PC Hockey Begins Hockey East Play This Weekend at Vermont After Sweep of Arizona St.
Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist
PC Hockey Begins Hockey East Play This Weekend at Vermont After Sweep of Arizona St.
Takeaways from the Sweep of the Sundevils
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe PC wins against Arizona State last weekend included a dominant 4-1win Friday night and a nail-biting 2-1 victory on Saturday afternoon during the Providence College Homecoming Weekend. The Friar faithful had a bounce in their step as they headed off to the AMP Saturday night for the basketball Midnight Madness and the Zach Brown concert.
The key takeaways from the weekend sweep of the Sundevils:
Sophomore Tanner Adams led the way with a hat trick in the 4-1 win. It was the first PC hat trick since Riley Duran’s 3 goals against UMass in a 7-4 PC win in November 2022.
Goalies Phil Svedeback (game 1) and grad transfer Zach Borgiel (game 2) were outstanding in the PC net, allowing 1 goal each, stopping a combined 58 of 60 shots on goal--an incredible .967 save percentage.
Highly touted PC freshman Trevor Connelly suffered a knee injury in the opening minute of the second period of the Friday game and did not return for the rest of the weekend. His status for the upcoming Vermont series is unclear at the time of this writing.
Former PC winger Ben Schimek who transferred to Arizona State, and leads the Sundevils in points, had a quiet weekend in his return to Schneider. No goals and just 1 assist.
The Weekend Series with the Vermont Catamounts
All the metrics point to a PC sweep of Vermont at the on-campus Gutterson Fieldhouse. Here are the numbers: Vermont was picked by the Hockey East coaches in the league’s pre-season poll to finish 11th, dead last in the league; PC is 8-0-1 in its last 9 battles with Vermont; Vermont struggles to score goals, scoring just 7 goals in first 3 games.
These numbers have me worried about how the PC Friars may be thinking about this game. They are 20-year olds and probably feeling cocky and confident after the satisfying sweep of Arizona State. This is the kind of weekend that requires PC’s veteran players to set a take-no-prisoners tone for the 14 new players on the team.
If the Friars take control of these games early on, don’t be surprised to see Coach Leaman continue to insert freshman into the lineup to get all the new players some playing time. We might also see a repeat of last week’s goalie strategy, with backup goalie Zach Borgiel getting the call to be the netminder for the second game.
Vermont’s strength is in their goalie, grad transfer Keenan Rancier who played at Minnesota State. He was the backup goalie last year at Minnesota State, but the year before in the 2022-2023 season, he was one of the best goalies in the country with at 19-10-1 record, a ridiculous goals against per game average of 1.86, and a .910 save percentage. This year, so far, he is letting in 2.95 goals in per game, but that is largely due to the modest defense in front of him.
The Catamounts have trouble scoring goals—they only scored 87 goals in 35 games last year. This year, they have a freshman player, Colin Kessler, who is a goal scoring threat every time he is on the ice, but he also tends to be out of control from one shift to the next. He leads Hockey East, at the moment, with 23 penalty minutes in just 3 games.
Gutterson Field House, the home of the Catamounts, is a 60-year-old facility with a barrel-shaped roof and with bleacher seating that allows about 4,000 fans to squeeze into place. When the Catamounts were good for many years, the atmosphere gave the Cats a decided advantage. Vermont has only drawn about 2,500 fans/game in the last couple of years, so the atmosphere is not as intimidating for visiting teams. It still has some effect though. Last year, Vermont had a disappointing 13-19-3 record, but still managed to play .500 at home with an 8-8 record.
In any case, the Friars need a sweep in Burlington this weekend. The Hockey East games after this weekend will all be tougher.