On a late February evening, while the Boston University hockey team unloaded from the bus upon returning from a road trip, Jack Parker offered freshman Kieran Millan a lift. As the coach and his starting goaltender discussed the night’s game, in which backup Grant Rollheiser played net, Parker remarked that Rollheiser appeared far more comfortable than he had been earlier in the season. Millan admitted that he had also noticed his teammate’s nerves, but couldn’t sympathize.
‘I don’t understand that,’ the Edmonton native told his coach, not boasting, just stating the facts. ‘You’re just playing goal. You’re supposed to be having fun.’
It’s a philosophy one might expect of a weathered NHL veteran, but Millan is the 19-year-old freshman at the heart of the Terriers’ incredible transformation from an underachieving bunch to the best team in college hockey.
Millan got his start playing two seasons for the Spruce Grove Saints in the Alberta Junior Hockey League, where he was named to the All-Rookie Team in 2006-07. While he was there, he developed the even-keeled attitude and goaltending technique that have brought him success at the collegiate level. His quick lateral movement and hand-eye coordination make Millan a difficult goalie to beat, but his demeanor puts him over the top.
‘The thing that Kieran has given us, besides good goaltending, is a calmness back there that makes us calm with the puck,’ Parker said. ‘If we make a mistake, it doesn’t jump in the net.’
BU entered the season with an impressive array of scoring options and a set of shut-down defensemen, but goaltending, the team’s weakness a year ago, was still a concern. Parker gave his two rookies, Millan and Rollheiser, a fair shot to earn the starting job, rotating them for the first two months. When Rollheiser was sidelined by a groin strain before a weekend set with archrival Boston College, Millan saw his chance to lock down the starting spot.
‘That opportunity was one I couldn’t mess up on,’ Millan said. ‘Once that weekend was over, I think everyone understood that I’d be playing. They knew what they’d be getting from me.’
The six-foot, 190-pound goalie turned aside 39 shots and allowed just two goals as the Terriers tied and beat BC in a pair of games. Millan spent the weekend snaring one wrist shot after another with his lightning-quick glove and ignoring the flurry of pressure in front of his crease. It was just the performance he needed to cement his role as the Terriers’ No. 1 goalie.
The clearest indication that Millan was ready for that responsibility came when an early mistake gave him a chance to show immediate growth. BC winger Brock Bradford, who finished second in the nation with 25 goals, raced in on a breakaway, waited until Millan sank into his net and easily slid the puck past him. When Bradford came in alone later in the game, Millan adjusted, making the first move by stepping up and taking away the shooting lane to force Bradford’s offering high and wide.
With momentum from a string of success propelling him forward and having already showed he could learn on the job, Millan began to roll. From late November until mid-March, he didn’t lose a game, going 17-0-3 while BU ascended to the top of the national rankings. One weekend after another, Millan was between the pipes, keeping eager opponents off the scoreboard while his team rattled off victories.
Senior co-captain and defenseman Matt Gilroy noticed a difference in the team.
‘We’re a lot calmer when he’s around,’ Gilroy said, echoing his coach’s words. ‘He just goes with it, never gets frazzled and never gets worried.’
By the time the postseason began, the Terriers were a mainstay atop the polls and their star freshman was being heaped with praise, earning the Hockey East Rookie of the Year award.
But in a quarterfinal best-of-three series with Maine in the Hockey East Tournament, it all seemed to come crashing down. Top-seeded BU narrowly escaped the first game with a 2-1 win. The next night, Millan played the worst game of his career, giving up six goals on 26 shots. For the first time all season, Parker said in awe, his goalie appeared ‘human.’
Even that disastrous outing, though, could do nothing to derail Millan’s unwavering composure. He backstopped BU the following evening, and the team beat Maine to advance to the semifinal round against BC. Then, he made key saves late as the Terriers came from behind to win and move on to the title game. The University of Massachusetts-Lowell posed no threat to the young star, and he recorded his third shutout despite facing 32 shots and several heated scrums in front of his net, earning the Tournament MVP award.
Millan left quite an impression on UML coach Blaise MacDonald, who said that he looked like Cool Hand Luke on the ice.
‘Nothing seems to faze him or rattle him,’ MacDonald said. ‘He looked really cool doing it, and that’s what good goalies do.’
‘As a goaltender, you don’t have to worry about anything else but yourself,’ Millan said. ‘When it comes down to it, your job is to keep the puck out of the net. If you do that, your team is going to win a lot of games.’
BU kept winning games with Millan in net, rolling past Ohio State University to open the NCAA Tournament before squeaking out a last-minute win over the University of New Hampshire in which the goalie stifled numerous odd-man rushes.
Now, the Terriers prepare to play the University of Vermont in the Frozen Four, knowing that their last line of defense can handle the pressure. And if the cool kid from Edmonton keeps rolling, he’ll be able to add one more line to his already impressive resume: national champion.
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