Northeastern Snaps PC Hockey Winning Streak, 23-Year-Old Freshman Helps Friars Bounce Back
Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist
Northeastern Snaps PC Hockey Winning Streak, 23-Year-Old Freshman Helps Friars Bounce Back
Trivia Question
In 1996, I graduated from Toll Gate High School and was an All-State goalie on their hockey team. In 1998, I won a Gold Medal in hockey for the US. Who am I? See answer at the end of this column.
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The Providence College hockey team’s winning streak ended at nine games on Friday night as the Northeastern Huskies bested the Friars 4-2. It was PC’s first loss since January 3rd and their first loss to a Hockey East opponent since losing on November 20th to UMass 2-1 in overtime.
PC bounced back on Valentine’s Night in Saturday’s game with a satisfying 4-1 win over Northeastern.
In Friday’s 4-2 loss, the Friars opened the scoring with John Mustard’s 12th goal of the year on a beautiful deke of the Huskie’s goalie Lawton Zacher and a wrist shot that caught the top shelf of the goal to the right of Zacher. The game was 2-2 until the Huskies scored the go-ahead goal at 12:49 of the third period on their second power play goal of the game. A Northeastern empty-netter in the last minute of play ended PC’s hopes of tying the game and sent most of the Schneider Arena fans home.
The loss to Northeastern, which came into the game with a 7-10 Hockey East record, was a sobering reminder for the Friars. If you give any Hockey East opponent opportunities from your mistakes, then you are going to pay for those mistakes. PC outshot the Huskies 25-11 but made 3 critical mistakes—two bad penalties and one bad pass, and the Huskies converted those mistakes into 3 goals.
The most egregious mistake--a lazy PC pass across center ice from one defenseman to another was intercepted by Northeastern’s Joe Connor, who went in alone on PC goalie Jack Parsons and easily beat him to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead after one period. Parsons gave up two power-play goals, including the winning goal at 12:49 after an unnecessary and head-scratching cross-check by PC’s freshman forward McQueen.
It was a tough night for PC’s rookie goalie, Jack Parsons. His nine-game winning streak was snapped, and he gave up three goals on just ten Husky shots. Friday’s loss for Parsons was an emotional loss for him.
In a not-too-surprising move, Coach Leaman replaced Parsons in the Saturday game with another freshman, second-semester enrollee Michael Simpson. He had never played a minute of college hockey, but he represents one of the new twists in college hockey—players with previous professional experience who can now enroll on NCAA teams. The 23-year-old freshman has played in the American Hockey League and the East Coast Hockey League, as well as several Canadian Junior Hockey clubs.
Simpson rewarded Leaman with a Valentine’s Day outstanding performance, allowing only one goal on 18 Northeastern shots in PC’s 4-1 Saturday evening win, and achieving his first college win.
PC dominated play on Saturday, pummeling Northeastern goalie Lawton Zacher with 43 shots. The final score of 4-1 is deceptive. Zacher stopped 41of PC’s shots on goal. It wasn't until 3:43 left in the game that PC broke a 1-1 tie on freshman defenseman Donovan McCoy’s blast from 60 feet, a goal that was such a rocket that Zacher never moved. PC later added two empty net goals.
PC remains on top of the Hockey East standings, six points in front of UConn and eight points ahead of Boston College. PC should fare no worse than a #7 ranking this week when the new national polls are released on Monday, February 16th.
Additional Slap Shots
-- PC travels to Burlington, VT next weekend to play a Friday/Saturday twin bill against the Catamounts, who always play tough in their home arena, the 4,000-seat, 60-year-old Quonset hut Gutterson Fieldhouse.
-- PC Coach Leaman will be looking for his 300th win as a PC coach in the Vermont games.
-- It will be interesting to see who Leaman uses in goal next weekend. Look for Parsons and Simpson to both see starts.
-- Northeastern goalie Lawton Zacher played for Brown University last year as their starting goaltender. He is one of several solid Brown players who have transferred out of Brown to other schools in the last three years.
This is somewhat of a trick question. The answer is Sara DeCosta, who was a second-team All-State goalie on the1995-96 Toll Gate HS boys team, and later a sophomore at Providence College in 1998 before she was selected for the US Women’s Hockey Team. The US women went 6-0, beating Canada in the final. Sara alternated as goalie and went 3-0 with a1.89 goals-against average. The 1998 US Olympic Women’s Hockey Team featured seven existing and former PC women's hockey players. She also won a silver medal in 2002.