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I'll tell you another "The Goal" that gets way overlooked in all of this and it happened the week before. Mike Pikul against BU, also in OT, to even get us to Lake Placid. I didn't get to go to that game, but my Dad was in old Walter Brown Arena that night with about 20 other BG die-hards and administrators. We listened to the game on WKIQ with the "voice of BG hockey" Glen Cerny on the call. I remember my Dad calling us from a pay phone(no cell phones then lol!!) in Walter Brown right after the game and you could hear the BG players whooping it up in the background behind him. The next call he made was making reservations in Lake Placid. For those who don't know in those days the NCAA regionals were on campus and 2 game, total goals series. BG had started Collins in net the first night after Kruzer had lost 3 straight games. Mistake, Collins played poorly and BU's Daskalakis played great. BU won 6-3. I felt like I did in 79 when we went to Minny and laid an egg. We had just choked and another great season would soon be flushed away. However, with Kruzer back between the pipes and basically starting the game losing 3-0 the guys played arguably their best game of the year and led 4-1 at the end of regulation. Thus setting the stage for Pikuls rare goal, he only had 7 that year, a, from what my Dad said, fantastic play where he swept the puck up off the half-board and let a laser go quickly that Daskalakis never even saw until it was too late.

All of this talk the last week has brought the emotions of that 3 week period back so clearly, like it was yesterday, not 25 years ago. Two heart wrenching OT loses in JLA the first week and figuring we would now be snubbed by the selection committee.....again. To the the elation of getting an NCAA bid. Then the horrible 6-3 Friday loss and spending all day that Saturday feeling the season was over again. The amazing 5-1 OT win and the realization we were actually going to Lake Placid. The place where the Miracle on Ice happened. The solid semi-final win over MSU and then the fear down by 2 goals very late, that, after all of this, we were going to come up just short. Then........divine intervention. We get a kick off of something on the end boards and "Ski" taps it in to tie it up. Then OT after OT after OT...chance after chance....save after save. I remember that by the 4th OT I was so mentally and physically exhausted, as a fan, I didn't know how much longer I could go on under the pressure.....much less the players, many of whom were staring to cramp badly by this time. You could have cut the tension in that Arena in the 4th OT with a knife. Every shot was a gasp by one of the two groups of fans. Gino's goal happened so quickly, in a blink of an eye it was all over. Kane stops, turns, feeds the pass all in one swift motion....Gino darts across the front and tucks the backhand past Kosti. I just remember jumping up and down and hugging some lady next to me that I didn't even know......what a roller coaster of 3 weeks.

Man I hope we all get to do that again sometime..........

TG1996 wrote:Geez Flip, if I didn't know you were a sarcastic jackazz, I'd think you were being a sarcastic jackazz.


Today is a little different story for remembering the past. And I think remembering the glory days has a lot to do with bringing the atmosphere back to the Ice Arena.

Flipper wrote:You guys spend so much time celebrating the history of the program...I understand that it's the 25th anniversary off the championship...but geez, it seems like so much of the focus here is on the past. Even when the program looked to be in danger of being cut the focus was almost exclusively on what USED to happen here.

Let's see some optimism..some hope..some sense that tommorrow will be as good as yesterday!!!

Or just tell me to f**k off...hell, I haven't been to a game in a couple of years, so who am I?

rally wrote:This is a good time to reflect on all of those great memories. I spent the game screaming over the rail from my Row A -upper deck seat in the Olympic Arena. Didn't have my voice back for three days. That game was the greatest sports moment of my life. The '83 "snub" was my greatest sports depression. BG not only won the championship the year after the snub, but by becoming the first CCHA team to take the title the Falcons legitimized the conference to the rest of college hockey.

That said, I can see where Flipper is coming from. At the welcome home reception for the team in the Ice Arena, Jerry York made a statement to the effect that the championship was wonderful, but the goal now was to win another as quickly as possible. He seemed to be saying that unless we built on the momentum of the championship we could forever be looking backwards instead of ahead. I've thought of that often over the years.

Yes, great article and great interviews with the former players. It made me dig out the ticket stub that I kept from the championship game ... $7.42 + .52 tax. Tickets for the Frozen Four are now $150 for the 3-game package and you get selected by lottery and priority points. As George Roll said, things were much different 25 years ago.