The No. 1 Boston University men’s hockey team has made a habit of parading to the penalty box over the past few weeks. The majority of the calls can be attributed to both the physicality and importance of the final few weekend series of the regular season, but, as sophomore forward Joe Periera can attest to, getting sent to the box has not been all that bad for the Terriers lately.
The Terriers split the weekend series with Northeastern University, garnering a pair of ties in the process. Both teams earned two points in the Hockey East standings, so the Terriers failed to gain any ground.’ In the home-and-home series with the Huskies, BU sent a player to the box 26 times, once generating a 5-on-3 opportunity for the Huskies on Saturday night.
That said, BU gave up just one power-play marker ‘-‘- a goal by Husky forward Wade MacLeod on Friday night.
The Terriers’ 88.2-percent penalty kill this year is the best in Hockey East, nearly a full percentage point higher than both the University of Maine and Northeastern.
‘We want to go out there, and we want to set the tempo,’ BU co-captain Matt Gilroy said. ‘We want to make things happen even though we are down men, and make [whoever we are playing] uncomfortable.’
The Terriers have scored a conference-best eight shorthanded goals, including Gilroy’s tally Saturday night at Matthews Arena.
One of the reasons the Terriers have been so successful on the kill is the presence of BU’s upperclassmen.
When faced with a 5-on-3 man-down situation in the third period against Northeastern Saturday, BU coach Jack Parker sent Gilroy, assistant captain Brian Strait and junior forward Luke Popko out to take the draw in the defensive zone.
Parker relied on Gilroy, Strait and Popko to set the tone, and the trio did just that. Gilroy remained on the ice for the entirety of the 5-on-3 kill, and was rewarded with the shorthanded score after blocking a slap shot from the point before the second Terrier cleared the box.
‘It helps that we have been playing together in the system for so long,’ Gilroy said of the unit.
Popko, who has been a part of the Terriers’ penalty kill all year, has developed into the primary penalty-killing forward over the last month and a half.
A grinder with speed and stick skills, Popko fits perfectly atop the Terriers four- and three-man rotations.
‘Popko’s a real good [penalty kill] guy,’ Gilroy said. ‘He has a good stick and gets in front of a lot of shots. He is always one of the first forwards to kill a penalty.” ‘
When asked why the Terriers have been so lethal on chances to score shorthanded goals this year, Gilroy pointed to the ability for each player on the ice to make a play as the catalyst.
‘[Our success] comes from a little bit of everything,’ Gilroy said. ‘We have a lot of guys with great instincts, and they just go out and play, and good things happen.’
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.
