Frozen Four final, aka the national championship in top-flight men's college hockey, was last night. I've said it before and I'll say it again: College hockey (women's as well as men's) should be a lot more popular around the country than it is now. But if only pockets of the Upper Midwest and New England are in on this well-kept secret, OK, this will be our well-kept secret. Because frequently in the NCAA men's hockey tournament, you'll get games such as last night's title game, where underdog Providence drew first blood, Boston University scored twice an NCAA-record four seconds apart, the Friars tied it up in the second period only for the Terriers to take the lead again, and finally Provy tallied twice in the third period to give the school their first men's national championship in any sport in its history.
But it'll be that first goal in the third, the one that tied the game at 3, that'll go down in the annals of history. Providence's Tom Parisi, in order to give him and the others on his shift time to get to the bench, chipped the puck over three waiting BU players in their defensive zone and at the Terrier net, where Boston U. Goalie Matt O'Connor caught the high-arcing shot with his glove.
Or so he thought. Well, actually he did, but that lob confused him. O'Connor closed his glove, but he didn't believe he actually caught the puck. He thought it was still loose, so he began looking around the net to find it and he reflexively just opened his glove ... where the puck trickled out, onto the ice, and rolled between his legs and across the goal line.
This was a close game, but since that BU third goal the game settled into a gurgling affair which didn't make you think a score was inevitable. That howler, of course, changed everything. I didn't think it was inevitable that Providence had the, uh, divine providence to win at that point -- the Terriers were the more talented team in the game and they often played like it -- but 2:19 later Brandon Tanev got to the loose puck off of a faceoff in the Boston U. defensive left circle and wristed a shot across O'Connor for the game- and championship-winning score.
All because of that fuck-up by O'Connor. Well, not really. That goal by Tanev was, according to color analyst Barry Melrose of ESPN (side note: Even though The Worldwide Leader did a good job, I think NBC Sports would have done a better one because they're the guys who mainly broadcast hockey nowadays) not O'Connor's fault but the fault of his five teammates for not getting to the puck or to Tanev. The game would have been tied regardless of O'Connor did or failed to do, so Boston University may very well have lost it at the end of the third period or overtime. But right now, I doubt even Matt O'Connor feels that way. He must feel awful at what he did. I really hope he's OK, because something like that can crush a guy.
Poor bastard.
No comments:
Post a Comment