Providence Hockey [Back To] #3 In Nation...!

[billyjack]

Every Big East fan's favorite Division-1 college hockey team (hopefully...? maybe...?), the Providence Friars under 3rd-year coach Nate Leaman (who built the great Union Dutchmen team), are ranked #3 in the nation this week.

Their results so far:
Friars 5, #3 Minnesota State 1.
Friars 3, #3 Minnesota State 0.
Friars 10, American International 4.
Friars 3, #3 Miami of Ohio 2 (OT).
Friars 4, #3 Miami of Ohio 4 (OT tie).

PC is 4-0-1 so far in OOC action.

Their Hockey East schedule starts with a very tough weekend home-and-home series, on Friday night at #18 Boston University, and then home against BU on Saturday.

The Minnesota State games had really hard-hitting action. Jon Gillies (remember that name!), the Calgary Flames prospect, was amazing in net.

The game vs AIC was semi-close, 6-3 in mid third, until the Yellow Jackets' wheels came off by giving up 4 late goals.

The Miami of Ohio matchups featured some of the best hockey you could ask for, up and down the ice constantly. The Red Hawks are amazingly fast and they have a couple of definite future-NHL-ers (Czarnik for one).

Versus Miami, the Friars actually never trailed at any point in either game. Friday, PC was up 2-0, but Miami had a great 3rd period to tie it, before Friar freshman Niko Rufo won it 2 minutes into OT. On Saturday, PC was up 2-0, 3-1, and 4-2, before the Red Hawks fought back. Really great hockey played by both teams.

The Friars have 4 excellent lines, so there is no weakness in their lineup-- each line can score and each has talent. The top line has sophomore Mark Janikowski (remember that name!), another future Calgary Flame, who is a must-see player... each game he has at least a couple of amazing moves and/or goals.

[marquette]

Congrats guys! Maybe you can get us our first national championship!

[FriarJ]

Best chance for the BE's 1st NCAA Champion is going to come in cross country from either Nova, Georgetown or PC

[billyjack]

Just to update everyone on the Friars hockey team...
Since the original post:
We split a home-and-home with the BU Terriers. That dropped us to #6.
We swept a home-and-home with Merrimack. That raised us to #5.
We swept two road games at Vermont. That raised us back to #3 again.

Tomorrow and Saturday night we host #20 New Hampshire for two games.
This coming Wednesday we play at top-5 Quinnipiac, last year's national runner-up
Then the day after Thanksgiving we host a tough Brown team for state bragging rights.

Goalie Jon Gillies has been tremendous. He will be in Calgary next year. Ross Mauermann and Mark Jankowski (Calgary pick) are amazing scorers. This should continue to be a wild year.