Terriers Upset BC To Advance To Hockey East Semifinals
March 13, 2004 | Men's Ice Hockey
CHESTNUT HILL, MA-The Terrier hockey team, which had been rattled by top-seeded Boston College just 24 hours earlier, turned the tables on Saturday night, March 12, en route to a 4-2 win over the Eagles and a berth in next Friday night's semifinal matchup against the University of Maine.
The victory improved the eighth-seeded Terriers' overall record to 12-16-9, but, more importantly, it gave them a two-games-to-one win in the best-of-three quarterfinal series.
It marked the second straight Saturday in which the Terriers were on the brink of extinction only to see them play with a sense of urgency and continue their season for at least another week.
Last Saturday night, the Terriers were confronted with having to beat host University of New Hampshire. A win or a tie would have meant B.U. would finish ninth in the final Hockey East regular-season standings and miss the post-season playoffs for the first time in the 20-year history of the league. With 2:30 to play in overtime, and the Terriers and Wildcats knotted at 3-3, sophomore David van der Gulik (Abbotsford, BC) scored the game-winner.
The victory meant the Terriers would meet archrival Boston College in the quarterfinals of the Hockey East Tournament. The Eagles, who were ranked number one in the nation for much of the final third of the season, won the Hockey East regular-season title. To add to the Eagles' role as favorite over the Terriers was BC had defeated B.U. four times during the season. The most recent win was a 2-1 overtime decision in the Beanpot title game.
But, when the quarterfinal series opened on Thursday night, March 11, it was B.U. that came away with the win, 3-2, on goals by junior Brian McConnell (Norfolk, MA), sophomore Brad Zancanaro (Trenton, MI), and freshman Kenny Roche (South Boston, MA) plus a 28-save performance in goal by senior Sean Fields (Edmonton, ALTA).
It was a different story on Friday night, March 12, when the Eagles blanked the Terriers, 4-0.
That left it to a win-one-or-go-home situation in which the Terriers responded with what was arguably their finest game of the season.
It is impossible to single out one person as the number one star.
Fields would have to get serious consideration, as he stopped 35-of-38 Eagle shots, 14 of which came in the third period in Saturday night's series wrapup. Actually, he was outstanding in all three games, as he had 28 saves in the Terriers' 3-2 win in the series opener. He also played well in the 4-0 shutout, for, without his play, the Eagles could have had twice as many goals. As it was, he finished with 37 saves. Thus, in the three-game series, he had 100 saves for a .935 save percentage. He also had a 2.34 goals against average to go along with his 2-1-0 record in the series.
"Fieldsy was fabulous all three nights," Terrier head coach Jack Parker said of his goalie's performances.
Stars of the Saturday night's game would also have to be the penalty killers, who allowed the Eagles to score just one power play goal in four attempts. As was the case with Fields, the Terriers penalty-killing team was outstanding in the entire series. The Eagles' highly vaunted power play unit was 0-for-7 on Thursday night, then 1-for-6 on Friday night and 1-for-4 on Saturday night to bring their series total to 2-for-17 (.118).
"Our penalty killing was fabulous," said Parker. "In fact, our man-down was one of the key factors not just tonight (Saturday) but for the entire series."
Certainly two of the top stars on Saturday night were Van der Gulik and freshman Sean Sullivan (Braintree, MA). Neither figured in any of the scoring in the 4-2 win. It was just amazing that the two were in uniform and played.
On Friday night, Van der Gulik suffered a leg injury, while Sullivan sustained a shoulder injury. Neither was expected to be in uniform on Saturday night.
"The only thing I was certain of when I left here last night (Friday) was that Vandy and Sully would not be playing tonight," Parker said in the aftermath of Saturday night's win. "The fact that they played was a big boost to us.
"For us, tonight was game 7 of the World Series and we needed everyone in the lineup," said Parker.
There was no question that the Terriers showed up to play on Saturday night.
"I give this team a lot of credit for how thorough they played tonight," said Parker, "especially with how we were hammered last night. We changed our forecheck, and we did a better job of getting the puck out of our zone tonight than we did last night. As a result, we didn't spend as much time in our zone."
The improvement showed up from the outset as the Terriers took a 1-0 lead at 17:12 of the first period. With the Terriers enjoying a power play opportunity, Zancanaro picked a loose puck, circled the net, and put his shot past BC goalie Matti Kaltiainen. Juniors Bryan Miller (Wayne, NJ) and Ryan Whitney (Scituate, MA) picked up the assists.
The Eagles' Tony Voce, who entered the game as the nation's leading scorer with 27 goals, tied the game at 5:12 when his shot beat Fields to his stick side.
The Terriers then took over the game within a span of less than five minutes in the second period with three unanswered goals.
Roche scored the first one at 10:21 when his shot across the BC crease seemed to glance off a player and slip past Kaltiainen. Sophomore John Laliberte (Sacco, ME) and senior Frantisek Skladany (Martin, Slovakia) were credited with the assists.
Miller upped the Terriers' lead to 3-1 at 11:46 when his wrist shot from the right faceoff circle beat Kaltiainen high to the glove side. Sophomore Jekabs Redlihs (Riga, Latvia) got the puck to Miller and earned the assist.
Freshman Eric Thomassian (Rye, NY) put the game out of reach with his first collegiate goal at 15:15. He picked up a loose puck at center ice, came skating across the blue line and let go of his shot at the right faceoff circle. The shot must have surprised Kaltiainen for the Eagle goalie seemed to wave at the puck as it went off his glove.
Just seconds before Thomassian headed up ice, the Eagles' Brett Peterson took a shot deep in the Terrier zone. The puck clanged the post and came out. It was one of eight BC shots that hit the post during the three-game series.
It mattered little as the Terriers skated off for the second intermission holding a comfortable 4-1 lead. The 4329 fans on hand for the game should have known by then that the game was over because this season, the Terriers had been 10-1-4 in games in which they led after the second period.
But, there was still a third period to play, and BC responded to the challenge by outshooting the Terriers, 15-3, in the final 20 minutes. However, only one shot got past Fields and Ben Eaves scored it on the Eagle power play at 15:25 of the final period.
"I kept telling our players that BC had not seen our best game yet," Parker said of his pre-game conversation with his team. "I challenged the team to play with poise tonight. And, I thought that one of the turning points tonight was when I saw the team was not uptight."
This marked just the third time in Hockey East history, and the second time in which the best-of-three series format was in place that a number-eight seed beat a number-one seed. Ironically, the first time a number-eight beat a number-one in the best-of-three involved the Terriers. They were the top-seed in the 1998 Hockey East Tournament when they were upset by eighth-seeded Merrimack. In that series, Merrimack won game one, while the Terriers came back to win game two. Then, in the third-and-deciding game, the Warriors edged the Terriers, 5-4.
Thus, this year's number-eight Terriers eliminating number-one BC mirrored that quarterfinal series six years ago.
"This one feels a lot better," smiled Parker. "I really like this team a lot, and this has been a very frustrating season. But, tonight, they got redemption."
