Providence, RI- Providence College and Boston College staged a memorable postseason series last year. BC survived a contentious and physical matchup to advance to the Hockey East Semi-Finals. Saturday night brought the Eagles back to Schneider Arena for the first time since that series in March and the teams picked up where they left off.
That intensity didn’t show up in the opening frame. BC outshot the Friars 10-5, but very little of the opener gave the feeling that anyone was close to scoring.
Things picked up quickly in the second with five penalties and four goals. First, following a Casey Carreau interference minor, Jack Dugan opened the scoring. Greg Printz changed the pace of play when he took a five minute major for contact to the head and a game misconduct. Alex Newhook and David Cotton scored goals to give BC the lead 17 seconds and 1:09 into the power play respectively. In the dying seconds, Julius Mattila extended the Eagle lead to 3-1.
The teams combined for five more penalties in the third and that number could have been higher. Most notably, in the dying minutes, David Cotton sat for a major illegal check from behind and a misconduct. With Michael Lackey pulled for an extra attacker and skating a man up for the final 4:54 of the game, Providence peppered Spencer Knight. The freshman mostly held his own, but surrendered a goal to Tyce Thompson with 1:05 left. Providence came perilously close to equalizing the score, but fell agonizingly short, losing 3-2 to BC.
The Eagles improve to 3-4 overall and 1-2 with their first Hockey East win.
Spencer Knight stopped 29 of 31 Friar shots.
BC plays a home and home with Connecticut next weekend. Puck drops at 7pm ET at Conte Forum on Friday night and at 3:35 pm ET at the XL Center on Saturday afternoon.
Providence drops to 4-3-1 and 2-2 in Hockey East.
Jack Dugan is leading the nation in assists (13), power play assists (7), power play points (8), and scoring (18). His teammate Tyce Thompson is second in national scoring (14).
Michael Lackey stopped 36 of 39 shots.
The Friars play a home and home with Boston University next weekend. Puck drops at 7:30pm ET at Agganis Arena on Friday night and 7pm ET at Schneider Arena on Saturday.
