PC Friars Skate to Overtime Tie Against UConn in Hartford

PC news release…

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Brooks Behling and Ross Mauermann each scored a goal as the No. 13 Providence College men’s hockey team played to a 2-2 tie with UConn at the XL Center (4,672) on Wednesday night in the teams’ first meeting as Hockey East foes.

Mauermann’s power-play goal in the second period proved to be the game-tying tally for Providence (16-9-2, 8-6-1 HEA), while Connecticut (8-12-7, 5-6-4 HEA) goaltender Rob Nichols made 33 saves for the Huskies.

UConn took a 1-0 lead at 2:08 of the first period when Brent Norris scored his second goal of the season on a one-timer from just outside the crease. Evan Richardson made the cross-ice pass to set Norris up at the far post, while Jeff Wight also assisted on the play.

The Friars answered to tie it up, 1-1, at 9:36 of the opening stanza. Steven McParland (Schreiber, Ontario) got the puck to Kevin Rooney(Canton, Mass.) down low, whose shot was turned aside by Nichols. But Behling (Pittsburgh, Pa.) picked up the loose puck in the low slot and fired it through a crowd in front for his first goal of the season.  

Gillies went on to stop 11 of the 12 shots he faced during the period.

The Friars opened the second period looking to kill off the final 34 seconds of an UConn power-play chance. Just after killing that off, a broken play at the Friar blue line resulted in a chance for the Huskies that Trevor Gerling converted just 37 seconds into the period for his ninth of the season.

The Friars once again answered back. Eleven seconds into a 5-on-3 power-play chance, Mauermann (Janesville, Wis.) tied the score, 2-2, at the 5:35 mark of the second period. Providence won an offensive zone faceoff and Nick Saracino (St. Louis, Mo.) Trevor Mingoia (Fairport, N.Y.) had successive shots kicked out by Nichols, but Mauermann came flying in to one-time the final rebound past the Huskies’ goaltender for his sixth goal of the season and his 99th-career point as a Friar.

The Friars continued to apply pressure in the offensive zone, but the score remained 2-2 after two periods of play as Nichols stopped 15 of Providence’s 16 shots on goal in the middle frame.

With just under seven minutes to play in the third period, Gillies made his best save of the night when he dove back across his crease to get his stick on a Wigt shot, negating a UConn 2-on-1.

The Friars kept up the pressure throughout the third period but Nichols remained equal to the task, including back-to-back saves on Noel Acciari (Johnston, R.I.) and Saracino on the final shift of the period.

In overtime the Friars had all five shots on goal, including a chance by Mingoia that was kicked out by a Nichols left pad save, but the game finished in a 2-2 tie.

The Friars were 1-for-3 on the power play and held UConn to a 0-for-3 mark with the man advantage. GIllies totaled 23 saves in the Providence net, while Nichols had 33 stops for UConn.  

The Friars and Huskies close out their regular-season series at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 7 at Schneider Arena. The game will be televised locally on CoxSports on OSN and will include a special celebration to welcome Drew Brown back to campus.

Notes
Dating back to Providence’s final penalty kill against Brown on Jan. 10, the Friars have killed off 24 consecutive opponent power plays … Nick Saracino (1-5-6) has a four-game point streak … While playing in his 142nd-consecutive game, Ross Mauermann scored his 11th-career power-play goal, which was also his 99th-career point … With an assist on Brooks Behling’s goal, Kevin Rooney set a career high for assists in a season (5) … Earlier in the day (Feb. 4), the Gridiron Club of Boston announced that Jon Gillies and Trevor Mingoia as two of the 20 semifinalists for the 63rd-annual Walter Brown Award.