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2024-2025 Season - Providence College

Off to a good start in the Ledyard Tournament at Dartmouth beating Northeastern 3-1. Good to see Elger scoring another goal after a drought, would be great if he goes on another tear like at the beginning of the season. Tanner Adams gets the game winner with a pinpoint hard shot from the right face off circle for goal 9 and Gamache gets a late score in the 3rd to salt the game away.

They play for the title against Dartmouth or Alaska Anchorage tomorrow - Dartmouth just pulled ahead 4-3 early in the 3rd. Saw Will Schimek on the Alaska roster, was wondering where he ended up, thought he and Bennett would be at the same place but they are as far apart as it gets in D1 hockey.

Noticed PC is now 5th in the pairwise, HE will make it brutally hard to stay there.
 
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NEW Friar said:
Off to a good start in the Ledyard Tournament at Dartmouth beating Northeastern 3-1. Good to see Elger scoring another goal after a drought, would be great if he goes on another tear like at the beginning of the season. Tanner Adams gets the game winner with a pinpoint hard shot from the right face off circle for goal 9 and Gamache gets a late score in the 3rd to salt the game away.

They play for the title against Dartmouth or Alaska Anchorage tomorrow - Dartmouth just pulled ahead 4-3 early in the 3rd. Saw Will Schimek on the Alaska roster, was wondering where he ended up, thought he and Bennett would be at the same place but they are as far apart as it gets in D1 hockey.

Noticed PC is now 5th in the pairwise, HE will make it brutally hard to stay there.
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EIGHT!!!! Hockey East teams in the top 20 Pairwise. That means it'll be tough to drop out of the NCAA conversation if they play up to their 1st half level.
 
Great seeing the picture of the team celebrating their well deserved win in the Ledyard Tournament. Hopefully that is a good omen on the road to the Hockey East and NCAA tournaments.

Watched the Denver v Maine game on ESPNU last night. Very well played game with both teams showing a lot of energy despite the low scoring - good job by both goalies. Maine will be a tough opponent in the second half, luckily the games will be at Schneider this year, (although PC has a tremendous away record so far with just 1 loss).

PC's next game is away at Brown, (away is still in Providence though). Hopefully PC will not have a letdown considering the disparity in the records. That would be a tough loss for pairwise purposes and winning probably provides no pairwise boost. Speaking of which, has anybody ever seen PC ranked this high in the pairwise - not counting right after winning the National Championship in 2015? In 4th place is impressive. Great balance on this team and a refuse to lose type attitude exemplified by their record in 1 goal games, (8-1) with the sole loss coming vs BC in OT and that game had two PC goals called back.

I doubt if the Friars get Connelly back for the Brown game on Tuesday, but the World Juniors ends on Sunday so I guess that might be possible. The US plays Chechia tonight at 7:30PM and will play on Sunday, either for the gold or bronze, depending on tonight's outcome. The BC first line for team USA has looked very good, and they rightfully get the biggest share of ice time, so Trevor hasn't had as much time nor the consistent pairing with the same linemates. Wish him luck in the last two games, two games in a row after a lot of games in a short period of time must be exhausting.
 
Maybe not comparable ice time to the top line but Connelly was definitely around the puck a lot, getting his name called quite often. Being eligible next year to play for USA, this can only raise his stock some more.

I'll be there Tuesday freezing and all, whoever decides to show. PK out.
 
So PC beat Brown 2-0 and as expected, stayed at 3rd in the Pairwise. Winning a game against a lower ranked team doesn't seem to guarantee that you will not move down as demonstrated last week when Minnesota won both of its games and PC still passed them in that ranking when PC won both of their games. It is a volatile ranking tool and I am not smart enough to understand all the nuances. Glad that PC is so deep in that ranking but it seems like a small bad streak can move you in the ranking a lot.

On this Brown game, it seemed that PC was a little sluggish in the early going as they had not played for a week and Brown did. PC picked up the pace mid way through the game and Brown perhaps could not keep up due to this being their 3rd game in five nights. The other big factor was a great goaltending performance by Borgiel. Same thing happened earlier in the season when he shut out UNH. Having such a capable back up goalie is a nice luxury and one that has paid big dividends so far this year.

The upcoming schedule is a challenge for sure with BC next up for a home and away starting on the 17th. That series will probably be the biggest dual in D1 College hockey, great to have such an exciting event coming up.
 
Another break in playing games, 10 days til next game. After that they play 1 or 2 games a week straight through til end of regular season on March 8. Need to avoid any injuries with no real recovery time. Will be interesting to see how Nate manages the roster. Last night Levens dressed played a few shifts.

Connelly skated in the morning but in an interview with Divver he said he was too drained to play last night, understandable and he wasn't needed. He will be ready for BC. Might feel strange to play first game back against the same guys he was a teammate with just 2 weeks earlier.

BC has been off for quite sometime, I assume they play HE games this weekend.

2 for 4 on the PP last night, that was nice to see. Hopefully it is a step in the right direction going forward. They also killed I believe 2 penalties.
 
Looking back to the offseason, how do we feel about the additions and subtractions?

The only one I wish had stayed was Bennett, but looking at PC's lineup now, you either keep him or lose someone else who's excelling now.

Overall the incoming pieces far outweigh the losses. Borgiel as your #2 has worked out very well. Not challenging Svedeback, just solidifying the role.

Valente is having success at WMU, good for him, but no guarantee his third year would've had that same success at PC.

Brady Berard's paltry 1 point in 17 games at BC isn't missed.

Record and top 5 PWR aside, the changes have all been good ones. Freshmen, transfers, #2 goalie. It's all clicking with a tough stretch of schedule coming.
 
PaulKorea said:
Looking back to the offseason, how do we feel about the additions and subtractions?

The only one I wish had stayed was Bennett, but looking at PC's lineup now, you either keep him or lose someone else who's excelling now.

Overall the incoming pieces far outweigh the losses. Borgiel as your #2 has worked out very well. Not challenging Svedeback, just solidifying the role.

Valente is having success at WMU, good for him, but no guarantee his third year would've had that same success at PC.

Brady Berard's paltry 1 point in 17 games at BC isn't missed.

Record and top 5 PWR aside, the changes have all been good ones. Freshmen, transfers, #2 goalie. It's all clicking with a tough stretch of schedule coming.
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Brady with 2 goals this weekend

The frosh have had a big impact on this team and three of the transfers have stepped in to be critical pieces so far. Logan Will leading the team in scoring is not something I am sure people saw. Getting good scoring out of the less heralded frosh players as well. I like Sawyer, but he has been snake bitten in scoring goals, hopefully the next stretch he can find the back of the net.

It will be interesting to see how much focus teams will bring on Trevor going forward but that could open things up for other players.

Will also be watching to see how Leaman uses Borgiel during this long HE stretch, but certainly he brings more to the goaltending tandem vs what Leaman had in Svedeback first 2 seasons.

Now we see if those pieces can carry the teamwork and play they have developed over the first part of this year into these last 2 months of the regular season and HE playoffs and hopefully beyond.
 
Mustard has been a nice surprise, developing steadily over the first half of the season. Like Sawyer, I think it was about finding where he fits in, knowing where Connelly fits in and not worrying about him developing, but seeing improvements in Mustard's game since October games has been pleasant to watch.

Also, Centrella's year two has been a steady surprise as well. Everybody seems to have a clear-cut place on the roster, rather than some of the lean years cranking out a bottom six that would probably be some of this year's depth players.
 
I think we have a lot to be impressed with to this point given the results. Hard to nitpick a 15-3-2 record which is close to an all time best start. The returning D men have all demonstrated growth in their games, Harding and Centrella perhaps stand out to me, but it is a very strong group throughout. I thought Fish would be a key defensive addition, but so far he has not been noticeable, never know about injuries though as those details aren’t publicized. The four true freshman forwards have been great and are contributing above their pay grade, (so to speak), so Gendron has not had much playing time - again not knowing injury status. One other thing that stands out to me is Nate’s observation that the players believe. That is inspiring in a Ted Lasso sort of way and the 8-1 record in 1 goal games might be a reflection of that. I hope they finish out the regular season strong, it would be great seeing a new streak of NCAA tournament appearances begin this season.
 
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There's not much to nitpick with this team. Occasional game-night grumbles like pucks jumping over sticks (a time or two on home ice, which seemed to be a problem those games for PC and opponent alike. You'd have to be a moron to be unhappy with their progress.
 
PaulKorea said:
There's not much to nitpick with this team. Occasional game-night grumbles like pucks jumping over sticks (a time or two on home ice, which seemed to be a problem those games for PC and opponent alike. You'd have to be a moron to be unhappy with their progress.
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Yes, absolutely. How nice is it to have actual PC supporters posting this year. If the team runs into a rough patch we know who might start posting again, so another incentive for that not to happen. The league is so strong though so it will be difficult, if not impossible, to escape unscathed on a given weekend. The BC weekend coming up promises some great intense hockey, can’t wait to see how we do. I kind of expect Connelly to shine, let’s see how it goes.
 
NEW Friar said:
Yes, absolutely. How nice is it to have actual PC supporters posting this year. If the team runs into a rough patch we know who might start posting again, so another incentive for that not to happen. The league is so strong though so it will be difficult, if not impossible, to escape unscathed on a given weekend. The BC weekend coming up promises some great intense hockey, can’t wait to see how we do. I kind of expect Connelly to shine, let’s see how it goes.
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Will be a great barometer to see where PC is at. Then beyond BC is no simple task. The next 11 games in a row are with teams in the top 11 in pairwise rankings. All have had a more difficult schedule to this point as well.
 
Sparkee said:
Will be a great barometer to see where PC is at. Then beyond BC is no simple task. The next 11 games in a row are with teams in the top 11 in pairwise rankings. All have had a more difficult schedule to this point as well.
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Thanks for putting the challenge of the next games against very good HE teams into perspective. This year might be the best ever for the league in terms of “Strength of Schedule” as is its overall success rate against out of conference competition. So when the teams are down to playing each other, one HE team is going to win while the other loses. As the best play each other the intensity is going to be unreal. Talk about competitive end of season hockey, this is it!

On this week’s “Nate Leaman Show” Mike Logan asked him about the injury status of the team. He was careful not to reveal any specifics, but implied there are some concerns. He said every team has injuries to deal with this time of year though. However, on his X site, Mark Divver mentioned that Tomas Machu sustained an upper body injury during the Brown game and would be out 3-4 weeks, (I should have singled him out in post #50 above as his defensive play has been outstanding - another key first year player). The depth of our D corp will be tested here, thank goodness there is a lot of high quality depth.
 
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I'm looking forward to tonight's matchup. I think I have only seen one game this season, the last game with BC. Friar teams have often struggled at Conte Forum. It would be great to see them make a statement this weekend! Go Friars!
 
BC will come into the game tonight well remembering last season. After BC ran away 7-1 in Conte they came down to Providence and lost 4-3 the next night. There is however one big difference between last year's games and this year. PC actually was outshooting BC last year while this year both games have BC well ahead in shots. Expect a very tight game tonight.
 
Svedeback played a very good game, the power play goal set up by Hagans’ shot pass to Leonard was unstoppable. The potential tying goal by Bales was a missed opportunity to turn the momentum around. Too bad the breakaway pass wasn’t from Bales to Malinowski instead of the other way around. PC needed to generate more scoring chances but good forechecking by BC.

Hope we earn the split tonight and benefit from the rare actual home rink advantage crowd like BC did.
 
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Well last night only showed that BC with their list of future PROs is looking like the team to beat in the NCAAs. As for PC, I don't know what to think. They definitely played better on offense from Friday but got killed on break aways and PP. Connelly took a real bad penalty in the third in a 2-1 game and Leonard made him pay for that, pretty much killing any comeback.

They have now lost 4 straight HE games going back to the last 2 in November and the first 2 in the restart, 3 of them to BC (one an OT loss). The next 3 weekends will tell us a lot about whether this team is different from the last 4 or more of the same, (UML, UCONN and Maine). Are they able to climb the ladder past these teams or remain in the middle of the pack. Hard to believe but they are tied with Merrimack and Northeastern in the league but they have games in hand on them. UML is the big one first next weekend, also tied with PC in league same amount of games. Hope they show us it's going to be different this year.
 
Was disappointed that they didn’t take advantage of the wonderful crowd, that created an exciting college sports environment unlike any I have seen before at Schneider. The Friars could not solve Fowler who played great. PC deserved some breaks in the first when I thought they dominated play, but were behind 1-0 instead. Thought the game momentum was lost early in the second when the PC D man misdirected a clearing pass from behind his net to the stick of Minnetian who immediately passed to his teammate out front for goal 2. Not having Machu in the lineup might have cost us there. Then while it was still 2-1, Elger was robbed of the tying goal by Fowler directly in front with an arm save - what great eye hand, (arm), coordination. Had that gone in I think our momentum probably would have continued.

I am confident this team has an edge that will turn this blip around. However, BC is number 1 in the pairwise for a reason so getting swept was a real statistical probability. It would be awesome to see this match-up again in the post season, I would bet on a different outcome then.

Hoping for the best starting next weekend.
 
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