Contact Us

Staff

Tenacious Terriers frozen out by Maine Black Bears

By Brian Fitzgerald

The hockey Terriers had practiced the play all year. With a six-man-on-five advantage, forward Mike Pandolfo (MET'02) wins a faceoff in the opponent's zone, and the puck comes back to the defenseman. That was almost the scenario when BU was down, 4-3, to Maine, with under a minute to play in the NCAA East Regional on March 24.

Giving the Terriers a huge home court advantage, fans whoop it up during BU's 66-40 victory over Maine in the America East championship game March 9. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky.

Almost. BU coach Jack Parker had pulled goaltender Sean Fields (ENG'04) to give his offense an extra player. And Pandolfo cleanly won the draw in the Maine end. However, no Terrier was in a position to gather the puck, which drifted past the blue line. A collective groan could be heard among BU fans in the Worcester Centrum. But BU had a second chance -- another faceoff in the same spot. Again, Pandolfo pulled the puck back to the point. Again, it went between two BU players and out of the Maine zone.

"I won both draws, but unfortunately, the puck didn't go where we wanted it to go," says Pandolfo.

A victory would have propelled BU into a Frozen Four matchup against New Hampshire, extending a season in which the Terriers were originally predicted to finish fifth in the Hockey East Conference. BU defied the pollsters all year, recapturing the Beanpot trophy and securing second place in the conference. They buried a disastrous 2000-01 season (14-20-3) deep in their memories and posted a 25-8-3 record this year. But the Terriers couldn't beat Maine in the conference tournament semifinal, losing 4-3 with goaltender Matt Yeats in the net for the Black Bears.

BU's first-round bye in the NCAA tournament set up a grudge match against Maine, which had defeated Harvard, 4-3, the previous night. Maine's starting goaltender, Mike Morrison, was between the pipes against the Crimson, but coach Tim Whitehead opted for his backup, Yeats, against the Terriers. And for good reason.

"I don't know what it is about BU, but I definitely seem to have their number," says Yeats. "I really love to play against them. They're my favorite team to play against because they throw the puck at the net all the time. You're always in the game."

In the March 24 game, BU threw the puck at the net one last time in a mad scramble with two seconds left, but the pass from the corner drifted across the crease and into oblivion.

"Unfortunately for us, it was a typical BU-Maine game," says Parker, "real close, and Maine won. We beat them in overtime in November, and then we haven't been able to get by them in the last three games we've played."
Center David Klema (SHA'05) scored his second goal of the game halfway through the third period to tie the contest, but Maine's Lucas Lawson answered with a goal just 41 seconds later, and despite several close calls, BU couldn't put the finishing touch on its comeback.

"If you look at the scoresheet, the game was played exactly how we wanted it to go," says Parker. "We just didn't get the W."

29 March 2002
Boston University
Office of University Relations