By Annie Maroon/DFP Staff
NORTH ANDOVER — Despite playing most of the game with five defensemen, the No. 3 Boston University men’s hockey team beat No. 4 Merrimack College, 4-1, on Friday night to hang onto first place in a tight Hockey East playoff picture.
Senior captain Chris Connolly had his second two-goal night of the year with his third and fourth goals of the season, and junior assistant captain Alex Chiasson recorded a goal and an assist to prevent the Terriers (16-8-1, 13-6-1 Hockey East) from dropping three straight after being swept by the University of Maine last weekend.
“It would have been really bad for us psychologically to lose three in a row after we went, I think, 10-1 in the league and it put us way above everyone for a while in the standings,” BU coach Jack Parker said. “If you drop three or four in the league, that brings you right back to the middle of the crowd again.”
BU struggled to score against Maine last weekend, losing 4-2 and 3-1, so the captains’ offensive contributions on Friday were a much-needed return to form. Senior goalie Kieran Millan did his part with 28 saves, sustaining a shutout until the last two minutes of the game. In the opposing crease, Merrimack goalie Joe Cannata, who ranks second in Hockey East with a .926 save percentage (Millan is third with a .923), had a rare off night, allowing four goals on just 20 shots.
Connolly struck first for the Terriers 1:29 into the first period, snapping a wrist shot past Cannata. Although BU led just 10-9 in shots on goal in the first frame, they attempted 22 shots to Merrimack’s 16, a slightly better reflection of the time of possession.
In the second period, play got more physical as five different Terriers went to the box, but the penalty kill held the Warriors (14-6-5, 10-5-3) to just two shots on their five power-play opportunities. Sophomore forward Sahir Gill gave BU some breathing room when he increased the lead to 2-0, redirecting an Adam Clendening shot from the point past Cannata at 12:32.
Less than a minute later, junior forward Alex Chiasson came down the right wing on an odd-man rush with Connolly and Clendening. Connolly hit Chiasson with a pass below the top of the circle and Chiasson fired a low shot under Cannata’s leg pads.
“The goal that Chiasson got on the pass from Connolly where he just got it and redirected it right away, that’s the way you’ve got to beat [Cannata],” Parker said. “You let him get set, you’re not getting it by him, so he was still just about moving when [Chiasson] put it on him.”
Both teams tightened up defensively in the third, as Merrimack took nine shots and BU just two. Although the Terriers controlled the power play they got when Merrimack wing Clayton Jardine was called for a slash, they couldn’t get the puck through to Cannata. It took another man-advantage, this one with Merrimack’s Connor Toomey in the box, for Connolly to pick up his second goal, lifting a backhander into the net.
Although BU’s defense is depleted after the losses of freshman Alexx Privitera (wrist) and junior Max Nicastro (shoulder) to injury last weekend, sophomores Garrett Noonan and Adam Clendening took extra shifts to pick up the slack, and Parker didn’t send out his sixth man, sophomore Matt Ronan, until late in the third period.
Merrimack’s Mike Collins broke up Millan’s shutout with 1:42 remaining, flipping a rebound past him. That was one of the only quality chances Merrimack saw all game, a credit to the effort of the Terrier defensemen who are still standing.
“We were very, very thorough in all three zones,” Parker said. “In this rink, things happen fast, and we were very, very alert to that. I thought we got great goaltending. When you get four goals on Cannata, you had a real good night.”
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