ESPN College Sports

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Enough was enough.

For 111 days, Boston College had to live with the fact that Boston University, located just 3.3 miles down Commonwealth Avenue, had the bragging rights in this storied hockey rivalry.

Starting Dec. 3, when the Terriers routed the Eagles 6-2 at Agganis Arena to even the season series at 1-1, BU clearly had BC's number.

On Jan. 27, BU won the last regularly scheduled meeting to snap a seven-game BC winning streak.

On Feb. 13, the Terriers skated past the Eagles and collected another Beanpot title.

On March 4, the last day of the regular season, BU beat Northeastern while BC lost at UNH, the sum of which gave the Hockey East regular-season title to coach Jack Parker's squad.

And last Saturday, the Terriers completed the trophy trifecta with a 2-1 overtime special to claim the Hockey East tournament championship.

Granted, four of the five previous meetings were one-goal affairs, but BC coach Jerry York didn't mince any words on the eve of the Northeast Regional championship when he said, "They've owned us this year."

Not anymore.

From the drop of the puck Saturday night, the Eagles had more jump, more pop, more everything.

And now they have more season left to play.

Thanks to a 5-0 victory over BU in front of 8,742 at the DCU Center, Boston College (25-12-3) advanced to the Frozen Four in Milwaukee to face the West Regional winner North Dakota.

"[BU] outplayed us at the Beanpot, and in the Hockey East championship they played a great game as well," junior center Brian Boyle said. "But those are in the past, and we've got to bury that -- like we did tonight. We had a chance to end their season and that's the hardest thing you can do to a team. We got it done. And it's pretty satisfying.

"We respect them so much, and they respect us, too. That's why we play our best games against each other. Out on the ice, they're the biggest enemy you've ever seen. It's a war. You respect each other because you know you both want the same thing. But at the same time, you really hate each other."

Boyle harnessed that hatred and gave the Eagles the only goal they would need at 6:24 in the first when he intercepted a Kevin Schaeffer pass across the front of the BU goal and one-timed high to the stick side of Terrier goalie John Curry.

"I thought our ability to get off to a good start was key, and we did," York said. "We had good jump in our legs in the first 10 minutes and it set the tone for the remainder of the game. The pressure was all on BU tonight, and we were kind of an underdog."

BU survived the rest of the period and only trailed by one after 20 minutes. But the wheels fell off in the second period.

With the score 2-0, BC buried two shorthanded goals -- both by Joe Rooney -- and for all intents and purposes, the game was over.

Rooney, who came in with three goals but hadn't scored since Jan. 7, nearly doubled his season total and also added an assist for a three-point night.

On Friday night, linemate Benn Ferriero predicted that Rooney would have a big game against BU in the regional championship. He wasn't the only one.

"My teammates helped a lot," Rooney said. "Chris Collins talked to me today about how he broke out in the regionals last year and he said tonight would be my night. That gave me the confidence to put the puck in the net when I got my chances."

For his efforts, Rooney was named to the regional all-tournament team along with BC's Boyle, Peter Harrold and Cory Schneider, and BU's Chris Higgins and Sean Sullivan.

The Terriers end their season at 26-10-4 and with a 4-2 mark against BC. But their first trip to the Frozen Four since 1997 will have to wait. And BU will have to watch BC make its sixth trip there in that same time period.

"We didn't come out with the intensity and the focus that we needed to come out with, and I'm surprised about that," Parker said. "I'm sure they had a hard time with what we did to them this year and I thought we were dominated tonight.

"Boston College really jacked it up a notch or two, and we didn't control any of this game. We won everything we could win in our league, but that all goes for naught. We expected them to come out with intensity tonight, but we couldn't match it."

This win marks the Eagles' 19th trip to the Frozen Four and their first since 2004. BC has won two national titles, the last in 2001.

With the win, BC becomes the second No. 3 seed to advance to the Frozen Four since the field expanded to 16 teams in 2003. The other was Michigan, which lost to eventual champion Minnesota three years ago.

If the Eagles are going to have success in Milwaukee in two weeks, they will need Schneider to turn in another two-game performance like this weekend.

The sophomore goaltender recorded his seventh and eighth shutouts of the season, which is a new BC single-season record, and he also became the first player to post back-to-back shutouts in regional tournament play.

But the opponent, not the record, is what the Northeast Regional MVP will remember most from his weekend in Worcester.

"We felt we should have won the Hockey East finals," Schneider said. "We were eager for another crack at BU. We didn't watch any film today because we'd seen them so many times this year.

"We came out with good energy and buried them. It's a great feeling."

And a long time coming.

David Albright is the senior coordinator for college sports at ESPN.com. He can be reached at david.albright@espn3.com.