Terriers End First Semester With 5-1 Win Over Niagara
December 13, 2003 | Men's Ice Hockey
Boston, MA--There were enough sighs of relief to go around on Saturday night as the Terrier hockey team dominated play en route to a 5-1 win over Niagara University to end the first semester schedule on a positive note.
The number one sigh had to belong to Frantisek Skladany (Martin, Slovakia), who was the Terriers' top goal scorer last year with 14, but had not scored a goal in the team's first 13 games this season. Then, just 55 seconds into the second period of Saturday night's game, after missing on a few excellent chances earlier in the game, finally "got the monkey off my back" with an unassisted power play goal.
There was also a sigh from Brian McConnell (Norfolk, MA), who had 11 goals in 34 games last season but had just one goal in 12 games this year. His relief came just 1:20 into the third period when he scored to give the Terriers a 3-1 lead.
There was a sigh of relief from Bryan Miller (Wayne, NJ), who was moved up from defense to play right wing in place of Mark Mullen. Mullen did not dress for the game, as he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Wednesday. Miller, a junior defenseman, who had played just four games at forward during his collegiate career, scored his first goal of the season at 11:42 of the final period.
Even freshman backup goalie John Curry (Shorewood, MN) got into the act with a sigh of relief. He had not seen any action thus far this year. But, with the Terriers ahead 5-1 and just 5:10 to play, he was summoned by head coach Jack Parker to take over in goal from Sean Fields. The veteran senior, playing in his 101st career game for the Terriers, stopped 18 of the Purple Eagles' 19 shots in the first 54:50 of action.
Yes, there were even a couple of sighs of relief from head coach Jack Parker.
"It was important to get the win tonight and get back to .500 before the break," said Parker, whose team begins its final exam schedule with an overall record of 5-5-4. "And, it was good that we got goals from our forwards.
"That last loss (the 5-2 defeat to Boston College on December 5th) had been sitting in the back of our minds," continued the coach. "It would have been tough to be two games under .500 going into the break. It's nice the guys feel good about themselves."
Saturday night's game didn't start out that way, though, as the Purple Eagles jumped to a 1-0 lead on a shorthanded goal by Ryan Gale just 1:46 into the game.
"We didn't play well the first five minutes of the game," said Parker. "They were all over us at the beginning."
In fact, for the first 10 minutes of the game, the Terriers had just one shot on goal. Parker was not happy with his team's performance at the point, and that feeling must have been felt by the Terriers as they took 14 shots on goal over the final 10 minutes to finish the first by outshooting the Purple Eagles, 15-6.
"We really played terrific in the first period after those first five minutes," said the coach, "even though we were trailing 1-0."
The Terriers had a number of golden opportunities in the first 20 minutes. David Klema (Rosseau, MN) made a great move in front of Niagara goalie Jeff VanNynatten, but Klema's shot hit the post. Ken Magowan (Kelowna, BC) had a shot that ricocheted off VanNynatten's pad and just trickled past the goal line. Finally Kenny Roche (South Boston, MA) had a shot that was headed for just under the crossbar that VanNynatten redirected at the last minute.
Then, finally, just 55 seconds into the second period, Skladany picked up a loose puck in front of VanNynatten and knocked it home for an unassisted goal on the Terrier power play.
As he headed to the Terrier bench, his teammates, sensing their assistant captain's relief, banged their sticks on the side of the dasher boards. In the meantime, Skladany looked skyward.
"It was nice to finally get the monkey off my back," Skladany said after the game. "Each game, I have been trying to do something different. Tonight, after the first period, I said to myself 'Well, you finally got a goal in the first period. Now, you can relax.'"
He was off by a period, but, even so, "I feel great," he said. "When you have 10 goals in 10 games, you don't think anything of it. But, when you don't have any goals in 10 games (Actually, it was 13.), you think about it all the time, and you start dreaming about it. I have been working hard and trying to help the team, but it was hard to keep up without any goals. It feels great (to have that first goal)."
"It was just a matter of time," Parker said of Skladany's drought. "He had been playing well all season. The last two games, he hadn't played well, and he was really down. It's nice to see him finally going."
John Laliberte (Saco, ME) put the Terriers ahead for good at 16:33 of the second period. He was set up on a highlight-film type pass from David Klema. Klema took a pass from Thomas Morrow (Minneapolis, MN) and came skating down the slot. Klema seemed to be holding the puck too long, but then he put a spin move around a Purple Eagle defenseman and slipped the puck over the Laliberte who beat VanNynatten for the eventual game-winning goal.
The Terriers dominated play in the middle period with a season-high 21 shots, while Niagara had just 7. However, the Terriers led by just a 2-1 lead.
Then, within a span of just 27 seconds of the final period, the Terriers put the game out of reach. McConnell started the burst with a goal at the 1:20 mark. The assist went to Miller. Then, Kenny Roche upped the Terriers' lead to 4-1 at 1:47 with the assists to Morrow and Klema.
At that point, Niagara coach Dave Burkholder pulled VanNynatten in favor of Allen Barton, who played the final 15:39, had six saves, and allowed the game's final goal to Miller at 11:42.
"The worst thing to happen to us was the snowstorm last Sunday," Burkholder said after the game. "That allowed them (B.U.) to carry their last loss a long time."
The Terriers, who had lost to BC, 5-2, last Friday night December 5th, were scheduled to play UMass last Sunday afternoon, December 7th. However, the snowstorm that hit the area forced the game to be postponed.
"I knew we were going to come into a hornet's nest tonight," the coach continued. "I really appreciate the opportunity to come in here and play, but I wish we could have given them a better game. I thought that we played well in spurts, but we really didn't show our A game.
"We had seen them play on tape," concluded Burkholder. "But, what we saw tonight was scary. We just couldn't handle their transition."
Or, their sighs of relief for that matter.
