Boston College Athletics
Gionta Looks To Script Perfect Ending To Stellar Career
February 18, 2001 | Men's Hockey
Feb. 18, 2001
By Stephan Lemon - Media Relations Assistant
When people speak of Brian Gionta, it invariably ends up sounding like the movie trailer to the next blockbuster action film to hit the local Cineplex.
"I thought I had seen everything," gushes a teammate.
"I thought he couldn't surprise me again," adds another.
"Never in all my years have I seen anything like Brian Gionta," says a BC hockey Hall of Famer, of Gionta's efforts on the ice.
"He's a credit to the league, he's been a warrior for four years," acknowledges an opposing coach.
"Hobey Baker, Hobey Baker," chants the enthralled student section.
"We've come to expect the unexpected from Brian," beams his head coach, who gave him a chance to shine when other programs passed on his services due to his lack of size.
Big words for a player who, at 5' 7" tall and 180 pounds, belies his status as BC hockey's leading man. His list of credits is enough to impress even the most jaded critics, reading like the lineup of some star-studded, Oscar Award-winning movie. Named the HOCKEY EAST Rookie of the Year after a freshman campaign that saw him lead the country as the nation's top-scoring freshman, Gionta went on to be named first team All-America after his sophomore and junior seasons.
He was a member of two United States National Teams that competed in the World Championships and has represented the U. S. in international competition seven times. For the last two seasons, he has been a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, and a third bid for the award is a strong possibility this season.
Gionta's senior year has seen him establish no fewer than five school and HOCKEY EAST records. This season he has broken the school record for career goals, career hat tricks, career shorthanded goals, and has set league marks for goals in a game and goals in a period with five.
All of the personal accolades aside, Gionta has always been a supporting cast kind of guy. The quintessential goal scorer on the ice, the Rochester, N. Y. native prefers to dish the assists once he is off of it. Rarely in a postgame interview will one hear the senior take full credit for his on-ice endeavors, preferring instead to praise his teammates for their essential roles in his success.
"Without the teammates and linemates I've had over the years none of my success would have been possible," Gionta explains. "Guys like Marty Reasoner, Blake Bellefeuille and Andy Powers were great linemates I've played with. This year it's Ben Eaves and Tony Voce. These guys, and all of my teammates, deserve just as much credit, they don't get as much press time, but those guys are making this team run."
After Gionta scored five goals in the first period of BC's 7-2 win over Maine on Jan. 27, Gionta could have said he was hot and had a great game, but as the media converged on the star of the game in the Eagles' locker room - his shooting shoulder wrapped in ice after firing off five improbable shots for five unbelievable goals - all that could be heard was Gionta singing the praises of teammates who had sacrificed themselves for the good of the team.
"I can go through all of the goals," Gionta said. "Ben Eaves' backdoor play took the goalie out of the way and gave me an open net for the first goal. On the second goal, if Chuck Kobasew doesn't make a diving play, doesn't sacrifice himself to get the puck out of Maine's zone, I don't get a chance. If Ales Dolinar doesn't work hard and get the puck down, I don't get the third goal."
Gionta thrust himself right back into the Hobey Baker race after the record-breaking five-goals-in-one-period effort. Over the next few days he would be called upon by reporters and fans alike to recount his thoughts and feelings during the improbable period.
The first goal, described by Gionta as being "one of the easiest goals I've scored in four years," came off of a feed from freshman linemate Ben Eaves at 7:57. Eaves drew Maine goaltender Matt Yeats to the left side, and then sent a sharp pass to Gionta, who buried the puck into the back of the net.
The second goal was a shorthanded score at 9:25 set up by another freshman, Chuck Kobasew, who sacrificed his body, diving to the ice to clear the puck out of the Eagles' zone and down the ice to a streaking Gionta. It was the score that most demoralized the Black Bears, according to Gionta, who has become a specialist at taking the wind out of the collective sails of opposing teams by way of the shorthanded goal.
"To have a shorthanded goal scored against you when you are looking to get back into the game is definitely something that deflates a team," the Eagles' captain said. The man-down goal gave Gionta the BC record for career shorthanded goals.
Gionta capitalized on a Maine penalty for the third goal at 14:37, when junior forward Ales Dolinar wristed a shot toward the Black Bears net. The rebound landed in front of Gionta, who tapped it in for the natural hat trick, having scored an even strength, shorthanded and power-play goal. The three-goal effort allowed Gionta to set a Boston College record for career hat tricks at nine.
Already with three goals on three shots, Gionta struck again on the power play at 17:23.
"The fourth goal was again just laying there in front of the net and I just touched it in," explained Gionta. "It's a 4-0 game and I have all four goals. It's just something strange that's happening, but the team is playing well and we're starting to roll." For the third time in the game, Gionta sets another record. His fourth goal of the period established a HOCKEY EAST mark for goals in one period.
After Gionta jumped into the glass behind the Maine net, he skated over to the bench to celebrate with his teammates. He also, as all Eagle goal scorers do, made his way down to goaltender Scott Clemmensen - for the fourth time in the period.
"He was laughing at me when I went down to celebrate with him after the fourth goal. I saw him smiling through the mask," Gionta said.
"I told him not to come down here anymore," joked the senior goalie, BC's all-time leader in goalie wins. "If he wanted to score some more goals, that was fine, but he didn't need to come down and shake my hand anymore."
As the first period came to an end, the crowd, already whipped into a frenzy and feeling that their trip to Kelley Rink was well worth the price of admission, witnessed the culmination of perhaps one of the greatest single-game performances in hockey history. Gionta got possession of the puck at his own blue line and glanced up at the clock.
"There's about six seconds left, I just wanted to get inside Maine's blueline and take a shot, and it happened to find the net," Gionta humbly recounted.
Clemmensen knew that it was a special night. If anyone was qualified to discuss his classmate's performance, it was Clemmensen, who over the past four years and 140-plus games witnessed many of Gionta's heroics. He was hardly surprised when Gionta scored his fifth and final goal of the period.
"I knew that when he had that two-on-one that he was going to shoot and that it was going to go in. I started laughing even before he shot the puck," Clemmensen said.
Most players would be satisfied being remembered for a five-goal game, but Brian Gionta has never been lumped into the category of "most players." Defenseman Bobby Allen, who also has been on the ice for the majority of his roommate's games, was as stunned as everybody else at Kelley Rink that night.
"I've got to go back to my days in mite hockey and squirt hockey to find a teammate who's done that," but Allen knows that Gionta isn't one to accept the tag of "scorer" as his legacy at BC. "That was a great game, but Brian would trade this game for a shot at the national championship in a heartbeat."
Gionta can envision how he would like to end his career at BC. "For the last game of my senior year to be a national championship win with 25 of my best friends would be the ultimate pinnacle of my career," says Gionta, who has been a key player in BC's run of three straight trips to the Frozen Four. "It would be a story that couldn't be written any better."
For hockey fans at the Heights - who over the past few years have been used to "cliffhangers" - a national championship would indeed be a suitable ending to the careers of a talented and deserving senior class, and to its leading man, Brian Gionta.
