CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – A bleak and beleaguered Nate Leaman sat in the Conte Forum media room following his team’s game Friday night.
As Leaman answered question after question about the Providence Friars’ performance, he appeared at a loss of words, trying to explain just how the Friday night game unraveled for his team.
Ultimately, it was quite simple for Leaman to explain.
“I thought BC was the better team tonight,” Leaman said. “There’s obviously no question about that.”
The game’s end result was anything but ambiguous, as Leaman alluded, with the No. 3 Providence Friars falling haplessly to a No. 7 Boston College Eagles team, 7-3, powered by a three-goal performance from Colin White.
That is not to say the game was devoid of question marks leading into the matchup. BC, with all of the pomp and circumstance going into the season with a preseason No. 1 ranking amidst talks of a national championship run, was in a rut going into the game, dropping three straight one-goal games, including one to the Friars.
To exacerbate matters, the Eagles had to attempt to break the losing streak without net-minding stalwart Thatcher Demko, who was ruled out for the game. Instead, the Eagles were forced to turn to Ian Milosz, a midseason acquisition from the Boston Jr. Bruins.
In short, the stage was set for the Eagles to experience total catastrophe.
Enter Colin White.
White, returning from a stint on the U.S. World Junior Classic team, re-entered the BC lineup Friday night after missing the Eagles’ past two games. Coming back from Finland, White noted that the travel had made him “a little bit [tired],” from the long trip back to the United States, and that he “hadn’t slept much.”
If Colin White was still feeling jet-lagged from the trip back home, his performance was not obviously hampered. White put the Eagles on the board early, tipping a Ryan Fitzgerald shot past Nick Ellis for the Eagles’ first goal. Alex Tuch added to the lead minutes later, giving Milosz cushion in his first start.
The cushion came in handy, with John Gilmour rifling a shot past Milosz to pull the Friars within one going into intermission.
As the Eagles did the entire night, they answered quickly in the second period. White added his second of the game, batting a high rebound past Ellis, and mitigating the mistake that Milosz had made in the first.
“We just told [Milosz] to have fun tonight,” White said. “We’re not asking him to do too much. He’s coming here, being put in a big situation for us, and he stepped up tonight.”
Tuch kept pace with White in the goal-scoring department, scoring his seventh of the season following a goal bid that rang off the cross bar. The goal that did count for the sophomore came from a White feed, giving the Eagles another goal, and their goalie more cushion.
The cushion proved necessary. Off a faceoff in the Eagles’ defensive end, a defensive breakdown let Nick Saracino get a point blank opportunity, and he slipped a shot under Milosz to cut the lead to 4-2.
Again the Eagles answered for Milosz, with a goal by Austin Cangelosi ripped high blocker side on Ellis. The shot was the last Ellis faced in the game. Leaman made the decision at that point to replace Ellis with backup Hayden Hawkey.
“[I] didn’t think [Ellis] had much help,” Leaman said.
Following a Providence goal by Jake Walman, White completed the hat trick. Ryan Fitzgerald added one more to the BC total for good measure, putting the final touches on the snapping of the Eagles’ losing streak.
With the de facto three game series unsettled, the two teams will have to look ahead to the rubber game Saturday in Providence for a resolution of the regular season matchup.
Jerry York largely left the question of Demko’s recovery time unanswered.
“Hopefully it’s day-by-day,” York said. “Certainly not tomorrow night.”
