Following a 7-2 loss to the University of Denver in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on March 26, Boston University men’s hockey head coach David Quinn told reporters in St. Paul, Minnesota: “It seems like our season ended at [the University of] Notre Dame. I don’t know what happened to us mentally. We were playing good hockey, and we became a fragile group mentally.”
Had BU won or tied in that game against Notre Dame on Feb. 27, it would have been guaranteed a top-four spot in the league standings and a first-round bye in the Hockey East Tournament. Instead, it ran into a spotless, 39-save shutout from Fighting Irish goaltender Cal Petersen and dropped into fifth place in the league, prompting a first-round appearance in the conference tournament.
Quinn, even three and a half weeks following the season-ending loss to Denver, still viewed that 1-0 loss in South Bend, Indiana as the singular moment where things stopped clicking for the Terriers mentally and where the issues “snowballed” as the season tumbled to its conclusion.
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