 "Photo: Jeff Brien")
Brian Gionta has had countless memorable nights at Conte Forum in his four years in maroon and gold. On Saturday night, however, he painted a performance unparalleled in his All-American career.
As if the weekend and regular season sweep of the Maine Blue, er, Black Bears wasn’t enough for the faithful of Kelley Rink, Boston College fans saw one of college hockey’s greatest individual performances of all-time. Gionta, the senior captain of the surging Eagles, took five shots and netted five goals — five — in the first period — one period — in the 7-2 victory. Gionta shot from the ice like Troy Bell shoots from the foul line.
“That’s got to be one of the special moments in my coaching career, to watch that,” said BC Head Coach Jerry York after Gionta set a new Hockey East mark for goals in a period. In the process, he also tied David Emma’s school record for most career goals with 112.
Gionta, for one, was at a loss to explain it all. There’s a famous clip of Michael Jordan in the 1992 NBA Finals after hitting his sixth three-pointer of the game. Jordan ran down the court and shrugged, as if even he couldn’t comprehend how dominant he was. That was Gionta on Saturday. The most familiar scene of the game was one of his five trips down to Clemmensen’s net, where he shook his head in bewilderment.
“It was just one of those things where you don’t know what’s going on,” Gionta said. “It was like any other night, I get five or six chances. They just happened to fall tonight.”
Maine goalie Mike Morrison couldn’t do anything to stop Gionta. By the end of the first period, BC’s Hobey Baker Award favorite had rendered Morrison a sympathetic figure. At least the visiting junior goaltender made the best of his plight, laughing at his misfortunes and acknowledging the relentless taunts from the vocal BC student section with a sense of humor.
Opposite Morrison there was a more prosperous end of the goaltenders’ spectrum. Gionta picked up where BC netminder Scott Clemmensen left off on Friday night. As the gritty, embattled Maine team scraped and clawed in the opener, the Eagle goalie turned the tide of the game. He allowed only a fluke, phantom goal in the second, and otherwise dominated with 31 saves, 15 of which came during BC’s sluggish second period.
“I thought [Clemmensen] was at the peak of his game,” York said.
“Thank God for Clemmer,” said Marty Hughes, the offensive star of Friday night’s 4-1 win. “We all know he’s the best goalie in the country.”
The weekend’s joyous festivities show why the Frozen Four has been an annual occurrence ever since the senior class set foot on the Heights. Gionta’s heroics surely provided an exclamation point, but plenty of other developments lead one to believe that the Eagles can win in Albany. The seniors, spurred by the always-revving engines of Bobby Allen and Mike Lephart and the consistent work of Rob Scuderi, are playing as well as ever. The heralded freshman class appears to have made a seamless transition to college ranks. Brooks Orpik and Krys Kolanos have made it clear why franchises run by Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky tapped them in the first round. Meanwhile, players like Ales Dolinar and Bill Cass are becoming bigger forces with each and every game.
The journey for the Eagles will be full of big games, starting with the Beanpot, and ending with the full pot of beans in Albany.
All of their virtues were on display in some form or another this weekend. It was exactly the kind of play that one expects of BC in an important game — Gionta performing like a superstar, Clemmensen playing his best in big games, all the players filling their respective roles.
On Saturday night, fans didn’t want the game to come to an end. Many waited for Gionta to complete an on-ice interview with FOX Sports New England, all the while showering him with chants like “Hobey Baker” and “We Love Brian.” It seemed like the kind of moment that officially brought him to the status of a Flutie.
When the camera was gone, the Eagles’ captain, as humble as ever, saluted the crowd. With his brilliant work on this memorable night complete, the legend of Gionta continued to grow.
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