The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Friars’ Pinho has seen success, struggles
It’s easy to take success for granted, especially for a college athlete who reached the pinnacle as a freshman.
As a first-year forward at Providence, Brian Pinho hoisted the national championship trophy with teammates, the first men’s hockey title in school history. The Friars reached the NCAA tournament each of the next two seasons only to be bounced out after first-round losses.
Providence (23-11-4) is back in the tournament once again, set to play Clarkson (23-10-6) in the opening round at Bridgeport’s Webster Bank Arena at 6:30 p.m (ESPNU). Friday. It marks the fifth successive NCAA bid for the Friars. Denver, the defending national champs, is the lone team in the field of 16 riding a longer streak.
Pinho is one of four seniors — three who see regular shifts — who remain from the Friars’ 2015 national championship team. He learned the fickle nature of success over the previous two seasons. It’s a lesson he and classmates are passing along to younger teammates.
“I don’t think I realized at the time how hard it is just to get back to the tournament,” Pinho said. “So that’s something we older guys have been telling the younger guys. You never know when you’re going to be back and you have to make the most of it when you’re there.”
The men’s hockey program is part of an athletic resurgence at Providence, the only Division I school in the country to reach five successive NCAA tournaments in both hockey and
men’s basketball. The women’s cross country team won a national title in 2013; men’s soccer made the national semifinals in 2014 and the quarterfinals in 2016.
Nate Leaman, in his seventh season as coach, is the architect of Providence’s hockey revival.
He earned a reputation as a miracle worker during his time at Union, then a moribund ECAC Hockey program that had finished above .500 only twice in its history before hiring Leaman. It took the Dutchmen 18 seasons to finally win an ECAC playoff series, accomplished under Leaman in 2009. Two years later he led the team to 26 wins and its first NCAA tournament appearance.
Leaman left Union for Providence in 2011. The foundation was in place at Union. His assistant and successor, Rick Bennett, had the Dutchmen in the Frozen Four that spring, and won a national title in 2014, a once unthinkable achievement for the tiny school in Schenectady, N.Y.
At Providence, Leaman was in charge of another program lost amongst its powerful conference brethren. Losing seasons were the norm; NCAA tournament bids sparse. The Friars hadn’t appeared in the tournament since 2001 when Leaman got them back in 2014, his third season.
Over the past five seasons, Providence is an established Hockey East contender, not an easy task when the competition includes Boston University and Boston College, perennial contenders for the national championship.
Providence won a regular season conference title in 2016, its first. Last weekend it lost to Boston University in the Hockey East tournament finals, which would have been another first.
Leaman is attracting higher=caliber recruits and getting the most of their talent. Nine players on the current roster are NHL draft picks. That includes leading scorer Erik Foley, a third-round pick of Winnipeg, Kasper Bjorkqvist, (Pittsburgh, second round), goalie Hayden Hawkey (Montreal, sixth round) and Pinho (Washington, sixth round).
“I think he’s the best coach out there,” Pinho said. “He’s gotten a lot of guys to the next level. That proves it. But he keeps guys honest and makes sure we’re ready to go every day in practice and gives us the best chance to win on the weekends.”