By Nick Tarnoff The Heights

April 14, 2008

Chestnut Hill, MA (UWIRE) -- Nathan Gerbe led the team in scoring. John Muse was the star freshman goaltender. But senior captain Mike Brennan was the heart and soul of this team, and the unquestioned leader.

He helped will this "team of destiny" to a national title, with his grit, hard work, and leadership. Brennan has been an ironman for the Eagles, playing in all 168 games during his four year career, including all 44 this season.

The Smithtown, New York native now sits second on the all-time career games played list, second only to Rob Scuderi who played in 169 games from 1998 to 2001. And like Scuderi, Brennan can now call himself not only a bona-fide Iron man, but a National Champion as well.

"Every time I put this jersey on, every time I've been given the 'C' I just took pride in putting it on every single game. Luckily I got 168 games in this jersey and when I take it off it's going to be a shocker. I've bled in it, I sweat in it, I was with my teammates in it. And what a way to end it. This is what I wanted, this is what the team wanted."

He has been a rock for the BC defense corps, a unit that was forced to step up after Carl Sneep left the game at 16:36 of the first period with a right leg injury.

"The 'D' corps decided that we had to keep things simple, we're going to be out there logging a lot of minutes and you can't be as physical as you want to be," commented Brennan. "Keeping things simple was our goal. Carl Sneep is a great player and he's one of our big-time defensemen back there and when he went down it was a little bit of an eye-opener. This team is never fazed whatever the score is; whatever happens in the game, we always stick to our objectives."

And that objective since the end of last season has been to get another shot at a National Championship, a dream that has now been fulfilled.

With that comes a new set of responsibilities, one that he and the other players will certainly welcome. The team was honored Sunday night at the Red Sox-Yankees game, and Brennan threw out the first pitch. Brennan, an admitted Yankees fan, took some good-natured ribbing when Coach York mentioned the team's trip to Fenway.

Freshman defenseman Nick Petrecki had nothing but praise for his team's captain and his defense partner when speaking about his leadership, saying, "He's just incredible, I can't put it into words.

"I have had a lot of good captains during my career, but he's definitely my number one guy. He's helped me so much both on and off the ice, socially, emotionally, adjusting as a freshman. I can't even put into words how great of a guy he is."

Brennan is not the most glamorous player on the ice, but he always finds a way to get the job done. Midway through the third period BC was killing a five-on-three, Brennan was able to block a Notre Dame shot from the point and clear the puck to center ice. Brennan has made a living killing penalties and blocking shots.

He always plays with an edge, finishing his checks and giving life and limb for the team's success. BC's penalty-killing unit was able to kill off 15 of 15 chances over the weekend, and 23 out of 24 chances during the NCAA tournament.

"Going into this tournament we knew we were going to have to kill penalties," said Brennan, "Maybe we took a little too many than we wanted to take. But we knew when we took them we were going to kill them. The biggest thing is having confidence in your 'PK' when you're out there. You have to block shots and be tenacious when you're out there, and even when we went to five-on-three, we were calm and knew what we had to do, block shots and clear the puck."

Brennan has certainly picked up his play during the playoffs and was named to both the Frozen Four All-Tournament team and the Hockey East All-Tournament team. He has gone unheralded throughout the majority of his career, but he has done whatever the coaching staff and his teammates have asked of him.

"The passion he has and the fire he brought this week was just unbelievable," said senior assistant captain Dan Bertram, "We were confident going in behind him, and you can't say enough about a guy who has won championships and he's done that and he'll be remembered for it, and he should be."

He was chosen by the coaches and his teammates to lead them to the promised land, and as he hoisted that National Title trophy over his head, he validated and proved that he is one of the most elite captains and leaders to have ever played on the Heights.

(C) 2008 The Heights via UWIRE