Friars Advance To Frozen Four

By Bob Phillips

Photos by Rich Gannon

Greg Printz celebrates the first goal of the game. Providence won, 4-0,

to advance to the Frozen Four.

PROVIDENCE—The Providence College Friars threw a goose egg at Cornell, stopping the Big Red, 4-0, at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center on Sunday. The Friars, who lost to Notre Dame in the East Region Final last year, were determined not to have a replay of that devastating loss.  And so, after fending off two Cornell power plays in the opening seven minutes. The Friar D was impenetrable during those two PKs, allowing just one shot on netminder  Hayden Hawkey during the four minutes.

The Friars broke the ice at the 10:20 mark of the opening frame with an even-strength goal by Greg Printz, with Vincent Desharnais and  Jacob Bryson picking up helpers. Desharnais slid a pass to Bryson who put the puck on net. Cornell goalie made the initial stop, but Pritz found the back of the net on the rebound.

 Josh Wilkins made it 2-0 with his third goal of the weekend just 1:40 into the middle frame.  Kasper Björkqvist and Jack Dugan assisted the goal, which was a rebound on a scrum in front of McGrath. Wilkins has netted 10 goals in the last nine games and has found the back of the net 19 times this season.

The Friars extended the lead to 3-0 with just 0.6 seconds on the clock in the second period. Wilkins threw the puck toward goal from the top of the right face-off circle and Scott Conway redirected it past McGrath. It was the 100thh point that Conway recorded in his career (50 goals, 50 assists in 152 games). Brandon Duhaime assisted and became the sixth Friar record a helper in the contest.  PC limited Cornell to just four shots in the second stanza. After  two periods, the Friars held a 22-10 advantage in shots on goal.

That tally put the Friars totally in the drivers’ seat. Making up a two-goal in 20 minutes is possible. Erasing a three-goal deficit in a single period, while not impossible, is certainly improbable—certainly at this level of play.

Cornell earned a power-play chance 4:01 into the third, but was unable to capitalize. Hawkey  made two saves during the shift to keep the Big Red off the board. Duhaime capped the scoring for the Friars with an empty-netter with 1:47 left on the clock. He was assisted by Conway.

After winning the East Region, the Friars will  head to their first Frozen
Four next weekend where they will take on defending national champ
Minnesota-Duluth. Do not count the Friars out. Their last trip to the
Frozen Four in 2015 resulted in a national championship.

Hawkey finished the game with 19 saves while earning his eighth shutout of the season—and the second career shutout in the NCAA Tournament.

“It was the worst feeling last year,” Hawkey said about the loss to the Irish lthat ended the Friars’ dreams last season. “We were 30 seconds away from an overtime, an overtime that we felt good about. But now, to see what we’ve done all year, we used that as motivation. The guys were talking about it in between periods, about that feeling from last year, it wasn’t good, and we didn’t want that again.”

The Friars, who improved to 24-11-6, will now shuffle off to Buffalo where they will challenge defending national champ Minnesota-Diuluth, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, in one semifinal. The Bulldogs earned their  third straight trip to the Frozen Four by beating Quinnipiac, 3-1, in the Midwest Regional final in Allentown, Pa. The University of Massachusetts Minutemen, who defeated Notre Dame in the Northeast regional final Saturday night, will face Denver in the other semifinal.

And wouldn’t a PC-UMass championship game be special?

What the Puck?

The Friars held opponents scoreless over the last 108:52 of play on the weekend.
 Providence finished the weekend 5-for-8 on the power play, while the PC PK limited opponents to 0-for-6.

This was the Friars’ fourth With the shutout, Providence has registered four shutouts in their 16 NCAA Tournament appearances.  The last time the Friars posted a shutout was when Hawkey made 18 stops in a 1-0 win over Clarkson in the First Round last year in Bridgeport. Jacob Bryson, Hayden Hawkey, Tyce Thompson and Josh Wilkins all were named to the NCAA East Regional All-Tournament Team. Wilkins was named the region's Most Outstanding Player.

This will be the Friars’ first appearance in the Frozen Four since 2015. That year, of course, they won the national championship.

—with staff reports