Parker: “The story of that game was 12-6”

By Scott McLaughlin/DFP Staff

“The story of that game was 12-6. That’s all I gotta say, boys.”

That’s the full transcript of Boston University coach Jack Parker’s four-second postgame press conference.

The 12-6 he refers to are the penalty totals in BU’s 5-4 loss at Providence College on Friday night –– 12 penalties called on the Terriers, just six on the Friars.

BU was on the penalty kill for nearly a third of the game –– 17 minutes, 5 seconds. Four Terrier penalties came fewer than two minutes after another penalty had just expired, and one call gave Providence a 5-on-3 for 1:27.

That penalty kill did a very good job through two periods, holding the Friars to a 1-for-7 showing on the power play and allowing just six shots. But it became clear in the third that the Terriers simply didn’t have enough left in the tank to kill five more penalties.

Providence scored on two of those man advantages, including the 5-on-3, and registered 11 shots on net. BU had two power plays of its own in the game’s final five minutes, trailing by only a goal, but Friar goalie Alex Beaudry made several great saves to close out the game.

Parker didn’t say if he was unhappy with the officials or his players, but he had plenty of reason to be upset with both if you break down the calls.

The first was a crosscheck by Wade Megan that was clearly a penalty and was not a very smart play. The second was a boarding by Eric Gryba that was also an easy call. The final penalty of the first period was a hit from behind on Luke Popko –– again, a no-doubter.

So, the blame in the first period has to fall on the players –– three unnecessary penalties taken, including two by seniors.

The first penalty of the second period came against Joe Pereira for holding. He got hit and dragged the Providence player down with him. It wasn’t really a dumb penalty, but it was a penalty nonetheless.

Next up –– Zach Cohen for interference. He set a great pick for Alex Chiasson, but picks aren’t allowed in hockey. Easy call.

Now we get to the first questionable call. Chiasson got his stick under a Friar’s arm and was called for a hook. The problem is that he never actually hooked the guy –– he just got his stick into the player’s midsection for a second. This would be a penalty in the NHL 100 percent of the time, but it seems like it’s a 50-50 call in Hockey East –– something Parker mentioned himself earlier this season.

The reason this gets chalked up as a bad call is because the same sorts of stick infractions weren’t called consistently throughout the game. It’s either a penalty or it’s not –– the refs (Tom Fyrer and Jack Millea on Friday night) need to make up their minds before the game starts and stick to it, rather than just call it some of the time.

Or, better yet, Hockey East needs to do what the NHL did and tell its officials either “This is a penalty every time” or “This is never a penalty.”

Eight minutes later, Colby Cohen was called for a hold. That was probably the wrong call, but Cohen deserved a penalty for contact to the head anyway. The refs get low marks here, though, not just because they called the wrong penalty. The Friar Cohen hit (Andy Balysky) dropped like a ton of bricks about two seconds after contact was made –– textbook embellishment that wasn’t called.

The last four calls on BU were almost laughable –– a trip on Wade Megan (aided by another dive not called), hook on Zach Cohen (see the description of Chiasson’s hook), elbow on Kevin Shattenkirk (would’ve been a clean hit had the Friar not ducked at the last second) and slash on David Warsofsky (looked worse than it was because the Providence player was already falling to the ice).

Although one, two or perhaps all four calls could’ve been penalties, what made them comical was that the Terriers, who were already on the short end of penalty calls, were getting called for borderline infractions while Providence was getting away with much more obvious penalties.

There was David Cavanagh’s hard crosscheck to the No. 26 on the back of Popko’s jersey. And then there was John Cavanagh’s glove to Colby Cohen’s face after the whistle. Neither of those was called.

So, bringing this back to what was quite possibly the shortest press conference of Parker’s 37-year tenure as BU coach, 12-6 was indeed the story of the game.

Some of that was lack of focus and, at times, downright stupidity on the Terriers’ part, and some of that was lack of consistency and, at times, downright incompetence on the officials’ part.

The Terriers need to keep their sticks to themselves and stop when they see a player’s back. Hockey East needs to sit its referees down and decide what is a penalty and what isn’t.