a captain, calling a closed-door meeting is tough to do because nobody wants to do it. He does the tough things necessary."
The Eagles looked down and out March 30 when Miami of Ohio took a 2-0 lead in Worcester in the Northeast Regional championship.
But they scored three goals in a 1-minute-58-second span to take the lead, eventually winning in overtime.
"When we were panicking during our losing streaks, that's when it would turn into 3-0 and 4-0," said Greene. "When we stay positive, good things tend to happen. You're not going to win every single game just because you're positive.
"When we're getting on each other, when we're complaining about a bad pass or complaining about an icing, it's bad karma and it never works out. [Brennan] kind of pulls us together with [the coaches]."
Greene said it was hard to figure out why the team came out so flat in the early going of the regional final, and there were times when a loss appeared inevitable, particularly in overtime, when the RedHawks had a 10-4 shot differential and were swarming the net.
But freshman goaltender John Muse kept the Eagles in it until freshman Joe Whitney converted a Dan Bertram rebound into a highlight-reel goal at 12:12 of the extra session. BC had been leading until 9:02 of the third when Miami captain Ryan Jones beat Muse to tie it up at 3-3.
"I can't speak for everybody, but you can't deny it takes a little bit of the wind out of your sails because you're going down the home stretch," said Greene. "You're exhausted, you want to win the game so badly.
"Once it went into overtime, I think we were pretty confident because we'd had so many overtime games this year. We weren't nervous, we weren't jittery. They took the play to us in overtime but you find a way to weather the storm."
That's something the Eagles have done all year, and now it appears there isn't a cloud in their sky. York said it took some time to get his finger on the pulse of the 2007-08 edition, but the fact the Eagles have overcome adversity bodes well in his mind.
"It's a unique team, it really is," said York. "There are some teams, you think at the start of the year, 'Hey, this is our best team to win the nationals.' This team, I knew we were good but I never envisioned we were going to be competing in the [Frozen Four], especially as we went through the year.
"I thought we were going to be pretty good but that we were a year away. Everything just seemed like it was going to be a good year for us but not a spectacular year. Us coaches got fooled."
Frozen Four semifinal
Who: BC vs. North Dakota
When: Tomorrow, 6 p.m.
Where: Pepsi Center, Denver
TV, radio: ESPN2, WTTT (1150)
Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com
