By Tim Healey/DFP Staff
The No. 19 Boston University men’s hockey team still had 7:49 to play against the University of Vermont Friday night, but it was up 3-1 and the Agganis Arena PA system was sending a message loud and clear with Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Takin’ Care Of Business” between plays.
BU (16-14-2, 13-9-2 Hockey East) hasn’t always taken care of business too often this semester — especially against teams it should, on paper, beat, namely Northeastern and Harvard — but Friday was a different story in the 3-1 win. Although junior forward Matt Nieto stole the show with a hat trick, freshman goaltender Sean Maguire made it stand up despite Vermont peppering him with a season-high 50 shots.
Just the way he likes it.
“It keeps me focused. It keeps me on top of things,” said Maguire, who stopped all but one Catamount attempt. “This is a desperate hockey club we played tonight. They are going to be shooting from everywhere, trying to get some gritty goals and that is what they did tonight.
“There was a couple bars, a couple close calls. I was actually surprised that that a few didn’t cross the line. My defense was playing well and I had a little luck, I guess.”
The defensive corps indeed played well — the Terriers’ 22 blocked shots were the most they have had since Jan. 26 — but it was Maguire BU coach Jack Parker credited for BU’s success on the penalty kill, which went 3-for-3, against the Catamounts (10-16-5, 7-12-5 Hockey East).
“Nice to see us do so well killing penalties. And a lot of that had to do with the way Sean played too,” Parker said. “But [Vermont] got an awful lot of shots right at our crease — bam, bam, bam, three or four shots in a row and Sean stood tall.”
The 6-foot-2 Pittsburgh Penguins prospect’s 49 saves were not only a career high but also the most a BU netminder has made all season.
It’ s also Maguire’s third game in a row in which he’s seen a high volume of shots.
Feb. 16 at Maine, a 5-4 BU overtime win, Maguire stopped 40 Black Bear attempts.
The next week, in a 3-1 loss to the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, he made 36 saves, followed by 49 tonight.
The difference between that three-game span and the rest of his season?
Defenseman Alexx Privitera was suspended for the remainder of the season before the weekend series at Maine, and BU as a team has been blocking fewer shots since. With 72, Privitera is still the team’s second-leading shot blocker behind only senior defenseman Sean Escobedo’s 83.
Maguire called the defense letting more shots through to him a “trust issue,” but not in a negative sense.
“They know I’m going to be able to make that easy save, the one I should make, and they are letting me see the puck a lot more than they used to,” Maguire said. “It’s just a trust issue and I think it is working out.”
Chances are it will continue to work out, but not for Maguire Saturday night against Vermont. Parker is sticking with this habit of rotating the goalies each game, so freshman Matt O’Connor will get his chance and look to build off of his strong 32-save performance against Merrimack College Tuesday.
That does not mean, however, Parker isn’t looking for his defense to pick up its collective game. The bench boss said he had “lots of concern” that Vermont had 85 attempted shots, many of them off rebounds at the crease that could have easily led to gritty goals and a much, much closer game.
“[Vermont] played harder in front of our net,” Parker said. “We gotta play harder in front of our net than they do. We had too many times when they were banging away and we weren’t clearing them out, so we’ll take a look at that.”
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