Terriers Skate Past Massachusetts To Complete Weekend Sweep
February 19, 2005 | Men's Ice Hockey
BOSTON, MA-John Curry stopped 18-of-19 shots, while Dan Spang and Kenny Roche each scored a goal to lift the Boston University hockey team to a 2-1 win over the University of Massachusetts in front of 5653 fans at Agganis Arena on Saturday night, Feb. 19.
The victory completed a weekend sweep of the Minutemen for the Terriers, who had blanked UMass, 3-0, on Friday night.
With the win, the Terriers (20-10-2) jumped into second place in Hockey East standings as their 14-4-2 league record gave them 30 points, two points behind front-running University of New Hampshire (15-3-2) and one point ahead of third-place Boston College (12-3-5). In the meantime, Massachusetts slipped to an overall record of 11-20-2 and a league mark of 5-15-2.
Curry, who was also in goal on Friday night and had 29 saves in posting his first collegiate shutout, needed to make just 18 saves on Saturday night en route to his 15th win (15-7-1) of the season.
"He is arguably playing like the best goalie in the country," lauded head coach Jack Parker.
To go along with his win-loss record, he has a 1.86 goals against average and a .928 save percentage. He has allowed just one goal in 11 of his 24 starts to date, while he has one shutout. What's more, in six games, he has given up just two goals. Thus, in 18 of his 24 starts, he has allowed two goals or less.
Once again, on Saturday night, Curry needed little offensive support to give his team a win. And, that offensive support came from Spang and Roche.
A junior defenseman, Spang opened the scoring for the Terriers at 14:30 of the first period. A UMass player was down low along the right wing boards and was trying to clear the puck out. Instead, his pass found Spang all alone in the Minuteman crease, and he wasted little time in lifting the puck over Gabe Winer's (22 saves) right shoulder.
The Minutemen countered with a Kevin Jarman goal at 18:40 of the period. The sophomore center picked up the loose puck from a crowd in front of Curry and slipped it into the Terrier cage to tie the game, 1-1. The assists went to Marvin Degon and James Solon.
It marked the first goal Curry allowed in his last 94 minutes and 55 seconds of play. The last goal the sophomore goalie gave up was in the Beanpot title game against Northeastern last Monday night, February 14th. The score by the Huskies' Jared Mudryk came at 17:55 of the third period. Curry shut down the Huskies for the remaining 2:05 of regulation and 14:10 of overtime. Then came the 60 minutes against Massachusetts on Friday night, and the first 18:40 of the Saturday night game.
Roche provided the Terriers with their game-winner when he converted on a pass in front by Eric Thomassian. Peter MacArthur was also credited with an assist. Roche's shot, which beat UMass goalie Gabe Winer (22 saves), came just 1:46 into the second period.
"Eric found me down low and gave me a real nice pass," Roche said of the play. "Our goal in the second period was to get the puck down low and protect it (the puck).
"A win is a win," Roche continued. "This was an important win for us even if it wasn't pretty."
"We weren't ready to play tonight," said Terrier head coach Jack Parker. "This was a more difficult game tonight than last night. They played better tonight and deserved to win. I was upset at how we played in the first period (The Terriers were outshot, 8-5.). I thought in the second period we played better for the first 10 minutes.
"Then, we had a power play chance and we didn't do anything with it," said Parker. "After that, we looked like we were disinterested.
"In fact, I don't think we have played a solid game since the first Beanpot game against Boston College (a 2-1 win on February 7th)," said the coach. "I think we thought it was going to be easy tonight, but that was a bad assessment.
"On the positive side, we played well in the third period," concluded the coach. "We were more thorough than we had been in the first two periods.
"Winning 20 games with still five regular-season games and the playoffs left on the schedule, is a feather in our caps. The wins keep coming even if the effectiveness is waning."
In the meantime, UMass coach Toot Cahoon seemed at a loss for anything new to say.
"I don't have words to explain my reaction," said the coach. "I am pleased with our effort but not with the outcome. It is beginning to sound like a broken record.
"Everyone is pressing a bit," summed up Cahoon. "We need to relax and play. I've been saying that we need puck luck, and we haven't been getting any."
