There are many points of a team's season that you can look back on when it's all over and marvel about how it changed the course of history.
Last season two consecutive losses to UVM at Agganis lit a fire under a Terriers' team that didn't get cold again for the next five months. Two nights that changed the way a team looked at itself, and impacted the way they would play for the rest of the season.
This year, that turning point, for better or worse, will come tomorrow night when BU takes on its biggest rival in the great outdoors under the lights at Fenway Park. The Terriers are attempting to re-invent their 2009-10 season after a horrific start, and just one 7-3 victory has an undeniable buzz around the program.
A victory over the Eagles in a game that gets national attention could springboard the Terriers toward another National Championship run. But on the other hand, a loss, which would be BU's second of the year to BC, could be the final straw that breaks the Terriers' back.
By midnight tomorrow night, there will be one of two possible feelings surrounding the BU Terriers.
The first possibility is that of crushed hopes, and the full realization that this team simply does not have what it takes to tangle with the big boys in Hockey East, and thus the best in the nation.
If BU goes into Fenway Park and lays an egg, the fans of the Ice Dogs will enjoy the spectacle, but they will go home knowing that the season has reached its unofficial end. It will prove that despite the tough talk, Parker could not inspire his troops to get up for a game, even in the most desperate of circumstances, and it will put to rest any potentially far-fetched fantasies of a re-vitalized team.
Even if BU keeps it close tomorrow night, but ends up with one more notch in the loss column, it will essentially be time to write them off. Staying in games doesn't earn points and playoff bids.
What the Terriers need at Fenway is a resounding victory over their most hated enemy, the Eagles of BC. This has the feel of a game in March, despite the ice cold temperature outside. A win over Baldwin's Bunch of Bozos would mean much more than two much needed points in the standings.
Coming off of their most convincing win of the season, the Terriers have a chance to establish a modest, but significant, two-game winning streak over Hockey East teams. After an embarassing first half, the players say there is a renewed energy surrounding this team. They played a full 60 minutes of high octane, high offense hockey all while shutting down the nations leading scorer (James Marcou) and the rest of the UMass offense last week.
It seems silly to say, but on the heels of a win like that, a win over the team sitting pretty in second place in Hockey East, who just happens to be the team you hate the most in the world, would create an immeasurable wave of momentum. All of a sudden the awful taste of the first half would be washed away, and the talk of a turn around would start to spread.
Not to mention what another two points would do in the standings. Consider this: with 8 points the Terriers are tied with Providence College for the 8th seed in Hockey East right now. But they only trail the 4th seed, Vermont, by a measly 4 points in the standings. With the Catamounts idle this weekend, BU could somehow find themselves one win out of the upper half of the conference.
It's amazing how one game can turn a season. This game is the pivot point for the 2009-10 Terriers. It may well turn out that there is one game later on that has a more immediate impact, deciding whether or not the Terriers make the playoffs, win another Beanpot, or earn a bid in the NCAA tournament. But no matter what happens down the road, no game will impact the team's, and the fans' morale like Frozen Fenway.
So lace 'em up, and bundle up. It just feels right that this game is going to mean something.
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