Teammates console freshman goalie Cody Reichard after Boston University scored in overtime to win the National Championship Saturday evening.
"Right now I just want to make sure that we focus and pay tribute to this team, because nobody gave them a chance a few weeks ago, and I'm proud of them and they did a great job. They did a great job. And it doesn't feel good right now, but the sun will come up tomorrow, and the guys will realize what they accomplished," said Miami University ice hockey head coach Enrico Blasi.
What was undeniably the most thrilling post-season Miami hockey has ever seen has now reached its conclusion and, win or lose, the RedHawk faithful could not be more proud of the brotherhood, its inspirational season and its historic firsts in 2009 - a spot in the Frozen Four and a bid for the national championship.
Since day one of the 2008-09 season, Blasi reminded fans this year's team was a work in progress, while still steadfastly maintaining the brotherhood's ultimate and - he insisted - very probable and current goal was to win a national championship. A rollercoaster of highs and lows, wins and losses ensued and the "work in progress" theme evidenced itself along the way. Meanwhile the latter, higher objective seemed to be nothing more than a nice afterthought - a spiel Blasi's given his squad for years and really can't stop holding out hope for, but a goal far out of reach for this year's young team.
23-12-5 and three NCAA tournament victories later, the RedHawks skated to the brink of taking it all.
It will take time for the bitter taste of defeat to fade and for the feeling of having something snatched away to dissipate. Hockey is a game of angles, inches and seconds, and it took only a small number of each to dissolve the brotherhood's 3-1 lead over No. 1 Boston University in the final moments of regulation and send the game into a grueling fourth frame. It's hard to say what exactly happened, and the best explanation may be the hardest one to swallow - that it simply wasn't meant to be this season.
"Obviously I want to congratulate BU in winning, and it was a heck of a hockey game and somebody has to lose, and unfortunately it wasn't meant to be for us," Blasi said.
Even prior to puck drop in the championship round, both teams overcame adversity and made it clear how badly they wanted to take home the most sought-after prize in college hockey.
The RedHawks overcame a disappointing early dismissal from the CCHA tournament at the hands of Northern Michigan University and burst onto the national scene with fire in their hearts and ice in their veins, cruising past Denver University, Minnesota-Duluth and Bemidji State University to reach college hockey's grandest stage. The Terriers beat Ohio State University easily in the Northeast Regional semifinal but only narrowly avoided overtime against New Hampshire in the final and had to stage multiple comebacks to escape defeat in their penultimate Frozen Four game against the University of Vermont.
Boston University is a team renowned for its size, aggression and physicality. The Terriers average 18.3 penalty minutes per game, and it showed Saturday night as BU repeatedly sent Miami to the ice and, in turn, garnered frequent trips to the box. In the meantime, Miami made it clear that it would not be like the other teams that BU had outscored by a cumulative total of 15-8 in the first three games of the tournament.
After a hard fought 15:15, the Terriers finally registered the first goal of the game with 4:45 remaining in the opening stanza. Rookie net minder Cody Reichard denied freshman David Warsofsky's shot from the top of the left face-off circle, but the goalie from Celina, Ohio, couldn't cover up and freshman Chris Connolly was there to put away the rebound.
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BU's goal seemed to be a dangerous omen for the RedHawks, who have only won twice this season when their opponent scores first. The NCAA tournament has seen a different kind of Miami team, though, and junior Gary Steffes cleaned up the garbage and put Miami back in the game just 2:01 into the second period with a low wrist shot past Hockey East Rookie of the Year Kieran Millan's stick side.
The RedHawks' tempo increased, and Miami held BU off the board for the remainder of the period and through the first 19 minutes of the third, lighting the lamp twice more along the way.
Sophomore Tommy Wingels scooped up a Carter Camper rebound and wristed it past Millan to put the brotherhood in the lead with 7:29 remaining in regulation.
Then 3:21 later, senior captain Brian Kaufman picked up a turnover in the neutral zone and fed it to freshman Trent Vogelhuber, who blasted a shot past Millan from the high slot to extend Miami's lead to two.
BU head coach Jack Parker initially pulled Millan from his position between the posts with a little over three minutes remaining, but the Terriers couldn't keep Miami's offensive onslaught out of their zone and, fearing an empty-netter, Parker was forced to go back on his decision. The RedHawk faithful were on their feet, celebrating the brotherhood's seemingly inevitable national championship.
Parker called a time-out to reset the action and pulled his goalie in favor of an extra attacker again. This time the gamble paid off as the RedHawks, whose penalty kill ranks among the nation's best, struggled noticeably with the 6-on-5.
With 59.5 seconds remaining in the final frame, sophomore Colby Cohen managed to sneak a shot past Reichard's glove side.
Then, the unthinkable happened. Senior Chris Higgins fed the puck to sophomore Nick Bonino, who was waiting in the slot to blast it past Reichard's high glove side, knotting up the game with 17.4 seconds remaining in regulation and sending the contest into overtime.
"If you have that puck on your stick, you want to get it off and out of the zone," senior assistant captain Kevin Roeder said. "We had opportunities to do that, and we didn't and they took advantage of that. That's how they got their two goals. It's a bummer. It's a hard pill to swallow right now."
Cohen's slapshot from the left point at 11:47 in the extra period finally sealed the victory for BU, as it bounced off Roeder and sailed past Reichard's high glove side, sending Terriers fans into a frenzied uproar and the RedHawks into devastated, heart wrenching silence.
"I'm getting close to scoring some goals this weekend, and I've been hitting a couple of bars," Cohen said. "I just let it go, and I saw it get blocked and go up and over the goalie's glove. I saw it go in and that was it. I don't remember anything after that. Just an unbelievable feeling."
Earlier in the season, Parker told his squad the story of explorer Hernando Cortes, who sailed from Cuba in 1519 with ambitions of conquering Mexico. Upon landing on the Yucatan Peninsula, Cortes ordered his men to burn their boats so the only possibility of return lay in conquering the Mexicans and seizing their army's boats for the return trip, eliminating the possibility of retreat.
"We were trying to raise the level of commitment," Parker said, explaining why he shared the story with his team.
In the end, the Terriers burned Miami's boat and came away with the win, BU's seventh championship of the season.
Despite the outcome, however, the brotherhood has nothing for which to apologize. From the seniors to the freshman, through every line and from every angle of the game, the RedHawks put together an indescribable season filled with successes many doubted were possible.
Rookie goaltenders Reichard and Connor Knapp came to be ranked among the nation's best, backstopping the brotherhood like veterans throughout the duration of the season and encouraging each other's success.
Camper became an All-American as a sophomor e and finished the season with an astounding 42 points, 12 of which came on the man-advantage.
Miami's largely freshman D-corps finished the season ranked eighth in the nation, averaging an allowance of just 2.17 goals per game.
The RedHawks depth and special teams were nearly unparalleled - a major contributing factor to all of their successes.
Blasi recorded his 200th career win and then some.
Senior Justin Mercier became the first Miamian ever to record 100 career points and 100 career wins and also was the first RedHawk to be named Most Outstanding Player in a NCAA regional tournament.
The senior class became the winningest in school history when it hit the 99-win mark Jan. 31 against Bowling Green State University.
Finally, the brotherhood advanced to the Frozen Four for the first time in school history and made history again by going to the national final.
Not only that, the RedHawks presented the top-ranked team in the country with a sizeable challenge in contention for the championship, holding BU's No. 1 scoring offense to just one goal for 59 minutes. Miami truly left it all on the ice this season, and the brotherhood should have no regrets.
"This senior class has won more games, I believe, than any other program in the country in the last four years," Blasi said. "I would say that's pretty damn good. And I'm proud of the way they played tonight. We didn't get the bounce at the end. But in my books, and I know in a lot of hearts around campus and alums and supporters, they're national champions in our books."
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