17,565 see Hockey East Semi Finals

Hockey East Semi Finals, March 14, 2003

University of New Hampshire v UMass
Boston University v Boston College

Fleet Center, BAL326 Row 10



I held off on going to home Bruins games after they moved from the build 8 feet away from the outer walls of the new Fleet Center. I broke down and started going to see college games.

The building is nice but lacks character. The only difference between this building and a Wachovia Center in Philadelphia is the color of the seats and the logo painted at center ice.

College games have an atmosphere with the students yelling and dueling bands playing.

Friday night is a long day for me. Fly into Boston, catch some beers for lunch and dinner, then to the Fleet Center. The stands are mostly empty as the first game of the double header starts at 5pm.

The first game was UNH v UMASS.

Even in defeat, the Massachusetts Minutemen made a lasting impression.

Trailing 2-0 and 4-2 against top-seeded New Hampshire, UMass responded with a pair of goals each time and was minutes away from forcing overtime in its Hockey East tournament semifinal game.

Don Cahoon’s youthful bunch was shaky at times and unable to consistently clear the puck while shorthanded, but they showed the kind of pluck that will carry them back into the Fleet Center in the future.

“He’s brought them to a new level,” said UNH coach Dick Umile about Cahoon. “There’s a lot of excitement in their program.”

UMass senior captain Tim Turner, who enjoyed his first winning season with the Minutemen, agreed.

“We started off with a lot of new faces in the locker room,” he explained, “but we turned out to be a really good team. The credit for that goes to the coaches.

“To come back from being two down twice against UNH is amazing. This program is only going to go up and I can’t wait to one day watch them in the Frozen Four.”

After a solid first 10 minutes, UMass found themselves in a two-goal hole when UNH scored a pair just 62 seconds apart.

“The first time we were down two, it was a matter of getting used to playing in this building," said Hockey East rookie points leader Stephen Werner. "We had to get the butterflies out of us. We were able to settle down going into the second period.”

“I’m happy we didn’t melt after the first two goals,” Cahoon said. “Our credo all year has been ‘Let’s not play to the scoreboard, boys, let’s just play the game.’”

UMass responded in the middle frame with two goals of its own, led by Werner’s first of the game and leading scorer Greg Mauldin’s power play marker.

UNH regained the lead on third-period goals by Tyler Scott and Steve Saviano, but once again UMass seemed unfazed.

Werner halved the Wildcat lead less than two minutes after Saviano's tally with his second of the game and the team’s second with the man advantage. On the ensuing faceoff, UNH over-committed in the neutral zone, giving UMass an odd-man rush that ended with Turner wristing home a cross-ice pass from Mike Warner.

“That was probably the best goal I’ve ever scored,” said the Saginaw, Mich., native. “To see the puck go in the net and the crown rise up was amazing.”

The game remained knotted at four until UNH’s Preston Callander’s wrist shot found room between UMass goaltender Gabe Winer and the far post with 2:29 to play.

UMass had entered the contest knowing it needed to shut down UNH’s dynamic duo of Lanny Gare and Colin Hemingway. And while it succeeded in that effort, the Wildcats’ got goals from five different players and points from the other three lines.

“We’re getting good balance down the stretch,” said Umile. “All our lines are scoring and that’s important this time of year.”

NOTES – Of the 2171:09 minutes UMass played this season, the Minutemen led for only 615:09. They never led in this game...UNH is 8-0-2 when sophomore Tim Horst registers a point. He scored the Wildcats’ first goal...UNH was 1-for-4 on the power play after coming into the game scoring on 45.5% of tournament power play opportunities...UMass’ Stephen Werner (2G, 1A) finished his freshman season with 38 points in 37 games.

The night cap saw BU taking on the favorite BC.

See-saws had fewer ups and downs than tonight's Boston College-Boston University Hockey East tournament semifinal game. In the end, it was two guys familiar with Fleet Center heroics who led the Terriers to victory in a 6-5 double overtime thriller, the longest semifinal game in conference tournament history.

“If you tell me it’s going to be 6-5,” said BU coach Jack Parker, “then I figure we lose. This was not the game we wanted to play. It was wide open and almost like there was nothing I could do. We tried to slow it down.”

Forward Justin Maiser, whose history of scoring big goals at the Fleet Center (Boston Bruins, take note) includes the OT winner in the 2002 Beanpot championship, tallied the deciding goal tonight to cap a three-goal, four-point performance.

“In overtime, both of my linemates (Brian McConnell and Mark Mullen) played well and fast on that last shift,” said Maiser. “I was just screaming in front of the net and shot it as hard as I could.”

BU Goaltender Sean Fields, the MVP of the '03 Beanpot, was stellar in both the third period and in the first overtime, consistently turning aside Boston College rushes with a quick glove and solid positioning.

“I was real impressed with Sean tonight,” said Parker, “especially in the second half of the game. He pulled it together and decided that [the five goals] was enough.”

The teams played to an even first period, with BU's Brian Collins scoring just 43 seconds in on a shot that squeezed through the pads of goalie Matti Kaltiainen. BC sophomore Ned Havern answered back with his fourth of the season to even the score midway through the period.

The Eagles and Terriers combined for four goals in the first 4:07 of the second period. BU got goals from Mike Bussoli and Brad Zancanaro, while Chris Collins and Ty Hennes scored for BC. Maiser scored his first goal with three and a half minutes left in the second to give BU a 4-3 lead after 40 minutes of play.

BC tied the game at four on a Tony Voce power play goal 7:18 into the third period, and eventually went ahead on Voce’s second of the game less than five minutes later. But with less than four minutes to go in regulation, Maiser notched his second of the contest to send the game into overtime.

“All I could think about was that [quadruple] overtime game against St. Lawrence,” said Parker in reference to the Terriers’ NCAA East Regional classic of 2000. “But we had more legs and jump as the game progressed.”

Fields dominated the first overtime, stopping Voce, Ryan Shannon and Ryan Murphy on point-blank opportunities within a span of 2:37. He stopped 15 shots in the period and a tournament record-tying 46 overall.

The announced sell-out crowd of 17,565 at the Fleet Center Friday was the largest in Hockey East tournament history, breaking last year's mark of 15,683.