B.U. Takes ECAC Hockey Finals, 4-2

It's been a wild, unpredictable season for the stick wielders and puck pounders of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference's Division One hockey horde. Observers at the sixteen division rinks have witnessed a multitude of upsets this year and a number of wacky variables contributing to those upsets.

But when it came down to the final game of the season Saturday night in Boston Garden between the best two teams in Division One, Harvard and Boston University, it was that time honored and well-trodden cliche that beat the Crimson: "the goaltender with the hot hand." In Saturday's case it was tournament MVP Eddie Walsh in the Boston University goal that backboned the Terriers' 4-2 championship victory.

The Key

"Their [B.U.'s] goaltender was the key," coach Billy Cleary commented yesterday. "The kids played well, we have nothing to be sorry about. We outshot them, and when you can hold B.U. to only 19 shots you're doing well. If I had to pick somebody who was the key to the game, however, it would be Walsh."

Walsh, an All-American and one of only two seniors on the B.U. squad, made 34 saves during the evening, and several of those were on the spectacular side. Danny Bolduc, Jimmy Thomas and Steve Janicek, among others, will be seeing nemesis Walsh in their dreams (nightmares), after the Arlington goaltender robbed them of what seemed sure goals.

At the other end of the Garden ice, Jimmy Murray, a sophomore who has performed well in the Harvard nets during the Crimson second half charge to the top, was playing in his first ECAC tourney ever. Murray's inexperience showed on B.U.'s third and fourth goals, especially in comparison to the veteran Walsh, who seemed to do no wrong.

The actual game-winner for B.U. came at 5:15 of the third period, as a John McClellen shot from center ice found its way between Murray's legs. The insurance goal rolled into the net after Murray fanned on a clearing attempt outside the crease with Mike Eruzione (who was awarded the goal) bearing down on him.

Eruzione also tallied the Terriers' first at 6:42 of the opening period, knotting the score at one apiece. Freshman phenom Rick Meagher scored the only goal in the middle stanza, at 13:05, with both teams skating a man short.

"I feel badly for Jimmy [Murray]," Cleary said, "but unfortunately these things happen. He's had a heck of a season, though, and I'm behind him 100 per cent. He'll bounce back."

Randy Roth was the only Harvard player to find a chink in Walsh's armor, as he scored the first and last goals of the game. His first came at just 46 seconds into the game, before a good many of the 12,843 excited fans had made their way to their seats. It was Harvard's only lead of the night.

Roth took a Bob Goodenow pass and went in alone on Walsh, beating him with a backhander. It wasn't until 17:19 of the third that this year's Beanpot MVP could find another opening, again combining with Goodenow, while both squads were skating only three men apiece. By then, however, the Terriers had struck for their four goals, and the game was out of reach.

"The kids didn't quit," Cleary said. "We fought them right down to the end."

One of the many Terrier signs hanging from the Garden balcony summed it up pretty well for Boston University: "Eddie Saves Us All."