BOSTON — Providence College lost its hard-earned momentum for all of 24 seconds Thursday.

Trevor Mingoia brought it back with one perfectly placed puck.

The Friars reached their first NCAA championship hockey game in 30 years, bullying the novices from Nebraska Omaha in a 4-1 victory in the Frozen Four semifinals at TD Garden.

“It was probably one of the better shots that I’ve had all year,” Mingoia said of his third-period one-timer from the slot that whistled past Mavericks goaltender Ryan Massa and into the top left corner of the net. “That’s where I was aiming. He’s a great, great goaltender down low and that was in our (scouting report). So I did everything I could to get it up.”

Mingoia’s goal gave the Friars (25-13-2) a 3-1 lead, just 24 seconds after Omaha (20-13-6) finally solved Providence goaltender Jon Gillies of South Portland. Gillies, a junior, made 25 saves to earn the 59th victory in his stellar college career.

But he had it easy compared to Massa. The Friars fired 47 shots at the Nebraska Omaha senior, seven by the incredibly active Mingoia.

Advertisement

Even Gillies was impressed by his counterpart from 200 feet away.

“It was fun to watch, it really was, to be honest,” Gillies said of Massa. “He was phenomenal in that game, and I have the utmost respect for what he was able to do.”

Massa saved 44 shots and single-handedly kept his young team in the game for 31 minutes. Nebraska Omaha, which has fielded a hockey team only since 1997, was making its first Frozen Four appearance and had eight freshmen, including three on a defense that continually left Massa scrambling to preserve a scoreless tie.

Providence finally scored 11:02 into the second period on its 29th shot, when Massa made an initial save but couldn’t cover a trickling puck that Noel Acciari found in the crease and flipped in on his backhand.

Mark Jankowski made it 2-0 at 14:58 of the second period when Nick Saracino fed him out front alone, and he brought the puck to his forehand and whistled it past a diving Massa’s right pad.

“I thought we had our feet moving. That was one of the points we really wanted to get across to the guys is again getting back, not hoping, making it happen, playing on our toes,” Friars Coach Nate Leaman said.

Advertisement

“And I think we have good team speed. I think we have good mobility, and getting some pucks in behind him helped us use that speed early.”

Omaha scored 10:46 into the third period on a Jake Guentzel wrist shot from the slot.

Mingoia had an immediate answer, setting up near the right circle in a spot he normally finds himself in during power plays. Jankowski gathered the puck below the goal line, headed to the corner and slid a pass to Mingoia, who had it lined up.

“That’s a spot that we tell each other to be in if someone’s coming out from behind the net,” Mingoia said. “Coach is always telling me, ‘shoot far side, above the pad.’ And I got it up pretty fast.”

The Friars added an empty-net goal from Saracino with 30.7 seconds left to ice their first Frozen Four win since 1985.

Leaman said Mingoia’s goal was the game’s pivotal moment.

Advertisement

“I thought we were slipping with some things we wanted to do in the third period. And right after we scored that goal, all the guys on the bench were saying the right things,” he said. “I thought we played the rest of the game with the way that we wanted to play it.”

Said Omaha Coach Dean Blais: “Great shot by a great player. Ryan will blame himself. But give him credit, that was a big goal for them.”

Massa, who led the nation with a .939 save percentage this season, seemed shell-shocked after the Providence blitz.

“They’re a great hockey club, came from the drop of the puck, played a full 60 minutes. Didn’t give me very much breathing room. Kept me busy pretty much all night. They’re a relentless team and they capitalized,” Massa said.

“So hats off to them for making it difficult and banging in a couple of greasy goals.”

BOSTON UNIVERSITY 5, NORTH DAKOTA 3: Awaiting Providence in the championship game will be Hockey East rival Boston University.

Jack Eichel opened and closed the scoring for BU (28-7-5) and added an assist. Matt O’Connor made 36 saves and withstood one embarrassing lapse when he misplayed a puck behind his net to allow Troy Stecher a short-handed tap-in to cut the lead to 4-2.

Connor Gaarder’s power-play goal at 16:17 made for some late-game drama before Eichel’s empty-net goal with 18.5 seconds left sealed the win. North Dakota (29-10-3) fell in the national semifinals for the fifth consecutive year.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.