PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The puck would not sit down in the right spots for UMass in the third period.
Brett Boeing had a chance stuffed at the goal line as he kept trying to push the puck into the net. Bobby Trivigno had the puck on his stick with Providence goalie Hayden Hawkey sprawled out and couldn’t put the puck into the empty net. Similar opportunities for Mitchell Chaffee and Jake Gaudet in the moments following Trivigno’s attempt were foiled as well.
UMass carried the play for most of the final 20 minutes inside Schneider Arena, but it could not find a way to sneak a puck past Hawkey despite outshooting Providence 16-9. Instead, it was Scott Conway who was able to get a shot to trickle past Matt Murray with 2 minutes, 56 seconds remaining to lift the No. 10 Friars to a 3-2 win over the second-ranked Minutemen on Saturday.
“Our third period, I thought we were going to win,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “I really liked the way we were playing in the third, but sometimes one bounce goes the other way. Providence battled to score that goal and that’s how you win games.”
The game materialized as expected in the smaller confines of Providence’s home rink with the speed and skill aspects of the game neutralized. Instead, the tight-checking affair simulated a playoff-type atmosphere as both teams threw around their bodies and battled hard along the boards.
UMass struggled to establish itself in the offensive zone, relying on winning pucks behind the net and creating traffic in front of Hawkey to create its chances. The Minutemen had a few great scoring opportunities in front of the goal throughout the game, but the puck never settled onto sticks properly and the chances went for naught.
“It’s tough in this building, there’s no ice,” Carvel said. “The ice got worse as the game went on, pucks don’t sit down. It’s obviously a different game than on our ice where we play with a lot of speed because there’s more ice to work with. … I enjoy games in our building because you can actually make plays and pass the puck around, here it’s just chip and try to chase.”
When there was room on the ice UMass capitalized and tested Hawkey the most. Midway through the first period, it was sophomore defenseman CaleMakar who poked the puck away from a Providence player at his own blue line and raced up the ice, eventually going to his backhand to roof a shot over Hawkey. He almost repeated the feat in the second period, but rang the far post while the entire arena held its collective breath.
But the Minutemen’s biggest goal came through the dirty areas as the third line of Boeing, captain NikoHildenbrand and Kurt Keats wore down the Friars in the offensive zone with their heavy play. Providence failed to clear the zone three times before Keats won a battle in the corner and shuffled a pass back to Colin Felix. The freshman defenseman sent a shot toward net that was blocked in front, but Hildenbrand found the loose puck just outside the crease and slid the puck under Hawkey to tie the game late in the second period.
“Boeing probably had five scoring chances, he seemed to have the puck a lot around the net,” Carvel said. ”Niko, that was a huge goal and Keatsy played real heavy. It helps when your third line is almost your best line in the game, they did a good job.”
UMass also had to play most of the game without sophomore defenseman Mario Ferraro, who was assessed a game misconduct after a hit from behind on Jason O’Neill behind Murray. Although his loss was felt in how much UMass changed up its defensive pairings over the final 45 minutes of the contest, it never affected the play of the Minutemen’s back line.
Freshman Ty Farmer shouldered a larger burden without his normal partner and put together his strongest defensive game of the season. Meanwhile, Jake McLaughlin continued his recent run of strong play with several key plays on the penalty kill. During one early sequence, the junior dove to poke the puck away from a Providence player before sliding to block a close-range shot 10 seconds later and directing it to the corner.
“Ty Farmer really stepped up,” Carvel said. “Colin Felix and Jake McLaughlin, the guys who really don’t get a lot of the publicity, those three guys played extremely well (Saturday), extremely hard. You lose Mario, Mario is toughest, our hardest guy back there and he never runs out of energy, so when you lose him, it’s almost like losing two players. We had (Kolby) Vegara who hasn’t played really all year since the first two weekends, he was fine, he held his own, gave us minutes. But I thought Ty Farmer, who was still recovering from a minor injury, he really had to step up and the back end did a good job with Mario out.”