MANCHESTER, N.H. — Thus does the circle come around from Causeway Street back to Causeway Street. From last year’s low point in a lost season, the last-place finish in the Beanpot, to next month’s Frozen Four. Boston University’s hockey team is back to the place where its predecessors created so much of their storied legacy.
“I’m running out of things to say,” coach David Quinn conceded Saturday night after the top-seeded Terriers had ousted Minnesota-Duluth by a 3-2 count on Evan Rodrigues’s power-play goal with 2:24 remaining in the NCAA Northeast Regional final at Verizon Wireless Arena and advanced to the national semifinals for the first time since 2009, when BU ran the table in the nation’s capital.
By any standard this has been a remarkable resurrection for a squad that managed only 10 victories last year. “I think people might be surprised that we’re in the situation we’re in,” Quinn said on Friday after his squad had outlasted Yale in overtime to keep their season going. “We were picked to finish sixth in Hockey East, and rightfully so after the year we had last year. A lot of people probably didn’t think we’d have a lot of success this season.”
The road back was a progressive restoration. Winning the Beanpot was the first milestone. After claiming it 29 times, the Terriers had finished fourth three times in four years. That could not stand. Not with archrival Boston College taking five in a row. Not with Northeastern making finals. Not with Harvard on the rise. So collecting No. 30 in February was crucial.
BU hadn’t won the Hockey East tournament since 2009 and had made the final only once since. Reclaiming the crown this month was another marker, particularly since it meant dethroning UMass-Lowell, the two-time defending champs.
The Terriers had made the NCAAs only once since they won the title and they were expelled by Minnesota by four goals in St. Paul in their first game. This year, their goal was to get back to the Garden, where they’d won the second of their five national titles in 1972.
No BU bunch ever has worked harder to get there. The team trailed in 14 of its 27 triumphs. A dozen of their outings went to overtime and for several harrowing minutes on Saturday, it seemed that this one was headed there as well. Twice BU had led, on goals by Rodrigues and Matt Lane. Twice the Bulldogs had drawn even.
What it came down to was the first penalty called since the final minute of the first period when Jack Eichel and Dominic Toninato were thumbed off for matching roughing calls that continued with mutual pointing and chirping in the box. This one sent off Andy Welinski for holding with 4:23 to play and the Terriers had a golden chance to end things in regulation.
It was fortune and fate that the chance was cashed by Rodrigues, one of two seniors (Cason Hohmann being the other) who returned undaunted from last year’s wreck of a campaign. E-Rod, as his comrades call him, had swatted in the first goal out of mid-air. “I took a good baseball swing at it,” he said. This time Rodrigues coolly found himself a bit of space and zipped a wrister past goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo with one second left in the penalty.
All BU had to do from there was hold off half a dozen UMD attackers and sweat out a review to see whether the tying goal had been scored out of a pigpile in the crease. “It’s unfortunate the way it ended, I’ll leave it at that,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin, who said that he was surprised by the penalty. “What can you say? They made a play at the end, right at the end of the power play, won a hockey game. They’re moving on and we’re not.”
The Terriers are moving on because they’re attack dogs in the final 20 minutes and beyond, when they go for the throat. “I thought we did what we do best,” said Quinn, whose squad outshot the Bulldogs, 13-5, in the third period after being outshot, 13-6, in the second. “We were relentless. We were smart. We just did the things we do to win an incredibly important hockey game and extend our season.”
Last year the Terriers couldn’t wait for the season to be over. “Last year was the exact opposite of what BU hockey is,” said Rodrigues. “It seemed nothing went our way. One-goal games, bounces. So it’s just an incredible feeling after what we went through to get back to the Garden and into the Frozen Four.”
John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JPowizglobe.