Icedogs’ Grades? Give Them Five For Scoring

University of Massachusetts at Lowell hockey coach Blaise MacDonald said that Boston University’s sophomore goalie, Sean Fields, was “shaky,” following the Terriers 5-1 victory over the River Hawks at Walter Brown Arena on Friday night.

Maybe he should have worried a little bit more about his goaltender, Cam McCormick.

McCormick, who came into the series with a Hockey East leading 1.54 goals-against-average and .932 save-percentage — not to mention a stellar 12-4-3 record — saw those numbers go up and down, and none of the changes were positive. His GAA rose to 1.87 and his loss numbers rose to six. Meanwhile, his save percentage dipped to .920.

BU got most of its goals the old fashioned way. Players crashed the net, taking shots that, in all fairness, would have been hard for Dominik Hasek, let alone McCormick, to save.

“If you look at three or four of BU’s goals, they basically ran right through the crease, took our goalie and the puck and put it right in the net,” MacDonald on Friday night. “That’s a good way to play hockey; it’s a determined style.

That’s why they’re a good team.”

MacDonald’s old boss, BU coach Jack Parker, echoed his former assistant after Saturday’s game, but said he felt like McCormick played well, despite the score.

“A lot of them were very similar goals,” Parker said. “They were goalmouth plays, bang-bang plays that any goalie has a tough time with.”

On Friday, BU got its first tally when senior forward Mike Pandolfo went to the front of the net and tipped in sophomore forward Mark Mullen’s pass, while the second came when freshman defenseman Bryan Miller pinched in to knock in a rebound.

On the third goal, junior forward John Sabo barely knocked his shot in before plowing through McCormick and the net, but lighting the lamp. Sabo’s second goal in a 16-second span came when he split the defense on Miller’s pass and went in alone on McCormick, deking before sending a forehand home. Sophomore forward Kenny Magowan closed the scoring with a redirect in front on the power play.

On Saturday, two of the numerous times BU charged to the net, pucks slipped by McCormick, one by freshman forward Justin Maiser, and another by Magowan.

Meanwhile, Fields turned in two solid performances, with the best being on Friday, ironically, the same performance that inspired MacDonald to deem Fields beatable.

However, MacDonald was no less harsh in judging his goalie after Saturday’s performance.

“Cam has shown he can make some big saves, but we cannot have soft goals,” MacDonald said. “That’s the killer for a team because it really sucks a lot of momentum and energy out of you.

“Cam battles, but lately, for some reason, there’s been too many soft goals.”

McCormick shouldn’t go away feeling too bad, however. The Terriers have recently exploded, scoring five goals in four of their last five contests, including both Beanpot wins. They have done so against two other good goaltenders, a pair of freshman who have impressed in their first go-around in Hockey East, Boston College’s Matti Kaltiainen and Northeastern University’s Keni Gibson.

But MacDonald isn’t likely to let his goalie, or his defense, for that matter, off the hook.

“We just have too many no-shows too many nights, and we need to get better goaltending,” MacDonald said. “As our defense goes as a unit, our team will go. When we play soft, we’re a very poor team. When we play aggressively, we’re a very good team.”

And after all that, what are MacDonald’s thoughts on Fields, who has gone undefeated in February with five wins. He has also won six of the seven straight games BU has taken, and has provided BU with one of the key ingredients needed for success this season, an unquestioned, solid netminder?

“I think he’s shaky,” MacDonald said, bringing up Northeastern captain Jim Fahey’s slap shot goal in the Beanpot final. “That’s the one ingredient I’m not sure of with BU.”