Boston College Athletics
The Year-Long Journey to the Postseason
March 26, 2015 | Men's Hockey
Following the Eagles' 6-3 home loss to Harvard on November 11, the men's hockey team sat below .500 several games in to the season for the first time in a long time. At 4-5-0 on the season, fans and pundits wondered if this was a rebuilding year for Jerry York's squad and if the team's postseason appearance run may be over.
It's true that BC lost some pretty potent pieces after last year's Frozen Four run. In fact, three players went directly in to the NHL after the season and four players signed NHL contracts.
But for the team, its early season struggles weren't a surprise, and were even expected. They knew that this year could get off to a rough start. But they had faith in themselves, the program and what would become as the season progressed.
And now, as the team prepares to depart for Providence and its NCAA Tournament first-round date with second-seeded Denver on Saturday afternoon (3 p.m. ET, TV: ESPN2 & WatchESPN, Radio: WEEI 850AM), the Eagles' faith has been rewarded.
"We knew coming in to this year that there would be some growing pains, especially with losing all the guys that we did last year," junior captain Michael Matheson said. "We knew that we'd have to find a different way to score, a different way to defend and a different way to win games. So there were some growing pains."
"At the beginning of the year we struggled a bit and we dropped as lowa as 25 or 30 in the PairWise rankings," sophomore goaltender Thatcher Demko said. "No one was really sure how the year was going to go or the year we were going to have. But, our team has made strides as a whole and a bunch of individual guys have been making more contributions. Right now we're playing some really good hockey and it's been fun to see us develop as team."
That stride kicked in shortly after the Harvard loss. BC went 12-3-2 the next month and a half, and opened February with a 16-8-2 record.
"We've become a much more complete team (since the fall)," Matheson said. "Back then, we were still trying to find our identity and we were a bit of an inexperienced team in that sense. Now we've figured out how we need to play and have a found a bit more consistency in our game."
The early-season adjustments worked and now BC is poised to enter its 34thNCAA Tournament, and 12th in the last 13 years.
"I think that for myself, as a leader, the biggest thing was just to remain patient and make sure that the young guys knew that no one was freaking out in our dressing room," Matheson said. "Everybody can be freaking out in the media or on Twitter, and it's sometimes hard to ignore especially if you're a younger guy and you're not used to it.
"We've just been trying to make sure, at the end of the day, what matters is what's going on in our locker room and we have complete confidence in ourselves that we're a good hockey team. That as a whole has been really important through the year," he continued.
York, whose five NCAA titles is second-most in history, keyed on Matheson's contributions to making sure the Eagles stayed on course to make another postseason run.
"I thought our leadership was terrific," York said. "Mike (Matheson) is a junior captain and was outstanding in that part of leading our club."
The early-season struggles are now a memory to fans, but the Eagles know their hard work throughout the year is the reason they earned a postseason invitation. And the Denver Pioneers are the next date ahead.
