By Jake Seiner/DFP Staff
The Boston University men’s hockey team entered the third period of Friday night’s contest with No. 10 Boston College with a two-goal lead.
With just over five minutes to play in regulation, the lead had evaporated, along with what looked to be any momentum the Terriers had mustered from a series of stellar saves from sophomore netminder Kieran Millan. The goalie faced eight shots from the grade-A area in the third period alone.
It wasn’t the first time the Terriers had been tested late in games this season, but experience hadn’t been an aide to BU in the recent past.
Just a week ago, BU entered the third trailing a lowly Providence College team by three goals. The team needed a response –– what it got was a meaningless single tally from sophomore Ross Gaudet.
The third-period struggles weren’t a new thing. On Dec. 5, the Terriers pushed the Eagles to their limits through two periods, and entered the third tied at 1 with a 19-16 shot advantage.
With the chance to overthrow a bitter rival on its home ice, the Terriers collapsed. Edwin Shea put the Eagles up just 38 seconds into the third, which was followed by goals from Joe Whitney and Brian Gibbons. It was not followed by any goals from the boys in Scarlet and White.
Friday night, when Pat Mullane threw in the equalizing fourth goal for BC at 14:28 of the third, Terrier Nation let out a collective, “Here we go again.”
BU coach Jack Parker and his Terriers have sworn for three weeks that BU is a changed team. Up until this point, the results have been good –– save for a sloppy two-point weekend against Providence and Merrimack College. But the questions have still been there.
Colby Cohen and the Terriers gave their answer by notching an overtime winner to knock off arguably the most talented team in Hockey East Friday night. Their answer: BU in the Spring of 2010 is a different team than the BU of Fall 2009, and Friday’s overtime win against Boston College is merely an indicator of that shift.
“I think it’s definitely a direction we’re trying to go in,” sophomore winger Vinny Saponari said. “Find ways to win. We knew once they got that first goal, they were going to be coming at us hard.
“Basically we were just saying to each other, ‘It’s a tie game now –– it’s up for grabs. It’s not like we lost or anything.’”
The most dramatic improvement for the Terriers since break has been in net –– namely in the way Millan has performed. Friday, the sophomore turned away 42 shots –– a career best –– and though he let in four goals, Parker dubbed him his MVP of Friday’s game.
“I think he’s been very solid since he’s been back,” Parker said of Millan. “He’s looking like Kieran Millan.”
Friday night, the Terriers were aided by a third-period coaching adjustment: sensing his team starting to fall back on its heels, Parker decided to tweak his forecheck.
“We went from conservative to aggressive,” Saponari said. “It was more just the mentality of not sitting back that just really kept us going. [Parker] didn’t want us to play conservative and just back off.”
The change in third-period mentality is evident to the Terriers’ coach.
“We’re not casual,” Parker said. “When that’s happened to us in the past, it’s because we’re, ‘Eh.’ At [the University of New Hampshire] we just gave them two goals when they beat us in our building coming back in the third period.
“The [Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute] game, we were sleep walking and gave them the game. It wasn’t like they pummeled us.”
Friday night, there was no sleep walking. There was no, “Playing not to lose,” which is how Parker described his team after last Saturday’s 6-4 win over Merrimack.
“We thought we played more to win tonight,” Bonino said.
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