Wikipedia

1971–72 Boston University Terriers men's ice hockey season

The 1971–72 Boston University Terriers men's ice hockey team represented Boston University in college ice hockey. In its 10th year under head coach Jack Kelley the team compiled a 26–4–1 record and reached the NCAA tournament for the eighth time. The Terriers defeated Cornell 4–0 in the championship game at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts to win their second consecutive national championship.

1971–72 Boston University Terriers
men's ice hockey season
National champion
ECAC Holiday tournament, champion
Beanpot, champion
ECAC Hockey tournament, champion
NCAA tournament, champion
Conference3rd ECAC Hockey
Home iceWalter Brown Arena
Record
Overall26–4–1
Conference15–4–1
Home12–1–1
Road5–2–0
Neutral9–1
Coaches and captains
Head coachJack Kelley
Assistant coachesBob Crocker
Jack Parker
Andy Fila
Captain(s)John Danby[1]
Boston University Terriers men's ice hockey seasons
« 1970–71 1972–73 »

Season

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Fast start

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Coming on the heels of their first national championship, Boston University opened their season in a brand new home rink, the Walter Brown Arena. The Terriers would no longer have to share their home ice with Northeastern and christened their new home with a win over Yale. BU visited Brown for their next game and shut out the opposition for the first of four times on the season. The Terriers returned home and escaped with a narrow 2–1 win over New Hampshire then welcomed Harvard four days later and the two Boston powerhouses fought to a 4–4 draw. The Terriers rounded out the first part of the schedule with a pair of wins, the first at Princeton and then home against Ohio, the only ever meeting between the two schools.[2]

Holiday Tournaments

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With the Boston Arena Christmas Tournament now retired, BU signed on to play in both the ECAC Christmas Tournament and the Syracuse Invitational over their winter break. In the ECAC series Boston University opened against Northeastern and downed the hapless Huskies 4–1 to advance. The Terriers then faced Rensselaer in the final and dominated the competition to get their second shutout on the season and capture the tournament crown.

Just before the first of the year the Terriers headed to Syracuse and took on Minnesota for a rematch of the previous year's national championship. The Gophers put up a much better fight and the two squads fought to a 3–3 tie after 60 minutes. Because this was a tournament game, however, the two teams would continue until someone scored the deciding goal. In the end it was the Terriers who came out victorious and earned the right to face Cornell for the championship. From the start it was apparent that BU was the better team but even with the Terriers outshooting the Big Red 12–5 it was Cornell who scored first. A power play goal mid-way through the second allowed BU to the tie the game followed by a second marker 4 minutes later. BU continued to out chance their opponent but Dan Brady faltered n the third and allowed two goals on only six shots while Dave Elenbaas shut the door on Kelley's boys to take the championship and improve to 7–0 on the season.[3]

The loss to Cornell was only a minor setback for the Terriers but they had already suffered a big loss when after an exhibition game against the US Olympic Team co-starting goalie Tim Regan was lured away to play for the national team. With the Terriers still had the starter from the previous year's championship team in Brady, the duo had split the BU net for the previous two seasons and the Terriers were entering uncharted waters.

Life Without Regan

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The Terriers returned to their regular season with an easy game against College Division Merrimack then hit the road to take on Clarkson, and were soundly beaten by the Golden Knights 2–6. BU rebounded the next night against St. Lawrence before returning home to take on cross-town nemesis Boston College. After defeating the Eagles BU welcomed in two College Division opponents and despite receiving a tough game from eventual ECAC 2 champion Massachusetts, the Terriers were in the midst of a win streak.

After wins at Providence and home against Saint Louis Regan returned to the team. In his agreement to play for the national team head coach Murray Williamson would allow Regan to return to BU if Regan was not going to be the starter for the team at the Olympics. When the team decided to stick with Mike Curran and Peter Sears Regan left in the middle of the games to rejoin the Terriers, but with the squad streaking Dan Brady remained in goal.

Beanpot

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Boston University opened the 20th Beanpot with a 4–2 win over BC in the semifinal and, after a narrow victory over New Hampshire, the tournament concluded with the Terriers taking down Harvard 4–1 for their seventh title.

After running their win streak to 11 games the third meeting with Boston College ended with a loss and the worst defensive performance all season. The loss was even more damaging for BU since it meant that Cornell, who had lost three conference games since the earlier meeting of the two teams, was now in a virtual tie with the Terriers for the top spot in the ECAC tournament. After winning at home against Providence BU ended their season with a rematch against the Big Red. While Cornell still had one more game to play after the meeting, if the Terriers won the game they would guarantee themselves the ECAC championship.

The Big Red opened the scoring once more and, after BU tied the game, Cornell extended their lead to two with goals early in the second and third period. Brady played much better in the second meeting and allowed Boston University to close the gap with a power play marker mid-way through the third but Elenbaas shut the door the rest of the way and Cornell won the ECAC championship.[4]

ECAC tournament

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BU entered the tournament as the second seed and met Rensselaer in the first round. As they had the year before the Terriers easily dispatched the Engineers to advance to the semifinal round at the Boston Garden. Boston University faced Harvard for the third time and finally, after five years of trying, BU was able to return to the ECAC championship game with a 3–1 win. In their way stood only Cornell and this time the Terriers were ready. BU were the ones who started the scoring, getting a goal past Elenbaas less than 90 seconds into the contest and again with under three to play in the first. The BU defense helped Brady by limiting the Big Red to only 5 shots in the opening frame. Cornell was able to cut the lead in half late in the second period but BU reestablished their 2-goal advantage less than two minutes later. The Terriers increased their lead early in the third while Brady shut all further opportunities down and the Terriers won their first ECAC tournament championship.[5]

NCAA tournament

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BU was looking to become the first eastern team to defend its national championship but their efforts were dealt a tremendous blow just two days before the championship began when Dan Brady was felled by a knee injury. Regan, who had played only spot duty over the previous six weeks, was the Terriers' only hope of repeating and when they faced Wisconsin in the semifinal things looked bleak early.[6] Regan allowed Wisconsin to score a soft goal early in the game but after the rude welcome the Terriers buckled down and insulated their netminder while he got skating legs under him. Once Regan recovered his form the Terriers were able to go on the offensive and score the next four goals to skate away with the win.

In the final game BU was once again pitted against Cornell but after being one of the few teams that could beat the Big Red in the past five years, BU was not afraid of the Ithaca powerhouse. Cornell got off to a good start and outshot the Terriers in the first but an ill-advised penalty from Gordon McCormick gave BU their first power play of the game and Ron Anderson capitalized. The game remained that way for over 20 minutes before BU potted their second man-advantage marker, this time from Ric Jordan. All of this was happening while Cornell continued to pepper Regan with shots but none could find the back of the net. Another Anderson goal came before the two-minute mark of the third and the game appeared to be slipping away from the Big Red. Jordan's second goal with 7 minutes left gave the Terriers a near-insurmountable lead and though they were playing for pride at this point, the Terriers still could not score a goal and Regan earned the shutout to give BU the national championship.

Tim Regan tied the record for lowest GAA in the tournament (Ken Dryden and Gerry Powers) with a 0.50 mark and was the obvious choice for Tournament MOP. Regan was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Bob Brown, Ric Jordan and John Danby. Brown, Danby and Brady were named to the AHCA All-American East Team[7] and, while Danby and Jordan ended up on the All-ECAC Hockey Second Team,[8] Ric Jordan made the Second Team. Brown and Brady made the first team. Bob Brown, after tying for the team lead in scoring, received the ECAC Hockey Player of the Year,[9] the first Terrier so honored.

Jack Kelley had announced before the final that he was retiring from college hockey and his team did not fail to give him the send-off he deserved. Kelley's squad was the first (and only as of 2019) eastern team to defend it's championship and though his immediate replacement would turn out disastrously for BU, assistant coach Jack Parker would eventually assume the reins and lead the team for 40 years.

Standings

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1971–72 ECAC Hockey standings
Conference Overall
GP W L T Pct. GF GA GP W L T GF GA
Cornell† 20 17 3 0 .850 117 58 29 23 6 0 175 82
Harvard 21 16 4 1 .786 118 62 26 17 8 1 127 76
Boston University* 20 15 4 1 .775 88 53 31 26 4 1 155 69
Pennsylvania 21 14 7 0 .667 107 75 25 16 9 0 122 90
New Hampshire 18 12 6 0 .667 82 61 30 20 10 0 140 109
Clarkson 20 12 8 0 .600 96 74 30 20 10 0 158 102
Rensselaer 17 9 7 1 .559 64 62 27 17 9 1 123 84
Providence 17 9 8 0 .529 73 75 24 14 9 1 106 102
Dartmouth 18 9 8 1 .528 81 78 24 13 10 1 120 103
Boston College 21 10 11 0 .476 93 106 30 14 16 0 130 155
Brown 21 9 11 1 .452 70 75 23 10 12 1 78 84
St. Lawrence 18 5 12 1 .306 63 78 26 10 14 2 100 108
Yale 17 5 12 0 .294 70 105 24 10 14 0 108 128
Colgate 19 5 14 0 .263 52 94 26 8 18 0 83 122
Princeton 19 5 14 0 .263 52 108 23 5 18 0 62 127
Northeastern 20 3 17 0 .150 68 118 26 6 20 0 102 145
Army 10 1 9 0 .100 29 44 25 11 14 0 99 88
Championship: Boston University
† indicates conference regular season champion
* indicates conference tournament champion

Schedule

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Date Opponent# Rank# Site Result Record
Regular Season
November 27 vs. Yale Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 6–3  1–0 (1–0)
December 1 at Brown Meehan Auditorium • Providence, Rhode Island W 3–0  2–0 (2–0)
December 4 vs. New Hampshire Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 2–1  3–0 (3–0)
December 8 vs. Harvard Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts T 4–4 OT 3–0–1 (3–0–1)
December 11 at Princeton Hobey Baker Memorial Rink • Princeton, New Jersey W 6–1  4–0–1 (4–0–1)
December 13 vs. Ohio* Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 9–1  5–0–1 (4–0–1)
ECAC Christmas Hockey Tournament
December 21 vs. Northeastern Boston Garden • Boston, Massachusetts (ECAC Christmas Tournament) W 4–1  6–0–1 (5–0–1)
December 22 vs. Rensselaer Boston Garden • Boston, Massachusetts (ECAC Christmas Tournament) W 4–0  7–0–1 (6–0–1)
Syracuse Invitational Tournament
December 29 vs. Minnesota* Onondaga War Memorial • Syracuse, New York (Syracuse Invitational) W 4–3 2OT 8–0–1 (6–0–1)
December 30 vs. Cornell Onondaga War Memorial • Syracuse, New York (Syracuse Invitational) L 2–3  8–1–1 (6–1–1)
January 4 vs. Merrimack* Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 13–1  9–1–1 (6–1–1)
January 7 at Clarkson Walker Arena • Potsdam, New York L 2–6  9–2–1 (6–2–1)
January 8 at St. Lawrence Appleton Arena • Canton, New York W 5–3  10–2–1 (7–2–1)
January 14 vs. Boston College Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 4–1  11–2–1 (8–2–1)
January 19 vs. Massachusetts* Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 6–4  12–2–1 (8–2–1)
January 22 vs. Vermont* Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 7–2  13–2–1 (8–2–1)
January 26 at Providence Rhode Island Auditorium • Providence, Rhode Island W 7–2  14–2–1 (9–2–1)
January 29 vs. Saint Louis* Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 5–0  15–2–1 (9–2–1)
February 3 vs. Colgate Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 5–3  16–2–1 (10–2–1)
Beanpot
February 7 vs. Boston College Boston Garden • Boston, Massachusetts (Beanpot Semifinal) W 4–2  17–2–1 (11–2–1)
February 11 at New Hampshire Snively Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 6–5  18–2–1 (12–2–1)
February 14 vs. Harvard Boston Garden • Boston, Massachusetts (Beanpot Championship) W 4–1  19–2–1 (13–2–1)
February 18 vs. Rensselaer Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 7–3  20–2–1 (14–2–1)
February 23 at Boston College McHugh Forum • Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts L 5–7  20–3–1 (14–3–1)
February 26 vs. Providence Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts W 6–4  21–3–1 (15–3–1)
March 1 vs. Cornell Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts L 2–3  21–4–1 (15–4–1)
ECAC Hockey tournament
March 7 vs. Rensselaer* Walter Brown Arena • Boston, Massachusetts (ECAC Quarterfinal) W 8–2  22–4–1 (15–4–1)
March 10 vs. Harvard* Boston Garden • Boston, Massachusetts (ECAC Semifinal) W 3–1  23–4–1 (15–4–1)
March 11 vs. Cornell* Boston Garden • Boston, Massachusetts (ECAC Championship) W 4–1  24–4–1 (15–4–1)
NCAA tournament
March 16 vs. Wisconsin* Boston Garden • Boston, Massachusetts (National Semifinal) W 4–1  25–4–1 (15–4–1)
March 18 vs. Cornell* Boston Garden • Boston, Massachusetts (National Championship) W 4–0  26–4–1 (15–4–1)
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from USCHO.com Poll.
Source:

[1]

Roster and scoring statistics

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No. Name Year Position Hometown S/P/C Games Goals Assists Pts PIM
12 John Danby Senior C Port Credit, ON   26 26 24 50 14
2 Bob Brown Junior D Scarborough, ON   31 14 36 50 36
19 Ron Anderson Junior W Moncton, NB   31 19 27 46 26
17 Bob Gryp Senior W Merlin, ON   31 9 36 45 14
7 Ric Jordan Junior D Mississauga, ON   31 13 27 40 34
21 Don Cahoon Senior W Marblehead, MA   31 13 17 30 14
16 Guy Burrowes Junior W Niagara Falls, ON   31 12 16 28 18
18 Steve Dolloff Junior C Melrose, MA   31 9 19 28 26
11 Dave Wisener Junior C Pictou, NS   31 10 10 20 34
25 Peter Thornton Junior W Scarborough, ON   31 8 11 19 31
8 Paul Giandomenico Senior W Walpole, MA   31 9 7 16 10
10 Ray Cornoyea Junior W Chippawa, ON   22 4 8 12 4
20 Bob Murray Senior D Quincy, MA   29 1 11 12 36
27 Mike LaGarde Senior D Roxboro, PQ   31 4 7 11 20
5 Bill Flynn Junior W Stoneham, MA   23 2 7 9 4
23 Larry Abbott Junior D Melrose, MA   16 1 1 2 0
24 Dave Warner Junior D Niagara Falls, ON   28 0 2 2 4
10 Jim Connors Sophomore W Chippawa, ON   6 1 0 1 0
4 Ray Fowle Sophomore D Niagara Falls, ON   1 0 0 0 2
3 Dick Brugman Sophomore C Winthrop, MA   0 - - - -
15 Allan Judge Sophomore C Niagara Falls, ON   0 - - - -
- Cliff Hamilton Sophomore C Winchester, MA   0 - - - -
30 Joe Robillard Sophomore G Woburn, MA   2 0 0 0 0
1 Ed Walsh Sophomore G Arlington, MA   3 0 0 0 0
1 Tim Regan Senior G Providence, RI   9 0 0 0 0
30 Dan Brady Senior G Canton, NY   27 0 0 0 0
Total

[10]

Goaltending statistics

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No. Name Games Minutes Wins Losses Ties Goals Against Saves Shut Outs SV % GAA
30 Joe Robillard 2 55 0 18 0 1.000 0.00
1 Tim Regan 9 370 13 136 .913 2.11
30 Dan Brady 27 1430 53 506 .905 2.22
1 Ed Walsh 3 75 3 29 0 .906 2.40
Total 31 26 4 1 69 4

1972 championship game

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(E1) Boston University vs. (E2) Cornell

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March 18[11] Boston University 4 – 0 Cornell Boston Garden


Scoring summary
Period Team Goal Assist(s) Time Score
1st BU Ron Anderson - GW PP Brown and Jordan 10:42 1–0 BU
2nd BU Ric Jordan - PP Brown 30:51 2–0 BU
3rd BU Ron Anderson Cahoon 41:39 3–0 BU
BU Ric Jordan Cahoon and Anderson 53:13 4–0 BU
Penalty summary
Period Team Player Penalty Time PIM
1st COR Gordon McCormick 8:52 2:00
BU Mike LaGarde 18:13 2:00
COR Larry Fullan 18:13 2:00
2nd COR Dave Elenbaas 29:13 2:00
BU Ron Anderson 29:44 2:00
COR Larry Fullan 29:44 2:00
3rd BU Peter Thornton 43:24 2:00

References

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  1. ^ a b "Year-By-Year Results" (PDF). Boston University Terriers. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  2. ^ "Series Record vs. All Opponents" (PDF). Boston University Terriers. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  3. ^ "December 30, 1971" (PDF). The Big Red What. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  4. ^ "March 1, 1972" (PDF). The Big Red What. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  5. ^ "March 11, 1972" (PDF). The Big Red What. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  6. ^ "1972 NCAA Hockey Championship - Boston University vs. Cornell". YouTube. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  7. ^ "Men's Ice Hockey Award Winners" (PDF). NCAA.org. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  8. ^ "ECAC All-Teams". College Hockey Historical Archives. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  9. ^ "ECAC Awards". College Hockey Historical Archives. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
  10. ^ "Boston University Terriers 1971-72 Skater Stats". Elite Prospects. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  11. ^ "Boston University Championship Teams" (PDF). Boston University Terriers. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
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