BU taken down a notch by Irish
Last season, Boston University and Notre Dame didn’t play each other in men’s hockey, but the squads were constantly being compared because they spent the season trying to wrest control of the nation’s No. 1 ranking from each other. BU went on to win the NCAA championship, while Notre Dame’s season ended in the Midwest Regional semifinal with a loss to Bemidji State.
Last night was just the third meeting between the schools and first in 14 seasons. In the new USCHO.com/CBS poll released Monday, the Terriers were ranked No. 3 while the Fighting Irish were No. 9. That will likely change in the next poll because it was the Fighting Irish who prevailed in front of 5,648 at Agganis Arena, 3-0.
It all turned on a 12-second span in the second period when Notre Dame (3-2-0) scored a pair of goals to distance itself from BU (0-2-0).
Sophomore right wing Billy Maday broke the ice at 15:27, scoring from the middle of the slot. Before the Terriers could blink, junior center Ben Ryan doubled the lead, potting his tally from the high slot at 15:39 to make it 2-0.
Early in the third, the Terriers had an excellent scoring opportunity when sophomore left wing Chris Connolly raced in on Notre Dame goalie Brad Phillips (34 saves) during a shorthanded breakaway, but he ran out of real estate on the left side and wasn’t able to get off a shot. Only seconds later, the Fighting Irish made it a three-goal bulge when junior left wing Calle Ridderwall scored on a power play at 2:53.
BU pulled out all the stops from there, peppering Phillips with shot after shot - 17 in the third period - but couldn’t dent the netminder. The loss marked the first time that sophomore goalie Kieran Millan (13 saves to fall to 0-2-0) had suffered back-to-back defeats in his career.
It was the first time in 100 games the Terriers had been shut out, the longest active streak in the nation. The last time was a scoreless tie with UMass-Lowell on Feb. 7, 2007. It’s BU’s first shutout loss since Dec. 2, 2006, in a 1-0 decision to BC, also the longest such streak in the country.
“The first time I thought I saw a BU hockey team show up was after we were down, 2-0,’’ said BU coach Jack Parker. “I think up to that point, we were still jumpy with the puck and getting bumped off the puck and we didn’t play real hard on top of the puck. We were inept on the power play [0 for 8] as far as moving the puck.
“After we were down, 2-0, I thought we started to play hard. We started to look like they knew what we were talking about out there. We got a good effort out of a lot of guys. The problem is it was less than half a game.’’
Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson, who last faced Parker when he was coaching Lake Superior State back in the East Regional finals in 1995 (which BU won), said his team is working on getting in synch.
“I’m watching BU and I’m seeing a little bit of ourselves out there,’’ said Jackson. “Our team has been a little bit out of synch offensively and that’s what I thought I saw with them. I thought both teams were really good defensively but managing anything offensively out there was a challenge for both teams. Maybe that’s because both teams were good defensively.’’
Jackson praised his goaltender’s efforts, saying it was tough for him to come back after missing 18 months because of major knee surgery.
“I’ve said from the very beginning, this is Brad Phillips’s job to lose,’’ said Jackson. “He lost his first two games but I thought we played horrid in front of him.
“This kid hasn’t played in 18 months so it’s going to take him some time to get back into game tempo. Last year was a lost year of experience for him so his experience is going to have to take place now. He played big.’’
Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com. 
