Box Score

The Terrier hockey team lives to play another night on the strength of a 2-1 win over host Providence College in the second game of their Hockey East quarterfinal series on Saturday night (March 10th). The third and deciding game will be played on Sunday night (March 11th) at Providence's Schneider Arena.

The Terriers had lost to the Friars, 6-3, on Friday night (March 9th) and were faced with their season coming to an end had they lost to Providence on Saturday night.

Enter freshman goalie Sean Fields, who had not won a game since February 2nd when he had 15 saves in a 5-1 win over UMass/Amherst. Since then, he was 0-4-0 with a 3.98 GAA and an .838 save percentage. He even played in Friday night's 6-3 loss to the Friars. In fact, he had been charged with the loss as he took over for Jason Tapp. Fields played over 50 minutes of the game and gave up three goals, including the one that was the game-winner.

It was a different Sean Fields who was in net on Saturday, though.

He responded with a personal Terrier-best 38 saves, 18 of which came in the third period as he skated off with the game's first star.

The game didn't start out well either for Fields or the Terriers as Providence's John Luszcz scored his first career goal, after taking a pass in front from Jason Platt. It was the Friars' second shot of the game, and they led 1-0 just 1:42 into the game.

This year, entering Saturday night's game, the Terriers were 4-14-1 when giving up the game's first goal, but Fields was not phased either by the early goal or his team's problems with coming from behind.

"I knew that there was still a whole game to play," said Fields, whose efforts allowed the Terriers to improve their overall record to 14-19-3. "I just wanted to stay focused on stopping the puck."

That's exactly what he did in making a number of outstanding saves.

With 6:01 to play in the second period, he made a dazzling skate save off a shot by Devin Rask, Hockey East's second-leading scorer and the Friars' top scorer this year.

Some of his big saves in the third period included

• A stop on Peter Fregoe on a breakaway in the opening minute of the period.
• A stop on Doug Wright who was camped in front at 15:15 of the period.
• A stop on Cody Loughlean's shot from the right faceoff circle at 8:32 of the period.
• Another stop on Rask, who was right in front at 8:02 of the period.
• A shot by Jon DiSalvatore who tried to poke the puck past Fields with seconds left to play.

"There really weren't too many tough saves," said Fields. "The defense did a great job in front of me clearing out their guys."

The play of the defense was particularly noteworthy since only five played--Freddy Meyer, John Cronin, Mike Bussoli, Chris Dyment, and Colin Sheen. The reason is that Pat Aufiero suffered a concussion in Friday night's game and did not dress for the Saturday night matchup.

"Our goal tonight was to make it to a third game in the series," said Fields. "If they were going to beat us it would have to be because they had more talent than us. We weren't going to let them outwork us."

While Fields was enjoying his best game as a Terrier, he received the offensive support he needed from Mike Pandolfo in the first period and Freddy Meyer in the second period.

Pandolfo scored his 13th goal of the season on the Terrier power play at 5:50 of the first period. His shot from the right faceoff circle appeared as if it were going wide. However, at the last second, the puck went off a Providence defender and eluded the grasp of Friar goalie Boyd Ballard. John Sabo and Chris Dyment each received an assist.

Then, at 7:56 of the second period, Meyer took a shot from the right point. Again, the puck deflected off a Providence defender and, as was the case with Pandolfo's goal, beat Ballard to the stick side.

"I was really pleased with our effort tonight," said Terrier head coach Jack Parker. "I thought our five defensemen played with a lot of poise, and we got a great game from our goalie."

So, the Terriers will return to Providence on Sunday, which happens to be Parker's 56th birthday.

"I am looking forward to spending my birthday at Schneider Arena," concluded the coach.