Millan’s effort not enough in loss to UMass

By Kevin Dillon/DFP Staff

In the No. 1/2 Boston University men’s hockey team’s surprising loss to the University of Massachusetts Friday night at Agganis Arena, BU coach Jack Parker thought that only one of his players played well, and he played the most important position on the ice.

Senior goaltender Kieran Millan made 34 saves in the Terriers’ 3-2 loss to UMass, but his effort was overshadowed by the result of the game and the poor play of his teammates in front of him.

“We had too many guys not show up tonight,” Parker said. “Our goaltender showed up, I thought he played great.”

While the Edmonton, Alberta native earned the loss on the night, he only allowed two of the goals scored in the game, and both of them were on the power play. The other goal for UMass came with an empty net with less than one minute remaining, as BU was trying to come back from a 2-1 deficit.

The Terriers and UMass each had six power plays on the night, but Millan had as many chances against him while his team had the man-advantage that it seemed as if UMass had more power plays.

“We each had six power plays, and it looks like we got a lot of good shots off but [they had a] much better time of possession and better chances I thought,” Parker said.

Millan made more short-handed saves than usual, including a great 2-on-1 stop midway through the second period. Millan not only stopped the first UMass shot which came on a breakaway, but he got back in position to slide back and save the follow up shot.

Despite out-shooting the Minutemen 15-6 in the first period, BU was out-shot 14-13 and 17-7 over the next two frames. Millan only made five saves in the first period, but he kept the team in the game over the following two stanzas, making 13 saves in the second and 16 saves in the third. Even with Millan’s impressive performance, BU could not come back from its one-goal deficit.

“The lines, the defensemen, the power play, the penalty kill. Pick a spot other than the goaltender, we were off our game,” Parker said.

One reason that the entire BU team looked bad was the goaltender on the other end. Netminder Kevin Boyle made 33 saves in the game and didn’t allow a power play goal on six BU opportunities until the very end. Junior assistant captain Alex Chiasson found the back of the net with 4.5 seconds remaining to make the score 3-2. Sophomore defenseman Garrett Noonan and sophomore forward Matt Nieto assisted on the play, but it wasn’t enough for the Terriers to tie the score.

The first goal Boyle allowed was on a fortunate bounce for BU, when Nieto poked a puck behind Boyle’s leg, just far enough for senior captain Chris Connolly to push in for the Terriers’ to tie the game at 1-1.

“If they get goaltending like they did tonight, they could get in the playoffs and nobody would want to play them,” Parker said.

Millan’s play on Saturday was representative to his play as of late. In his last two games before the loss to UMass, the Colorado Avalanche draft pick had only allowed one goal in each game, including a 29 save effort against Harvard University in the first round of the Beanpot. The game before the win over Harvard, Millan stopped 28 shots at J. Thom Lawler Arena in a 4-1 win over then-No. 4 Merrimack.

While he has been very good in the past two games, Millan has been one of the top goaltenders in the league all season. BU’s starting goaltender is second in Hockey East in save percentage with a .933 mark, and third in Hockey East with a 2.23 goals-against average.

With his hot play lately, Millan will have to keep it up against a Boston College team that has scored 13 goals in its last two games, including a seven-goal effort over Northeastern University in the first round of the Beanpot. Millan’s quality of play in the game will be pivotal to the outcome of the championship game, but he is going to need help from the players in front of him.

“We’ll be ready to play Monday I’m sure against Boston College,” Parker said. “If this was just lack of focus, we’ll be focused Monday [and] maybe we’ll play hard.”