PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The near-impossible was about to happen.
Down four goals and minus its top two scorers against Providence and ace goalie Jon Gillies, the Miami RedHawks had scored three extra-attacker goals to turn a comfortable 6-2 Friars lead into a harrowing 6-5 game.
[scg_html_e2015]Miami almost added a fourth, as Austin Czarnik had an open look from the right post in the final minute, but the senior captain couldn’t handle the puck and Providence recovered, securing a 7-5 win on Brandon Tanev’s empty-netter with six seconds left.
With the win, the Friars advanced to the regional final against Denver at 5 p.m. EDT Sunday. A win would send Providence to its first Frozen Four since 1985.
The Friars had several chances to put Miami away for good. RedHawks defenseman Scott Dornbrock dived in front of a puck sliding across the crease midway through the period, while Louie Belpedio knocked away a shot in the final minutes before crashing into the end boards and staggering off the ice.
“I think we just backed off a little bit,” Providence forward Trevor Mingoia said. “We lost our competitive edge going into the third period and you can see what a team like Miami can do in the NCAA tournament on the big stage.”
Shane Luke had two goals for the Friars, while Gillies finished with 29 saves. Matthew Caito, Anthony Louis and Sean Kuraly each had a goal and an assist for Miami.
Down by four, the RedHawks pulled goalie Ryan McKay midway through the final period and added extra-attacker goals from Caito (11:26) Devin Loe (14:14) and Kuraly (18:27) to make it 6-5.
“Obviously, I should have pulled [McKay] earlier,” Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. “It was my fault.”
It’s not often that a team pulls its goalie in favor of an extra attacker midway through the third period, but Leaman has experienced something similar during his first head coaching job at Union. The Dutchmen led Princeton 4-0 midway through the final period on Feb. 1, 2008, before the Tigers scored three extra-attacker goals to make it a 4-3 final.
“Funny things can happen,” Leaman said. “People that have been around the game a lot know that momentum can swing in these types of games. … If we had hit an empty net, I don’t think momentum would have swung. But you have to give Miami a lot of credit; they weren’t going to give up.”
Miami started the scoring on Cody Murphy’s goal 4:10 into the game. Providence responded when Mingoia stole the puck inside the Friars blue line and sped down the right wing before snapping a shot past Miami goalie Jay Williams at 10:14 to tie it.
Louis put Miami ahead with a goal at 13:18, but Providence tied it when Luke flung a shot from between the circles through a crowd of players and past Williams at 14:47 to make it 2-2.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000q1NrILyR4zc” g_name=”20150328-Miami-Providence-East-Eisenberg” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f22AHktcpsgA2GwXPPEVq5fHkAuEol8vA1sK1BXJR14ewa8dtxw–” ]But the Friars scored four times in the second to break the tie, starting with Steven’s McParland’s goal at 5:33 to make it 3-2.
Brian Pinho made it 4-2 eight minutes into the period, while Noel Acciari backhanded a shot past Williams (23 saves) 30 seconds later to make it 5-2. That was the end of the night for the Miami goalie, who was replaced by McKay.
Luke scored his second goal of the game at 18:43 to make it 6-2 and seemingly give Providence a comfortable lead. But Blasi pulled McKay near the midway point of the third period, giving Miami just over eight-and-a half minutes of extra-attacker time.
“I’m proud of [the guys]. We could have just folded but we fought for our lives to the end,” Czarnik said.
The win came in front of a large hometown contingency for Providence, something Leaman and the players noticed.
“I thought that the fans tonight were very educated about the game,” Leaman said. “We’d get a big penalty kill and they’d stand up and cheer. They were hitting us at all the right moments in the game. That felt good from the bench. They were into it and they knew what was going on in the game.”
Notes
The 12 combined goals and 20 assists were an East Regional record. … Czarnik had two assists in his last collegiate game.
