AMHERST, Mass. - UMass (13-10-5, 10-8-3 Hockey East) relied on late-game heroics and came up with an overtime tie against Providence (7-19-2, 6-13-2 HEA) by the score of 3-3. The teams exchanged leads before PC scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third, but it was Mark Matheson who scored the game-tying goal with 40 seconds left in regulation. Matt Anderson and Will Ortiz also netted goals for the Minutemen and Kevin Jarman assisted on all three tallies. UMass next travels to Vermont for a pair next weekend.
Providence's Colin McDonald opened the scoring, earning his 11th of the season at 13:22. The shot was taken from the bottom of the circle, just catching the far corner of the net for the goal. Dinos Stamoulis and Kyle Laughlin assisted on the play.
Minuteman Captain Matt Anderson knotted things up at one apiece with his fifth of the season, scored at 17:47 with the Minutemen on the power play. Kevin Jarman made the pass to Anderson from behind the PC net to the front of the crease for the shot and goal. P.J. Fenton also assisted on the play.
Jon Quick kept the Minutemen in the thick of things with stellar saves to open up the second, as UMass' Justin Braun was called for holding just 2:51 into the stanza. The offense kicked in soon after the penalty expired, with Will Ortiz getting his sixth of the season at 5:57. Skating in along the near boards, the freshman took a shot from a seemingly improbably angle and caught some luck, with the puck going off of PC defenseman Mark Fayne's skate and into the net. Jarman earned his second of the night and Martin Nolet earned a helper as well.
Fayne more than made up for the blunder, scoring one for the Friars at 7:59 to make it a 2-2 game. Mazzolini passed the puck from the near circle down to Fayne at the crease, shooting at the open net as Quick was down. John Mori also was credited with a helper.
The Friars scored the go-ahead goal at 11:46, a shot by Matt Taormina. The PC sophomore broke up a UMass play just inside the blueline and took the shot through traffic, beating Quick to make it a 3-2 game.
After calling timeout with minutes remaining, UMass Head Coach Don Cahoon pulled Quick in favor of the extra attacker and it paid off with 40 seconds left in regulation. Mark Matheson scored his team-leading 12th goal of the season with a shot from the blueline to force overtime, assisted by Chris Capraro and Jarman.
Overall, shots were 40-38 in favor of the visitors. Quick made 37 saves while Tyler Sims made 35 in the Providence end. UMass was 1-for-3 on the power play, PC was 0-for-3.