The ninth-ranked UMass hockey team will be moving up in the polls.
The Minutemen completed a two-game sweep of No. 4 Providence with a 3-2 victory, Saturday in Rhode Island.
UMass (8-1-0) stayed perfect in Hockey East at 5-0-0. The Friars (5-3-1) fell to 2-2-0 in the conference.
“This year, time and again here, we’re finding ways to win games that maybe we didn’t deserve to,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said in a release provided by the school. “It’s a different hockey game in this building, much different than ours. Tonight the ice was choppy, the puck wouldn’t sit down for either team, it was a bit of an ugly game. It was going to come down to which team could grind that extra puck into the net. Much like Thursday, I thought my team could play much better, but I give my team a lot of credit. They’re finding ways to win games and that’s quite a character builder; this is a very tough building to play in, very tough building to win in. We’ll take these points and we’ll scoot out of here as quick as we can.”
Philip Lagunov scored a power-play goal 3 minutes, 35 seconds into the first to get the Minutemen going. Bobby Trivigno and Marc Del Gaizo had assists on the play.
Much like Thursday, UMass took a 2-0 lead on Providence. Brett Boeing stripped PC goalie Hayden Hawkey of the puck and scored a short-handed goal on a wraparound near the end of the first.
The Friars scored a pair in the second period to tie the game, but just like Thursday, UMass struck for the winner late.
Freshman Anthony Del Gaizo redirected in a shot from the point by classmate Colin Felix with 1:49 left for the game-winner. Boeing picked up an assist on the play.
Matt Murray finished with 29 saves.
UMass plays at Holy Cross at 7 p.m. Friday.