February 5, 2010 E-MAIL PRINT

Terriers have hit their stride

by Andrew Merritt/

BU goalie Kieran Millan makes a save at last year's Frozen Four. (photo: Getty)

BU goalie Kieran Millan makes a save at last year's Frozen Four. (photo: Getty)

Rumors of the demise of Boston University hockey in 2009-10, it seems, were greatly exaggerated.

After last year’s trophy-case-filling title haul and streak to the national championship, it would have been hard for this year’s edition of the Terriers to live up to the glory of 2008-09. Still, a 4-9-3 start that included a pair of four-game winless streaks and put BU outside the Hockey East playoff bubble at the start of the new year was a particularly jarring fall from grace.

The Terriers over the offseason lost more than 51 percent of their 2008-09 scoring, a group led by early pro departure Colin Wilson, as well as defensive keystone and Hobey Baker winner Matt Gilroy, but there was still plenty of talent coming back. Enough, at least, to assume BU would compete in Hockey East, if not quite repeating the magic of last season. But those four-game slides and a general lack of consistency had the Terriers on the bottom looking up at the halfway point of the year, a non-factor to that point in the league.

The new year, though, has created a new BU team. Since the ball dropped, the Terriers are 6-2-0, and last weekend blitzed second-place UMass to the tune of a 6-2 beating, followed by Monday’s gutsy effort to edge Northeastern 2-1 in the first round of the Beanpot.

That victory on the Garden ice might not count in the conference standings, but that doesn’t mean the game meant less than a league contest, and the Terriers’ play to hold a feisty Huskies squad off was indicative of a team that is, finally, ready to win. They showed it with good offense, but they showed it more defensively and on special teams.

“I think we have been bearing down a lot more in front of our own net,” junior defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. “We’re kind of limiting other teams’ second opportunities and I think we did a great job of that in the third. It also comes from our forwards, who are coming back harder and teams aren’t really getting those odd-man rushes we were giving up earlier this year.

“Normally, once we got the two penalties, earlier in the year we would have probably crumbled, but I think we’ve been playing with a lot of confidence lately,” Shattenkirk said, when asked about killing a key pair of penalties in the game. “I think we knew we could kill the penalty off.”

Among the biggest keys to BU’s win Monday was Kieran Millan, who after a dazzling freshman season has struggled to beat the sophomore slump. His numbers (3.18 goals-against average, .885 save percentage) are way off the pace he kept in 2008-09 en route to winning the league’s Rookie of the Year award, and at times it was only a lack of stiffer competition from de facto backup Grant Rollheiser that kept Millan between the pipes.

Over the Terriers’ 6-2-0 run in 2010, however, Millan has gone right back to his old self, posting a 2.52 GAA and a .921 save percentage in the six games he’s played in that stretch, going 4-1-0. Smack in the middle of the run was a 42-save effort in the 5-4 win over BC on Jan. 22, a big bounce-back from his previous outing, in which he only made 21 stops on 24 shots in a 3-1 loss to current cellar-dweller Providence. He sparkled again in Friday’s 6-2 thrashing of UMass, making 39 saves.

The Terriers have UMass-Lowell Friday night, then rival BC in the Beanpot final. Only the first one counts in the Hockey East standings, but they’re both solid tests for a team that looks like it’s certainly been studying. 

NEHJ Player of the Week

Chris Barton, jr., Merrimack

The Warriors aren’t out of the playoff race yet, and it’s efforts like Barton’s over the weekend – three goals, including the first one in Friday’s win over first-place New Hampshire – that keep the life support machine pumping.

Looking Ahead

BostonUniversity vs. Boston College, Beanpot final, Monday at TD Garden

It might seem a little too easy to call this the game to watch, but both teams are playing very well of late, and when you combine that with the ferocious passion it takes to win a Beanpot, this one could be full of fireworks.

Around Hockey East

Boston College

The Eagles attempted 73 shots (36 on net) in their 5-2 win over Providence Friday, the third time the high-octane offense has blasted away for more than 70 at Conte Forum this month.

Boston University

After their opening-round win in the Beanpot, the Terriers are 11-0-1 in their last 12 games at neutral sites. On Monday, they’ll try for their 30th Beanpot title, and their 13th in the last 16 years.

Maine

The Black Bears have 42 power-play goals this year (10 in their three games against Vermont, including three in Saturday’s draw), which already surpasses their total from 2009-10.

UMass

Framingham, Mass., native Will Ortiz scored his eighth career game-winning goal Saturday against Providence, tying a modern-era (1993-present) school record. … Freshman Eddie Olczyk, son of former NHLer Ed Olczyk, also scored his first collegiate goal in the game.

UMass-Lowell

Carter Hutton’s .928 save percentage would be the new single-season school record if the season ended today.

Merrimack

Freshman Stephane Da Costa, he of the five-goal game at the start of the season, earned the conference’s Rookie of the Month award for the fourth straight month after posting two goals and eight assists in January. Da Costa has won the award in every month of the season.

UNH

Saturday’s overtime win over Merrimack marked the first time since 2002-03 that the Wildcats had two regular-season overtime victories in a season. … Marlborough, Mass., native Bobby Butler scored his 50th career goal Saturday.

Northeastern

The Huskies went 5-3-0 in January, their first month with an above-.500 finish all year. … Twin freshmen Justin and Drew Daniels on Friday scored in the same game for the first time this year, and they made it count, providing the margin in a 2-1 victory.

Providence

Londonderry, N.H.native Ian O’Connor is third on the team with seven goals, the best total of his career, and has scored in four of the last five games.

Vermont

The Catamounts haven’t been able to solve Maine all year, outshooting the Black Bears 77-46 over the weekend that resulted in a single point, and posting just two goals on 20 power-play tries over the three-game season series.

Andrew Merritt can be reached at feedback@hockeyjournal.com.

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