Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Hockey East Analysis: Friars coming into full focus

Bob Deraney could not dress the maximum limit of 18 skaters all season until his Providence College Friars visited Boston University on Jan. 9.

When that day mercifully arrived, finally allowing him to keep four constant forward lines and three regular defensive duos, he was without his otherworldly goaltender, Genevieve Lacasse, returning from the MLP Cup with Team Canada.

Until the following engagement, a visit to New Hampshire Jan. 14, “We didn’t have a lot of continuity,” Deraney said.

Yet through the first half of the season, the majority of it spent without co-captain Jean O’Neill, Providence mustered a 14-5-1 record to rest on over the December deceleration. In Lacasse’s absence, they dropped consecutive games for the first time, losing a pair of one-goal decisions to Maine and BU, which incidentally could blames more on a lethargic offense than an unripe substitute stopper.

Even the brief offensive frostbite, Deraney could explain. He noted that O’Neill was still “getting her legs under her” after what was essentially a miniature summer training regimen, and that top gun Kate Bacon had just returned from the USA Hockey Holiday camp, which ran from Boxing Day through New Year’s Eve.

So while the co-captain thawed out and the program’s two international starlets kneaded their way back into the intercollegiate mold, the Friars lost precious traction to start their 2011 slate. They dropped three of their first five games, culminating in a 2-1 sleepskate against the floundering Wildcats at Schneider Arena Jan. 15.

But one valuable week of practice later, PC replenished its persona of promise this past weekend, nipping Boston College and Northeastern, 3-1 and 2-1, respectively. It made for the team’s first pair of successive victories since the holiday, not to mention a critical and timely mission statement against two national reckonables.

“I can really see the team starting to solidify and galvanize,” Deraney said. “I think, I’m not just hoping anymore, that it’s a sign of things to come.”

Now boasting a 17-8-1 overall record, the Friars need one more win to cement their heaviest bushel of victories since 2004-05, the year of their last Hockey East pennant and NCAA passport. In order to stay on track, though, they will still need to spruce up their special teams and ignite at least one more reliable line to supplement their top six.

Hints of both happened to surface last weekend. While PC’s power play has converted merely four of 34 opportunities in the New Year, the penalty kill has been seamless its last five games, abolishing each of the opposition’s last 17 chances.

In both Friday and Sunday’s come-from-behind triumphs, the Friars maintained a clean disciplinary record through the first 40 minutes. But once they nailed the go-ahead goal in the small minutes of the third period, an all-or-nothing gale of whistles began to blow through their bench in the direction of their penalty box.

Against BC, which had all of its five infractions called before the second intermission, Providence ultimately skated down 5-on-3 for a nonstop two minutes and 29 seconds and shorthanded for 3:49 altogether. But Lacasse repelled all 11 of the Eagles’ power play shots and would stamp an incomprehensible 33 saves in the closing frame to win her staring contest with Boston stopper Molly Schaus.

On a slightly less dramatic scale, the Friars took three unanswered penalties in the third period of their visit to the Kingston Bog, but would allot the Huskies two vain hacks at Lacasse over six cumulative 5-on-4 minutes.

Another attempted shot by NU’s Dani Rylan was blocked by the long-fettered forward, Jessie Vella, who despite an ongoing 18-game goal-less drought has kept regular minutes primarily for her reliability on the PK.

But lately, Vella, more than any other struggling Friar, has let her determination to tune the mesh show up in the box scores. Previously with 25 shots on goal in 23 games, she has pelted the opposing goalie 14 times over her last three ventures. That includes five apiece against the slick likes of Schaus and Northeastern’s Swiss Save-ior Florence Schelling.

“Anybody who can appreciate the game of hockey appreciates the things Jessie Vella does,” said Deraney. “She does a lot of things that don’t show up on the scoresheet, but that her teammates and coaches certainly appreciate.

“She’s gonna score soon, there’s no doubt about it. I think she’s saving them for the most critical time of the season, and that’s pretty soon. And once she gets some goals, it’s going to be a handful.”

Deraney can only hope Vella does so for his sake, and that her linemates Nicole Anderson and Jess Cohen, along with Laura Veharanta will follow suit. The four have combined for a 5-5-10 scoring transcript since Oct. 23, with only Cohen (2-1-3 on the year) producing more in the last 18 games than in the first eight. Anderson and Veharanta have been stuck on the threshold of double-digit points since before the break.

No time like to present to crack the chrysalis, especially with a rematch with the Eagles this Friday at Conte Forum to begin the third period (i.e. last seven games) of the Hockey East schedule. The Friars are one rung behind BC on every leaderboard –in the conference standings, the national polls, and the PairWise rankings. A win will indubitably pole-vault them to second place in the league and theoretically put them on pace for the eighth and final at-large bid to the national dance.

Assessing the stakes for Friday, Deraney opined, “It’s almost like an NCAA quarterfinal game before they even come.”

Al Daniel is the Hockey East correspondent to Beyond the Dashers

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