March 8, 2003

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Providence College men's hockey team was defeated, 7-1, by No. 10 Boston University on Saturday, March 8 in the second and final game of the best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinal series at Schneider Arena. The fifth-seeded Terriers won the series, two-games-to-none, over the fourth-seeded Friars.

BU (23-12-3) took control of the contest in the early goings of the first period, tallying twice in the game's first 10 minutes. The Terriers' Mark Mullen got the scoring started, scoring short-handed off a Providence neutral-zone turnover. Mullen broke in all alone on the Friars senior goaltender Nolan Schaefer (Yellow Grass, Sask.) and gave the Terriers' a 1-0 lead. BU increased its lead to 2-0 when John Laliberte scored, unassisted, at 9:57 of the first period on what would become the game-winning goal.

While the Friars (19-14-3) were unable to solve BU goaltender Sean Fields in the first two periods, Schaefer kept PC in the contest by holding the Terriers' scoreless throughout the remainder of the first period and through the second period. PC forced Fields to make 18 saves in the first 40 minutes, while Schaefer stopped 18 of 20 shots through the first two periods.

The Terriers blew the contest open, though, with a five-goal third period, clinching the victory and the series sweep. Frantisek Skladany scored from John Cronin just 1:21 into the final period to increase BU's lead to 3-0. Brian McConnell gave the visitors a four-goal lead when he tallied from Jekabs Redlihs and Mark Mullen.

The Friars answered on the power play when senior Devin Rask (Parkside, Sask.) scored with over 12 minutes remaining on assists from classmate Jon DiSalvatore (South Windsor, Conn.) and graduate student Peter Fregoe (Massena, N.Y.).

Boston University closed out the contest with three power-play goals as David VanderGulik scored at 13:21, Dan Spang tallied at 13:56 and Brian Collins finished the scoring at 17:50.

Fields recorded 29 saves in the victory for the Terriers while Schaefer stopped 22 shots in the loss for the Friars. With the 22 saves, Schaefer set the Providence College career saves mark with a total of 2,848 career stops. The senior netminder passed Bill Milner '79 for first on the all-time list.

Saturday, March 8, 2003
Boston University  (23-12-3)    2       0       5       --7
Providence (19-14-3)            0       0       1       --1


Per	Time	Team	Goal Scorer (Assists)
1	08:40	BU	Mark Mullen  (Brian McConnell)
1	09:57	BU	John Laliberte
3	1:21	BU	Frantisek Skladany (John Cronin)
3	5:34	BU	Brian McConnell (Jekabs Redlihs, Mark Mullen)
3	7:14	PC	Devin Rask (Jon DiSalvatore, Peter Fregoe)
3	13:21	BU	David VanderGulik (Brian Collins)
3	13:56	BU	Dan Spang (David VanderGulik)
3	17:50	BU	Brian Collins (David VanderGulik, John Sabo)

Saves: Sean Fields (BU) 11 7 11 -- 29 (60:00) Nolan Schaefer (PC) 13 5 4 -- 22 (60:00)

Attendance: 2,230 (Schneider Arena)