Terriers prepare for battle against Black Bears in Hockey East Semifinals

By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

On Thursday night, the No. 5 Boston University men’s hockey team attended the annual Hockey East Awards banquet to watch seven Terriers earn trophies and recognition for their play during the regular season. If the Terriers want to take home the ultimate team prize in Hockey East however, they still have work to do.

That work begins Friday night when BU will face off against the No. 10/11 University of Maine in the Hockey East Semifinals at the TD Garden. The draw is a tough one for the Terriers, who are 0-5 against Maine in semifinal play and dropped the season series to Maine this year.

“There’s definitely a lot on the line,” said senior captain Chris Connolly. “Maine is going to give us everything that we can handle so we have to start focusing on that They’re definitely a much improved team from the first time we saw them up in Maine. They played us hard down here twice, so we’re going to know that going in and they’re going to be prepared for us so we expect a battle on Friday.”

The Black Bears enter semifinal play after topping Merrimack College in three games in a very physical quarterfinal series. Maine boasts one of the most potent offenses in the country, ranking seventh in the nation in scoring offense with 3.38 goals per game. The top line of Abbott, Flynn and Diamond lead the attack, as the trio have combined for 149 points (42 percent of Maine’s total offense) this season.

Maine’s offense, however, has quieted down some of late, as it scored just two goals in each of its games against Merrimack last weekend. The Black Bears have registered two or less goals in six of its last seven games.

When the firepower is lacking up front, however, the Black Bears can rely on sophomore netminder Dan Sullivan, who owns a .910 save percentage and 2.51 goals-against average.

“We know they have a very good team and they have that top line in the country with [Spencer] Abbott, [Brian] Flynn and [Joey] Diamond, so we have a lot to handle there,” Connolly said. “We definitely respect this team a lot and we’re going to do everything in our power to be as well prepared as we can.”

For the Terriers, preparing for Maine started with some extra time off from practice. After playing two double overtime games in a three-game, three-day span in the quarterfinals against the University of New Hampshire, coach Jack Parker gave the Terriers their usual day off and then held a shorter-than-normal practice on its first day back.

The rest seemed to help, as according to Parker, the Terriers spent the rest of the week practicing harder than they have in a few weeks. The team also seems to have finally gotten rid of a flu bug that plagued the Terriers for more than two weeks. As of Wednesday, there had been no signs of the bug in the locker room for at least a few days.
The improved practices and newfound health is essential for a Terrier team that has not played a thorough game since topping the University of Vermont, 5-0, on Feb. 24. Although Parker said he was happy with his team’s resilience in its quarterfinal series against UNH, he noted that the Terriers must clean up their game if they hope to beat Maine.

“They certainly competed at the right times, but they didn’t compete for 60 minutes and we can’t have lapses like that against Maine,” Parker said. “We were resilient because we were down 4-1 and we were able to come back. But we would like not to be in those positions.”

BU will continue to lean heavily on senior goaltender Kieran Millan, who made a tournament- and personal-record 68 saves in the final quarterfinal game against UNH. Millan recorded 150 saves through the quarterfinal series and enters the semifinal game just seven saves shy of tying a tournament record for saves in a single tournament.

Millan and the rest of the Terriers are also looking to capture their second championship since a seven-championship 2008-09 season. The only championship that a class other than the seniors has won during their time at BU is the 2010 Ice Breaker Tournament championship.

“It’s been a little disappointing the last two seasons to miss out on the national tournament and last year not even make it to the Hockey East Tournament,” Connolly said. “So it’s good to be back and be back at the banquet and know we’re going to have a chance to win another championship here in the next weekend, and then taking a stab at the national tournament as well, which I think if we play our best hockey we have a good chance at going far in that as well.”

“We’re really eager and keen to get something under our belts here,” said junior assistant captain Justin Courtnall. “We just have to play one game at a time.”