Terriers Blank UMass As Fields Posts 4th Shutout Of Season
February 7, 2003 | Men's Ice Hockey
| Game Statistics | Season Statistics |
Junior goalie Sean Fields turned aside all 25 University of Massachusetts shots for his fourth shutout of the season, and sixth of his career to lead the Terrier hockey team to a 2-0 win over the host Minutemen in Hockey East action on Friday night (February 7th).
The win improved the Terriers' overall record to 17-10-2 and 10-8-0 in league play. UMass came into the game breathing down the Terriers' back as the Minutemen were fifth in the league with 16 point, while the Terriers were just two points ahead of UMass in fourth place.
"Coach Parker kept telling us all week that this was a game we really wanted and needed," said Field after the game. "This was a four-point game in the standings."
A crowd of 6286, which was the third-largest in Mullins Center history, kept waiting for something to cheer about. It came close a few times, but Fields stymied UMass each time. Senior forward Tim Turner had the best chance to end Fields' shutout bid when he got a pass in the Terrier crease. Turner, from just a few feet away from Fields, let go with a wrist shot.
"I got most of the shot with my shoulder," Fields said of how he made the point-blank save. "And, the puck went out of play.
"I was also lucky a few times with the posts," continued Fields, who improved his overall record this season to 16-9-2 with a 2.39 goals against average and a .913 save percentage. In the past three games alone, he has shut out Merrimack and UMass and allowed Harvard just one goal, as he has a 0.33 GAA and a .987 save percentage in the three games.
Fields' first lucky clang of the post came in the first period when Jeff Lang's shot from the right faceoff circle hit the far post and came straight out. The UMass goal judge lit the red light and the horn went off signifying a goal had been scored. However, referee Joe Andrews waved it off as he saw the puck had not gone across the goal line.
A similar situation came in the third period when Turner hit the far post again. Once again, the goal judge, thinking the puck had crossed the line, turned on the red light and the horn followed. For the second time, Andrews said no goal.
Turner's effort came while the Terriers were skating down two men. The B.U. penalty-killing unit killed off that one-minute, two-man situation, as the penalty killers were a perfect 7-for-7 for the evening.
"We did a great job killing penalties," said head coach Jack Parker, who has a lifetime record of 30-2-0 vs. the Minutemen. "In fact, I was very pleased with our overall defensive effort. Anytime you can shut out a team on the road, you are doing a good job."
While Fields was stopping the Minutemen, senior Brian Collins and junior Mark Mullen took care of all the scoring the Terriers would need.
Collins provided the first goal when he connected on the Terriers' power play at 5:12 of the first period. The senior center, who now has 6 goals along with 4 assists in 14 career games against UMass, took advantage of a loose puck in front of Minuteman goalie Gabe Winer. Winer had stopped senior John Sabo from point-blank range, but the goalie left the puck in front where Collins slid home a weak-side shot for his seventh goal of the year. Senior Freddy Meyer picked up the second assist.
The Terriers clung to the one-goal lead until the 4:37 mark of the second period. Skating on a 4-on-4 situation, Mullen picked up a loose puck and brought it deep into the Minuteman zone where he flipped a backhand top-shelf over Winer's stick for the unassisted goal.
"I had a lot of speed, and I just tried to carry the puck," said Mullen after the game. "Because of the speed, I decided to carry the puck wide. I saw an angle to shoot at, and I let it go."
"Mully gave us a cushion with that goal," said Fields. "The whole team played real well, and they came through.
"For me, I was really looking forward to this game," the goalie continued. "I looked at this as a redemption game after what happened the last time we were here. I didn't have my A game going."
Fields was referring to the game the Terriers played at UMass on December 6th. Leading 3-1 at the end of the first period, B.U. surrendered a second-period goal and two in the third period as the teams finished regulation tied at 4-4. Then, with just 41 seconds left to go in overtime, UMass scored the game-winner.
That game served as a wakeup for the Terriers, who have played 14 games since then and are 10-4-0 during that stretch.
"We have been on a great stretch since then," said Parker. "We even played very well in the four losses."
Perhaps it was the memory of that 5-4 overtime loss that kept the Terriers focused on the game and kept their minds off Monday night's Beanpot title game against Boston College.
"I told the players that if anyone asked them if they had tickets for the Beanpot, they were to say no," said Parker. "They didn't have any tickets, and they weren't going to have any.
"I was real concerned about tonight's game," said Parker, who was pleasantly surprised, even shocked when told that his team, over the years, had fared very well between the two Beanpot games. In fact, the Terriers are now 14-1-0 in their last 15 games and 16-1-1 in their last 18 games between Beanpot games number one and two. "It is easy to look past games like these. But, because this was a league game and UMass was right behind us in the standings, this was a more important game for us than Monday's Beanpot game."
Now that the UMass game is in the win column, the Terriers can concentrate on the next important game-Monday night's Beanpot title battle against Boston College.
