Even when he found himself flat on his back near his crease, in the final and furious seconds of last night's 1-0 victory over UMass-Lowell in the Hockey East final, Kieran Millan did his best to play it cool.
"He was Cool Hand Luke," said UMass-Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald. Even with the whole River Hawk team seemingly piled on top of him, Millan was not about to give his opponents any satisfaction.
Even then, the River Hawks had no chance of rattling Boston University's 19-year-old freshman goaltender, who withstood a similar end-of-game frenzy from Boston College to make a one-goal lead stand in BU's 3-2 victory over the Eagles in Friday night's semifinal at TD Banknorth Garden.
"It can get a little nervous in the last few minutes of the game, in a one-game elimination," Millan said. "At the same time, you just have to keep your focus because you know everyone [on defense] is going for the same thing and trying to keep the puck out of the net. It got a little crazy at the end of this game, but at the same time I thought we kept our cool and made it stand up defensively."
Millan joined former BC star Chuck Kobasew (2001) as the only two freshmen in the 25 years of Hockey East to be named tournament MVP.
"Whenever a goaltender gets an award like that, it really demonstrates how well his team's played," said Millan, who backstopped the Terriers to their seventh Hockey East tourney championship. "The team played well in front of me, our defense has been unbelievable all year, and our penalty kill was outstanding."
Millan recorded the third shutout of his career on Commonwealth Avenue after turning away all 32 shots he faced, including 12 from UMass-Lowell's 0-for-7 power play, to make Brandon Yip's first-period score at 18:38 stand.
"He's been great all year for us," Yip said of Millan, who gave up a half-dozen goals to Maine in the second game of the quarterfinal series. "Unfortunately, we didn't bring our best game tonight, so our penalty kill kind of fell back on him a lot, but he's been outstanding and it's been showing."
Millan comported himself with a calm and cool demeanor during one particularly hair-raising sequence at 10:38 in the second period when a scrum in front of the BU crease resulted in an apparent score for the River Hawks. After an official review, the goal was disallowed because the whistle had blown before the puck crossed the goal line.
But it never fazed Millan.
"He's a freshman, but we don't view him as a freshman anymore because he's played in so many high-pressure games," said BU senior captain John McCarthy. "He plays it cool all the time, so he's playing like a veteran."
BU coach Jack Parker was given a glimpse of that a few months ago when he gave a few of his freshmen a ride home after a road trip.
"Kieran and two other guys jumped in the car and we talked about the game on the ride home," Parker said. "[Grant] Rollheiser [a goaltender] had played the game and I said, 'Boy, he looked cool, calm, and collected tonight.' I said to Kieran, 'One of the reasons he was out of the lineup was because he was a little jumpy, but he looks like he's over that right now,' and Kieran said, 'Yeah, I think he told me he was a little jumpy early in the year.' Then he said, 'You know, I don't understand that; you're just playing goal, you're supposed to be having fun. I don't understand why you would be nervous.' "
Parker took a few moments to digest what he had just heard.
"I thought, 'Maybe he's saying that to make the coach notice, or maybe he's trying to keep himself in the lineup,' " Parker said. "But the way he plays, that's exactly how he is. Nothing bothers him, he doesn't seem to get rattled, and he's absolutely fabulous with traffic in front of the net.
"When there's people all around . . . he somehow is strong enough - even when he's on his derriere - to keep the puck away from the goal line."
Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com. 
