Honorable mentions
November 16, 2008 – Providence 2, Connecticut 0: PC cashes in on the only seam at either end when Alyse Ruff deposits a 5-on-3 conversion from the porch for a 1-0 edge with 5:57 to go.
January 24, 2009 – Providence 2, Boston University 0: Jean O’Neill’s plucky shot block sparks breakout that sets up Katy Beach’s clincher late in the third.
November 27, 2009 – Providence 2, Wisconsin 2: Seesaw bout with Mark Johnson’s pupils decided by a trendy Nicole Anderson power play strike.
March 6, 2010 – Connecticut 3, Providence 2: PC rallies from initial 3-0 hole, but Huskies hold fort to exorcise their postseason demons.
February 6, 2010 – Boston College 4, Providence 2: Danielle Welch outscores Laura Veharanta, 3-2, and Melissa Bizzari tips in another Welch bid for the insurance.
10. November 10, 2007: Providence 4, Vermont 2
This generation of Friars had a way of making “Cardiac Kids” the postgame refrain from head coach Bob Deraney. And one month into her career, Alyse Ruff set the tone for what would become her habit of performing CPR with a blade and a biscuit.
After the scrappy, stealthy Vermont Catamounts led 2-0 through 40 minutes, Ruff literally crashed goaltender Kristen Olychuck’s unscheduled party, cutting the lead to 2-1 17 seconds into the third whilst erroneously tumbling into the cage. Two minutes and two seconds later, she tipped in a power play conversion and prompted visiting coach Tim Bothwell to use his timeout.
It only took another five minutes for PC –which received at least one shot on goal from each of its 11 forwards- to complete its profile in persistence. Cherie Hendrickson, who led all forwards with seven SOG, converted a pass from Erin Normore (six shots) for the eventual clincher.
9. January 31, 2008: Providence 4, Boston University 3
In their third year as a varsity program, the pre-Poulin, pre-Wakefield, pre-pennant Terriers had a modest request for their first Hockey East playoff spot, though they showed it in flashy fashion. Holly Lorms and Sarah Appleton struck 52 seconds apart to give BU a 2-0 edge just before the halfway mark of an otherwise evenly matched first period. And it didn’t help the Friars cause to whiff on each of the game’s first two power plays, then went shorthanded themselves 54 ticks into the middle frame.
But 64 seconds after Kelli Doolin’s jailbreak, freshman Jean O’Neill sparked the turnaround, one-timing a centering feed from Mari Pehkonen. O’Neill, a regular Terrier tormentor as her career progressed, would later give PC a 3-2 lead at 1:29 of the third, though BU was holding fort as it continued to kill penalties and test Friars’ keeper Danielle Ciarletta as regularly as PC did Melissa Haber.
On only their second 5-on-4 chance of the night, the Terriers retied the game with 13:18 to spare in the third. But for the rest of the ride, the Friars ran up an edge in the shooting gallery (15-9 in the third) and would finalize the victory on Katy Beach’s end-to-end conversion with 5:51 remaining.
8. February 19, 2011: Providence 3, Vermont 2
When answering an interview in advance of the matchup, PC skipper Bob Deraney was genuinely energized to hear about the stakes in the penultimate game of the regular season. His Friars were one win away from clinching third place, the highest slot still available in the Hockey East playoff bracket. The opposing Catamounts were one loss away from missing the postseason.
“Great,” Deraney said. “The most dangerous people are the most desperate people.”
To start, though, only PC’s incentive was translating on the scoresheet. The Friars pestered celestial Vermont goalie Roxanne Douville with 16 first period shots and finally penetrated her for a 2-0 lead at 1:40 and 9:46 of the second. But Vermont and its veterans, besieged by perennial underachievement, bit back as expected. Junior Chelsea Rapin and seniors Celeste Doucet, Saleah Morrison, and Peggy Wakeham all brushed the scoresheet over two power play conversions to delete the deficit.
But the dramatist Catamounts, a little too late to perk up in their season and in the game, would pay their late fee in the final minute with the notice coming from Rebecca Morse. PC’s rookie blueliner, already with an assist on the day, spooned home the game winner from the slot with 37.8 seconds left.
7. November 21, 2008: Mercyhurst 3, Providence 0
Head coach Bob Deraney, rarely one to take a loss without at least a dollop of despondency, told this author of the almighty Lakers, “I don’t think they can play much better than they did tonight. Unfortunately, they were playing us.”
Even before the legacy of this contest reached hindsight, though, one could tell that by playing a complete game itself, Mercyhurst brought out the best in a rising PC stopper named Genevieve Lacasse. Staring down a strike force of otherworldly countrywomen and another Team Canada goaltending prospect in Hillary Pattenden, the Scarborough Save-ior turned in 51 saves, including 12 on Olympic gold medalist Meghan Agosta.
And for their part, the Skating Friars found the time, space, and energy to thrust 31shots at Pattenden and draw 10 penalties on the Lakers.
6. November 22, 2008: Providence 2, Niagara 2
The fiery Friars were scoreless on each of their first 64 shots in the first 115 minutes and 32 seconds of weekend action, their drought carrying over from a solace-stocked 3-0 loss to Mercyhurst the evening prior.
But once they perked up on a power play, and cut the Purple Eagles’ 2-0 lead on an Erin Normore conversion with 4:28 to spare, order was restored. Less than two minutes after Normore struck, PC drew another power play to end a 106-second shot-free, whistle-free segment. On the advantage, Laura Veharanta tested goaltender Jenni Bauer with a shot that prematurely sold the signal to the goal judge.
As it turned out, play continued even with the flickering light, until Alyse Ruff plunged at the rebound and swiped it into the near post for the equalizer with 1:43 left in regulation.
5. January 21, 2011: Providence 3, Boston College 1
No later than at the halfway mark of her college career was everyone convinced that Genevieve Lacasse would pour a full bottle of White-out all over PC’s goaltending record book and replace the contents with her own entries. But Boston College has all but singlehandedly hastened her pace.
Six weeks before she broke Jana Bugden’s all-time saves lead against these same Eagles in the Hockey East semifinals, Lacasse shook off Kelli Stack’s icebreaking shorthanded breakaway and proceeded to preserve a defiant 3-1 win at Schneider Arena. After PC usurped the lead on a power play strike late in the second and Rebecca Morse’s go-ahead goal 25 seconds into the third, it faced an inevitable reversal from the referee’s gale-forced whistle.
The Eagles, who had dealt with five unanswered penalties over the first 40 minutes, would be granted four unanswered power plays over the final 19:14 of regulation. In that span, they charged up an eye-rubbing 33 pelts on Lacasse, including 14 power play stabs, 11 of which fell between 9:05 and 12:54, when PC committed three infractions and was down two skaters for a full two minutes.
Yet nothing tuned the mesh. And after taking six of the game’s final seven shots, BC let Kate Bacon get away with a cathartic empty netter.
4. February 6, 2009: Providence 3, Northeastern 2 (OT)
The first installment of the Genevieve Lacasse-Florence Schelling rivalry could have gone exclusively to the Dogs. But the Friars, victims of a 1-0 Schelling shutout the preceding October, were just too dogged in their own right.
All but two of PC’s skaters recorded at least one stab at Schelling, amounting to a workload of 56. That’s 10 more than the Swiss Save-ior has dealt with in any other collegiate game, before or since.
And after the Huskies had scraped out a 2-0 lead –their goals sandwiching a washout of an alleged Friar goal that left would-be scorer Alyse Ruff and other PC personnel visibly piqued- the Friars finally cracked the Schelling code on Erin Normore’s power play tally with 9:21 gone in the second.
And before the fundamental details of that goal were ready for disclosure over the PA system, the season-high masses at Schneider Arena –complete with a rare visit from the pep band- exulted in Jean O’Neill’s equalizer at the 9:43 mark.
New game, sort of. Their oomph restored, the Friars continued to besiege Schelling, though she would stop each of the next 30 stabs, including 20 in a scoreless, penalty-free third period.
But in the bite-sized bonus round, one more international VIP, Finnish Flare Mari Pehkonen, seized her long-awaited chance to glow. With one minute left before a shootout, she accepted a feed from Abby Gauthier in the slot and spooned her game-leading eighth shot of the night through the roof to stamp the 3-2 Providence triumph.
3. October 29, 2010: Providence 2, Boston University 2
Providence was the first team to hold phenom Marie-Philip Poulin pointless in a Division I college game. Remember that.
But naturally, the upgraded, defending Hockey East champion Terriers had a few more prominent options to test the 6-2-0 Friars. In her first conference game with BU, New Hampshire transfer Jenn Wakefield treated the Friars no differently than when she was with the Enemy Epitome.
For her fourth and fifth career goals, and seventh and eighth points at PC’s expense she beat Genevieve Lacasse on a bullet from the far outer hash marks and later a chopper from the high slot to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. And it’s worth noting that defender Catherine Ward, Poulin’s teammate at the Vancouver Olympics, etched an assist on both tallies.
Other than that, though, Lacasse had an answer for the Terriers’ other 40 tries, including all six of Poulin’s, which tied Wakefield for the game lead. Meanwhile the Friars, who took more than half of their 29 total shots (15) in the first period, managed to smuggle an equalizer past the laser-beamed BU defense and rookie stopper Kerrin Sperry. As it happened, it was top gun Kate Bacon inserting her eighth goal of the season, and only nine games in at that.
2. March 5, 2011: Boston College 3, Providence 2 (OT)
All right, the final outcome was less than memorable for Friartownies, but one has to admit it was an exemplary serving of postseason hockey. The blood and sweat of the matchup’s most otherworldly players turned to thick ink on the scoresheet and each team had its turn rebounding from a third period deficit.
PC stopper Genevieve Lacasse stamped a personal record 58 single-game saves, a Hockey East postseason record for most blocks in a tournament game, and surpassed Jana Bugden on PC’s all-time leaderboard for 2,556 upon repelling BC’s 32nd bid of the game. A whopping 10 of those saves held back U.S. Olympian Kelli Stack, who needed two of her understudies to bail her out in regulation.
In an otherwise expectable goaltending duel between the Scarborough Save-ior and BC’s Molly Schaus, another Olympic veteran, a seven-minute, 27-second scoring spree saw rookie Eagles Melissa Bizzari and Taylor Wasylk sandwich strikes by the Friars’ Jen Friedman and Abby Gauthier for first blood and the game’s second equalizer.
And fittingly, in the resultant overtime, the decisive play entailed a one-on-one confrontation between one of the decorated goalies and one of the defiant clutch scorers. On her 11th registered bid of the game, Stack laced the 19th game-winner of her college career through a mousehole and into Lacasse’s cage.
1. November 8, 2009: Providence 2, Northeastern 1 (SO)
Who but PC’s Scarborough Save-ior and Northeastern’s Swiss Save-ior?
The first of only two Women’s Hockey East shootouts at Schneider Arena before the experimental format was repealed last summer remains the longest in league history. Most naturally, it was an arm-wrestling bout between Genevieve Lacasse and Florence Schelling.
After drawing a 1-1 knot in 65 minutes of standard hockey action, the rival netminders pitched two complete shootout shutouts –i.e. six scoreless rounds apiece.
In the top of the seventh, NU’s Danielle Kerr, ironically one of six Huskies not to etch an SOG in regulation or overtime, beat Lacasse low. But PC’s Alyse Ruff retorted with a stroll down Broadway and a trickler that somehow went through Schelling’s narrowing five-hole.
Another six rounds ensued, elevating the likelihood of an unlikely hero ribbon being doled out at day’s end. As it happened, it went to the Friars’ stay-at-home sophomore defender, Christie Jensen, who lacked a regulation goal in 44 career games up to that point.
For her turn in the bottom of the 13th, Jensen took on a Normorean guise as she looped from center ice to the left, then cut back to the middle en route to Schelling’s porch, where she lobbed the game winner into the upper right hand shelf.
Al Daniel can be reached at hockeyscribe@hotmail.com
This article originally appeared in the Friartown Free Press
