Photo courtesy of Providence College
By: Shay Costa, Howlings
Providence, RI – Providence College captain Chase Yoder scored twice, including the game-winner, with 4:30 remaining, to lead the Friars to a 4-3 come-from-behind win over the nation’s top-ranked Boston College Eagles (14-4-1, 7-3-1 HEA) on Saturday night in front of 2,904 at the Schneider Arena in Providence, R.I.
“We showed some growth tonight,” Providence Head Coach Nate Leaman said.
The game-winner came right after the officials reviewed a Boston shot that hit the post. Their review was to ensure their on-ice call of no goal on a Boston College shot. The review proved them correct that the puck had, in fact, gone off the post and not into the net. Off the ensuing faceoff, Providence executed a set play, and they turned it into the game-winner.
Winger Tanner Adams was on the right side and received a pass from Ridgefield, Connecticut native and defenseman Luke Krys. Adams uncorked a rocket and put it on the Eagles’ net. Starting netminder Jacob Fowler (32 saves) handled the initial shot but left a juicy rebound that went off to his right. His play left exposed the entire left side of his net. Yoder was “Johnny on the spot” and buried his second tally of the game with 4:30 remaining in the contest. Yoder is a 2020 NHL sixth-round pick (170th overall) of the Pittsburgh Penguins; his goal was his eighth tally of the season.
Yoder’s heroics would never have come to pass had Graham Gamache and Craig Needham not successfully connected on a pass from the back to the front of the net before finding Bennet Schimek open. They got the puck to Schimek, who deposited it into the net at 10:16 of the third frame and tied the score at three.
Following a 7-1 shellacking the night before by BC over the Friars (11-6-2, 5-4-2 HEA), it was a foregone conclusion that it was going to be an incredibly physical first period. Both teams earned power play opportunities. Colby Ambrosio was sent off first for BC for tripping just 3:19 into the game. Then Jaime Englebert for the Friars at 6:25. The only goal of the period thought would come at full strength at 10:09. Cutter Gauthier got the puck to Andre Gasseau, who made a quick entry pass that sprung BC sophomore Oskar Jellvik, who put the puck top shelf past Friar netminder Philip Svedebäck to make it 1-0.
Late in the second period, with Jellvik in the box on a holding-the-stick penalty for Boston College, Yoder scored his first of two in the game when he got his stick on a puck to tip it into the net off a Hudson Malinoski shot to tie the game. Guillaume Richard was given the secondary helper on the goal.
Will Smith would give the Eagles the lead back at 2-1 just 19 seconds later when a long pass from New York Rangers 2023 first-round pick (#23 overall) Gabe Perreault set up Will Smith for a breakaway. Smith roofed the puck past Svedebäck and into the Providence net.
There was no quit in the Friars in this one. Coming out of the locker room, they worked their way out from behind the eight-ball again, knotting the score at two just 1:27 by Jamie Englebert, who managed a goal despite being covered by three of Boston’s skaters. Austen May took a pass from Taige Harding and then found the Whitby, Ontario, native for his fifth of the campaign
But BC was not done and answered right back at 6:26 when Clint Levens went to the Sin Bin on a Cross-Checking call at 5;52 PM to give BC their fourth PP of the contest. This time, the Eagles would capitalize on it when after a brilliant save by Svedebäck, Providence was unable to get a clear of the puck. Perrault reclaimed the puck for Boston and would put it into the Friar pine past Fowler and give the lead back to the Eagles.
The back-and-forth nature of the game was not done yet as Gamache connected a pass from the back of the net to Bennet Schimek, who was out in front but found the back of the Boston net to tie the game once again at three and set up Yoder’s heroics in overtime.
The win over BC by the ninth-ranked Friars was their first win over the nation’s top-ranked team since December 3, 2011, who at the time was Merrimack. The win over BC comes on the heels of a 7-1 drubbing the day before by the Eagles up in Boston.
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