Post Game Reactions: Sunday, March 14

BU 3 -- Merrimack 0


The Terriers closed out the Merrimack Warriors by winning the Hockey East Quarterfinal series 2-1, thanks to a 3-0 victory in the decisive game three on Sunday night.  As a result, the Terriers will be advancing to a record ninth straight appearance in the Hockey East semi-finals next weekend.

Kieran Millan turned in his first shut-out of the season, while the Terriers put up three goals in support of their sophomore netminder.

Check out the video highlights of the game as well as the box score.

Here are some postgame comments from the Bench Boss, the Point Machine, the Captain, and the Goalie.  Both videos come from The Boston Hockey Blog.






Now let's get to some thoughts on the win.

Marvelous Millan


Kieran Millan continued his hot play with his first shut-out of the 2009-10 season.  Millan truly looked like his old self in the victory, proving impossible to beat low, kicking away anything the Mack shooters dared to toss toward the net below his chest.  His kick saves were fast and his glove hand was crisp.

Millan completely shut down the opposition, and after the game he had his sophomore slump in perspective, saying, "obviously this year has been tough, but everyone knows that the playoffs are the most important time of the year.  It's good to see that the team played really well today and helped me out and made sure I got that shutout.  Anything can happen from here on in and hopefully I can keep going and the team can keep rolling and we can make this kind of a tough year into a success."

It all starts with the goaltender, and Kieran was every bit as good as the Terriers needed him to be.  He saved 92 of the 95 shots on goal this weekend, including countless breakaways and odd man rushes.  He deserves plenty of praise for his solid performance this weekend, culminating in what was probably his best game of the year on Sunday.


Puck Don't Lie


With about two minutes to play in the second period, Fraser Allen of Merrimack committed a hard boarding penalty, but the Warriors could not gain possession of the puck.  The Terriers extended their power play by controlling the puck for over a minute on the delayed penalty, enjoying significant time in the offensive zone.  Finally, with traffic in front of the net, Bonino flung a shot off of Joe Cannata's mask that popped up in the air.  Zach Cohen banged it home and the red light went on for what seemed like the second BU goal.

However after a video review, the officials (who were terrible all weekend long) determined that a Merrimack skater had touched the puck shortly before that goal, thus putting an end to the delayed penalty.  The goal was waved off, and Jack Parker went absolutely ballistic.  Parker stood at the far end of the bench giving Benedetto an earful.  Even from up in the stands you could see a vein in Parker's neck bulging as he screamed bloody murder.

The gods of karma, as always, proved vengeful on this night, as just 16 seconds later Nick Bonino knocked home a goal.

As Rasheed Wallace says, just slightly modified, "Puck Don't Lie."


(Sheed's "Ball Don't Lie" comes at the :42 and :54 second marks)


Oh Captain


Kevin Shattenkirk did not have his best weekend of the year, and it wasn't great on Sunday either.  But it got a little bit better for the Terrier Captain, as Shatty scored the first goal of the game, the first time in the three game series that BU scored first.

After night of bad passing and worse reads, it was good to see Shatty get back on track with a better night.  The first goal, coupled with some big saves early on from Millan really got the team going.  It wasn't Shatty's best effort, but he certainly appeared to be on his way back to his usual dominant self.


Nicky Points


Bonino told reporters after the game that, "It couldn't get any worse than last night.  Personally I thought that was one of the worst games I've played at BU."

As bad as Saturday was for Nick, Sunday was equally good.  Bonino assisted on the first goal of the game when he retrieved a puck behind the Merrimack goal and backhanded it out in front to an open Shattenkirk who snapped it over Cannata's stick for a goal.  After the Terriers earned a power play and a goal was disallowed, Bonino made the controversial call moot by dancing in front of Cannata, snapping a shot on net, and backhanding the rebound into the net for a goal.  Finally in the third, Bonino tipped a Shatty wrister that trickled to Saponari behind the net.  Sap found Connolly in front for the one-timer goal, giving Bonino his second assist of the night.

The three point night for Nick increaded his team leading point total to 36.


Gryba Fancy


Eric Gryba's offensive abilities were off the charts on Sunday night, showing skills with the puck that I had no idea he had in his arsenal.  Gryba acted like the complete team leader that he is, picking up his team after a tough night.  I won't wax poetic about it too much, as we already praised Gryba in our player of the weekend column.  But just know he was damn good on Sunday.