As of Tuesday afternoon, Providence College has hurdled into the Top 10 equation for the first time in nearly a full collegiate generation, claiming the No. 9 slot in USA Today’s weekly poll.
Though previously booked to the same No. 9 slot under the same authority in the preseason rankings last year, this is the first time the Friars have claimed leaderboard membership in their own right since the week of February 13, 2006.
Upon reflection, it is tough to challenge the argument that this program was –after weeks of scoreboard limbo and a few table scrap votes for an honorable mention beneath the Top 10- a tad overdue for some real deal recognition. Even though they just regained a supra-.500 record on Sunday, making them one of only 15 Division I programs who can make such a claim, it is easy to explain PC’s iffy results throughout the autumn and why it is suddenly clicking with consistency and reaping tastier rewards.
Case in point, the 2009-10 Friars have doggedly dealt with more nationally reckoned adversaries with far more regularity than any of their conference cohabitants. Boston College and Connecticut, the latter of who just garnered the No. 9 berth in USCHO’s Monday poll, have been in that situation seven times thus far.
PC owes them no sympathy, seeing as a whopping 12 of their first 23 games, including six out of 12 nonconference games, have been against a ranked opponent.
One of the Friars’ most adverse hexes in recent memory, an acrid 0-4-4 winless skid spanning from mid-October through mid-November, overlapped with a handful of recurrent injuries as well as a stretch that saw them facing then- or still-national heavyweights in eight out of 10 ventures. Apart from one cathartic 6-2 drubbing of Boston University, which avenged a 5-3 loss to the Terriers a day prior, and the revolutionary road win at New Hampshire, they didn’t extract much in the span.
But, to their credit, they also grasped some half-full results, including a 2-2 tie with reigning NCAA champion Wisconsin the night after Thanksgiving. And of their five losses to ranked teams this season, four have been decided on a direct go-ahead goal scored either in the third period or overtime.
Maybe that’s why, unlike USCHO, USA Today saw no need to put an asterisk on last weekend’s sweep of a No. 8-rated, but egregiously shorthanded and short-winded Cornell team. A steady flurry of asterisks seemed to fall on the Friars’ not-so-satisfying first half, where they set aside a 5-7-7 overall record at the December deceleration.
Since resuming play, they have, in short, made quick convert and forget their negative energy. They have not only carried over a slight unbeaten streak and expanded it to 4-0-2, which happens to constitute their longest unbeaten run since November 2005. They are also on the nation’s second-best unbeaten streak behind almighty Mercyhurst (9-0-2 in their last 11 outings). And they have earned all this by cultivating gratifying quantities of offense from a diverse array of contributors.
Within their first four games of 2010, the PC strike force has been led by juniors Jean O’Neill and Alyse Ruff, off-and-on linemates each with six points to start the young month. Their new first line supplement, freshmen right winger Jess Cohen, who by Thanksgiving looked like she was in dire need of a respite, now looks like she made good of it, appearing on each of the last four scoresheets and accumulating five assists in the span.
Elsewhere, sophomore forward Abby Gauthier, who spent the first half of the year healing an injury and trying to replenish her game, has an aggregate 2-1-3 scoring transcript to start Part II. Six other forwards spanning the rest of the depth chart have combined for two goals and seven helpers while five of the Friars’ six blue line regulars have pitched in five goals and four assists.
For whatever two weeks of action are worth, Gauthier as well as sophomore defender Jennifer Friedman have doubled their point totals on the year from where they were in December. Stay-at-home junior Leigh Riley has added two recent assists to one solitary goal from November.
Ideally, this is what transpires when a team of potential is as battle-tested as the Friars have been. But they must make sure to use their newfound posture wisely. Beginning this weekend with a home-and-home set versus UNH, they could have as many as six more bouts with ranked opponents, four of which would be on the road. Harvard and Northeastern are on tap to be PC’s host on January 30 and February 6, respectively, and a home-and-home with UConn is slated for the following weekend.
Simply put, there will not be room for four Hockey East satellites when the final cuts are made for an at-large NCAA bid. Therefore, the Friars and both packs of Huskies in particular will have to fuel their fire and assert themselves above their rivals when they have the opportunity.
But do any Friartownies dare point to their peerlessly thick track record with Top 10 residents as proof of the upper hand? Maybe they could.
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