Terriers, UMass Battle To 2-2 Overtime Tie In Hockey East Action
February 21, 2004 | Men's Ice Hockey
AMHERST, MA-The Terrier hockey team battled to a 2-2 overtime tie against host University of Massachusetts tonight to give B.U. a much-needed three-point weekend against the Minutemen.
On Friday night, the Terriers enjoyed their finest offensive night in almost three months as they skated to a 6-1 win over UMass. Coupled with tonight's tie, the Terriers added three points to their league total and put some space between themselves and Northeastern for the final playoff spot.
B.U., with a home-and-home weekend series against Northeastern Friday and Saturday and a home-and-home series vs. New Hampshire to close out the regular-season on March 4th and 6th, now has 13 points. In the meantime, Northeastern has nine points. What's more, the Terriers trail seventh-place UMass/Lowell by just one point, sixth-place Merrimack by three points, and fifth-place Providence by four points.
"It's nice to come out of here with a tie and three points for the weekend," said Terrier head coach Jack Parker, whose team is now 9-14-7 overall and 5-12-3 in the league. "The way we had been playing, it's nice to come away with any points."
The heroes of Saturday night's tie were junior defenseman Ryan Whitney (Scituate, MA) and senior goalie Sean Fields (Edmonton, ALTA).
Whitney helped set up the Terriers' game-tying goal at 6:41 of the second period and then scored his career-best eighth goal of the season on the Terrier power play at 13:42 of the second period.
In the meantime, Fields was called on to make 27 saves, 12 of which came in the first period when the Terriers were outshot, 13-4. The Minutemen, who ended a four-game losing streak with the tie to improve to 16-9-6 overall and 12-7-3 in Hockey East, managed to score on just one of those 13 shots.
It came at 18:28 of the period when Greg Mauldin's shot from the top of the right faceoff circle beat Fields to the glove side.
"I thought we were a little legless in that first period," offered Parker. "I also thought we were a little cautious and tentative. That can happen when you play in a big rink like this. The game isn't as physical.
"But, I thought after the first period, we played well," continued the coach. "I liked how we played."
The Terriers enjoyed the edge in the second period, outshooting the Minutemen, 7-6, and outscoring them, 2-0.
Freshman Kenny Roche (South Boston, MA) pulled the Terriers even with his sixth goal of the season at 6:41. Whitney got the puck to freshman Sean Sullivan (Braintree, MA), who then fed it to Roche. The freshman right wing one-timed his shot that beat UMass goalie Gabe Winer (12 saves).
Whitney, who had an excellent weekend series against the Minutemen with four points on two goals and two assists as well as a plus-1, staked the Terriers to a 2-1 lead at 13:42 of the second period. Senior Mark Mullen (Dorchester, MA) fired the puck that took a funny bounce off the boards behind Winer. Junior Brian McConnell (Norfolk, MA) corralled the loose puck and got it out to Whitney who was coming in from the blue line. The junior defenseman let go a wicked slap shot that Winer waved at as it went by.
It appeared that goal would stand up for the rest of the game. However, the Minutemen picked up their fourth power play chance of the game when referee Jeff Bunyon whistled Mullen off for hooking at 16:28 of the final period. The Terriers killed off the majority of the time, but with just 17 seconds left on the man-advantage, Mark Matheson's one-timer from the blue line beat Fields.
UMass enjoyed the territorial advantage in the overtime, outshooting the Terriers, 3-0, but Fields stopped each of the shots.
"I thought that Fieldsy had a helluva game tonight as did (freshman) Brad Zancanaro (Trenton, MI)," lauded Parker. "I also thought that all the defensemen played well moving the puck and handling the UMass trap.
"A loss tonight would have been devastating," continued Parker, whose team has now tied the second record for ties in a season. The 1999-2000 team also had seven ties en route to an overall record of 25-10-7. "But, we came away with three points this weekend against a team that was ahead of us in the standings.
"I thought that UMass played hard tonight and that we responded especially after they scored their goal," concluded the coach. "I thought we battled through it."
