Three up, three down: O’Connor shines despite parade of defensemen to the box

DURHAM, N.H. –

Despite a UNH offensive attack that only intensified as the game went on, freshman goalie Matt O’Connor had a shutout going until the last six minutes of the second period. He gave up just one even-strength goal and kicked shots away on countless UNH rushes to keep the Terriers in the game.

O’Connor finished the night with 32 saves – an impressive, if not gaudy, figure – but 12 of those came during the Wildcats’ nine power plays. His penalty killers helped him out, blocking shot after shot, but he was BU’s last and best line of defense when they found themselves in the box.

“Tonight, offensively, we were pretty strong,” said UNH forward John Henrion, who scored the Wildcats’ second goal. “We had so many shots. We had a lot of shots blocked, but there were a lot of flurries, rebounds we were getting to him, and he was fighting them off, so you’ve got to give him credit. It’s a big game for him.”

Senior wing Wade Megan opened Thursday’s game with a goal, just as he did the last time the Terriers visited the Whittemore Center. This one was his ninth of the year, ranking him second in the league behind BC’s Johnny Gaudreau in goals and seventh in points (15).

Megan has recorded at least one point in 11 of the Terriers’ 14 games. BU lost all three of the games in which he didn’t score (against the University of North Dakota on Nov. 2, BC on Nov. 11 and UNH on Nov. 18). His goals are rarely flashy – on Thursday, he jammed a rebound past Wildcat goalie Casey DeSmith early in the first period – but three of the nine have been game-winners.

The Terriers started off the year struggling mightily in the faceoff circle. They started to improve last weekend against Boston College, going 24-30 on Friday and 35-36 on Saturday, and tonight they actually led the Wildcats, 31-26.

Freshman center Danny O’Regan led the way, winning 10 draws and losing six, and his classmate Wes Myron went 7-4. Against a UNH team that spends a great deal of time in the offensive zone, controlling the puck off the draw was one of the keys to the Terriers staying in the game.

After starting the year with more discipline than usual, the Terriers continued their recent trend of badly-timed penalties against the Wildcats. Sophomore defenseman Alexx Privitera put the Terriers down 5-on-3 in the first with Megan already in the box, and junior defenseman Garrett Noonan was whistled for interference three seconds after BU killed a holding penalty to senior Ben Rosen. The Wildcats finally broke through with their first goal as Noonan sat in the box.

Noonan and Privitera have seen their penalty totals creep up steadily over the last few games, and they lead the team in penalty minutes – Privitera with 26 and Noonan with 24.

The time BU spent in the box didn’t hurt the team as much as it did last weekend against BC, but BU coach Jack Parker said he still wasn’t satisfied with the team’s discipline.

“We took a few too many penalties,” Parker said. “You’ve got to kill nine penalties in the game, and we didn’t. We only killed eight of them.”

Although the Terriers held a 3-0 lead by the middle of the second period, the outcome of the game came down to the very last second. With a goal in the second and a goal in the third, the Wildcats were close enough to pull DeSmith and throw six attackers at BU with Megan in the box. They spent most of the last minute of the game in BU’s zone.

“It gets a little more hectic when it’s 6-on-4 than when it’s 5-on-4,” Parker said. “And I thought the couple of times the puck stayed on one side of the ice and didn’t get to the back door where they had two guys waiting all by themselves — literally standing by themselves – if the puck had bounced over there it would’ve been a tie game.

“We didn’t play it perfectly, but it’s hard to play it perfectly when it’s 6-on-4. And we certainly competed.”

Junior wing Matt Nieto leads the Terriers with 49 shots. The only other Terrier within 10 of that total is Megan, who has 42. Yet Nieto has just three goals on the year, and despite four more shots on Thursday, he couldn’t get on the scoresheet, not even with a rebound that led to a goal for a teammate.

Nieto’s whole line had a quiet night, as neither O’Regan nor sophomore wing Evan Rodrigues tallied a point. But as junior forward Sahir Gill may be finding his stride at last, Nieto may be the Terrier with the most potential who has produced the least thus far.