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2024-2025 Season - Providence College

The lack of scoring is the problem in the second half of the season for sure. Our goaltending was very good once again, (exceptional last night actually). It was really a great game to watch - especially since it was a 0-0 game through regulation. I thought PC had the better scoring chances all night and just a single break would have reversed the outcome.

I personally prefer the BC offensive approach which more typically aims first shots slightly away from the net, (shot passes), toward teammates who are in a better position to score from closer in. For this strategy to work you need good puck distributors like PC had with Jack Dugan and has now with Trevor Connelly. The loss of his services for half of the season so far has been a big disadvantage and makes that alternative approach less likely to be effective. Last night there were several odd man rushes for us where the lead player tried to pass across but was blocked by Maine defenders because they took too long or didn't pass it hard enough. Hopefully Connelly will return next weekend to help us get back on track.

I'd bet if you asked opposing coaches about PC you would hear lots of plaudits about how tough we are to play, but then we keep giving them reason to hope they can come back to beat us.

It looks to me like we are still in a very good position for the NCAA's and once that starts you never know.
 
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NEW Friar said:
The lack of scoring is the problem in the second half of the season for sure. Our goaltending was very good once again, (exceptional last night actually). It was really a great game to watch - especially since it was a 0-0 game through regulation. I thought PC had the better scoring chances all night and just a single break would have reversed the outcome.

I personally prefer the BC offensive approach which more typically aims first shots slightly away from the net, (shot passes), toward teammates who are in a better position to score from closer in. For this strategy to work you need good puck distributors like PC had with Jack Dugan and has now with Trevor Connelly. The loss of his services for half of the season so far has been a big disadvantage and makes that alternative approach less likely to be effective. Last night there were several odd man rushes for us where the lead player tried to do that but was blocked by Maine defenders because they took too long or didn't pass it hard enough. Hopefully Connelly will return next weekend to help us get back on track.

I'd bet if you asked opposing coaches about PC you would hear lots of plaudits about how tough we are to play, but then we keep giving them reason to hope they can come back to beat us.

It looks to me like we are still in a very good position for the NCAA's and once that starts you never know.
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They better start pulling off some wins. BU looks to be righting the ship of late especially in the Bean Pot. Maybe they have Bean Pot hangover on Friday. Wonder if we will see another bus load of fans from the opponent taking over Section 109.
 
73PCFriar said:
They better start pulling off some wins. BU looks to be righting the ship of late especially in the Bean Pot. Maybe they have Bean Pot hangover on Friday. Wonder if we will see another bus load of fans from the opponent taking over Section 109.
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Not sure how many will make the trip this time. I'm sure there will be a few. Boston to Providence on a Friday night, especially on a long weekend, is the longest road trip in college hockey and I will not take any pushback from schools out west. :) I would have to take a half day vacation just to get there in time for puck drop!
 
Scarlet said:
Not sure how many will make the trip this time. I'm sure there will be a few. Boston to Providence on a Friday night, especially on a long weekend, is the longest road trip in college hockey and I will not take any pushback from schools out west. :) I would have to take a half day vacation just to get there in time for puck drop!
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Liked the longest road trip comment, it’s probably an hour drive with no traffic. I remember the first time I saw BU play at Schneider after Coach Leaman became head coach, maybe his first game against them. NESN was covering the game and I saw the announcer Tom Caron walking down the staircase from the broadcast booth area, (before the rink renovation), and it was already after the scheduled start time. Turned out BU was stuck in traffic so the game was delayed. I bet Jack Parker felt the same about making that Friday trip as Scarlet. I think PC leaves for most away games on Thursday to avoid this contingency.

Does anybody else remember this - who won?

Just checked the PC site and the first game of the 2011-2012 season was against BU on a Friday and PC won 5-3! Let’s hope BU takes a bus late afternoon tomorrow 🥲!
 
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Big win for the Friars last night finally scoring some goals at Schneider and extending leads. They almost let BU back into it in those last 6 minutes after going up 5-1 then giving up a PP and Shorty to BU making it 5-3, but this time they managed to stave off the 6 on 5 and score an open net. Made the new BU goalie look bad getting him removed from the game after giving up the 4th goal. Philip continues to play steady in net. Trevor back and scores the first goal of the game.

Some not so good points, BU scoring on 2 PP plays 8 and 12 seconds into the PP, BU scoring on a shorthanded (how many of we seen of those this year) and PC with another o-fer on their PPs (a bit better puck movement with Trevor back).

So now up at Agganis tonight. Got to believe BU will play better. I assume the Russian will be back in net tonight to show he is better than what he did last night and BU defense will be better. PC has to stay out of the box in this to win. Should be a good BU crowd but the Friars have been pretty good on the road this year. At this point I'd take 2 or 1 point tonight. Not expecting a sweep weekend. (one more with BU up there in a few weeks as well).

Only 6 games left 4 on the road.
 
Just checked the PC home and away results this year. So far PC is 10-2-2 away and 7-5-3 at home so 17-7-5 overall. This away record must be one of the best in college hockey. Hope they keep this up considering 4 of the last six regular season games are away.

Very encouraging to see the positive impact Connelly's return had on last night's game. In the post game interview Nate said his opening period goal lifted up the whole team, it was a great effort that highlighted his skill and grit. Hope the arm injury he seemed to sustain when he crashed into the boards early on was minor, he did return and performed well for the rest of the game.

Not sure what was up with BU's #15 Copponi last night, he seemed to have a huge chip on his shoulder for some reason and was pushing and punching after the whistle every chance he had. It looked to me that Lachance was sent to the box by mistake for a roughing next to the BU bench committed by #15 in the 3rd. Was surprised he participated in the handshake line actually. Is that his MO?
 
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Well we are down to nitty gritty time. 2 at home next up and 3 on road to finish. Tonight is a must win in my mind against UML. chance to tie UML maybe leap Merrimack in standings while fighting off teams behind. Merrimack for 2 will be immense. Then BU and NU.

15 league points at hand, can Friars turn the second half around? Starts tonight, avenge that disappointing 1-0 loss a few weeks ago.

Will students finally show to support this top 10 team? I believe it is celebrate 10yr anniversary of National title night.
 
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The come from behind win last night vs UML was just what we needed! Very nice work by the graduating seniors/grad students, especially Poison with a hat trick, the last of which was a 100Ft backhanded ENG to seal the victory. This was the refuse to lose attitude that we had in the first half of the season, glad they pulled another one out of the hat - so to speak.

Back up to #6 in the pairwise and, according to the CHN probability matrix a 99.9% chance to make the NCAA tournament. Currently tied with UConn in HE for 4th with 4 games to go in the regular season. If they stay within the top 5 that avoids the play in round for the HE tournament so I hope they can do that. No rest for the weary this time of year so a little respite would be well deserved.
 
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Enjoyed the pregame senior/graduate recognition ceremony. If you go to the PC Men’s Hockey twitter site you can see a lovely tribute from the event. Play it with the wonderful music turned up. I found this very inspiring, hope you do too. If you recognize the music please let us know who the artist is.

This is a great gift for the players and their families, very well done!
 
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Leaman said he was sick all week. Tried to give it a go in pre-game but could see he wasn't ready. On Monday radio show he said Connolly still a bit slow but hopes to see him ready for Friday. He will be an important addition for this stretch run.
 
Huge series for each of these teams. 4th place is well within reach (1st through 3rd pretty much sewn up). I imagine Borgiel will get one of the games against his old teammates, but given the huge roster turnover up in North Andover at the beginning of the year, there are not that many remaining! It pains me to say it as a Merrimack fan, but I think PC sweeps.
 
Good turnaround after falling behind 2-0 tonight. I looked through the schedule and they've been in more 1-goal games than they have losses. Hopefully get another three points with the away game Saturday.
 
PaulKorea said:
Good turnaround after falling behind 2-0 tonight. I looked through the schedule and they've been in more 1-goal games than they have losses. Hopefully get another three points with the away game Saturday.
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Absolutely agree on the game this evening. The epitome of refuse to loose - see the last two minutes of period two if you have access to ESPN + on demand. Then back to holding on to a slim 3rd period lead as per years past. Great way to end the home segment of this year’s schedule. One more win and another 20 win season in the books. Inspiring night at Schneider!
 
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They sure do like to keep the fans on the edge of their seats. Another good comeback win at home for the second week in a row. That shorty by Gamache was all heart and drive. And the Friars get a POWER PLAY GOAL for a change.

Another big game up in Andover tonight. Need to at least keep pace with UCONN (maybe Northeastern comes up with a win).

I imagine that last game at NU will have a huge crowd with it being the last one for Matthews Arena.
 
Another come from behind win and shutting the door in the third to maintain the 1 goal margin. Yoder’s tying bar down goal in the 2nd was reminiscent of his prior year’s scoring prowess, maybe his best shot of the year, nice to have that back. Don’t know if other ESPN+ viewers had this happen, but our coverage froze just as Machu was winding up for a rebound shot with 1.8 seconds left in period 2. Then the TV went blank. When I finally restored the TV the score was 2-1 so knew the shot went in. Was able to rerun the sequence and saw the puck hit the back of the net with less than 1 second remaining. CHN shows the time of the goal as 20:00 of period 2!

Sorry RENCEB, but this sweep feels good here. As the old saying goes, “it is an ill wind indeed that doesn’t blow somebody some good”. The CHN probability matrix now shows PC’s odds of making the NCAA tournament as 100%, that is pretty definitive right?
 
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NEW Friar said:
Another come from behind win and shutting the door in the third to maintain the 1 goal margin. Yoder’s tying bar down goal in the 2nd was reminiscent of his prior year’s scoring prowess, maybe his best shot of the year, nice to have that back. Don’t know if other ESPN+ viewers had this happen, but our coverage froze just as Machu was winding up for a rebound shot with 1.8 seconds left in period 2. Then the TV went blank. When I finally restored the TV the score was 2-1 so knew the shot went in. Was able to rerun the sequence and saw the puck hit the back of the net with less than 1 second remaining. CHN shows the time of the goal as 20:00 of period 2!

Sorry RENCEB, but this sweep feels good here. As the old saying goes, “it is an ill wind indeed that doesn’t blow somebody some good”. The CHN probability matrix now shows PC’s odds of making the NCAA tournament as 100%, that is pretty definitive right?
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Yep, Friars are definitely in the NCAA Tourney, remaining 2 games are about seeding for HE and NCAA. Would still like to get that 4th spot for a home game in HE. Need to watch UMASS as they are getting hot, 2 games left at home against Maine. UCONN only has one game left compared to our 2, so the BU game on Thursday gives Friars a chance to stay 1 behind UCONN assuming UCONN beats Vermont up at Vermont the same night. A UCONN win at Vermont and PC loss at BU gives UCONN the 4th spot. UMASS could still get to 4th or 5th but a lot of things would need to happen and they would need to sweep Maine on the weekend. Right now, I feel like it will be either PC at UCONN or UCONN at PC in the HE tourney.

It was a strange game last night. PC had Merrimack bottled up for most of the game. MC had 4 shots on net in the first period scoring on the PP, PC only had 5 shots on net. Second period PC spent a good amount of time killing penalties but not giving up shots on those penalties and then scoring right as one was just over on a great play by Yoder bringing the puck into MC zone, passing off to I think Poisson who passed to Kelly who gave it right back to Yoder for the tying goal. Did see Machu's goal at the end of the period, no breakup in my ESPN+ stream. Friars completely shutdown Merrimack in the third period.

BU will be coming off a break again when they host the Friars on Thursday so they should be pretty rested up and ready to go.

Of late the upper classmen have been playing good hockey. Richard was impressive in both games this weekend, especially Friday, you could see he was determined to not let the Friars lose that last home game.

2 road games in Boston to finish the regular season.
 
NEW Friar said:
Sorry RENCEB, but this sweep feels good here. As the old saying goes, “it is an ill wind indeed that doesn’t blow somebody some good”. The CHN probability matrix now shows PC’s odds of making the NCAA tournament as 100%, that is pretty definitive right?
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The overturned goal (correct call) on Friday night was a killer for MC. PC comes back with a shortie to tie it and the momentum changed completely.
Saturday night, the only reason the game was close was because of Lundgren in net for MC. PC absolutely dominated the last 40 minutes.
Good luck the rest of the way.
 
Next up BU on Thursday away. BU didn’t play last weekend so should be more well rested, but PC seems to be peaking at the right time. PC is ranked a little higher at the end of the season, which is very unusual, but it should be a good matchup. Let’s hope PC remembers what they did to chase the Russian goalie early a few Fridays ago and forgets what happened the next night when he returned for a shutout.
 
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