BOSTON — The story had all but written itself. Northeastern, a team with a first line that had scored 75 goals this season, would get its Hockey East semifinal game-winner from a freshman, Austin Goldstein, scoring his first collegiate goal.
A fairy tale ending. Feature story gold.
Providence, however, had another idea in mind. A story with a very different ending.
At 9:55 of overtime, Brandon Duhaime’s 3-2 game-winner from the left faceoff circle fashioned a story titled: Providence Advances to First Hockey East Championship Game in 17 Years.
Though hard to believe, the Friars hadn’t made it to the title game since 2001 — getting eliminated even in 2015 when they rebounded to win the national championship — and hadn’t won Hockey East since 1996.
“It’s a tough championship, a tough road,” Providence coach Nate Leaman said. “I like the way we’ve played in a lot of our semifinals [even though we lost].
“Tonight in that second period, some of our guys were waiting for bad things to happen instead of making the game happen. We were frustrated at times. We were showing our youth a little bit, but we battled through it.
“That’s how you have to improve in the playoffs. You have to get battle tested. We didn’t play the scoreboard. We played the game.”
Although Northeastern lost, it’s season will continue in the NCAA tournament.
“It’s overtime. One team is going to win; one is going to lose,” Northeastern coach Jim Madigan said. “Unfortunately for our guys, we came out on the short end of the stick. [Providence] is a hard and heavy team to play against.
“It’s going to sting. We had a goal to win Hockey East. This tournament is special. It’s hard to get to this spot. When you get here, you want to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Providence got on the board nine minutes into the game. Vimal Sukumaran saw his hard work pay off when he forced loose the puck behind the net, then put in the rebound of Davis Bunz shot.
In the second period, the Friars had to kill three penalties against Northeastern’s top-ranked power play, following a specific game plan.
“You can’t be real aggressive against that power play,” Leaman said. “You get stretched out and they find the back door or the guy in the middle. So you have to be really passive, and spend a lot of time in your end, but we found a way to kill those three penalties.”
Ironically, Dylan Sikura scored a shorthanded goal for the Huskies with two minutes left in the period to tie it 1-1, setting the stage for Goldstein’s potential game-winner three minutes into the third.
But with less than two minutes left in regulation, Duhaime fired a shot from the left boards, Kasper Bjorkqvist deflected it wide off the back boards, then collected it off the far side and roofed it in to force overtime.
The overtime game-winner came after Northeastern’s attempt to clear the slot hopped over a defender’s stick and Duhaime put it away.
“We had to make a push and the guys really responded,” Leaman said. “I thought we played our best hockey in overtime.”
Providence faces Boston University for the title on Saturday at 7 p.m.
