Providence College has great memories of the TD Garden in Boston, winning last years’ national championship there. But on Friday night, the sweet memories are being saved for UMass Lowell.
The RiverHawks ended the ninth-longest game in college hockey history at 12:27 of the third overtime with A.J. White’s 11th goal of the season to defeat the Friars 2-1. The game almost continued longer, as White’s tally was waved off. After further review, he was ruled to not have kicked the puck past Friars’ goalie Nick Ellis.
“It’s such a grey area in our game,” Providence coach Nate Leaman said of the winning goal. “You could take all the coaches in our league and half would say no goal. I know what [RiverHawks] Norm [Bazin] will be saying.”
UMass Lowell moves onto face the winner of Boston College and Northeastern on Saturday night.
The first star of the game was RiverHawks goalie Kevin Boyle. The Hockey East co-Player of the Year made 58 saves – 29 in regulation and 29 in overtime, including 13 in the second overtime.
Despite the long game, Boyle was never concerned about losing focus.
“This is a top tier game, you know Hockey East championships,” Boyle said. “It’s not hard to stay focused when you know what’s on the line.”
The Friars tested Boyle early on and forced him to come up with some big early saves. Lowell’s defense proved to be solid in front of Boyle limiting the Friars second chance opportunities. The Hawks we even able to get some chances of their own, but Ellis kept it tied.
The Friars broke through first on a goal from Vicent Desharnais, Nick Saracino and Brian Pinho got the assists on the goal. After that the Hawks woke up and started to get some of their most quality chances of the period. Ellis was about to keep the Friars up, but the Hawks continued to get more rebound opportunities.
The Hawks came out firing on all cylinders and the Friars seemed to struggle. The Hawks were taking all their chances right the Friars front door. But Ellis stood tall in net for the Friars and turned away the Hawks chances.
The Friars found some life as the period went on, but couldn’t get anything going in the slot. Boyle was able to limit the rebounds given to the Friars, making second chances hard to come by. Nick Ellis made an incredible pad stop on a RiverHawk forward in tight.
With the period winding down the Friars got their first few quality chances of the period. But Boyle was able to keep the puck out, and keep the game tied. The second period ended with the game still tied and shots 20 to 15 for the Friars.
Both teams came back out for the third period looking to find the win. The game seemed to have evened out with both teams battling hard for chances. Ellis and Boyle were tested early, but made the saves to keep their teams tied.
The Friars were about to get the more quality chances through the third, pounding Boyle from the slot. The Hawks were also able to get some chances of their own, but they were kept to the outside. Ellis again made a huge save, sliding across on a 2-on-1 to keep the game tied.
Neither team though could solve the goaltenders who had been perfect since the first period. Without another goal in the third the teams headed to overtime. After three the score was 1-1 and the shots were 30 to 20 in favor of the Friars.
In the first overtime both teams continued to trade chances, but neither could find the back of the net. Boyle shone in the Lowell net stoning all of the Friars chances. Neither team found the back of the net so it was on to the second OT.
The second OT was more of the same, both teams continued to trade chances. But again neither team found the back of the net. The most quality chances for both sides ended up hitting the post and not going in.
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