"History repeats itself.”
The context in which that phase is most often uttered is not positive, though the Providence Friars might feel differently after advancing to their second Frozen Four in the past five years as a result of their back-to-back NCAA East Regional wins over top-seeded Minnesota State and Cornell.
Eighth-year head coach Nate Leaman’s Friars will carry a 24-11-6 record to Buffalo after finishing second in the Hockey East standings but then losing to seventh-seeded Boston College in the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament.
After the Friars were eliminated from Hockey East title contention, there was a great deal of uncertainty surrounding their NCAA fate. A championship upset in Hockey East or Bowling Green beating Minnesota State for the WCHA title would have left Leaman’s club on the outside of the national tournament field altogether.
“It was really an eye-opener for us. It stinks to be sitting on the couch watching other teams play,” freshman defenseman Michael Callahan (Franklin, Mass.) said after the Friars made the most of their second chance, posting a 4-0 shutout against the Big Red to clinch the regional title. “We were really slow to start games and made too many mistakes against BC. We learned that you can’t do that against any team. I think it really showed this weekend because we played a lot more mistake-free hockey.”
Despite being a No. 4 seed and one of the last teams to earn a bid into the 16-team field, the Friars were placed just miles from their campus at Dunkin’ Donuts Center in downtown Providence.
That path to two victories and the Frozen Four drew comparisons to the most recent Providence team to reach college hockey’s grandest stage. The Friars were the last team in the tournament back in 2015 and rattled off four consecutive wins — two in their home city and then two at TD Garden in Boston — en route to their first-ever national championship.
“Both teams gave me a lot of headaches, kept me up at night a lot,” Leaman laughed. “I’m proud of this team. A lot of different guys are stepping up and that is very similar to the (2015) run. Both teams had mobile D-corps. This team keeps growing, and that’s what’s exciting right now.”
The exploits of the national championship club that includes current Boston Bruins forward Noel Acciari (Johnston, R.I.), Calgary Flames goaltender Jon Gillies (South Portland, Maine) and several other professionals offer plenty of lessons for the present Friars, who enter the Frozen Four with an identical win total to that 2015 club.
“We saw the adversity that they went through and how they had to battle,” said junior forward Shane Kavanaugh, an East Providence, R.I., native. “We went down a couple goals early (against Minnesota State) and our team stuck with it. That’s just part of our DNA, and it was part of their DNA back in 2015. Coach Leaman nails that into our heads and makes sure we’re battling adversity no matter what happens. …
“We learned (during the regional) that you can’t give up. We got down, but we find a way to battle back. Adversity is just something that is going to happen through games, but now we just need two more wins.”
After falling into a 3-0 hole in the first period of the regional opener against the Mavericks, Providence rattled off 10 unanswered goals en route to the two wins at the Dunk, clinching a Frozen Four berth for the fifth time in program history. In the back of their minds, too, was last year’s run, which ended one goal and 27 seconds short against Notre Dame in Bridgeport, Conn.
Revenge was sweet. Say what you want about it being a “home” game (although the Friars play at Schneider Arena on campus and not at Dunkin’ Donuts Center) and being rewarded as a bottom seed playing mere miles from campus, but Providence made a statement on the ice.
The regional weekend was about as complete an effort as they come. The Friars showed off the top-to-bottom depth that has led to the program’s consistent success under Leaman, including six consecutive NCAA appearances. Only Denver boasts a longer streak and advanced to the Frozen Four in its 12th consecutive tournament after beating Ohio State and Atlantic Hockey champion American International as the No. 2 seed in Fargo, N.D.
PC junior Josh Wilkins had multiple points in both regional games, contributing to five of the team’s 10 goals and scoring three himself, while Bryson — the leader of this season’s mobile defense as a second-team All-Hockey East pick — was on the ice for eight of them and had two assists. In total, eight players scored goals and 12 recorded points.
“Our depth has been huge all year helping us out,” said sophomore forward Greg Printz. “Our top-six forwards are great, but every time that our third or fourth line can chip in, it just gives us a fantastic chance to win. We know our first two lines are going to do what they’re going to do, get a goal or two a game, so if we can get contributions from the bottom six, we know that we have a really good chance to win.”
Another piece that gives the Friars a really good chance to win, especially at this do-or-die point of the season? Senior Hayden Hawkey. The team’s “rock” in net did all the Friars needed throughout the weekend, finishing the regional with a .943 save percentage. Hawkey pitched an 18-save shutout against the Big Red, his nation-leading eighth of the season.
As Callahan mentioned, there was plenty to learn from sitting out during the final weekend of the Hockey East playoffs after finishing the regular season on a 5-0-1 run. The Friars did learn, and they came to play with a deep, complete lineup.
“That’s a heck of a win because if you’re going to keep taking steps along this journey you have to beat other teams you feel could win the national championship,” Leaman said. “From the tape, we really felt Cornell was a team that could win a national championship. We knew it was going to be a great game. We’re starting to play some of our best hockey at the right time.”
UMass will join the Friars in Buffalo after winning its first Hockey East regular-season title in program history and finishing as a tournament semifinalist for the first time since 2007. The Minutemen were convincing winners during the Northeast Regional in Manchester, N.H., as freshman Fille Lindberg posted 4-0 shutouts against both Harvard and Notre Dame.
Hockey East has not had two of the Frozen Four teams since the Friars and BU met in the 2015 title game at TD Garden. That feat has been achieved only three other times in this millennium (2000, 2006, 2007), but this year marks the first time in that span that BC and/or BU is not included in the field.
“We knew we had a good team this year and we proved a lot of things throughout the year, but we always felt that people were waiting for us to trip and stumble and fall and we kind of did that against BC (in the Hockey East semifinals),” said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. “This weekend we redeemed ourselves. … This is a first for our program and we didn’t stumble into this. We knocked the door down, and we’re headed to the Frozen Four flying high.”
