Whitney, Schaeffer Notch Hat Tricks To Lead Terriers Past Yale
November 30, 2003 | Men's Ice Hockey
BOSTON, MA-The 2219 fans on hand at Walter Brown Arena on Sunday night saw a piece of history as a pair of Terrier defensemen-freshman Kevin Schaeffer (South Huntington, NY) and junior Ryan Whitney (Scituate, MA) notched hat tricks in the Terriers' 7-2 win over Yale University.
In the past, freshmen had scored a hat trick in a game. In fact, as recently as five years ago, a first-year Terrier scored three in a game. That was Mike Pandolfo, who had three in the Terriers' 9-1 win over Merrimack on November 6, 1998.
In the past, defensemen had scored a hat trick in a game. The last one to do that was Tom Poti in a 5-1 win over the University of Massachusetts on February 28, 1998.
It wasn't even the first time in the long and illustrious hockey history at Boston University that two players had hat tricks in the same game. Forwards Bob Lachance and Jon Pratt each had hat tricks in the 8-4 win over Merrimack on January 29, 1994.
But, hat tricks by two defensemen in the same game?
"I have never seen it done by any of my teams," said Jack Parker, who is in his 31st season as the Terriers' head coach. "In fact, I think it is rare at any level."
"It was the last thing I expected," said Schaeffer, who said the last time he had a hat trick in a game was as a pee wee. "I was just trying to do my job defensively, but tonight I got lucky. The forwards really helped out tonight."
"The puck was just bouncing right for us tonight," said Whitney, whose last hat trick came in the U.S. National program the year before he enrolled at B.U. "The was huge for us tonight."
The Terriers had been struggling offensively of late and been frustrated by their lack of scoring especially by the forwards.
"It would have been better if we had five different goals by five different forwards," said Parker. "This wasn't really a morale booster tonight."
It certainly started off that way, though, as the Terriers dominated play in the first period, outshooting the Elis by a lopsided margin of 14-3 and outscoring them, 3-0.
Whitney started the scoring off with his first three goals. The first came at 8:21 of the first period with assists to Kenny Roche (South Boston, MA) and John Laliberte (Saco, ME), each of whom would come back later in the period with another assist. Whitney then scored an unassisted goal on the Terrier power play at the 11:00 minute mark.
Schaeffer, with assists to Laliberte and Roche upped the B.U. lead to 3-0 by the end of the first period with his first goal of the night. "I told my team at the end of the first period that they would see a different Yale team in the second period," said Parker. "Their coaches would tell them how badly they had played in the first period. Plus, they (Yale) had just gotten off the bus after a three-hour trip, and, by the second period, they would have their legs."
Parker was prophetic as the Elis dominated play in the second period, outshooting the Terriers by an 11-4 margin.
But, it was B.U. that got on the scoreboard, as they scored three times on just four shots on goal. In the meantime, Yale was kept at bay by the play of Terrier goalie Sean Fields (Edmonton, ALTA), who finished the game with 21 saves.
"Sean played very well in the second and third periods," said Parker. "He was more in control and wasn't overplaying every shot like he did on Tuesday at Harvard."
In the meantime, Schaeffer finished off his hat trick sandwiched around his team-leading seventh goal by Kenny Magowan (Kelowna, BC).
Schaeffer scored on the Terrier power play at 10:09 of the second period with assists to Dan Spang (Winchester, MA) and the first of three assists for the night by Frantisek Skladany (Martin, Slovakia). Magowan then got into the scoring column at 18:34 of the period. Finally, Schaeffer brought hats onto the ice with his third goal at 19:10.
After the second period, Yale starting goalie Matt Modelski, who gave up six goals and had 12 saves, gave way to Peter Cohen, who played the third period and had seven saves while allowing just one goal.
Yale's Ryan Steeves prevented Fields from a shutout at 8:15 of the third period and then added a second goal at 11:40.
All that was left was for Whitney to set a piece of Terrier history with his hat trick at 18:37 of the final period.
"Whitney has been playing terrifically for us," said Parker. "He has been playing like the All-American we felt he would be. And, Schaeffer has been playing very well all year in all three phases of the game.
"In general, I thought we played well in the first period, not well in the second, and OK in the third," summed up Parker. "After the score got to 3-0, we were lackadaisical. But, you have to give Yale credit."
"I was very proud with how we played in the second and third periods," said Eli coach Tim Taylor. "I was scared that B.U. had been struggling offensively. But, in the second and third periods, we limited their opportunities. I thought that when the score was 3-0, and we could not score on our power play, that was a killer. And, then after their goals in the second period, it was lights out."
