Providence is a historic hockey town, and on Saturday Rhode Island’s capital became the epicenter of NCAA hockey’s thrilling stretch run. All weekend long Rhody hockey legends like Brian Burke, Jack Capuano, and Digit Murphy were being showered with Hall of Fame glory, but the main course was when the No. 10-ranked Friars hosted No. 2 UMass, the 24-win Beast of the East in a twilight showdown. 

Television audiences on both sides of the border tuned in on the last Saturday of February to see college hockey’s once-in-a-generation star Cale Makar. Latecomers on foot simply could not get into sold-out Schneider Arena, at least not legally. One local on-air personality couldn’t talk his way into the game, so this particular baby boomer crashed through the student entrance. Desperate times, desperate measures.

Jammed press box ⁦@FriarsHockey⁩ ⁦@teeraps⁩ sell out at Schneider pic.twitter.com/FYvnvy4bEf

— bill rappleye (@billrappleyeRI) February 23, 2019

The game deserved all the hyperbole: the ultimate matchup between UMass star-power and Nate Leaman’s nameless warriors, shot-blocking Spartans who crash nets and sacrifice bodies. The faceless Friars sputtered all-night on their power play, outscored 1-0 by the irrepressible Makar who danced, deked and roofed a backhand to draw first blood. All night long he was the clever cat to Leaman’s skating mice. 

“He’s almost toying the guys,” said Leaman from the post-game podium. “He’s waiting for you to expose the puck in the D-zone. As soon as we expose it, he pops it. We wanted to make it hard on him, but it’s hard to make it hard on him. Hats off to him.” 

The signature of a Leaman team, however, is will over skill. He has a posse of players who get their glory from personal sacrifice: freshman Jay O’Brien who took a point-blast into the sternum and staggered off the ice. He didn’t miss a shift. Classmate Tyce Thompson skates in the shadow of older brother Tage, a former Hockey East sniper who was an NHL first-round draft pick. With the game tied on the closing minutes, younger brother spied a loose puck deep in the UMass corner and pounced. 

We are down to 1:25 left. Conway's 13th of the season from Thompson and Duhaime gives us a 3-2 lead late! UMass uses its timeout.#GoFriars pic.twitter.com/0Z9dnDY7uX

— PC Men's Hockey (@FriarsHockey) February 24, 2019

Scott Conway is credited with the game-winning goal, but it was Thompson who put on the hard hat, mined the rubber and dished the disc for Conway’s tap-in putt.

Three thousand of Rhode Island’s hockey faithful exited Schneider into Saturday’s dinner hour, ecstatic over the upset and dreaming of another return to Hockey East’s glamorous playoff tour at Boston Garden. But this grim reality remains: despite Providence knocking off first-place UMass, the Friars were outplayed according to every objective eye in the building. They are now faced with two must-win conference games over the next five days. If they are to clinch home ice for their Hockey East quarterfinals, they must win at UConn on Tuesday and BU on Thursday. Should they stub their toe versus the Terriers, the Friars will be at the mercy of a tiebreak, or worse, and face the prospect of playing a BU team in the quarterfinals on the road at Agganis, their season on the line.

“UConn’s going to be a battle, BU’s going to be a battle and a war,” said Leaman. “That’s just what it is, this time of year.”

Leaman owns a national championship ring from the Friars’ miraculous run at Boston Garden four years ago. He won’t venture a guess as to how the fates will treat him this time around at the biggest hockey stage in New England. But his Friars are battle-tested, three wins in a row over the top two teams in Hockey East—Lowell and UMass. If they take care of business at home—and they should—their HE semifinal opponent at Boston Garden will almost certainly be UMass. That makes for a continuation of a season series that has seen each game decided by a 3-2 result. UMass has taken two of those three contests, each victory going to the home team.

Providence won’t be able to count on home-cooking or puck luck in that single-elimination showdown, and they certainly won’t be able to bank on goals from their stalled power play.

To be successful, they’ll have to wear down college hockey’s premier player, and assert their will to punch their ticket into the NCAAs. 

Leaman likes his chances. “We’ve been playing good hockey and sticking with it. Now we’re starting to get rewarded a little bit.”

The college hockey season is building to a crescendo, and fans all over North America were just treated to a preview of Frozen March Madness. Bring it on. 

Author Tim Rappleye just released his latest book: Hobey Baker, Upon Further Review (Mission Point Press, 2018). He can be reached on Twitter @TeeRaps.