It was more like the scream of an Eagle. Not since York was a sophomore in 1965 had BC won three of these silver cooking utensils in a row. Now, the folks from The Heights have done it again and they rightfully can claim that they own the town.
Not by much, mind you. Each of those three victories was by one goal and two of them in overtime. But each one ended with a maroon-and-gold pig-pile on the Garden floor. That was no coincidence. “Every year is fresh and it’s new,’’ York said. “We didn’t win it this year because we won last year.’’
The Eagles won it because they did something nobody had done all year - they scored a shorthanded goal on the Terriers to get the jump in the ninth minute. They won it because goalie Parker Milner is very much back on his game.
Mostly, they won it because they kept coming all night, peppering BU goalie Kieran Millan with 47 shots, most notably the final one that Arnold took when most of the fans were starting to head for the concession stand and some black coffee. “That was playoff hockey at its best,’’ declared BU captain Chris Connolly. “The kind of game you play in March and April.’’
Odds are that both squads still will be playing once spring has sprung. Entering last night’s game, BU was second in the PairWise rankings and BC was tied for fourth. Both of them figure to make the NCAA Tournament, which hasn’t happened in five years, and both could earn a top seed. First, though, they have to play a half-dozen Hockey East games just to figure out who’ll play whom and where.
“Neither one of us is in first place in our league,’’ observed Parker, whose club is tied with BC for second behind UMass-Lowell. “It’s a long way to get to another championship, that’s for sure.’’
