A Dream Deferred, Part Deux
The Irish hockey program continues to make history
With about three minutes to go, sophomore fan David Fairburn sits lugubriously behind the glass at The Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo., slowly realizing that the Irish hockey team will make no more history this season. No more miracle comebacks, no more momentum-changing goals, no more sliding on the ice in celebration, no more naive hope. The team, it seems, is as powerless as he is at this point to change their fate. The flame of the Irish miracle season has finally flickered away.
Boston College 3, Notre Dame 1. Fifteen minutes left to play in the championship game and in the season. Irish freshman defenseman Ian Cole sends a pass toward sophomore defenseman Kyle Lawson, who is waiting by the goal. Lawson reaches out with his stick to nudge the puck, but the puck has already ricocheted off his skate and into the goal. Boston College 3, Notre Dame 2. The crowd of Irish fans watching the game back at the JACC at Notre Dame erupts in euphoria. The Irish, despite the deficit, seem primed for one last comeback.
In what seems to be an infinitely long and painstaking deliberation process, however, the referees disallow the goal, ruling that Lawson’s skate had directed the puck into the goal by virtue of a “distinct kicking motion,” (the rule, of course, ever so arbitrary, only adds to the controversy). The crowd at the JACC hurls boos and berates the referees, as if their intense show of emotion is enough to transcend the two giant projector screens hanging over the Irish home ice and transport them into the Pepsi Center. Alas, they are powerless as well. Irish Coach Jeff Jackson smirks, the team’s balloon of momentum deflates, play resumes, and then seconds later the Eagles push another goal past Irish goalie Jordan Pearce to put the game out of reach. And so it is here that the dream dies.
A little more than one year ago, the No. 1-ranked Irish, after being challenged to a thrilling double-overtime duel by Alabama-Hunstville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, fell 2–1 two days later to eventual national champion Michigan State. The loss was a disappointing finish for a team that was expected to reach the program’s first Frozen Four. “We were definitely motivated after the loss to Michigan State,” junior left-wing Garrett Regan says. “We hoped to go further than last year, and we just tried to learn from the experience so we could be more successful the following year.”
High hopes abounded for the Irish at the beginning of this season, and they initially lived up to the hype, beginning the season with a 16–4–0 record. A second-half swoon during which the Irish struggled mightily on offense, however, left them with a 24–15–4 overall record and on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. The team was dealt further bad news in March when it learned that junior right wing Erik Condra, the talented offensive playmaker and the Irish’s leading scorer for three consecutive seasons, would miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.
Sports sometimes lead to the most ironic situations. Who would have thought that the Irish, arguably the nation’s best hockey team in 2007, would fall in the second round of the 2007 tournament? Who would have thought that the Irish, the last at-large team selected for the 2008 tournament, a No. 4-seed, and a team playing without its leading scorer, would plow through the first two rounds with a 7–3 victory over No. 1 New Hampshire, and exact revenge on the Spartans with a 3–1 victory in round two? Who would have thought that the Irish would be David to Michigan’s Goliath in the Frozen Four, jumping out to a 3–0 first period lead, allowing the Wolverines to storm back and tie the game at four with 14:38 left, and eventually breaking the collective heart of Wolverine Nation with freshman Cale Ridderwall’s winning goal in overtime? Who would have thought that this was the Irish’s year to make history?
“I think our team was in a totally different position this year than last year. Last year we went in as the No. 1-ranked team and felt a lot of pressure like we had to win. This year we went in with an underdog mentality and just went out and played like we had nothing to lose,” sophomore center Kevin Deeth says. Despite many proclamations from experts that the Irish should have been happy with just making it to the Frozen Four, the team was undeniably hungry for the title. Regan says, “We weren’t satisfied with only reaching the Frozen Four because the big prize was still out there, and inside our locker room, we knew we could make a good run at it.”
The Michigan Wolverines had 23 Frozen Four appearances and nine titles. The North Dakota Fighting Sioux had 18 appearances and seven titles. The Boston College Eagles had 20 appearances and two titles. The Irish, meanwhile, were the history-makers. Zero appearances, zero titles. It seemed as though Jackson’s five-year plan begun in 2005 to rebuild the Irish program had instead been accomplished in three.
With much success comes much adulation. The energy on Notre Dame’s campus prior to the Michigan game, and more so prior to the championship game, was palpable. Some fans, like Fairburn and his travel partner Paul Pokaski, decided that they would make the trip out to Denver to witness history in person. “It has always been my dream to go to the Frozen Four, and since tickets in general are so hard to come by and my team was in it, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” Fairburn says. “It was the best sporting event I ever attended.”
The team started to garner a larger following and greater fan attendance at home games during its record-breaking 2007 season. This season, every home game drew at least 2000 fans. According to Matt McCormack, the marketing director for Notre Dame’s athletic department, Frozen Four tickets were in high demand following the second-round victory over Michigan State.
“The buzz around campus this year for us has been awesome,” Deeth says. “The student section and band make the JACC an awesome place to play, regardless of the below-par facility. Anytime you get the support like they gave us really makes playing college hockey for Notre Dame a special thing.”
The Irish returned to campus the day after the 4–1 loss and were greeted at Main Circle by hundreds of fans. Cheerleaders cheered, the band played the fight song, and Jackson and the team’s four captains spoke to the crowd. With all the enthusiasm, one might have thought that Lawson’s goal was allowed and the Cinderella Irish seized the momentum to make one last thrilling comeback for the program’s first title. At the astonishing rate at which the Notre Dame hockey program is growing, perhaps this dream, and this history, will be realized soon enough.
