Seven different players scored goals and junior goalie Sean Fields became the sixth goalie in B.U. hockey history to notch 50 career wins as the Terriers rolled to a 7-1 win over Providence College on Saturday night (March 8th) and a sweep of their best-of-three game series in the first round of the Hockey East Tournament.
On Friday night, the Terriers used an overtime goal by sophomore defenseman Bryan Miller to defeat the host Friars, 5-4.
The Terriers will advance to the Hockey East semifinals next Friday night where they will meet Boston College. The Eagles advanced to the semis with a 2-1 win over Merrimack on Saturday night. Defenseman JD Forrest scored the game-winner with just 18 seconds to play in regulation. The Eagles also swept their first-round series, as they skated to a 4-1 win over the Warriors on Friday night.
The Terriers will play the Eagles at 8:00 p.m. on Friday night, while top-seeded New Hampshire, which swept UMass/Lowell, will take on upstart UMass at 5:00 p.m. The Minutemen advanced to the semifinals with a surprising two-game sweep at Maine.
The two winners on Friday night will meet for the 2003 Lamoriello Cup, and the automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night at the FleetCenter.
This will mark the first time in the 19-year history of Hockey East that the Terriers and Eagles will be meeting in the semifinals.
Saturday night's game between the Terriers and Friars was the fifth meeting this year between these two teams, and the first four had been hard-fought tight games that went into overtime. Three of the games were during the regular-season, and Providence, which finished in fourth place in the final league standings, was 2-0-1 in those games. However, the Terriers, who finished fifth based on their head-to-head record against the Friars, turned the tables in Friday night's quarterfinal opener with the 5-4 OT win.
Nothing had prepared anyone for what had happened in the third period of Saturday night's game. Not even the first two periods could have forecast what was to come in the final 20 minutes of play.
In fact, only two goals separated the two teams through two periods, and both goals belonged to the Terriers.
Junior Mark Mullen provided the first of the two with his league-leading fourth shorthanded goal at 8:40 of the first period. Sophomore Brian McConnell came down the right side and, when he got to the right faceoff circle, he passed the puck over to Mullen who beat Friar goalie Nolan Schaefer.
Freshman John Laliberte upped the Terriers' lead to 2-0 when his shot from in front went off a Providence player's skate and past Schaefer. Miller, who teamed with Laliberte to score the game-winner on Friday night, got the puck to Laliberte. However, since the puck went off a PC player, the goal was unassisted.
While the Terriers were putting two goals up on the scoreboard, Fields turned aside all 11 Friar shots. His best saves came off Mike Lucci on a breakaway with 1:25 to play in the period and off Devin Rask on a sliding save with under 50 seconds to play.
Neither team scored in the second period although the Friars had an edge in shots, 7-5.
"I thought we had played well in the first period although I was afraid we might have rope-a-doped ourselves," head coach Jack Parker said after the game. "We had a lot of shots (15), but we had just two goals.
"Then, in the second period, I think they got the momentum," Parker continued. "I really didn't like the way the game was going."
"Coach (Parker) told us we had to keep playing," said freshman left wing David VanderGulik, who finished the game with a goal and two assists. "In many cases, 2-0 is the worst lead to have. We knew that we had to come out in the third period and score the first goal."
That's exactly what the Terriers did thanks to their hottest player, Frantisek Skladany. The junior right wing, who had 1-1-2 in Friday night's 5-4 OT winner and now has a goal in each of his last four games and 5-6-11 in his last eight games, put the Terriers ahead, 3-0, just 1:21 into the third period. Skladany took a pass from senior defenseman John Cronin and came up the right wing boards. He cut to the net at the top of the right faceoff circle and let go of his shot. The puck went between Schaefer's five-hole.
"That was the turning point of the game," said Parker. "It was a huge goal because it gave us a 3-0 lead. After that, the puck began to jump in the net for us."
McConnell, who earlier in the game had assisted on Mullen's goal, scored one of his own at 5:34 as he collected a rebound in front of Schaefer and put it back into the net. Freshman defenseman Jekabs Redlihs, who got the puck from Mullen, took a shot from the left point that Schaefer stopped but left the puck in front for McConnell.
Rask finally put the Friars on the scoreboard with a power play goal at 7:14 with assists to Jon DiSalvatore and Peter Fregoe.
That's as close as the Friars would get as the Terriers exploded for three unanswered goals, all of which came on the power play.
VanderGulik started the onslaught at 13:21 with an assist to Brian Collins. Just 35 seconds later, freshman defenseman Dan Spang, who was playing in place of the injured Freddy Meyer, made it 6-1 with an assist to VanderGulik. Collins finished the scoring at 17:50 with an assist to VanderGulik.
"If someone had told me that one of the teams would score seven goals, I would say that the other team didn't show up," said Parker. "Scoring 12 goals in two nights against a goalie who was an All-American last year is pretty nice. I think we were fortunate tonight that we made some great plays, and the puck really bounced well for us.
"And, I thought that we played well defensively. If you look at the shot chart, you will see they didn't get many grade 'A' chances."
Parker then turned his attention to individual performances.
"I thought that Fields was fabulous in goal," offered the coach. "He was really outstanding on their power play in the first period. I was really concerned that he would be worried about outdueling their goalie. Sometimes that can happen when one goalie tries to outplay the other team's goalie. But, that wasn't the case. Fieldsy was very poised tonight.
"I also thought that Danny Spang played another great game for us," the coach went on. "I said to him that he could play for any team in the country. But, it's unfortunate that we have seven defensemen. He played for Freddy (Meyer) at Maine last weekend and for him tonight, and we didn't miss a step. It's nice to have him the lineup.
"VanderGulik played another great game," continued Parker. "He was fabulous last night as well. He is a real unsung player. He is so smart and so tough. He makes great plays and is slippery around the net. He plays left wing on the first line. He kills penalties. He is on the ice on 5-on-3's and is on our power play. That is really unusual for a freshman.
"And, the Skladany line (left wing Kenny Magowan and center Brad Zancanaro along with Skladany) played another fabulous game."
Finally, Parker let himself look forward to next weekend's Hockey East semifinals.
"Tonight should give us a big lift for the FleetCenter," said the coach.
