Long trip to Mile High

York, Eagles needed to overcome obstacles

For the third time as a head coach, Boston College's Jerry York accepts the hardware befitting an NCAA national hockey champion. (John Bohn/Globe Staff)

DENVER - "I like Denver."

Those were the very last words spoken by Jerry York at his press conference Saturday night, and the Boston College hockey coach said them almost to himself, swallowing their bravado and the hint of self-satisfaction. He couldn't keep the note of wonder out of his voice.

"I like Denver," he said, as he savored the moment.

The Eagles won the national championship with a 4-1 victory over Notre Dame at the packed Pepsi Center, the unstoppable Nathan Gerbe (two goals, two assists) scoring once from his stomach, setting up Ben Smith with a blind backpass off the end boards, and then jumping higher than anyone else to join the merry pile descending on goalie John Muse moments after the final buzzer.

York never claimed credit for making competitors out of compost, but that's surely what he and assistants Greg Brown, Mike Cavanaugh, and Jim Logue did this season.

After being spurned in the 2006 and 2007 Frozen Four finals, the 2007-08 Eagles expected to make a third straight run at the national title. But the BC squad that finally got it done was not much like the one York had penciled into position over the summer.

York's professed goal every season is to win the national title, but this journey was undercut three times along the way. Goalie Cory Schneider, a three-year starter with game-stealing moves, left to become a professional with the Vancouver Canucks organization. Then Brock Bradford, an All-America forward, broke his left humerus - twice - and was lost for the season. Two more players left in November when hot-shot junior defenseman Brett Motherwell and senior defenseman Brian O'Hanley were dismissed by York for disciplinary reasons.

What York had, really, was not so much a two-time national finalist, but a patched-up Hockey East squad, highlighted by a few players with extraordinary offensive skills.

That left five freshmen, including Muse, to be worked into the lineup, and a locker room to be settled after the dismissal of two veterans.

Predictably, the season was not a smooth slide.

Muse was the new No. 1 goalie, and neither York nor Muse had envisioned the kid from Noble and Greenough getting much playing time in his first year. Instead, he was the only goaltender the Eagles played, earning a 2.20 goals-against average in 44 games, with a .921 save percentage.

The stickhandling wizards had their moments - Gerbe's four-goal night against Harvard, for instance, or Benn Ferriero racking up four goals and 6 points in the four games of the Hockey East tournament.

At some point in March, it just seemed to get fun. Gerbe kept getting faster and better, and if it wasn't him, it was Joe Whitney or Ferriero or Ben Smith breaking loose.

York teaches patience and discipline. He doesn't swear. He doesn't allow long hair or facial hair on his players. The players are respectful and polite in dealing with the public, as is York. The coach does his best to maximize the number of "backyard" players from Massachusetts on his roster, and his team is stocked with players who dreamed of playing for BC.

Whitney, a freshman from Reading, stumbled around the locker room after the championship game, his eyes glazed with joy.

"I don't even know what to do," he said. "I'm so happy to be a part of this."

"Nobody in this room every doubted. We're such a close group, and we look up to our coaches."

After winning the Frozen Four, York is tied with another legendary Boston coach, Jack Parker of Boston University, for all-time NCAA Tournament wins (26). In the last 11 years, however, York has earned the best postseason record in the nation: 57-15. He has won three national titles, in 1984 with Bowling Green, and in 2001 and '08 with BC.

Now, York knows, comes the extra stuff, building on the priceless memories from the ice.

"There's a trip to the White House, there's a Fenway Park opening," said York. "It never ends. You report back to your team all the time.

"I'm the same way. At Bowling Green, I had some fabulous teams, but that '84 team just stands out.

"And then here at BC, there's that '01 team, and now we've got the '08 team. It just kind of stays forever."

Barbara Matson can be reached at matson@globe.com.