NCAA Tournament Hockey Returns to Providence This Weekend

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist

 

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NCAA Regionals in Providence in March 2019, PHOTO: GoLocal

Providence will be rocking with hockey fans this weekend and we’re not talking Providence Bruins fans.  NCAA Tournament hockey returns to Providence this Friday and Sunday.  Providence is one of four regional sites for this year’s tournament. Providence and the Dunkin Donuts Center last hosted NCAA regionals in 2019 and 2015. In both of those regionals, the PC Friars were one of the four teams. The Friars won the 2015 regional, beating Miami University of Ohio and the University of Denver before winning the Frozen Four in the Boston Garden.

 

There will be no PC team this year in Providence, unfortunately, to root for, but the Providence regional will feature probably the best draw of the four regional sites.  Here are the four regional sites, the 16 teams, and regional seedings.

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Providence Regional

1. Boston College
2. Wisconsin
3. Quinnipiac
4. Michigan Tech

 

Springfield, MA Regional

1. Denver
2. Maine
3. Cornell
4. UMass

 

Sioux Falls, SD Regional

1. Boston University
2. Minnesota
3. Omaha
4. Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

 

St. Louis/Maryland Heights, MO Regional

1. Michigan State
2. North Dakota
3. Michigan
4. Western Michigan

 

The winners of the four regionals will face-off in the Frozen Four in St. Paul, MN on April 11th, with the Championship game on April 13th.  The winner of the Providence regional will face the winner of the St. Louis/Maryland Heights regional.

 

Let’s take a look at the four teams playing in Providence.

 

Friday at 2 PM:  1. Boston College (31-5-1) vs. 4. Michigan Tech (19-14-6)

 

Michigan Tech is in the tournament as an automatic qualifier, winning the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) Tournament this past weekend.  This is the third straight NCAA tournament appearance for the Huskies.  They only averaged 2.8 goals/game and have scored only 108 for the year.  Their strength is in their goaltender, Blake Pietila, who allows only 2.28 goals/game.  He and the Husky defense, however, will have their hands full against the Boston College scoring machine.

 

Blake Pietila is one of three Pietila brothers on the team.  The twin brother of Blake is forward Logan Pietila and the most recent Husky brother is defenseman Chase Pietila.

 

The Boston College Eagles won the Hockey East Conference Tournament and have been the #1 ranked team for 15 weeks in a row.  They will be heavy favorites against Tech, as the BC Eagles feature four of the most potent scorers in the country in freshmen Will Smith, Gabe Perrault, and Ryan Leonard (who all play on one line and totaled 68 goals) and sophomore Cutter Gauthier who scored 35 goals. The Eagles will often toy with other teams for a while and then score goals in bunches.  Their 168 goal total is the highest in the country.

 

The Eagles also have a premier goalie in Jacob Fowler who allows only 2.19 goals/game with a .925% save percentage.  The PC Friars were able to beat Fowler, one of his only 5 defeats on the year, in February in a 4-3 victory at Schneider Arena.

 

Friday at 5:30 PM:  2. Wisconsin (26-11-2) vs. 3. Quinnipiac (26-9-2)

 

The Quinnipiac University Bobcats from Hamden, CT, the #9 ranked team, are the defending national champions, winning the Frozen Four last year in Tampa.  The roster this year is very different, and they struggled out of the box at the beginning of the season going 4-3-2. The Bobcats eventually found their scoring touch and breezed through the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Association (ECAC) regular season.  Their total of 153 goals is one of the highest in the country, and they feature balanced goal scorers up and down their lineup.  The Bobcats also have one of the stingiest goalies in the country in Vinny Duplessis who only allows 1.93 goals/game.

 

Wisconsin is one of four Big Ten teams in the NCAA hockey tournament this year.  Their resurgence propelled them to the #8 ranked team in the country, even though they lost in the first round of the Big Ten tournament almost 3 weeks ago.  It will be interesting to see how the Badgers will come out in the first period against the Bobcats after such a long layoff.  The consistent strength of the Badgers all year has been the play of goalie Kyle McClellan who leads the nation in save percentage at .931%.

 

The Wisconsin-Quinnipiac tilt should be a classic matchup with a high scoring Bobcat lineup vs. a disciplined and feisty Badger team with a stingy goalie.

 

The winners of Friday’s skirmishes will face off on Easter Sunday at 4 PM to determine which of the Providence regional teams will go to the Frozen Four in St. Paul, MN.

The lineup of teams in the Providence regional should produce the best attendance of the four regionals.  The BC hockey eagles outdrew the BC basketball team this year, and no doubt, their rabid fans will flock to the AMP.  Quinnipiac fans also have only a short distance to drive to Providence. And Wisconsin has a great fan following (#2 attendance in the country this year) that travels to Badger away games.  The Providence Civic Center hosted the NCAA Hockey Final Four (before it was called the Frozen Four) 5 times between 1978 and 1994 and drew well.  Two of those Final Fours featured Wisconsin. In the 1982 Finals at the Civic Center, 5,000 Badger fans showed up creating a sea of red in the arena. Downtown Providence watering holes loved the Badger fans.

 

Even though the PC Friars will not be at the Providence regional this year, if you want to enjoy a great college hockey atmosphere, make your way downtown this weekend.

Bob McMahon is the former Director of Parks in the City of Providence and a lifelong Providence College Friar fan.


 

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