By Tim Healey/DFP StaffThe nerves — be it of the excited or anxious variety — were evident from the start, but they didn’t last long.
Sean Maguire took the ice with the No. 18 Boston University men’s hockey team, and the freshman goaltender was his usual pumped-up self. He marked up his crease, made a couple imaginary glove saves and banged his pads with his stick when he lined up with his teammates, most of them still, for the national anthem.“I have a little bit of jitters,” Maguire said. “At the beginning of every game I’m a little fired up, I guess. But as soon as I get that first shot I’m just calm, collected — at least, I try to be — and I let things flow.”
Let things flow indeed. Maguire made a perfect 30 saves against Merrimack College, paving the way for a 3-0 win for third-seeded BU (19-15-2, 15-10-2 Hockey East) over the sixth-seeded Warriors (15-16-6, 13-11-2 Hockey East) in Game 1 of the Hockey East quarterfinals at Agganis Arena.It’s Maguire’s second shutout in a row and fourth of the season.“He played real well,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “He stepped it up since he knew he was the guy [when Matt O’Connor got hurt] . . . Now that he knows it’s there, he’s probably more mentally prepared to play the second game.”Maguire played well throughout the game, but made a couple big stops in the first, even though it was the frame in which he saw the fewest shots (seven).One of them came with about six minutes remaining and Merrimack defenseman Justin Mansfield on the left side. Mansfield fired from the circle and Maguire, who nearly slid too far to his right, barely made the glove save to keep the game scoreless.From Parker’s perspective, that wasn’t Maguire’s biggest. The soon-to-be-retired coach recalled one shot from Merrimack defenseman Kyle Bigos mid-way through the second period.“I don’t think he even saw it until the very end and then he made a great save,” Parker said.Maguire had a slightly different version. He didn’t see the shot, but he certainly felt it.“It hit me right in the nuts. It actually hit me in the nuts. It was a stinger,” Maguire said. “I didn’t see it at all. I try to get to the top of my crease and be as big as possible. Luckily it hit me. I just sat on it.”To be sure, Maguire certainly had a lot of help. The defensemen, which without junior assistant captain Garrett Noonan is mostly the top five while junior Matt Ronan spots a shift here and there, kept the Warriors to the perimeter for most of the game.Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy, a man of few words each of the last two times BU handily topped his team, called Maguire “comfortable” but also said his team too often took “the path of least resistance” — it hesitated when trying to penetrate BU’s zone.The visitors finished with just six Grade-A chances: two in the first, zero in the second and four in the third.And that’s just the way Maguire likes it.“Getting those long shots gets me actually into more of a rhythm,” Maguire said. “Gets those easy saves. It shows the boys I’m ready to go, and the rebound control, getting those shots into the corners and freezing the puck so the guys can change. I like the way our D has been playing these days, getting in front of pucks and making them shoot long.”All the work Maguire put in in his own end, and he nearly outscored the Warriors on his own.With less than a minute the clock and the Merrimack net empty during its own power play, Maguire corralled the puck in the crease and cleared it — straight up the middle.So was he trying to score?“Oh yeah,” Maguire said quickly. “When I saw that empty net, I told the ref right to my left, ‘I’m going to shoot this puck and try to score a goal.’ It’s a free shot on net on the penalty kill, so it’s not going to be an icing. May as well try.”