Providence getting better results this season
The numbers did not seem to add up for the Providence men’s hockey team in 2022-23. The analytics suggested the Friars should be one of the top teams in Hockey East, and on track for qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.
Instead, they finished sixth before winning a pair of games in the conference tournament. The run came to an end with a 2-1 loss to Boston University in the semifinals at TD Garden.
Coach Nate Leaman spent the offseason watching film, seeing instances in which his 1614-7 team won every aspect, but still came up short.
“I give that team a lot of credit, because they stuck with it and they fought,” said Leaman. “They really showed a lot of character. Even though we didn’t win Hockey East last year, I’ll always remember that team because of how they battled and how they stuck together.”
That perseverance appears to have carried over into this season, and it’s a big reason why Providence is 9-4-2 and eighth in the PairWise rankings heading into Saturday’s first-half finale at Boston College (12-3-1), which is fifth in the PairWise.
Leaman points to the play of the veterans from last year’s squad, including Nick Poisson,
Chase Yoder, Medford native Craig Needham, and Woburn’s Riley Duran.
“Those guys, I think they’re still carrying that, so when they get in tough spots, they know how to just keep going,” said Leaman.
Sophomore goalie Philip Svedebäck, who along with Duran is one of two Bruins draft picks for the Friars, has started every game and posted a 1.94 goals-against average and .914 save percentage.
BC and Providence rank in the top 10 nationally on the penalty kill, with the Eagles first at 93.5 percent, and the Friars seventh at 88.2 percent. “Last year, I thought they were outstanding,” said BC coach Greg Brown. “They just probably didn’t score as many as they were hoping. Now they are getting goals. We know they’re dangerous. It should be a fun game.”
Latest chapter
Hockey East supervisor of men’s officials Brian Murphy was among those inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame Wednesday night. The Dover, N.H., native was an NHL official from 1988-2020, becoming the second American, and eighth overall, to reach 2,000 regular-season games. He worked 304 playoff games, including nine in the Stanley Cup Final, as well as the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the World Cup of Hockey in 2004 and 2016.
Murphy retired from the NHL in 2020 and is now in his fourth season with Hockey East. Before the ceremony at the Westin Copley Place hotel, Smith spoke about how much he has enjoyed his new role and why he thinks Hockey East is the best college conference.
“We have the best coaches and I have great relationships with all of them,” said Murphy. “I appreciate them. I think that we’re doing the best to make our league better and working together to make the league better.
“It’s such a great league and the people I work with, but it’s really the coaches that I work with and the officials that work for us. We’ve got some of the best college officials in the whole country. It’s as simple as that. And that has nothing to do with me. I won’t take credit for any of that.”
Going camping
The preliminary rosters for the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship have been announced, and a number of players with local connections will be vying for a chance to represent their country. USA Hockey invited 29 players to training camp Dec. 14-16 in Plymouth, Mich., with sophomores Lane Hutson of BU and Cutter Gauthier of BC returning from last year’s squad that won bronze.
Gauthier will be one of eight current or future Eagles in camp. Goalie Jacob Fowler is one of the six BC freshmen trying out, along with forwards Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, and Gabe Perrault, and defensemen Aram Minnetian and Drew
Fortescue. Forward James Hagens is a BC commit who is projected to be one of the top picks in the NHL Draft in 2025.
The final 25-man roster is expected to be released by Dec. 17.
BU freshman Macklin Celebrini and UConn sophomore Matthew Wood have been invited to Hockey Canada’s selection camp, which will be held Dec. 10-13.
UMass freshman Dans Locmelis, a fourthround selection of the Bruins in 2022, will compete for Latvia, while BU freshman Tom Willander has been named to Sweden’s roster.
The tournament runs Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Weekend slate
BC-Providence is the only Hockey East matchup this weekend, but other teams are participating in nonconference action. UMass will host Alaska-Anchorage for a pair of games. Holy Cross and UMass Lowell will play a home-andhome series. Maine, which beat Union, 3-1 on Wednesday, will host Bentley on Saturday.
There are several ECAC-Hockey East matchups. Vermont will host Union for two games, Merrimack will be at Yale on Friday, and on Saturday Northeastern travels to Brown and New Hampshire hosts RPI.
BU and Harvard are off.