Slumping PC Hockey Team to Battle BU Terriers This Weekend

Slumping PC Hockey Team to Battle BU Terriers This Weekend

Less than a month ago, the Providence College hockey team had a 15-3-2 record and was enjoying an 8-game winning streak.  And then a gauntlet of ranked Hockey East teams stood on the schedule.  A home-and-home sweep at the hands of #1 ranked Boston College started PC’s recent swoon, followed by tough games against UMass Lowell, UConn, and Maine.

The recent 8-game stretch has been one of the worst in recent PC hockey memory—1 win, 4 losses, and 3 ties.  Three of those losses were shutouts.  The hockey Friars now stand at 16-7-5 and are desperately seeking wins, and up next is a red-hot Boston University team this weekend.

The BU Terriers and the Friars are two Hockey East teams going in different directions as seen in the chart below.  The Friars have one win in their last 8 games; BU has five wins. BU is coming off their biggest win of the season, a 4-1 spanking of arch-rival and #1 nationally ranked Boston College this past Monday in the final of the Beanpot Tournament.

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The BU Terriers sudden surge in the last month is attributable to a flock of talented scorers, led by two forwards, junior Quint Hutson and freshman Cole Eiserman, who each have 16 goals.  Six of the BU players have reached 20+ points so far in the season.  The 3.8 goals/game by the Terriers is only topped nationally by Denver (4.1) and Minnesota (4.0).

BU struggled early with an inconsistent goalie, Mathieu Caron.  Caron transferred from Brown two years ago and had a spectacular season in the nets last year for BU, playing almost every game.  This season he continued solid netminding, but the wheels began to come off in early January.  BU has replaced Caron with freshman Mikhail Yegorov.  His record is only 3-2, but his goals/against average is excellent at 1.41 ga/game and is save percentage is an incredible .951.  Against the powerhouse BC Eagles in the Beanpot final he stopped 43 of 44 shots for a save percentage of .977.

The Friars will have their hands full this weekend against BU, who are scoring at will and now have a lights-out goalie.  The Friars scoring frustration of late was reflected this past Saturday against Maine in 1-0 overtime loss.  The Friars had two 5-minute major power play opportunities but only got off 6 shots and no goals in those 10 minutes. In their other 2-minute power play opportunity, they recorded no shots.  In regular play, PC had three breakaway shots on Maine, but their goalie, Albin Boija, blocked all three shots.

Hockey can be a cruel game sometimes, even for good teams.  A stupid penalty, a lazy pass that is intercepted for a shorthand goal, a hot goalie for the other team, or a lucky bounce of the puck off a skate into the goal—all are some of the ways that a good team can go down to a defeat.  PC has seemingly experienced all of these in the last three weeks.  Let’s hope the puck starts bouncing the right way for the Friars this weekend.

The Friday night game is at Schneider, and the puck drop is at 7 PM.  On Saturday, the series moves to the Agannis Arena at BU.