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http://www.portland.com/sports/college/hockey/020325mainewins.shtml

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                     Monday, March 25, 2002

                                            Maine heads to Frozen Four


                        By   MIKE LOWE, Portland Press Herald Writer

                      Copyright  2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.









 WORCESTER, Mass.  --  Colin Shields was too sick to play Saturday for the University of Maine in the NCAA hockey tournament. On Sunday afternoon he provided the right tonic for the Black Bears - and Maine is heading to the Frozen Four again.

Shields' 29th goal of the season lifted Maine to a 4-3 victory over rival Boston University in the NCAA quarterfinals before 11,888 fans at the Worcester Centrum. Maine will play Hockey East rival and champion New Hampshire in the NCAA semifinals at 1:30 p.m. April 4 in St. Paul, Minn.

Herb Swanson  Maine goal tender Matt Yeats celebrates Maine's 4-3 win over Boston University in the NCAA East Regional in Worcester, Mass., Sunday. Boston University's forward Brian McConnell skates away.
    THE FROZEN FOUR      At Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minn.

   Semifinals

   |Thursday, April 4|

   Maine (25-10-7) vs. New Hampshire (30-6-3), 1:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

   Minnesota (30-8-4) vs. Michigan (28-10-5), 7:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

   National championship

   Saturday, April 6|

   Semifinal winners, 7 p.m. (ESPN)



 To top of story

It will be Maine's eighth appearance in the semifinals. The first seven were under Shawn Walsh, who died at the start of the preseason in September. The Black Bears (25-10-7) won national championships in 1993 and 1999, beating UNH 3-2 in overtime for the title in 1999.

"What a great game," said Coach Tim Whitehead. "It's just a great feeling. I'm very proud of the players. They weren't going to be denied."

Tied at 1 entering the third period and tired after playing an overtime game Saturday, Maine nonetheless was confident it could beat the Terriers for a third time in 24 days.

"One period away tied," said forward Lucas Lawson, who scored two goals in the third period. "If you'd say that at the start of the year, you'd take that. Fortunately, we had a couple of bounces go our way."

Lawson's second goal came off such a bounce. During a scramble in front of the BU goal, the puck somehow squirted out to him in the high slot.

Lawson, who assisted on Maine's first goal by Robert Liscak in the first period, skated right and shoveled a backhander toward the net. The puck hit a BU defender - one of two in the crease as goalie Sean Fields had slid way out of position - and Maine led 3-2, the goal coming just 40 seconds after BU had tied it.

Then with 4:23 left, Shields struck. He couldn't play in Saturday's 4-3 overtime win over Harvard because of a bad reaction to pain medicine taken after he had a tooth pulled Friday. Sunday morning he felt better, but still couldn't eat anything and was weak.

"I just tried to stay away from contact as much as possible," he said. "The first period I got caught up running into guys and stuff and just any time along the boards, any kind of battles, it really took a lot out of me. I was really tired after the first period."

But in the third, said Shields, "I kind of got my energy back."

With BU pressing, the puck slid out of the zone and defenseman Chris Dyment slowly turned to chase it down. Shields, who was along the left boards, noticed.

"I don't know if he had been on for a while and was tired, he was kind of going slow back," said Shields. "I don't know if he didn't think I was going to go for it. I was hesitant at first but when I saw that, I said I think I can get past him."

He did, at about the blue line, and then Shields snapped a low shot through Fields' pads as the goalie dropped to his knees and Maine led 4-2.

"That was huge because it gave us the breathing room," said Whitehead. "Did I feel comfortable there? No. But I felt confident we were playing well and I felt we would win. For them to get three goals to beat us, two to tie and one in overtime, we would have had to completely drop the ball."

And the Black Bears weren't about to do that.

The Terriers, who finished 25-10-3, pulled within 4-3 with 3:02 remaining on David Klema's second goal of the period - a rebound from the left that went in off goalie Matt Yeats' pads.

Yeats, who has reemerged as Maine's money goalie after a disappointing regular season (especially against BU - he was 2-0-1 against the Terriers in March), was determined that would be BU's last goal.

"I knew they were going to come after us," he said. "I told everyone we had to hunker down, we had to fend them off."

It got close. Four times in the final 52 seconds, the Terriers forced faceoffs in Maine's defensive end. Twice, Maine tied the BU players up enough to earn a draw.

Twice, BU center Mike Pandolfo drew the puck back to the blue line - right between the BU players and all the way down to the Terriers' defensive zone.

"We were fortunate, they killed off a lot of that time for us," said Yeats.

Pandolfo said the Terriers had their play set up. "Unfortunately, I won both (faceoffs) a little too hard," he said. "They didn't go where I wanted them to go."

And Maine celebrated.

Yeats, who finished with 31 saves to outduel Fields (who was spectacular with 30 saves, including two jaw-dropping stops on Maine breakaways), jumped joyously in his crease after the final Terrier attempt went wide.

After the teams shook hands, captain Peter Metcalf took the jersey that the team displays to honor Walsh and skated around the rink with it.

"He's still a huge inspiration," said Yeats. "He built this program, this team. Coach Whitehead has done a great job. But we're really playing for (Walsh). He got us here."

Whitehead knows this.

As the interviews were finally winding down, Whitehead said he - and the players - can still feel Walsh's presence at the rink.

"He's definitely a driving force to this season," said Whitehead. "And that's the way it should be, and that's the way it will continue to be.

"Shawn was and is everything to this program. We have all felt his presence."

And will, all the way to Minnesota.

Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:

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