A Second Look at the UNH Game

Sean Fields and Kieran Millan hold the
all time Bu record for career wins. Both
goalies have 62 wins. Millan will look
break the record this weekend at
Providence. 

What happened Saturday night was, in a way, kind of a shock to me. BU upended New Hampshire 5-0 in the season's first game. Over the past years, most (if not all) the BU-UNH games have been really close. Throw out the 5-2 UNH victory last year and the 5-0 BU win in 2009 and you would have to go all the way back to the 2006 Hockey East semifinal to find a game that was so one-sided. BU won that game 9-2 en route to the '06 Hockey East crown.

The score was 5-0, but the game was closer than that. UNH had several chances to take the lead in period one, but BU goalie Kieran Millan made some unreal stops on a few two on ones. The play seemed to be pretty even through the first half of the game, but after Corey Trivino scored to make it 2-0, BU took over the game.

Matt Nieto's goal less than two minutes into period three was the final nail in the coffin, as it shattered any hope of a Wildcat comeback. The Terriers held UNH to just six third period shots, none of which were really close to going in, except for one that hit the crossbar in the final seconds of the game.

Millan picked up his 6th shut-out of his BU career, stopping all 34 UNH shots. In the process, the Senior netminder tied the BU wins record held by Sean Fields.

At the Polls
Following last weekend's BU victory, the Terriers moved up two slots in the USCHO poll into the 8th position. BC took over the #1 spot followed by Notre Dame, Denver, Michigan, and rounding out the top five was Miami.

In the USA Today ranking, BU actually dropped a spot from 6th to 7th. The top five was the same with the exception of Miami being slotted 4 and Michigan 5.

I had BU ranked 5th in my rankings, with the top five looking like this: BC, Notre Dame, Miami, Minnesota-Duluth, and BU.

Millan Named Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week
Hockey East announced today that Millan was named Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week for his 5-0 shut-out.

What Happend Around Hockey East
Friday night, Merrimack defeated Maine 2-1 in Alfond Arena. That same night, Northeastern tied UMass with 2 seconds left in the third period. Following a scoreless overtime, the game ended in a 3-3 draw. Also on Friday, Boston College upended Michigan State 5-2 in game one of the Icebreaker Invitational in Grand Forks North Dakota.

Saturday saw BC beat North Dakota 6-2 in the IBI final to win the tournament. Lowell tied New Brunswick in an exhibition contest and on Sunday Maine got the best of Northeastern winning 6-2 at home.