Sunday, January 18, 2026

Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist

 

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PHOTO: GoLocal, File

The high-flying PC Friars hockey team recorded its second weekend sweep in a row, winning a home-and-home series against the Boston College Eagles.  It was PC hockey’s first weekend sweep of Boston College since 2002.

At the Friday game against the Eagles at Conte Forum before a sellout crowd of almost 8,000 fans,the Eagles dominated in time in PC’s defensive zone and outshot the Friars 15-5 in the first period.  Former Friar Brady Berard got the Eagles on the scoreboard when he redirected a shot past PC’s freshman goalies, Jack Parson. The Friars, however, went into the locker room after the first period with a 2-1 lead, intercepting two sloppy passes by Boston College, getting goals by Clint Levens at 9:24 and one by Aleksi Kivioja in the last ten seconds of the period.

The Friars and Eagles traded goals in the second period as the Eagles continued to bombard PC’s rookie netminder Parsons with 17 shots.  The second period ended with BC frustrated and PC holding a 3-2 lead.

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Providence’s aggressive forechecking resulted in more BC turnovers in the third period, but BC got the equalizer with 8 minutes remaining in the game.  Neither team could find the back of the net in the remainder of regulation, forcing the game into overtime.  The Friars wasted no time getting the winning goal by Logan Sawyer at 1:22 of OT after another BC turnover.

Boston College outshot the Friars 46-19, but three of BC’s turnovers resulted in 3 PC goals, the difference in the game.  Parsons stopped 43 of 46 shots for .935 save percentage.

Saturday’s final score at Schneider was also a 4-3 PC win, but it was a much different game with PC racing out to a 3-1 first-period lead on goals by Mustard, Adams, and Fauchon. Sawyer scored 7:44 of the second period to give the Friars a robust 4-1 lead as the Friars dominated in front of a sellout, raucous home crowd of almost 3,000 fans.

But that was the last PC goal of the night as the Friars were plagued by 40 minutes of penalties in the game, often being suckered into stupid penalties by the BC players.  The Friars were able to limit BC to 2 more goals in the third period despite BC being in the PC end of the rink for most of the last 5 minutes of play.

Parsons gave up 3 goals once again to BC, but all the Eagles’ goals were power-play goals.  BC was 3-8 on the power play, while PC struggled on the power play, going only 1-7.

 

Additional Slap Shots

–The sweep brought PC to a season record of 13-7-2, and the Friars are currently ranked #12 in the nation.

–The Friars also leaped over BC and BU in Hockey East standings to second place behind the UConn Huskies.

–The Eagles have had PC’s number for several years. The Friday night win over the Eagles was PC’s first hockey win over BC since 2019.

–Senior goalie Phil Svedeback is on temporary leave from the team due to an injury suffered in the Alaska game.  The PC Sports Information Office was not able to say when he is expected back.  In the meantime, the Friars have signed a third goalie to the roster, freshman Michael Simpson from London, Ontario.  Simpson had been playing in the Eastern Hockey League with Savannah. PC is currently the only Division One team with three freshman goalies.

–The Friars will return to action next weekend with a home-and-home series with the Boston University Terriers.  The Friday game will be at Schneider with puck drop at 7:00 PM.

Bob McMahon is the former Director of Parks in the City of Providence and a lifelong Providence College Friar fan.


 

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