Boston University men’s hockey senior defenseman Kevin Schaeffer always knew Matt Gilroy could score.
“I always knew he was a good forward,” Schaeffer said after Saturday’s 2-2 tie with No. 1 University of Maine. “Even in captains’ practices at the beginning of the season, we always knew he could score and that he was an offensive threat.”
BU coach Jack Parker knew it, too.
“He’s the only guy we really thought about moving up when we lost our two right-shot forwards, our two offensive guys in [Brandon] Yip and [Boomer] Ewing,” he said. “We needed somebody to move up, somebody to fill in. We got other guys, but they’re not real clever offensive guys, so it was important for us to move him up.”
It was only Gilroy who wasn’t too sure.
“I’m getting more and more comfortable,” he said after notching his first point of the season-an even-strength goal on his only shot on the road against UMass-Lowell on Friday night. “It’s been weird transition, but playing with Higgy, it’s a lot easier. He moves the puck well.”
Gilroy scored the Terriers’ lone goal in a 1-1 draw with the River Hawks when linemate Chris Higgins carried the puck down center ice, passing it off to Gilroy on the left side. Skating in toward the crease, Gilroy fired from inside the faceoff circle. The puck skipped over Lowell goaltender Carter Hutton’s left shoulder and connected with the net topshelf.
But before the weekend was out, Gilroy-who was one of BU’s top defensemen before shoulder injuries to Yip and Ewing forced him to play forward-would score as many goals in two games as he did all of last season.
Riding a 5-on-3 Terrier power play just over six minutes into the second frame Saturday night at Agganis Arena, Gilroy capitalized on the two-man advantage. Collecting his own rebound, he ripped a goal high on Maine netminder Ben Bishop, halving Maine’s lead, 2-1.
“I kinda stepped in and they gave me a huge lane,” Gilroy said. “I saw it so I took a shot. I thought I saw an opening, but I guess it got blocked. I got the rebound, it was wide open and I just banged it home. Thank God I didn’t miss.”
After finding the net twice in as many games, Gilroy may have a little more confidence in the offensive side of his game. Or maybe not.
“I feel a lot more comfortable back [on defense],” Gilroy said Saturday. “Offense is fun and all, but defense I like a lot better.”
“He’s dying to go back to defense,” Parker said. “That’s his problem.”
Which is ironic given that the defenseman-turned-forward is in fact a forward-turned-defenseman-turned forward.
“He came here as a forward and we told him we didn’t need him,” Parker said. “He said, ‘Well, let me try defense and I’ll try out for the team as a defenseman.’ Well ok, if you want to we could use an eighth defenseman. He wound up in our top four about three weeks into the season.”
Gilroy is stalwart, quick and creative-with the puck and without it. And most of all, he’s willing to do what it takes to get the ‘W’-or in this case, the ‘T.’ But this isn’t the first time in recent memory a defenseman has stepped into the forward role.
“It’s good that we can throw him wherever we want to, kinda like Bryan Miller used to be when he was here,” Schaeffer said. “[You can] throw him up at forward and he’s just as good on D.”
“Me and Matty played together since we were about six years old,” Schaeffer said of Gilroy. “He was always a forward growing up, so I always knew he had good offensive ability.”
“I really do believe he’s a better defenseman than he is a forward, so we’d like to get him back there,” Parker said. “If we got both of those guys [Boomer and Yip] back, he’d immediately go back to defense, no question about that.”
But even with the possible return of Ewing, Gilroy may still see his name on the top half of the lineup.
“I think we may get Ewing back in the next week or so,” Parker said, “but I don’t think that’s enough to move him back.”
And while Gilroy has found success-particularly this weekend-he is itching to get back to his home on defense.
“I’m sure he would like to go back as soon as possible, but he still gets to kill penalties playing defense, he still gets to play 4-on-4 playing defense, and he still gets to play on the point in the power play playing defense,” Parker said. “We’re probably gonna keep him [on offense] a little bit longer.”