ORONO, Maine – When you see that No. 11/12 University of Maine registered 42 shots against the No. 16 Boston University men’s hockey team in a 1-1 tie Saturday night, including 20 in the first period alone, it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that the Terriers performed poorly on defense for the second night in a row.
That would be a mistake, though. The Terriers were not spectacular in their own end, but they were much better than they were in Friday night’s 4-3 win. After giving up an astounding 24 grade-A chances in Game 1 of the weekend series, BU held Maine to just 10 Saturday night.
“They were just shooting them from the outside and we did a pretty good job at defending grade-A,” BU coach Jack Parker said after Saturday night’s game. “We gave up a lot of grade-A’s last night. We did a real good job at that tonight.”
In the first period, only two of the Black Bears’ 29 attempted shots came from the grade-A area. Junior goalie Kieran Millan, who made a staggering 75 saves on the weekend and earned No. 1 star honors in both games, said that made the period easier than it might appear on paper.
“Our defense did a pretty good job,” Millan said. “I know we didn’t have a lot of offensive opportunities, but we did a good job of limiting their quality chances. So that made my job a little easier.”
Parker credited his team’s backcheck through the middle of the ice as being a big reason the Terriers were able to force Maine wide, while Millan also pointed to rebound control, both by himself and those in front of him.
“I did a pretty good job of keeping rebounds to the outside or covering them right away,” Millan said. “And whenever I didn’t, my defense and centermen did a great job of getting them out of the way, which is a huge part of keeping pucks out of the net.”
Millan said another key was that he was able to see a lot of shots and did not have to try and find them through screens.
“Basically, I just let our guys know, don’t try and be a hero and block a shot that’s an easy save for me,” he said. “Because if something goes wrong, it’s pretty hard for me to recover from that. I try to let them know on the ice to stay out of my way when shots are coming. It just makes it easier when you see the puck.”
All those improvements from Friday night in 5-on-5 play – forcing Maine to the outside, clearing away rebounds and giving Millan a clear line of vision – carried over to the penalty kill as well.
The Terriers held the Black Bears scoreless on their seven power-play opportunities and netted their only goal of the game while shorthanded. Parker said his team did a good job of executing its game plan, which was to take away Maine’s playmakers.
“We tried to take away a couple of their guys that are real important to them, not let them make plays on us,” Parker said. “So we pressured a couple of their guys more. You have to be real concerned with [Will O’Neill] and [Gustav Nyquist] on one power play and [Brian Flynn] and [Jeff Dimmen] on the other power play. So we kind of paid more attention to them than we did the other guys.”
Of course, as good as the defense and penalty kill were Saturday night, the game still would have likely resulted in a loss if not for Millan.
“He’s just not one of the better goalies in Hockey East, he’s one of the better goalies in the country,” said senior co-captain Joe Pereira. “And he’s playing like it the past few games. If he’s up to the task, we’re going to go pretty far.”