According to Providence coach Paul Pooley, finding a way to win when you are outplayed is the mark of a good team. And that’s exactly what his Friars did against conference opponent Massachusetts, pulling out a 2-1 overtime win while being outshot, outplayed and playing on the road.
“Tonight [UMass] carried most of the play,” Pooley said. “It’s just finding a way to win and we found a way to win tonight.”
Freshman Cody Loughlean scored the winner in overtime off of a defensive lapse, to keep the Friars at a perfect 6-0-0. Sophomore pivot Chris Chaput foiled a UMass clearing attempt and fed Loughlean, who beat Gabe Winer five-hole with a snap shot from the slot.
“We had possession of the puck twice and we failed to clear it,” UMass coach Don Cahoon said. “We can’t have a big breakdown like that.”
The overtime followed a third period which was played on an even surface. Both teams had their chances to capture the lead but were repeatedly stuffed by the exploits of Winer (19 saves) and Nolan Schaefer (27 saves).
“[Schaefer] really held us in there,” Pooley said. “I though Winer stood in there real well. I thought that both goaltenders played very, very well tonight.”
Schaefer stood tall on a UMass power play late in the third, turning away a pair of chances in close, including a point blank stop on Peter Alden.
Winer then returned the favor, stopping Jon DiSalvatore and Torry Gajda on consecutive chances from inside the right circle.
Down 1-0, the Minutemen (1-3-0) tilted the ice in their favor in the second period. First Tim Turner was stoned on a left circle slap shot, as Nolan Schaefer flashed the glove. Minutes later, Turner had another chance from the slow but Schaefer kicked out a low snapshot.
Turner had another chance from the slot but Schaefer kicked out the low snap shot. Marvin Degon had chance at the rebound but pushed it wide. Freshman Peter Alden had the best chance of the middle period when Matt Andersons odd-angle shot slipped across the goalmouth right onto Alden’s tape. But with a desperation poke check Schaefer disrupted Alden’s tying bid.
“I thought we played well enough not to lose,” Cahoon said. “We didn’t finish our chances but we’re not scoring goals this year for different reasons than we didn’t score goals last year.”
UMass finally got the goal it worked for at 18:16 of the second period. Freshman Chris Capraro beat defenseman Jeff Mason in the slot, faked a shot that dropped Schaefer and slid a feed across the crease to Craig MacDonald.
The sophomore winger lost control of the puck in his skates but was saved by two Providence backcheckers that pushed the disc over their own goal line. Mike Warner was credited with the equalizer.
Providence’s top line opened the scoring at 10:14 of the first period off of a Devin Rask goal. Stephen Wood swiped a clearing pass before feeding DiSalvatore in the slot for a slap shot. Winer stepped up to cut down the angle and parried the shot over his head. But the deflection landed right in the crease for Rask to hammer home to give the Friars a 1-0 lead.
Providence almost cracked the scoreboard again just three minutes later on the power play. DiSalvatore possessed the puck on the right wing and fed a cross-ice feed to Peter Zingoni for the one-timer. Winer read the play, however, stacking the pads for the save.
With the loss UMass is 0-2 in Hockey East while the Friars jump to 2-0.
