The Providence College Friars have had the Maine Black Bears number over the last several years. That continued on Saturday evening. Greg Printz scored a game winning goal early in the third period, as #19 Providence hung on to defeat the #15 Black Bears 3-2 at Schneider Arena in Providence, Rhode Island in men’s Hockey East action.
After Providence had a goal taken off the scoreboard for goalie interference earlier in the first period, Jack Dugan buried one past Maine goalie Jeremy Swayman that would count at 14:15 to make it 1-0 Friars. Jason O’Neill doubled the lead at 15:56 of the second period for PC. Maine, who was pasted 7-0 on opening night at Schneider Arena in October, would play alot better in this one and got back right back in the game on two different occasions. Just 20 seconds after the O’Neill goal, Adrien Bisson scored on assists from Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup and Adam Dawe to cut it to 2-1. A late second period penalty on the Black Bears though proved to be costly. Printz scored a rebound goal 33 seconds into the third on the powerplay to make it 3-1. Maines Emil Westerlund sliced it to a one goal game again at 12:21, on helpers from Veli-Matti Tiuraniemi and Jakub Sirota. The visitors though couldn’t find the equalizer, despite pulling Swayman for an extra attacker with 1:41 left.
Swayman made 30 saves in the loss for Maine, who sees their record dip to 17-11-5, 11-9-2 in Hockey East. Michael Lackey made 25 stops in net for Providence in the win. The Friars are now 16-11-6, and 10-10-3. PC was 1-5-1 in their last seven games entering play Saturday with the Black Bears. Maine was 0-2 on the powerplay, while Providence went 1-4. The same two teams meet in the regular season finale at Alfond Arena in Orono next Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Black Bears currently are 15th in the pairwise rankings, and sit fifth in Hockey East just two points out of third.
