They are the same age, live in the same city, are separated by just four miles and one famous street, and forge tirelessly for the same ultimate ideal.  And they can’t stand each other.  Such is the tenuous – and fascinating – relationship between the Boston University and Boston College hockey teams. 

Comparing favorably to its northern neighbors, ice hockey in Boston gives The Hub the grit and charm usually reserved for their Canadian counter-parts.  With a professional team and four college hockey programs – Northeastern and Harvard share this historic city with BC and BU – Boston continues to function as the epicenter of collegiate hockey on the East Coast. 

In addition to its plethora of schools, it annually hosts the Hockey East post-season tournament, fielded two regionals this year in nearby Worcester and Amherst, held the 2004 Frozen Four at the Fleet Center, and – of course – cooks up the famed and delicious Beanpot every year.

Its national recognition, though, pales in comparison to the storied rivalry that began in 1917 – the first season for both BC and BU’s ice hockey programs – and plays out every winter within its borders.  That year, the Eagles played three games, the Terriers one – a 3-1 loss to BC. 

By the time Lowell, Northeastern, Providence, New Hampshire, and Maine joined Boston College and Boston University to form the Hockey East Association for the 1984-85 season, the amount of games they played per season had increased tenfold. 

Since the league’s inception, these two Boston powerhouses have combined for 15 regular season titles, ten tournament championships, have captured 39 (BU has 26) of the 53 Beanpots including the last 12, and have had one of the two make the NCAA tournament every year since 1988. 

After making the Big Skate every year since 1990, BU fell on (relatively) hard times, missing a chance to vie for the championship in 1999, 2001, and 2003, before finally resurrecting its program back to its rightful place.  Interestingly, in 2001 – a year the Terriers finished 14-20-3 – the BC Eagles stormed through the season, winning the regular season and tournament titles before easily advancing to the Frozen Four. 

In Albany, they topped off their ten game winning streak by up-ending Michigan 4-2 before exacting revenge on defending champ North Dakota for last season’s title game, beating the Sioux 3-2 on an overtime winner by sophomore forward Krys Kolanos.

This 2001 season perfectly epitomizes the BC-BU dichotomy: they rarely play their best hockey at the same time of year.  Last season, though, that began to change.  After losing the first game 3-2 in the final Hockey East game ever played at BU’s Walter Brown Arena, BC won the next two games, sweeping the home-and-home 6-2 and 2-0, the latter in their first visit to the Terriers’ new home: sparkling new Agganis Arena.

In their next meeting, BU got its revenge.  On the biggest stage and in front of a massive and raucous crowd of 17,565 at the FleetCenter, the Terriers used two John Laliberte goals and a stunning performance by emergency backup goalkeeper Stephan Siwiec – who saved 36 of 37 Golden Eagles shots – to post a 2-1 victory and move BU into the Beanpot title game.

Back in the conference season, these same two teams fought for the league title until, literally, the last second of the last regular season contest – every passing second of game time causing the memories of past inequities between the squads to dissipate even more quickly. 

Just 11 months earlier, BC had dominated their archrivals, out shooting them 52-13 en route to winning the Beanpot championship in overtime.  For many Terrier alums, this was unacceptable, especially given their storied history and lofty future aspirations.

After all, they reasoned, merely a decade ago BU beat BC in all six of their meetings, including a sweet victory in the Beanpot and a sweep in the Hockey East playoffs.  Four years later, they finished 1-2 in the league, but when BU got bounced in the NCAA quarterfinals, their hopes of going to an eighth Frozen Four in nine years were dashed. 

That very year the Terriers’ ebbed, the Eagles and BC flowed all the way to the Frozen Four – an impressive trend that continued for five of the next seven years.  Although that remarkable run includes last year’s magical ride to Boston, BU fans found much solace in BC’s latest journey. 

After slipping into the postseason tournament on the last night of the regular season, the Terriers shocked the Eagles, taking two-of-three on Chestnut Hill to advance down Commonwealth Avenue to the FleetCenter and the Hockey East semis.  This improbable occurrence fueled this year’s impressive second place finish, leaving next year’s Terriers – even with the loss of forward (and Beanpot MVP) Chris Bourque – primed to doggedly pursue their arch-rival Eagles.

To wit, revered broadcaster Bernard M. Corbett, the Terriers play-by-play announcer for the past two decades, opined recently that, ‘I think we’re seeing a renaissance in the rivalry in terms of the talent on both sides.  We may look back on the years to come as some of the greatest years in this rivalry.’

And he should know a little something about these two teams and Boston hockey in general.  As author of The Beanpot: Fifty Years of Thrills, Spills and Chills, Corbett’s lofty perch allows a unique vantage point to view this icy ebb and flow.  Bolstering such claims is the fact that these schools finished 1-2 in the league for the first time in eight years, made the NCAA tournament at the same time for the first time in five years, and have each reclaimed their honed recruiting edge, consistently attracting top-level talent, often seasoned – as Bourque was – with impeccable pedigree. 

Despite BCs recent dominance, in the only thing that truly matters, Boston University still has the upper hand: five championships to Boston College’s two.  BU won their first two in rapid succession, accomplishing the feat with victories over Minnesota and Cornell in 1971 and ’72.  Their last title came in 1995, besting Maine 6-2 in Providence, Rhode Island. 

Boston College, meanwhile, won its first many moons ago, defeating Dartmouth 4-3 to polish off a 21-1 season under John ‘Snooks’ Kelley (muse for their current arena), in only the tournament’s second year of existence.  Fifty-two years later, they had their next championship.  If it were not for those pesky Terriers, though, such salvation would have come much sooner. 

On March 25, 1978, these two schools – the most heated rivalry in all college sports – met for the national championship in (where else?) Providence.  That night, a native Bostonian by the name of Jack O'Callahan became a star, turning in an epic performance in leading BU to a 5-3 win over BC and to their third national title of the decade.  (If you think the name O'Callahan sounds familiar . . . three words: ‘Miracle on Ice.’)

Through it all, the ebb and the flow, the primacy of this rivalry endures.  Much like the Yankees and Red Sox, sports most storied rivalry, the games between these two schools – exponentially so if played in the Beanpot or Hockey East tournament – take on a larger, deeper meaning.  Jerry York, BC’s coach for the last decade, thinks of the dichotomy as one of healthy mutual dependence:

‘BC and BU, historically, through the ups and downs, have been great for each other. We need BU and BU needs us, there's no question about it. I think it adds a little excitement to the season.’

Chimed in Terriers coach Jack Parker who has been coaching the team since 1973, ‘the BU/BC game is like a different sport.  All week, the phone was ringing off the hook from people who wanted to see this game. They were sold out last night, and we were sold out tonight. There must have been 50 of our former players here tonight, who just wanted to be here because it was BU and BC.’

Giving illuminating emotion, energy, and natural qualities to the metaphysical je ne sais quoi of the rivalry, Parker explains:  ‘There is an electricity in the building that gets everyone jacked up. It's like a Beanpot final.’

Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Nicholas Jon Wood – after a recent emigration from Boston – currently lives in our nation’s capital.  When not an integral participant in interstate commerce, he fails to pay tolls, usually goes the speed limit, and never drives angry.

He can be reached via email at nicholas.wood@atomicsportsmedia.com.