Providence senior Torry Gajda scored two goals to lead the Friars to a 4-1 Hockey East victory over Boston University on Thursday at Schneider Arena.
The Friars, winners of their last three games, improved to 9-6-1 overall and 8-2-1 in the league, marking their best start ever in league play. The Terriers fell to 5-7-2 overall and 4-5-1 in league action.
Gajda’s first goal came at 17:47 of the first period to give PC a 1-0 lead. Junior Jamie Carroll made a rush down the left side and fired a shot that was saved by BU goalie John Curry. Classmate Chase Watson’s rebound also was saved by Curry, but Gajda would not be denied as he scored his 10th goal of the season.
The lead increased to 2-0 at 6:15 of the second period. Sophomore Marc Bastarache swept the puck away to the red line to senior Nate Meyers, who tipped ahead to sophomore Jon Rheault. Rheault raced down the left side and fired a high wrist shot that beat Curry to the glove side.
Just over three minutes later, Gajda gave the Friars a 3-0 lead on a goal similar to his first tally.
Junior Dinos Stamoulis made a long pass to a streaking Tony Zancanaro at the BU blue line. Tony Zancanaro skated in on a partial breakaway before and fired a wrist shot that was saved by Curry, but Gajda tapped in the rebound into the empty net for his team leading 11th goal of the season.
The 11 goals also matches his career high.
In the third period, BU pulled within 3-1 as Tony Zancanaro’s twin brother Brad recorded his first goal of the season at 5:52. Zancanaro emerged with the puck from behind the net and beat PC goalie Tyler Sims to narrow the lead to two.
But the Terriers could get no closer, and with just over a minute remaining, Tony Zancanaro provided the final margin for Providence, tallying an empty-netter off assists from Cody Wild and Kyle Laughlin.
Sims finished with 25 saves, while Curry made 37 saves.
