If only the Boston University men’s team was not preoccupied with their visit to UMass-Lowell Friday night. Head coach and program patriarch Jack Parker could have otherwise made a jaunt to Rhode Island and witnessed two of his many former pupils stand behind their respective Women’s Hockey East benches and battle to a classic arm-wrestling stalemate.
The way Brian Durocher’s BU women and Bob Deraney’s Providence College Friars tangled each other up in a 2-2 tie Friday, one would have thought it was all fixed in recognition of Parker’s latest accolade –namely the Lester Patrick Award- two nights prior.
On Wednesday, Parker was part of a heavily New Englandized ceremony at Boston’s TD Garden, accepting his share in the award, given for outstanding service to hockey in America, along with Boston College men’s coach Jerry York, former Bruin Cam Neely, and American Hockey League president Dave Andrews.
“It was a grand night, not just for Jack, but for New England hockey, Boston hockey,” said Durocher, a former goalie who graduated BU in 1978 and served as an assistant to Parker from 1996-2004.
“It was a first-class night that had the Brian Burkes, the Harry Sindens, and (NHL Commissioner Gary) Bettman there. I think all of them talked fondly about their experiences in hockey, people that were influential, and certainly what they have tried to do to give back to the game and the community. So it was a very special night for everybody involved.”
So too, was Friday night for everybody at PC’s Schneider Arena. There was nothing for the home faithful, the visiting faithful, or neutral observers to complain about for any longer than 10 seconds.
The 2-2 stalemate all but impeccably reflected the mirror imagery between this year’s editions of the Friars and Terriers. They are each off to their best starts in Deraney and Durocher’s respective reigns as head coach, each having won six games in October.
Both teams are patently deep and overstocked on offense –with BU now averaging 4.25 goals per game, the Friars 3.78 goals. Both have stability in the cage in Genevieve Lacasse and Kerrin Sperry. Both are keen and capable on each side of the special teams’ spectrum. Both have shown that they prefer to omit the word “quit” in their dictionary, especially in their showdown Friday, wherein each team had a turn safeguarding a lead and deleting a deficit.
And especially in the wake of their seesaw sibling-smoocher, both teams know they have their little wrinkles to flatten in advance of their rematch next Saturday up at Walter Brown Arena. Odds are, with two more encounters to come and the ever-possible event of spontaneous tournament matchups, somebody is eventually going to get an extra millimeter of the wishbone.
And granted, this is just another addition to Hockey East’s gratifying roster of tight rivalries. PC’s unsurpassed tradition with New Hampshire is irrevocable. Both programs alike have their reasons for healthy, mutual spite with Northeastern –PC on the basis of the Lacasse-Florence Schelling rivalry in net, BU on the grounds of it being the Bostonian Dog Fight.
Not to mention, by now everybody should have carpal tunnel from marking November 20, when the Canadianized Terriers –Olympic gold medalists Marie-Philip Poulin, Catherine Ward, and all- visit Boston College, complete with silver medalists Molly Schaus and Kelli Stack, to install the revamped Battle of Commonwealth Avenue.
Pick any pair of those programs for a postseason matchup and there would be some public relations benefit to reap. But maybe now, knowing his team will be unoccupied on March 6 –championship day in the women’s league- Parker is hoping for a chance to see his student’s students lock twigs for the hardware.
That would be the least Durocher and Deraney could do for the Professor of Puck, winner of 844 games and counting in 38 years at BU, right?
“Besides my parents, he may have been my greatest teacher,” said Deraney, who tended the Terrier cage from 1983-87. “Not only did he teach me about hockey, but more importantly, he taught me how to be a man. He brought out things in me I never knew I had. He taught me how to be successful, taught me about perseverance and hard work and if you want something in life, you have to rely on yourself and no one else.
“I think he’s one of the main reasons why I became a college hockey coach. I’m not trying to be somebody’s greatest teacher, but I know that I have an opportunity to make a difference.
“And remember the fact that no coach has won more hockey games than he has at one institution. That’s something that no one else will ever do, especially in this day and age.”
Al Daniel is the Hockey East correspondent to Beyond the Dashers
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