Denver defenseman Blake Hillman, 25, shoots after Hillman scores from Boston College goaltender Sean Maguire during the first period of the NCAA Men's Hockey West regional semifinal in St. Paul, Minn. He celebrates with teammates Matt VanVoorhis (6 years old) and Troy Terry (19 years old). Saturday, March 26, 2016.
The preamble is largely It's only as good as the process. DU Hockey and St. Paul's little love affair can be explained in about five words and her one catch. Only her four of them were spelled correctly.
But before we get back to perhaps the biggest typo in Pios history, Gabe Levin gives us a little backstory.
“They did a selection show the year we won Boston University in the West Regional (in 2016), but they've never done a big production where there were cameras in our locker room. “I remember being there,” the former Pios forward said of his alma mater. Eight years ago, before Thursday's Frozen 4 showdown, Mehta played against the Terriers in the NCAA Tournament.
“But BU did. And I remember them making noises like this in the locker room. One guy saw 'Denver' come on the screen and said, 'Too easy.' Shouted out.
“I remember from the moment we heard him say, 'It's too easy,' there was no doubt in our minds that we were winning this game.”
Pios 7, Terrier 2.
That's too easy, dude. Too. easy.
“They were a very high profile team and had a lot of top draft picks,” Levin, a senior forward at DU, said in the spring of 2016. Because they were bigger, more vicious, and had higher recruitment rates than us. (DU) He had not participated in Frozen 4 since 2005, but BU had participated in this activity in his late 00's. So our program was in a different location. I remember hearing them say, “It's too easy,” and we were basically like, “Cursing at you guys.” I said, “See you in Excel.” ”
We'll be seeing them again this week, but this time only from the stands. If his Pios (30-9-3) are going to turn Denver into a 10-barr, DU will need to outscore the Terriers in Thursday's semifinals to take home an NCAA-record 10th national hockey championship. there will be. It will be the first time that the two giants on the ice will meet in NCAA action since the aforementioned feud at the 2016 West Regional, also held at Excel.
“(BU) and (DU) are in a different place this year than they were in 2016,” Levin continued. “I don't know if (the Pio family) are still viewed as losers like they were in 2016.
“You could see the guys on DU’s roster (on the roster) getting a little bit of a shoulder injury.”
They'll definitely have it around their necks. DU This weekend, peek inside the back collar of her sweater and you'll find the rest of her three words. This is a mission statement that happened by chance in St. Paul.
trust the process
The Pio roster then, as now, was smarter than the average bear. So when they entered the Excel locker room for the 2016 showdown with BU and found then-coach Jim Montgomery's three favorite words written at the top of a whiteboard, You can imagine the look on his face.
“They realized right away that it was wrong,” Levin recalled with a laugh. “But some people were wondering what everyone was laughing about.”
Some people didn't notice. The others cocked their heads to the side, like Labradors do when they're about to drive to a lake. Would you like to process it?
Since then, the orthographic error has become a legend in DU. Future coach David Karl, who was Pios' assistant at the time, was in such a hurry to write the game plan on the board that he did not proofread his work.
“Some of the players may not have been thinking about it at the time,” Levin said. “But the players definitely looked at me like, 'Did he mean that?'” That's not true, right? And it got stuck. ”
Pios 7, Terrier 2.
Two easy ones, dude. two. easy.
“I don't remember when it was pointed out to me that it was misspelled,” Levin said. “Spelling is not a prerequisite for winning a national title.”
The process was. not yet.
Montgomery kept a seven-point checklist. He told Levin and his teammates that if they could do at least four of them at home and five on the road, they should win the game. Face off. Victory in front of the net. Limit ridiculous penalties. It was his mission statement illustrating the eternal truth of DU, the precepts of a hockey dynasty.
Karl has since put his own spin on it, but the core principles, the specific pillars, have remained more or less the same. Not since they adopted the errata as gospel has this program felt so right. After defeating BU in St. Paul, the Pio's appeared in four more Frozen Fours and won two more national titles.
“I mean, this is pretty crazy,” defenseman Zeev Bouium, one of the superfroschers who helped transport the depleted uranium, told me earlier this week. “I think the message throughout this past year was 'Race to 10 (title).'
Process, on the other hand, is a Minnesota-born howler who lives on the back of a T-shirt. It's posted in large letters inside the DU locker room at Magness Arena. Some players have even been known to touch typos for good luck on their way to the ice.
“Coming into this year, (I was) really confident in what I knew what I was capable of and just stuck to that routine process every day,” Bouium said. “And it worked.”
Do not add the third letter “S” to “process”. But you also can't spell “proud” without adding a little “DU” at the end.
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