By Kevin Dillon/DFP Staff
The No. 18 Boston University men’s hockey team has not had trouble keeping Merrimack College off the scoreboard in any of their meetings this season, allowing a total of four goals in three games.
That trend continued Friday night at Agganis Arena, when BU shut out the Warriors 3-0 in the first game of the Hockey East quarterfinals.
“I thought that if you took our top five games that we have played all of this year in our first 35, I would say three of them were against Merrimack,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “I was concerned that we could continue to give them a really good game and I thought we gave them a good game tonight.”
After a scoreless first period, it appeared that freshman forward Danny O’Regan scored the first goal of the game less than two minutes into the second period. However, O’Regan’s goal was disallowed after an official review showed sophomore forward Evan Rodrigues interfering with Merrimack goalie Sam Marotta.
The Terriers were still the first team to score though, when senior captain Wade Megan netted a deflection to the right of Marotta 4:10 into the second period. Freshman defenseman Ahti Oksanen set the play up with a hard slap shot from the point. Megan, who will play his final game in Agganis Arena this weekend, now has 49 goals in his career.
Later in the period, BU got on the scoreboard again when junior forward Matt Nieto finished off a fancy rush by Rodrigues. Rodrigues carried the puck into the offensive zone and looked to be dropping a pass off to freshman defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, but found Nieto in the slot instead.
The goal was Nieto’s team-leading 17th of the season, and his 10th career point against Merrimack. He is now on a six-game point streak in which he has totaled 12 points. His entire line has been nearly unstoppable since the beginning of February, and has only been held without a point twice in 13 games.
“That line has been the highest-scoring line in college hockey, I think, in the last two months,” Parker said. “O’Regan’s playing great, Rodrigues is playing great, and Nieto, the puck just keeps jumping in the net for him.”
While Merrimack recorded 11 shots in the second period, it did not get a high-quality scoring chance throughout the frame. The Warriors were held without a grade-A chance in the period, and only had three grade-A chances throughout the first two periods.
The Terriers did not mess around with their two-goal lead entering the third period, scoring a second insurance goal within the first minute of the frame. Senior forward Ryan Santana shoveled a rebound past Marotta for his second goal of the season and his first power-play goal.
Santana has been an effective weapon on the power play since he was added to the O’Regan unit on Feb. 11. In 11 games since then, Santana has scored five power-play points (one goal and four assists), which is almost half of the points he has scored this season.
“He’s still a fourth-liner for us, but he now kills every penalty and plays every power play, and nobody deserves it more than he does,” Parker said. “He works so hard, and he’s a great example of, keep working. You never know what’s going to happen.”
Freshman goaltender Sean Maguire played well again for the Terriers, stopping all 30 shots he faced. It is Maguire’s second consecutive shutout and fourth shutout of the season.
BU will have a chance to sweep the series and clinch berth to the Hockey East semifinals next weekend with a win Saturday. However, Parker said his team is taking things one game at a time and trying to avoid elimination.
“Nobody wants to lose their last game, and everybody loses their last game except the national champion,” Parker said. “So no matter when it happens it’s always like the guillotine. I think everybody’s trying to postpone the guillotine. I know I am.”
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