It hasn’t been a textbook run for the No. 20 Boston University men’s hockey team to the semifinals of the Hockey East Tournament.
The Terriers played the first half of the season to an abysmal 4-9-3 start before going 12-7-0 in the second half to this point. Now, the team is 18-16-3 (13-12-2 HE), and, as the No. 3 seed, is poised to take on the No. 19 University of Maine in the HE semis Friday night at the TD Garden. Faceoff is set for about 8 p.m., pending the ending of the 5 p.m. game between No. 4 Boston College and No. 14 University of Vermont.
Despite the improved second-half record, the Terriers have still been plagued by relapses to their first-half form, prompting BU coach Jack Parker to refer to his team as “Jekyll and Hyde” with the Black Bears (18-16-3, 13-12-2).
Three weeks ago, the team was battling for its playoff life during a road trip to Vermont for a two-game set. The team failed to show up in the first game, dropping a 7-3 contest to the Catamounts, and then lost the Sunday rematch, 3-2.
After rebounding with a pair of wins over Northeastern University the next weekend and topping Merrimack College in game one of a three-game HE quarterfinal matchup, the Terriers laid yet another egg, losing 3-2 to the Warriors in a game that Parker described as “baffling” and “pathetic.”
With every game from here on out presenting a “Win or go home” challenge, the Terriers have no room left.
“They gotta be pretty stupid not to know this is a single elimination game, and if you lose, you go home,” Parker said. “They know that &-&- they know it’s different from what they just played last weekend.”
“That’s kind of a funny thing about this year compared last year &-&- last year at this point we could afford a loss,” said senior Eric Gryba. “This year we can’t. Our backs are really against the wall from here on out if we really want to win anything. We can’t take a night off and guys know that.”
Maine brings a similar style of play to the table as Merrimack, particularly on the power play, where both teams have effective units backed by star individuals: the Warriors have freshman Stephane Da Costa (16 goals, 29 assists, 45 points), while Maine is led by the nation’s leading scorer Gustav Nyquist (18 goals, 41 assists, 59 points).
Last weekend, BU held Merrimack’s nationally third-ranked power play to a meager 1-for-18 performance. The challenge won’t get easier against the Black Bears, though: they bring in the nation’s best power play with a 27.9 percent conversion rate.
“They’re very similar, I think,” Gryba said. “They kind of got that one superstar stud that backs it. We’re not going to really shadow anyone, or just try to shut down one person, but just doing the fundamentals. That’s something we’ve been doing well lately, especially this last weekend.”
Notes:
Sophomore BU goalie Kieran Millan enters Friday fresh off his first shutout of the season, a 1-0 blanking of Merrimack on Sunday. Millan has a 3.12 goals-against average and an .891 save percentage for the season . . . Senior goalie Dave Wilson will likely get the start for Maine as sophomore Scott Darling continues to serve a suspension for violating team rules. Wilson has appeared in 11 games, allowing 2.19 goals per game and registering a .903 save percentage . . . Junior Nick Bonino leads BU in points with 36 (11 goals, 25 assists).
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
