Comeback kings

By Eric Wilbur

April 13, 2009

2 minutes to read

Right up until Saturday night, the best college hockey game I had ever laid witness to was in 1996, when, despite the brilliance of Tim Thomas, the University of Vermont lost to Colorado College, 4-3 in double overtime during the Frozen Four semifinals. It was the longest contest in Vermont college hockey history right up until, oh, last week.

But there’s no way any honest sports fan could have watched Saturday night’s theater and come up with a secondary option for the greatest college hockey game of all time. Impossible.

What Boston University did in erasing a two-goal deficit in the final minute of play vs. Miami of Ohio goes beyond simple comprehension. If it takes a certain mix of skill, determination, and luck to overcome such a late deficit in hockey, the Terriers reached from beyond the depths for a perfect storm of fortitude, snatching victory from the bowels of defeat, and adding another entry into the clichéd, but never-tired entries of “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”

Even if BU’s Colby Cohen hadn’t netted the Tim Wakefield of slap shots past Miami goalie Cody Reichard, the game would have gone down among the greatest. Completing the comeback only cemented it.
Of course, labeling it as the greatest college hockey game ever means little to those who could probably count the amount of collegiate games they’ve watched on one hand. The fact that it was on national TV (Baseball Tonight is on NEXT!) won’t exactly throttle the sport to the levels known by its hoop brethren, nor should it have expected to.
But it was a nice way to end the season. For a network that has ignored the game of hockey, treating it secondarily to what Jay Cutler had for breakfast, it was entertaining to watch ESPN forced to treat the game as its top story come Sunday morning, perhaps the first time it’s been in that slot since…well, when did their contract run out?
Other than the four minutes a week they allow Barry Melrose to escape from the bunker, the NHL is to ESPN as the Emmanuel series is to Nickelodeon.
But to be honest, it was a welcome sound to hear Gary Thorne’s pipes calling a hockey contest again. He didn’t even claim that the improbable turn of events were made up.
Although, the whole thing was so surreal, that might have seemed a logical explanation.
Here’s the final minute of play as witnessed from the stands:

Here’s Thorne with the final minute:

And the game-winner: