For all its archives of joyous hockey celebrations, film clips of hysterical college champions creating yard sales of strewn sticks and gear in front of packed arenas, NCAA hockey has an emotional dark side, a corporate protocol that cleaves deep scars onto fragile psyches. The national championship’s losing team must face the media first, minutes after its dreams of glory have been dashed.
For many of the players, the ordeal occurs moments after their college careers have been snuffed out.
While Minnesota Duluth paraded the 2018 NCAA trophy around the Xcel Center ice in St. Paul, the national media marched into Notre Dame’s locker room and discovered hockey’s version of a funeral wake. A pair of seniors were hugging, afraid to tear off their uniforms for a final time. Sophomore Cal Burke (Boxboro, Mass.) sat in disbelief, his red-rimmed eyes fixed in a distant stare.
“I thought we were going to come back,” said Burke, his voice muted by emotion, “even at the last faceoff. It’s frustrating; we couldn’t find, couldn’t get one to bounce in.” After a postseason of miraculous finishes, the luck of the Irish had finally run out in their heartbreaking 2-1 season finale loss to Duluth.
Despite Burke’s relentless climb from New England prep to Division 1 prominence, he had become all too familiar with postseason pain. In 2014, he and younger brother Cameron helped lead Noble and Greenough to the ISL crown and wanted a New England championship they could celebrate for all time. Nobles entered the eight-team NEPSAC tourney eager to claim the prestigious title. Instead they suffered a cruel quarterfinal loss to Exeter, one that still torments them four years later.
That 2013-14 Nobles squad was brimming with future Division 1 talent.
“We had a good group of guys,” said coach Brian Day, in a massive understatement. “Miles (Wood; Manchester, Mass.) had 54 points, J.C. Brassard (Scituate, Mass.) had 43 points as a defenseman, Cal had 45. Billy Sweezey (Hanson, Mass.) was a junior on that team; he’s a defenseman at Yale. Luke Stevens (Duxbury, Mass.) was a sophomore; he’s playing for Yale as well. Billy Garabino (New Canaan, Conn.), he’s playing for Northeastern.”
Day’s hockey heavyweights stepped off the bus at Exeter and jumped to a lead over the home squad. Nobles had beaten Exeter two years earlier on its way to the 2012 NEPSAC final and appeared ready to take them down again. Freshman Cam, Cal’s younger brother, popped in one goal and set up another, but then the game took an unexpected turn.
“It was a really back-and-forth game,” said Cam, “that ended because of a controversial penalty call for elbowing on our defenseman Billy Sweezey.”
“Sweezey got a five-minute penalty, and they scored two on it,” said older brother Cal, a junior who shortly thereafter bolted Nobles for Cedar Rapids of the USHL. “I knew that group of guys I was with — Sweezey and J.C. and Miles — that would probably be the last time together. Yeah, that was a tough one.”
Frosh Cam felt big brother’s pain.
“We should have won that game, and I remember being devastated,” Cam said. “I know Cal was crushed. It was a quiet ride home. I had a good idea that Cal was going to leave for the USHL. That was the most fun I’d had playing hockey, because I was playing with Cal, and I was so disappointed it came to an end without a New England championship; we definitely had the team to win. I wanted to win so badly, to be able to share a championship with my brother.”
Second chances are rare in life, especially in the fickle world of elite hockey. But the 2018-19 season will find the Burke brothers reunited on the ice, wearing the golden domes of the Fighting Irish. After consecutive trips to the Frozen Four, Notre Dame is on the cusp of a first national championship.
Even as he struggled to maintain his composure in the Xcel Center back in April, Cal found cause for optimism. “Just look at this year: We lost in the Frozen Four last year, made (it) a step further. It’s just one more step to go next year.”
Division 1 titles are frequently forged in increments. In Burke’s two seasons at Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish have gone from overwhelmed semifinalists as a freshman, to within a goal of a national championship as a sophomore. Cal is relentless in his preparation for what he hopes is a historic junior year.
By mid-May, next season had arrived. Cam has joined older brother Cal in a mutual push for that elusive brass ring.
“We’re in the midst of summer training,” said Cal. “Right after the national championship game I took two weeks off and then kind of eased back into that. We’re going at it pretty good now.”
Cal and Cam have a rigorous dryland routine based around two makeshift venues found in every hockey home: “I’ll be stickhandling in the garage, and he’ll be shooting in the driveway, and then we switch,” said big brother. “We go to the same gym, do pretty much the same thing.”
The Burkes aren’t content with simply shooting on empty nets, so they seek out Cal’s goaltending buddy Elijah Harris (Haverhill, Mass.) from the Junior Bruins, and practice sniping against a live goalie.
“Summer is huge for development,” said Notre Dame’s leading returning scorer. “Me and my brother try and put a lot of focus into getting a lot better over the summer.”
Cal’s penchant for offseason skill development led to his breakthrough sophomore year at Notre Dame.
“At the start of the year, we had a lot of injuries, and so he really took advantage of those opportunities,” said Irish assistant coach Andy Slaggert, the man who recruited both brothers. He was ready because he worked hard in the summer. He really expanded his role.”
Cal became a top-six forward with the No. 1-ranked Irish and finished second on the team with 14 goals. None were bigger than his sensational dash in the national semifinal that capped a three-goal comeback against Michigan.
“I was watching with a couple of my kids in my house,” said Nobles coach Day. On national television, the Day clan saw Cal collect a puck in his own end, execute a textbook give-and-go the length of the ice, then bring the fans out of their seats by completing the 150-foot foray. “It was awesome,” said Day. “I think we were all ‘Good for Cal!’ Good offense starts in the ‘D’ zone, right?”
Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson, he with the matching set of national championship rings, was not surprised by his wing’s electric play.
“I see him that way every day,” said Jackson after his team defeated Michigan at the Frozen Four. “He’s a threat almost every time he’s on the rush. It’s not just his speed, it’s his compete level, and that combination creates opportunities for him.”
Younger brother had tuned in to the semifinal from his USHL outpost in Sioux Falls and was understandably stoked when Cal converted the highlight-reel goal.
“My heart was pounding watching the replay,” said Cam. “I was really happy for him to finish off a great play that he was able to start.”
In many ways, watching his older brother light up the ESPN prime-time broadcast was like watching a mirror image of himself.
The left-shooting Cam is nearly identical in size (5-foot-10, 180 pounds) to right-shooting Cal, and they play a similar style.
“Both brothers, they’re 200-foot players,” said Day. “They’re equally good in the offensive zone as they are in the defensive zone; really smart players.”
USA Hockey Hall of Famer Keith Tkachuk (Melrose, Mass.) has sons who share the same birth year as both Cal and Cam, (Matthew, 1997; and Brady, 1999). Cal and Matthew, and then Cam and Brady, played elite travel hockey together under the watchful eye of Tkachuk. An amateur scout for the St. Louis Blues, Tkachuk knows the two brothers’ intrinsic value.
“The one thing about the Burkes, they’re phenomenal skaters,” said Tkachuk. “They’re perfect for the new age, the way the game is headed. They worked their tails off to get here (Division 1 hockey), and I’m glad they’re getting an opportunity to play together.”
That feeling is amplified by the Burke brothers.
“I’ve gotten really close to Cam; we’re definitely best friends,” said Cal. "Throughout the years, we’ve always been training together and going to the same summer camps. Even when I was young, playing for the Minutemen Flames, he would play up with me all the time. Part of what made my junior year (at Nobles) so special was that that I got to play with Cam. Playing with him is exciting; I’m really looking forward to it this year.”
Little bro Cam fell in love with Notre Dame even before Cal did, and he is pinching himself at the thought of playing in South Bend. “Watching the games, the national championship and stuff, it definitely gets me giddy. I can’t wait.”
By mid-June, the Burke brothers will be out in South Bend, picking up a few credits at summer school while training full time with their hockey teammates. Freshman Cameron will be in lockstep with his new teammates, finally wearing the blue and gold he has dreamed about since attending a Notre Dame football game as an excitable 13-year-old. His aspirations are exactly the same as the team he will be joining.
“The team goals are pretty obvious,” said Cam. “Win that triple crown: win the Big 10 regular-season title, the playoff championship again, and this time take home the Frozen Four. That’s what I’m shooting for.”
But there is one aspect of the brothers reuniting at Notre Dame that trumps all the others: the unfinished business from their prep school heartache from four years ago. The emotional pain from near misses at both the Flood-Marr and the NEPSAC championships might all get washed away if together they could help Notre Dame take that final step to NCAA glory. Older brother, appropriately, has acquired the wisdom necessary to put this opportunity into perspective.
“As you get older, you start to appreciate the championships you get to play for, because you realize it’s harder and harder to get to the championship game,” said Cal.
But would winning Notre Dame’s historic first NCAA title alongside his brother finally ease the pain from 2014?
“I think it would definitely make up for it,” said Cal. “We would have something to look back on and say we accomplished together, what a great year. Hopefully we can do that, and make that pain a little less tough.”
