Best in show to Terriers, but ...

By Allen Lessels, Globe Staff, 02/14/1996

While Mike Grier, Chris Kelleher, Chris Drury and assorted other Terriers gave their spins on Boston University's Beanpot Blowout late Monday night outside the FleetCenter locker rooms, coach Jack Parker -- somewhat shell- shocked -- apologized for the show his team and Northeastern put on in the 44th edition of the tournament.

Even given a little time, BU's 19th overall title and fifth in the '90s didn't look a whole lot better yesterday afternoon. Parker was up until about 2:30 a.m. watching the game on tape.

A win is a win and a title is a title, but Parker didn't appreciate the 11-4 victory over Ben Smith's team on tape any more than he did watching it live.

"It was still odd," Parker said yesterday. "It was almost like the game had a life of its own. I've been on the receiving end of that a few times and I know how it feels. It's just amazing that two teams that expect to play a certain style -- play defense first and be disciplined as far as penalties are concerned -- would get involved in emotions and get taken out of position and taken to the penalty box as much as both teams were."

In the first period alone, BU took a 3-0 lead, NU tied it at 3-3 and BU
went back in front, 5-3. Six straight BU goals in the first half of the second period made it 11-3, and the Huskies were done. And there was still half a game to go. BU scored four goals on the power play and one shorthanded, and Northeastern had two goals with the man advantage.

Wild.

Much too wild for Parker's taste.

"Both teams would probably like to have that game to play over," said Parker (and how many 11-4 title winners say that?). "That's not to say Chris Drury is not happy with a hat trick, Jay Pandolfo with a great shorthanded goal and Tommy Noble with some great saves.

"But generally, you want to put on a great show in the Beanpot, and most of the time teams do. But once in a while, a game will evolve -- I don't want to say dissolve -- to where it gets out of hand. Neither one of us played our best. We did our best with an offensive show, but that was mostly because the puck bounced for us. We got some unbelievable bounces."

Who knows what the win means for the road ahead?

"It's too early to tell," Parker said. "Although we played pretty good, it's not a real good measure. I certainly hope it doesn't give us an inflated view of ourselves, which is what happened earlier in the year when the puck was jumping in the net. We've got to win defensively. We didn't play solid defense, but we didn't have to. And it's hard to get that defensive focus back once you lose it."

If nothing else, Parker figures, the Beanpot will make Northeastern -- which has lost to BU, 10-2 and 11-4, the last two times out -- even tougher when they meet in the next-to-last game of the season March 1.

Far more than any boost they got from the Beanpot championship, it was the embarrassing 9-1 loss to Lake Superior State in the 1994 national final that spurred the Terriers throughout last season.

"That's why I can feel what Ben and Northeastern were going through," Parker said. "And we had to go through it in an even worse venue -- the NCAA final game. That was a catalyst to last year's season of championships."

Parker, his players and Smith downplayed any notion that the Terriers, who have won two straight and five of the last seven Beanpots, have become too good for the tournament.

"Not at all," said Drury. "Anyone can come in and beat everyone. The puck just jumped in for us. I don't think we're too good. I don't think any team will ever be too good. It's the Beanpot."

Fair's fair, said Smith.

"They're in our league," Smith said. "We play them three times a year. It certainly seemed like a long night. But it's fair. They had 20 guys. We had 20 guys."

Sometimes it seems the Terriers are on a permanent power play.

And now, with the first leg of the "triple crown" they won last year in hand, they look toward the last six games of the Hockey East schedule, the league tournament and then the NCAAs.

"This is a big momentum-builder," Drury said. "But we've still got a long ways to go."

After having yesterday off, the Terriers will hear that today from Parker.

Momentum, shmomentum.

Last year the Terriers won the Beanpot. And four nights later lost at Providence, 8-1.

"Guess where we're going Friday," said Parker, whose team is at Providence and then hosts the Friars Saturday. "That will give us something to think about."

And also know this: The Terriers bounced back from that 8-1 loss with a 6-3 win over Providence the next night and then ran nine straight games to the national championship.