Despite choosing my graduate school choice on solely two qualifications – it being in Boston and having a Division I hockey team – it took me until January 8, 2005 to actually attend my first Boston University hockey game. My graduate internship in the Student Activities Office had me working late most nights there was a hockey game going on, so I had to wait till a game during winter break to attend.

I dragged my then-roommate to the game, an exhibition against the USA Under-18 Team. My roommate was perplexed. “We’re not even going to see them play against another college?” I hadn’t been able to get tickets at the first game ever at Agganis – a sell out the week before – and this was the only game I knew for certain I could attend, so I told her that I had to take whatever I could get.  I just wanted to get to a game.

So we settled into the sparkling new confines of the Agganis Arena, our seats right behind the BU zone and then-backup goalie Karson Gillespie, and set to watch what we both figured would be a blow out of these 17 and 18 year olds against this reportedly dominant college team.

And then, after nearly ten scoreless minutes of hockey, I saw my first goal at Agganis Arena. Scored by USA Under-18 forward Jason Lawrence, with an assist by USA Under-18 Team forward Phil Kessel.  The first ever goal I saw at Agganis Arena, right in front of me, was not even by Boston University, but by the USA Under-18 Team, and by these two itty-bitty kids who were the same age as my little sister. What the heck? My first college hockey game at my beloved graduate school, and they don’t even score the first goal against 17 year olds?

Before I got too depressed, the handy Agganis videoboard showed a graphic that pulled me out of this funk. You see, this Lawrence kid was coming to BU the next year, and he was from this place called Saugus, Massachusetts. I turned to my Beverly-born-and-bred roommate. “Saugus? Isn’t that the place with the crazy Chinese restaurant and the giant light up cactus?” I asked, my knowledge of the town totally dictated by our trips down Route 1 to get to her parents’ house for Sunday dinner.

“Yeah, that would be Saugus,” she laughed.

Excited that I actually factually knew where a town in Massachusetts was for once, had actually driven through it, and now had a reason to further remember the town, I settled in to watch the rest of the game, which BU eventually won, 4-1. The powers-that-be were kind enough to give Lawrence the third star of the game. And from then on, every time we drove up Route 1 to Beverly, I would turn to my roommate, or she to me, and we would say completely non-descriptly, “Isn’t that kid we saw score that goal from here?” The other would answer, “Yes,” and we’d continue to sing along to Kelly Clarkson (our obsession at the time) at full blast.

But more importantly, Lawrence’s goal helped me in other important matters short after. The topic of Saugus soon came up in conversation a few days later, as I was talking to the guy who would eventually become my fiance. We were not yet dating, and were talking at work one day about where we grew up. He told me that despite where he was from then, he had grown up in this town called Saugus. Had I ever heard of it?  “Yes!” I said embarrassingly proudly. “It’s the place with the Chinese restaurant, the light up cactus and the kid who is coming to play on the hockey team next year.”

“Exactly!” said my now-fiance, hopefully impressed. And the rest was history. (Okay, I am sure my fiance didn’t date me solely because I knew where Saugus was. But it probably helped, right? Truth be told, I am not sure he totally understood where Rochester was, but I didn’t hold it against him.)

So fast forward to today, Sunday, March 8, 2009. Senior Day at Agganis Arena, where Lawrence will be honored as part of the graduating class of 2009. Lawrence has always been my favorite Terrier, not only because of nostaglia, but because despite his tough years in the middle of his career, he always worked hard on the ice and genuinely tried to make a difference for the team. When it wasn’t in scoring, it was by being a leader, a quality evident in his work on the second line last year with mostly freshmen who always seemed eager for his direction. He’s always tried to improve himself – by either rehabbing earlier than expected from his bad shoulder injury last year, or by somehow becoming a speed demon on skates over this past off-season, and now being able to make spectacular scoring plays.  But maybe most importantly, I literally don’t know going to a season of hockey games at Agganis without him in the lineup for some team at some point during the season.

Which nicely leads leads into this fun fact: Lawrence is the only player in Agganis Arena history to score a point in every year the arena has been open. Five straight years. The only player who could beat or tie this record would be Vinny Saponari, who scored a goal in his visit to Agganis as a member of the USA Under-18 Team back in the 2007-08 season. So when you sit down at the game today, you can turn to your seatmate and inpart that fact, and then they’ll think that you are a super hockey geek. But that’s okay.

So thanks JLo for that fun hockey trivia we can impart on our seatmates today, for winning Beanpot games three times for us, for scoring that cool natural hat trick against UMass last week, for being extremely overly prolific against Michigan the last two years, for scoring 21 goals so far this season, for relishing your power play opportunities, for staying in the game somehow after being elbowed head first into the boards at BC in December, for not retaliating when Maine’s Simon Danis-Pepin literally sat on you during overtime at Maine on Valentine’s Day, for making Sportscenter three times, for your always enjoyable player introductions, and for the best Terrier Trivia ever recorded: your thesis on Gone With the Wind.   And thanks for scoring the first goal I ever saw in a college hockey game.

Other entries in the Countdown to Senior Night Series: Profiles on Higgins, Smolinsky; Why this class is the Sportscenter Generation.