Home sweet neutral site. The Boston College Eagles have won the 2008 National Championship, and pretty much every other important game they played this college hockey season.

The schedule in front of BC last fall contained three different four-team tournaments in the regular season: St. Paul, MN’s IceBreaker, where the Eagles finished third in October; then late December’s Dodge Holiday Classic in Minneapolis, which Boston College won to close out the year. In February of course, there was the Beanpot, which BC won as well.

By the end of the regular season, the Eagles were already 5-1 in tournament games on neutral ice. Add onto that the fact that most of their skaters, such as junior leader and tournament superstar Nathan Gerbe, had won a Hockey East championship and reached the national title game the year before and that record is significantly better.

When it mattered most, that experience shone through and propelled the Eagles to a national championship run where they obliterated their competition that started on the last game of the season.

Coming down to the last weekend of the regular season, Hockey East was a jumble. Several teams had a shot at home ice advantage in the first round of the conference playoffs, awarded to the top four seeds. Boston College needed to win their last game of the season—on the road no less—just to lock up that first round advantage over Providence. The familiar ice seemed to pay off just fine, with BC outscoring the visiting Friars 10-2 in the ensuing two game sweep.

From there they only had to beat conference favorite New Hampshire in the semifinal, on a (semi) neutral site in the TD Banknorth Garden. UNH, fresh off a long history of falling short on neutral ice was determined to overcome themselves. The Wildcats and Eagles played into triple overtime until BC pulled off the win. They went on to pound Vermont in a 4-0 victory that was never in doubt to win the conference championship.

As Hockey East champions, the Eagles were still only given a 3 seed in their NCAA bracket. That’s the bad news. The good news for them, however, was that it was the 3 seed in Worcester, MA; simply a hop, skip and jump from Chestnut Hill. They’d need the home ice, facing a proud Minnesota team in the first round (which they won 5-2) and #1 overall seed Miami. The Red Hawks, not fazed by the road-game feel of Worcester, were down a goal in the third but came back to force overtime against BC with a trip to the Frozen Four on the line.

Miami was in control for the majority of the extra period, firing 11 shots on freshman goaltender John Muse. Fortunately for Boston College, they don’t decide games on who takes the most shots. Joe Whtney scored an acrobatic goal that he had to leave his feet to score to send BC to the Frozen Four, and yet another game against North Dakota.

Three years running, Boston College and North Dakota have made the Frozen Four, only to meet each other in the national semifinal. North Dakota has lost all three, this time by quite a bit. Junior communications major and Hobey Baker Award finalist Nathan Gerbe already had a hat trick early in the second period, and the Eagles simply didn’t let go en route to the 6-1 victory.

In their third consecutive final, Boston College had to face Notre Dame, a familiar opponent but not in hockey. The Fighting Irish had been ranked near the top of the poll all year long, and were coming off of a breakout 2006-07 year that solidified them as a hockey power. Led by sophomore business student Ryan Thang and junior business student Christian Hanson (the son of Dave Hanson, one of the Hanson brothers made famous in the movie Slap Shot), the Irish took a good thing last year and made it even better with a national title game appearance. Thang’s 18 goals led the team from the right wing and Hanson chipped in 15 more.

At the beginning of the third period, with BC leading ND 3-1, the Irish got a puck past John Muse that appeared to make the score 3-2, until the goal was reversed after nearly ten minutes of video review. Less than a minute later, Boston College scored their fourth goal, and they’d hold on for the 4-1 victory and their third championship, won on their third straight attempt. By my count, that gives BC an eleven-game win streak on neutral ice, counting the two tourneys in the Twin Cities, the Beanpot, Hockey East semifinal/final and the NCAA Tournament. That’s right: eleven neutral site games in the course of one year. Granted, six of those came within the state of Massachusetts (including four in Boston itself), but it’s still a daunting task to win so many consecutive “must-win” games.

Ideally, a contender for the national hockey championship won’t start a freshman in goal, and when BC brought business student John Muse to the ice many people thought he would be part of a platoon situation in the crease. Never happened. The only thing that ever replaced John Muse in goal was open air. He was the unquestioned goalie after a good start, and as it turns out he was the only goaltender that they needed in Chestnut Hill. Muse faced 26 shots per game (while ND’s top goalie Jordan Pearce saw 21.5 on average) and a giant pair of skates to fill. Cory Schneider, who ran out of eligibility last year, had been a stalwart for the Eagles through his time at BC. Coming into the season people were listing this position as a question mark in Chestnut Hill, but now it’s marked with an exclamation point.

For the third time in three years the Boston College Eagles made the national final. On the third try, they won; they say the third time’s the charm. Doubly so in this case, as it’s the Eagles’ third national championship and second this decade. About a decade and a half ago, Boston College hired former player Jerry York to rebuild their struggling men’s hockey program into the champion it once was.

With their second championship under York, consider that job done.

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Tim Williams is a columnist covering college sports for MCN Sports. E-mail Tim at TWilliams@mcn.tv