Boston College Athletics
Q & A With Scott Clemmensen
March 31, 2000 | Men's Hockey
March 31, 2000
Chestnut Hill, Mass. - Junior goaltender Scott Clemmensen has helped lead Boston College to the Frozen Four in each of his three seasons at The Heights. In 1998, Clemmensen and the Eagles reached the national championship game before losing to Michigan, 3-2, in overtime. Last season, Boston College dropped another overtime heartbreaker, this time to Maine in the semifinals, 2-1. With plenty of postseason experience under his belt, Clemmensen hopes to propel the Eagles all the way to their first national title since 1949.
You've been here for three years and made it to the Frozen Four every time. How does it feel to get back there again? Do you ever get sick of it?
Clemmensen: It's never boring going to the Frozen Four. The upperclassmen on this team have been through a lot in the last two years, going all the way to the championship game two years ago and then the semifinals last year - both games in overtime. We keep getting shots at it, but this is the seniors' last chance. If we don't get it this time, I've only got one more, so we're really trying to push for this year. No matter what happens, if we do win it all, the previous two years' experience has definitely played a part in that.
Obviously no one likes to get there and lose, but do you think that experience has helped you even more?
Clemmensen: It just reminds you how hard you have to play and how tough it is to get there. It's a really hard road, and it seems like every year it gets harder and harder. My first year we had a bye, last year we had to go through Northern Michigan and North Dakota, and this year we had to go through Michigan State and Wisconsin. When you play those good teams like that - I mean, every team that makes the NCAA Tournament is going to be a good team - but when you play those top teams like that, it really prepares you well, especially this year, for the group of teams that's going to be in the Frozen Four.
With all the scorers on this team, you don't necessarily get the credit that you deserve. You've broken the school shutout records and gotten to the Frozen Four the last two years - and there's still people doubting you. Does it bother you that you've accomplished so much and people still have doubts?
Clemmensen: Most of the time, the people on those message boards and stuff don't really understand what they're talking about. I don't think most of those people have played a sport, let alone put on the goalie pads. I don't really pay too much attention to that. All I can do is go out there and keep winning games. I think I've accomplished a lot, and our team has accomplished a lot. If we score five goals and (Jeff) Farkas or (Brian) Gionta gets the headlines, that's fine with me. I don't care. I'll take the trophies and the team championships. I would've expected it a little bit more my freshman year, when I had to go out and prove myself a little bit, but now I think I'm well beyond proving to people that I can win games. All those comments don't really hold that much water. If it is someone who's in some position of validity, where they actually do know what they're talking about, then that would kind of give me some incentive to prove them wrong if I haven't already.
Coach York has said that the competition between you and Tim Kelleher has helped to make you better. Obviously your numbers have improved. Does it bother you that you aren't playing every game, like you were your first two years, or do you think it was a good thing?
Clemmensen: Well, Timmy's obviously a good goalie. If he wasn't, then maybe I would be bothered if we kept rotating, but he's played so well, and he did push me. The last two years I was prepared to play pretty much every game, so I knew that if I didn't have such a good game the first night, I could come back and redeem myself the second night. This year, it was a week to week thing. You didn't know which game you were going to play, and that was your game for the week. If you didn't play that well, then the next weekend's game was kind of weighed a little bit more. I think the competition was a good thing. Obviously Kelleher made me that much better.
Was it tougher to prepare, going from playing night in and night out to playing once a week?
Clemmensen: I guess the preparation isn't that bad. It isn't much of a change, but when you're only playing one, then you're sitting out the other one, and no one wants to sit out any games. But it's a good thing to get some rest, and you can see the game from a different viewpoint when you're on the bench. The last two years, playing every day, you get our team's best games plus our team's worst games. So it can help you and hurt you. This year, I was on the bench for some of our bad games, so you can benefit from that too.
Have you pictured at all what it would be like to win the national championship?
Clemmensen: I think each year it's gotten to be more realistic. My freshman year, I didn't even know what college hockey was about, if we would be good or not. Growing up, I never really thought I would play in college, so my freshman year, we go all the way to the national championship game, and all of a sudden I'm playing in the FleetCenter, 18,000 people in the national championship, it was kind of surreal. Last year we knew we could do it, we knew it was a goal, we got all the way to the Frozen Four again, and then we got knocked out in the semifinal game. But it was still there, and I think this year it's even becoming more realistic. We're right in the picture. We're back in the Frozen Four. I like the matchups with the teams. I think it's becoming more of a realistic goal, and I have thought about winning it and how great it would be, but I don't think of it so much as a dream or a surreal kind of feeling. It's more of a concrete achievement that we can go out and get.
Have you thought at all about the legacy you're going to leave here when you leave after next year, both as a class and as an individual?
Clemmensen: I guess I never really thought about it in terms of leaving a mark, but probably the day I graduate it'll start, and as the years go by I'll look back on BC and how much fun it was, and take pride in the fact that maybe I did leave a little bit of a mark here. To help other people do the same - where we can help each other - like Mike Mottau's play helps me achieve certain goals, national championships or whatever, and I can help those people do the same thing. I think that's the most rewarding thing, to say that I played a part in their mark here. It's hard to realize it when you're here. Just like they say when you graduate and you're out in the real world, you don't know how good you have it in college. I think that's kind of what it'll be like, where I'll look back at my years at BC and realize that we had some great teams and I played with a lot of great players and we accomplished an awful lot.
