When you think BU-Merrimack, you may not necessarily have visions of 5 minute major penalties dancing in your head. But that's exactly what we got last night at Agganis Arena, as the Terriers 3-2 victory over the Warriors had more than its fair share of jostling and jabbing. Mack's coach Mark Dennehy called the game "a street fight." At the end of the night, the Terriers looked like the experienced prize fighter standing over the slightly overmatched foe laying on the mat.
Merrimack hasn't quite been KO'd yet, but the Terriers are half way to their ninth straight first round victory thanks to a victory based mostly on out-efforting their opponent, and partially on some late luck.
As we said in our player of the game post, Eric Gryba was a monster in this one, really setting the tone for the entire game with his tough brand of hockey. But not to be overshadowed are the efforts of his teammates.
First and foremost, Vinny Saponari played a hell of a hockey game last night. Sap scored the second and third Terrier goals to tie, and eventually beat Merrimack.
Vinny's second goal of the night was his real highlight reel score. After scooping up the puck just inside his own blue line, Vinny took off like a shot down the right wing. He outskated J.C. Robatille, who promptly gave up on the play, creating a 2 on 2 rush, with Andrew Glass driving toward the net to Sap's left. Glass went hard toward the cage and got tangled up with Mack Captain Pat Bowen, and the two went careening into the end boards. Vinny was left to beat Karl Stollery, and he did just that, cutting back through the slot and using some fancy stick handling to get all the way to the low end of the faceoff circle on Joe Cannata's stick side. Vinny ripped a back-hander that handcuffed Cannata and snuck in for the game winner.
Also playing at the top of his game was David Warsofsky, who was rewarded for his good play with a goal. Ironically, his tally was one of the easiest plays he would make all night. With the Terriers down 2-0 midway through the second, Freshman Brandon Brodhag of Merrimack sent a bad pass toward the blue line that trickled out to center ice. When a Mack defender collided with Cohen and fell down, it left Warsofsky with the puck and a clear path to the net, not to mention Nick Bonino and Zach Cohen trailing behind him with no Blue Shirts in sight. Warso made one quick deke and buried the wrister past the helpless Cannata's stick.
It was a welcome reward for a night of slick skating and puck handling for the speedy defenseman. Wherever the puck was last night, Warsofsky was. He found his way to loose pucks, and created offensive plays for the Terriers. As always, Warso was one of the most important parts of the offense for the Terriers last night.
Kieran Millan also looked a little more like the goaltender that won BU a National Championship a year ago, flashing the leather throughout the entire second half of the game, first keeping BU in it, and finally securing the lead.
There was one significant hiccup for Millan on Mack's second goal. With his defense caught out of position on a line change, Millan faced something of an odd-man rush from Mack. Leading goal scorer Chris Barton opted to drop the puck to Jeff Velleca, who simply lofted a backhander in the general direction of the cage. The puck looked as if it was going to sail wide into the corner, but Millan made a bid at it, attempting to catch it in front of his body with his blocker and smother it into his chest. The puck hopped off of Millan's right arm and right over his head, dropping directly over the goal line.
One Second Period Mistake Was Millan's Only Error in Goal
Besides that one mis-cue, Millan played an excellent game last night. Mack's first goal came thanks to a Max Nicastro disaster of a play in the neutral zone, leading to a wide open breakaway for the Warriors and a goal.
Both Nicastro and Millan recovered very nicely from their mistakes as the game went on, however. Max actually went on to play a solid game, perhaps using his one very visible mistake as a motivator to focus in on every detail of playing his position soundly.
Similarly, after Millan's mis-hap, he woke up and smelled the coffee. He snagged a few pucks out of the air that seemed destined for twine, and even earned some bows from the (sparsely populated thanks to spring break) Dog Pound. Millan was moving well from post to post, anticipating the Merrimack one-timer offerings nicely, and sliding from his left to right efficiently to prevent nice passing from turning into highlight reel scores.
Millan deserves a pat on the back for an outstanding effort late in that game.
Zach Cohen, Ross Gaudet and Chris Connolly all also deserve some credit for getting their hands dirty, along with Gryba of course. All four of these guys went out of their way to disrupt the Merrimack offense with some big hits. Their physical effort deserves some paw prints on their fresh playoff helmets.
The highly touted Merrimack power play, which is ranked third in the nation at 22.9%, looked crisp and fast but could not force the puck over the line. The man advantage even earned a post ringer late in the third, but that would be as close as they would come. They went 0 for 7 on the power play, but don't let that fool you. The high-powered unit was knocking on the door all night long, and very nearly snuck some tricky one-timers past Kieran Millan.
Absent from the scoresheet was Freshman Phenom Stephane Da Costa. The Frenchman did have five shots on goal, and impressed with his skating ability, but he could not find the net. He was able to draw a penalty when he flew toward Kieran Millan, getting hauled down from behind.
All in all, an impressive, lively effort from a team that has been neither or those things for the greater part of the year. Round two tonight.
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