By Tim Healey/DFP Staff
It’s not you, the coach would say, it’s him. You’re both good goalies. Right now is just his time. He’s the hot hand.
That time could be now for Maguire. The sophomore made 39 saves, tying his season high, against No. 10 University of Massachusetts-Lowell at the Tsongas Center Saturday night. The Boston University men’s hockey team lost, 3-1, but afterward Quinn and company sung a familiar song.
Their goalie kept them in it.
“Obviously our goalie was unbelievable tonight,” Quinn said in his opening comments, before even being questioned on his netminder. “[He] gave us a chance.”
The head coach would not go as far to say that Maguire will start next weekend when No. 18 University of Vermont visits Agganis Arena for a two-game set, but it stands to reason that will be the case.
Maguire was between the pipes Friday in a 6-4 loss at No. 3/4 Boston College, then again Saturday in Lowell. He allowed two goals in the latter contest, one of them the result of a breakaway.
Maguire stopped a combined 77 shots while yielding seven goals.
The .917 save percentage in that short sample size is more impressive when you consider the Terriers played with five defensemen.
Sophomore Matt Grzelcyk is out for the season with a separated shoulder, and mid-way through Saturday’s game, sophomore Ahti Oksanen suffered an apparent left leg injury and did not return. Freshman T.J. Ryan, who had been playing forward, switched back so the defensive corps wasn’t too weakened.
Those circumstances put additional stress on Maguire.
“There is pressure on our goalie,” Quinn said. “There is pressure on every goalie really. But when you’re in the situation we’re in, there’s even more pressure. It’s difficult.”
Senior captain Garrett Noonan concurred.
“We have a depleted lineup with a ton of injuries right now,” said Noonan, one of the healthy defensemen. “It’s something that he knows, and he knows he’s going to have to make two or three big saves — maybe two or three big saves a period, whatever it is. He did that all weekend.”
This weekend was the first time Maguire started back-to-back games since the end of last season. At that point, then-coach Jack Parker didn’t have a choice when a collapsed lung ended O’Connor’s freshman campaign.
This time, Quinn did have a choice, and he went with Maguire.
Scott Wilson, a junior assistant captain for the River Hawks, noted Maguire’s prowess. Both are Pittsburgh Penguins draft picks, and they are familiar with each other from their time at developmental camps.
“I knew he’s a great goaltender, so I know you’ve got to battle through a little [adversity] there,” Wilson said. “But I think we got plenty of chances and a couple of them just didn’t go in for us.”
The net result of Maguire’s impressive weekend could lead to a role reversal with his classmate and counterpart, O’Connor.
O’Connor started the final seven games of the first semester, a streak prolonged when Maguire could not play due to back problems. That stretch started when Quinn pulled Maguire after he gave up three goals in 30 minutes against the University of Maine.
This time, O’Connor was the one pulled — again against Maine — after spotting the Black Bears four goals in less than a period Jan. 11.
Maguire has hardly let up since.
“He played awesome. He played awesome for sure,” Noonan said. “When [Maguire and O’Connor] give up goals, we’re usually leaving them out to dry. That was the case this weekend and last weekend.
“He gave us a chance to win both games. Unfortunately we didn’t capitalize on that.”
Nothing could be more wrong with the hockey universe than BC being in first place and BU being in tenth place. Although I’m extremely frustrated, I must salute Quinn and an injury-plagued Terrier team for going into the last few minutes of the third period with only a one-goal deficit … on two consecutive nights … on the road against two teams in D-1’s top ten rankings.
i guess at this point, the best we can hope for are moral victories
With the lack of talent on this team it is outstanding that they can come so close to winning. What was Bavis looking at when he saw some of these guys play? Did he see them play? Good Lord there is such a lack of talent.
Can we please stop basing Bavis just to support DQ – this is an embarrassment to BU hockey.
Nobody’s bashing Bavis for the sake of supporting DQ. Wasn’t it Bavis who was primarily in charge of recruiting during the last five or so years? I think he got some good players but somehow a number of them are not continuing their success at the college level (to the degree they had done in high school, prep school and the USHL).
Sorry pal. Bavis is the culprit
Bavis did the recruiting,IT IS WHAT IT IS!!!QUINN has been here for a little more than half a season,and look at the recruits he has coming in,change is on the way,fact-not fiction.
I agree Bavis did get some good talent just not the elite talent BU is used to, Let’s hope that changes in the upcoming season!
The recruits Bavis brought in got us to the HE championship game.
After Quinn left,what did Bavis recruiting win at BU,ZERO!!-not even a Beanpot in 5years!!!!
Our forwards are a embarrassment. 7 shots on goal for a game. Time to clean house.
Blame can’t fall on the forwards for this. There have been some horrific teams in HE that get more than 7 shots on goal.
Anyone see the latest mid-season rankings? Our incoming recruits are not ranked as highly as some seem to indicate. We may want to temper our expectations.
Is there any scenario we can make the NCAA tournament without winning the HE tournament?
Anon 10:33 AM – What rankings did you see? I am interested.
BU should be within the top three teams in D-1 for incoming recruits for 2014 … with Jack Eichel leading the way. He might be the #2 overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft. It’s hard to see how BU won’t have the top recruiting class with arguably the best incoming college hockey player in many years. Furthermore, if you look at the USHL stats, JJ Piccinich is seventh in points for this feeder league. Then there’s Jonathan McLeod … who’s supposed to be a stud d-man and is highly ranked by NHL Central Scouting. So, I think the expectations should indeed be quite high for October … and will only grow higher with Greenway coming in 2015 and Keller in 2016. BC has some top recruits too but we should have the edge on the them.
https://collegehockeyinc.com/pages/2014-nhl-draft-mid-season-rankings
not sure if this is the list anon 10:33 saw but here is one I found
As for the anon poster who wondered whether we could make the NCAA tournament w/o winning HE, it’s like this: We’d have to climb from #46 in the Pairwise Rankings to #16 … and we only have 12 games to do that (perhaps some additional games if we go deep into the HE tournament). I honestly don’t know if a 19-13-2 record would do that … it might. Regardless, it’s hard to imagine how we’d go on a 12 game winning steak at this point … against some very tough and highly ranked opponents. All we can do is continue to support our Terriers.