O'Callahan Knew It All Along: 'Harvard's Nice, B.U.'s Great'

After B.U. slaughtered Harvard 8-3, at Walter Brown Arena earlier this season, Jack O'Callahan was pretty sure he made the right choice.

"Harvard was trying to sell me on that education stuff," the first-year Terrier stated, "but I wasn't buying. I was looking for the best hockey around, and I guess this proves I found it."

After the first period of last night's ECAC semifinal matchup at the Garden, he was positive he had. And the rest of the game did little to prove him wrong.

O'Callahan's choice of Commonwealth Avenue instead of Soldier's Field Road as the site of his hockey education was borne out virtually every step of the way last night, as the Terriers overwhelmed Harvard in every phase of the game to win by an impressive 8-4 count and advance into tonight's finals.

The Crimson hockey team, nobody's choice to be a participant in this weekend's Grimy Garden event, reached into its magic bag of tricks one last time, only to find that the supernatural forces that brought Harvard this far had been used up in Durham, N.H. a few nights before.

The final period was the time to bring out the sack of tricks, and the Crimson did indeed begin to come back from the dead, staging a rally that closed the gap 7-4, or rather 7-5 but for referee Jack Barry's hyperactive whistle, which nullified a critical Harvard goal with just nine minutes left to play.

Next stop: B.U. 8, Harvard 4, and the realization that another chapter was going into the record book under the category of "disappointments."

That category is filled with nothing but notations about B.U., as successive scores of 7-2, 7-3, 10-5, 8-3, 6-5, and now 8-4 (Harvard on the wrong end of all of them) will tell. A tribute to O'Callahan's perceptiveness about hockey schools, and a tribute to coach Billy Cleary's ability to jockey Harvard into the ECAC and NCAA berths which necessitate these "dates with the dogs."

Once that eighth goal made its way past Brian Petrovek and the Crimson was officially put out of its misery, it was time for the talented contingent of Terrier fans to offer its incisive commentary.

'Like a Long Sickness'

"This game was like a long sickness," was the most meaningful statement that drifted down, followed closely by the standby favorites heaped on the Crimson's beleaguered netminder: "Dick Stuart had a better glove;" and "Open your eyes, you're missing a good game."

The capper is another of O'Callahan's offerings: "Harvard's nice, but B.U.'s great." On this night, and in this sport, there is no one to offer a dissenting opinion.