Notre Dame Blanks Terriers in Home-Opener

BU shutout for first time in 100 games
By Chris Aliano

Twelve seconds.

That’s all it took Tuesday night for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3-2-0, 0-0-0 CCHA) to capitalize on two mental lapses by the Boston University (0-2-0, 0-0-0 HEA) men’s ice hockey team, as the Fighting Irish scored two goals within twelve seconds of each other in their 3-0 blanking of the Terriers.

Notre Dame sophomore Billy Maday buried a wrister past sophomore netminder Kieran Millan ('12) at 15:27 in the second period, capping a period-and-a-half scoreless drought from both teams. Twelve seconds later, the Fighting Irish found the back of the net again before the public addresser could even announce Maday’s goal.


Junior Ben Ryan won a puck off the face-off and capitalized on a Terrier miscue: Boston University freshman Ryan Santana ('13) assumed one of the defenseman would cover Ryan, and he went to cover another man on the ice. In doing so, Ryan was left all alone to bury another shot past Millan, this one at 15:39. It was all Notre Dame would need in handing the Terriers their first shutout in 100 contests.

“I think we played with a lot more urgency,” Notre Dame head coach Jeff Jackson said afterward. “We haven’t played with urgency in the first four games… But tonight we played with more urgency and it was good to see. I was hoping that BU might get the best out of us in that regard and we were much more attentive and we battled a lot harder.”

In the third period, the Terriers peppered Notre Dame junior goaltender Brad Phillips with 17 shots after dropping the third goal of the contest early on. Boston University sophomore Chris Connolly ('12) made a bid for a shorthanded goal after he caught the Fighting Irish asleep on their own power play. Connolly skated up and had Phillips all to himself, but was unable to get a shot off. That effort quickly backfired after Ryan picked up the puck and found Maday down the ice in transition. Maday then quickly dumped it to junior Calle Ridderwall, who buried the third goal at 2:53 in third to round out the scoring on the night.

Phillips, who was phenomenal in making 34 saves and being named the game’s first star, had been responsible for Notre Dame’s two losses on the young season. Jackson defended the Farmington Hills, Mich. Native afterward, saying his team played “horrid” in front of Phillips during those two contests.

“He played big,” Jackson said. “I thought he did a good job for the most part at controlling his rebounds. He had to play big in traffic and the amount of power plays we had against us.”

Before Notre Dame got on the board, it had been a very sloppy affair between two teams who had spent most of last season swapping spots on the national rankings for No. 1 and No. 2 in the country. A pair of early penalties by All-American defender Ian Cole gave the Terriers back-to-back power plays, but could not find the back of the net. Head coach Jack Parker noted his team’s extra-man unit was “inept” Tuesday night, saying his players were “non-poised” in going 0-for-8 on the man-up advantage on the night.

After the third goal, the Terriers picked up their play considerably. In a stretch of more than three minutes halfway through the period, the Terriers did not allow the Fighting Irish to clear the puck out of their own zone, firing shot after shot at Phillips. But despite their efforts, it was nowhere near enough.

“The first time I thought I saw a BU hockey team show up was after we were down 2-0,” Parker said afterward. “After we were down 2-0, I thought they decided to play hard, and [Notre Dame] is up two so they don’t have to play as hard. The problem is that’s half a game, less than half a game.”

Parker pulled Millan, who stopped 13 shots in a losing effort, with 3:43 to play in the contest. But there would be no late-game heroics, as the Fighting Irish weathered the extra-attacker storm to secure their first-ever victory over Boston University in the third meeting between the two teams. While Parker noted his team’s effort Tuesday was nowhere near as “masked” as it was against UMass Amherst (a 3-2 loss to open the season), it was a late effort.

“Our problem is not who we’re playing,” Parker said. “Our problem is ourselves.”

The Terriers return to the ice Saturday night, hosting another CCHA squad in #5 Michigan. Game time is set for 7 p.m.

Notes and Notables
Sophomore Andrew Glass returned to the lineup after missing Friday’s season-opener due to breaking team rules… Before tonight, BU and ND had only met on two other occasions: both on Dec. 29 of different years, both in the separate holiday tournament championship games, and both were 7-3 victories for the Terriers…BU dropped it’s first non-conference game in eleven contests after going 9-0 last season and was 10-0 dating back to 2007-08…Millan has suffered back-to-back losses for the first time in his collegiate career, and has doubled his career losses in the past two games alone…