Beating The Bottom Feeders

BU Better Than The Worst

It's amazing how excited I was last night watching the Terriers fight and claw their way to a victory over the lowly Merrimack Warriors.  But I was.  And the whole crowd was.  And while every win is a big win at this point in the year for BU after such a dismal start, let's remember to temper our enthusiasm a bit when we look back at this one. 

Boston Herald

Mack Sat on BU For Two Periods Last Night

Merrimack hasn't won a game since December 4th, when they beat equally ugly Northeastern.  They've lost nine out of their last ten games.  They are now officially in last place in Hockey East.  They can't score, and their goaltending is mediocre at best.  Simply put, besides a flying Frenchman, they are back to their old Merrimack Warrior Ways.

And despite all of these things, the Terriers struggled to stay with Merrimack through two periods last night.

So is this win something for BU fans to get excited about?  Or should we realize that in a weekend when BU dropped a game to Providence, they very nearly lost on home ice to Merrimack, they showed a slew of flaws?
 The first two periods were not good for the Terriers.  There's no debating that.  But a closer look at the Merrimack goals may show that the holes are more localized than generalized for this Terrier team.

Merrimack's first goal came as a result of a simple gaffe.  Mack's Carter Madson scooped up the puck in the neutral zone and swooped into the Terrier zone.  As he cut to his right toward the middle of the zone, El Assistant Capitan Eric Gryba lost his footing and fell to the ice.  Madson had a clear path to Grant Rollheiser, whom Madson put a nice move on and buried the puck. 

The Warriors' second goal also came in transition, although this one while the entire Terriers' team experienced a simultaneous mental breakdown.  As a BU penalty expired, Nick Bonino took a hard fall in the offensive zone, forcing him to limp to the bench.  Sean Escobedo was still held captive by the final seconds of his interference infraction, making him late to get back into the zone, leaving Mack with a 4-3 odd man rush into the BU zone.  A Chris Barton pass pinballed off two players and leaked through to a waiting Stephane Da Costa, who easily buried it past a confused Rollie.

Mack scored for a third time on the power play due to another missed assignment by Eric Gryba, who didn't have the best game of his career.  Once again, Chris Barton made a nifty cross ice pass down low to Joe Coochy Coochy Cucci, who Gryba forgot to man up on, leaving Cucci wide open with half an empty net in front of him.  Cucci's quick wrister made it a 3-3 game.

With just over a minute to play in the game, and with an extra attacker on the ice for a desperate Merrimack team, Chris Barton capped off a terrific game with a blue-collar goal to bring Mack momentarily within one goal.

Coming into this game, we discussed the two bright spots for Mack.  One was Da Costa, and the other was an out-of-this-world power play that clicks at a rate of 1/4.  In the books last night, only one goal was a power play goal for Mack.  But in reality, three of their four tallies came on the man advantage.  The fourth came due to a freak slip and fall by a generally sure-footed defender.

Granted, there is no excuse for coughing up four goals to a blew average offensive team that hasn't got in the win column in over a month.  But the man advantage is Merrimack's strength, and their power play succeeded at about it's average rate last night.

So the area of focus for BU in practice this week must be working on their penalty kill.  But there shouldn't be a great deal of panic about the Terriers laying an egg as a defensive unit.  A good week of practice can do wonders to sure up the penalty kill, and you better believe that will be Jack Parker's top priority leading into the game at BC on Friday.

Additionally, there are positives to take away from this game as well.  After a night when the Terriers couldn't connect on a single pass, especially on the power play, the Ice Dogs moved the puck brilliantly.  They converted on 2 of 6 power play chances, both thanks to some terrific puck movement.  And even when they didn't score with the extra man, they seemed infinitely more comfortable than just one night earlier.

Another bright spot for BU last night was the high level of energy.  The Terriers were skating with a purpose last night, especially late in the game.  Perhaps they have finally felt that necessary sense of urgency that they'll need to feel every night to carry them through the rest of this season, as every game becomes a must win.

Sure, it wasn't the prettiest of wins for the Terriers.  They probably should have won this game much more handily than they did.  But a win is a win, and confidence is at a premium for this team.

Pretty wins will come.  For now, I'll just take the win.