In the Hockey East tournament, no lead is safe. Providence found that out the hard way Friday night.
The No. 2 seeded Friars (21-12-2) saw their late third period lead disappear against No. 8 seed New Hampshire (18-17-2) in an eventual 2-1 overtime loss that gave the Wildcats a 1-0 lead in their Hockey East quarterfinal series.
Friday night was defensive battle at Schneider Arena, as both teams held their opponents scoreless during the first two periods. UNH goaltender Daniel Tirone was especially impressive, stopping 20 Providence shots in the second period alone.
Friars forward Steven McParland finally broke the ice, scoring at 10:24 of the third period to put his team up 1-0. With less than two minutes remaining, however, Wildcats forward Tyler Kelleher scored on the power play to send the game into overtime.
We’ve seen some pretty long overtime contests recently, but UNH didn’t mess around in this one, as Grayson Downing redirected a shot to score the game-winner just 5:18 into the extra period.
Providence will look to even the series in Game 2, which begins Saturday at 7 p.m.
Quarterfinal Results
Boston University 6, Merrimack 2 (BU leads 1-0)
Boston College 4, Vermont 2 (BC leads 1-0)
UMass Lowell 5, Notre Dame 0 (UML leads 1-0)
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@UNHWildcats
