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Back to Class: Jack Parker calls it a career at Boston University

Jack Parker, 2009 Boston University

We’re taking you “Back To Class” for our roundup of the weekend’s action in college hockey. You can catch Game 1 of the Hockey East quarterfinals between Vermont and Boston College this Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

The college hockey world was turned on its ear at the revelation that legendary Boston University coach Jack Parker will be announcing his retirement at a 3 p.m. press conference today.

For the last 40 years, Parker has been a fixture behind the bench on Commonwealth Avenue. He spent two years as an assistant in 1969-70 and 1972-73 before being hired as the head coach midway through the 1973-74 season. He even played hockey at BU for three years as a student. Simply put, Jack Parker is BU hockey.

In that time, he’s taken the Terriers to three national championships (1978, 1995, 2009) and six overall national championship finals (runner-up in 1991, 1994, 1997). His record at BU is the stuff of legends.

894 career wins, a career winning percentage of .694, 12 regular-season titles in the ECAC and Hockey East, 11 conference tournament titles, 21 Beanpot Tournament titles and 24 NCAA tournament appearances. He’s also a Lester Patrick Award winner in 2010. When it comes to hockey in the United States, Boston especially, he’s an icon.

From the countless number of players he’s put in the NHL to members of the 1980 Miracle On Ice team (Jim Craig, Dave Silk, Jack O’Callahan, and Mike Eruzione), Parker’s mark on the game is well pronounced. His 2009 championship team won perhaps the greatest title game ever to be played.

His record as a coach and a leader is almost clear. The blemishes in recent years thanks to two different players (Max Nicastro and Corey Trivino) being accused of sexual assault and shortly thereafter kicked off the team. Their problems led to a probe into what was going on with the program that shined a lascivious light on what was happening off the ice. The report didn’t look kindly on the players and questions over Parker’s control of them arose. The bad seeds are gone, some questions and debate will remain but now the legendary coach is calling it a career.

At 68 years of age, coincidentally his birthday is today, Parker will finish out this season and ride off into the sunset as the king of Boston University hockey. Filling coaching shoes the size of Boston will be almost impossible to do.

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I’ll go quick updating you on the conference tournaments.

Minnesota St Cloud State Hockey

St. Cloud State’s Joey Holka (17) and Garrett Milan (18) celebrate Holka’s goal against Minnesota goaltender Adam Wilcox during the second period of their WCHA college hockey game, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in St. Cloud, Minn. (AP Photo/The St. Cloud Times, Dave Schwarz) NO SALES

AP

WCHA: St. Cloud State and Minnesota finished tied atop the conference to share the McNaughton Cup, but SCSU will be the top seed hosting Alaska-Anchorage in the first round while Minnesota hosts Bemidji State. Other matchups: Michigan Tech goes to North Dakota, Minnesota-Duluth heads to Wisconsin, Colorado College meets up with archrival Denver, and Nebraksa-Omaha takes on Minnesota St. in the battle of Mavericks.

Hockey East: UMass-Lowell locked up their first ever regular season title and the No. 1 spot in the tournament. Their reward? A Maine team that went 2-1-0 against them this year. Other matchups: Vermont faces Boston College, Merrimack faces Parker’s Boston University team at Agganis, and New Hampshire hits the road to face Providence

CCHA: The opening round saw bottom seeded Michigan St upset Alaska in three games while Michigan took out NMU and Bowling Green beating Lake Superior State. Your quarterfinals matchups are: Ferris State heading to Ohio State, Michigan St. taking on top-seeded Miami, Michigan facing Andy Murray’s Western Michigan squad, and Bowling Green taking off to Notre Dame.

ECAC: Dartmouth avoided getting bounced by bottom-seeded Harvard winning Game 3 on Sunday 6-3. That earns them a date in Schenectady against defending champs Union College. Everything else held mostly steady. Cornell heads to Quinnipiac, Brown goes to Troy to face RPI, and St. Lawrence moves on to Yale in the quarters.

Atlantic Hockey: Ho-hum, no first round upsets here as the seeds hold. The quarterfinal pairings see top-seed Niagara hosting RIT, Air Force hosts Canisius, Holy Cross gets Mercyhurst, and Connecticut faces Robert Morris.