ULUTH, Minn. - The Providence College men's hockey team was defeated by No. 7 Minnesota Duluth, 5-3, Friday night at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center. Senior co-captain Kyle MacKinnon (Walnut, Calif.) had two goals and freshman Derek Army (North Kingstown, R.I.) notched his first collegiate goal for the Friars, but the Bulldogs scored three times in the second period en route to the victory.
Providence (1-1) took a 1-0 lead late in the first period when MacKinnon scored his first goal of the season. MacKinnon stole the puck in the UMD zone and fired a shot from the slot that beat UMD goalie Kenny Reiter through his legs at 18:11. However, just 1:14 later Minnesota Duluth (2-0-1) scored the equalizer on the power play. Jack Connolly played the puck from behind the PC net out front to Justin Fontaine whose one-time wrist shot eluded junior Alex Beaudry (Cumberland, Ont.). Beaudry finished with nine first-period saves including a stop on Kyle Schmidt's point blank shot after a two-on-one rush at the 1:45 mark.
The Bulldogs gained their first lead of the night at the 6:00 mark of the second period when Travis Oleksuk slid a centering pass to J.T. Brown who re-directed the puck into the net. The Friars responded 1:32 later to even the game at 2-2 on the power play. Junior Daniel New (White Plains, N.Y.) ripped a shot from the left point that was saved by Reiter. However, the rebound came right out to the slot to MacKinnon who then fired a high wrist shot into the upper left corner of the net. Sophomore Tim Schaller (Merrimack, N.H.) also assisted on the goal. UMD regained the lead for good at 12:28 on a goal by Mike Connolly. UMD then added to its advantage at 18:03 as Oleksuk scored on a penalty shot after being hooked on a breakaway.
Beaudry was pulled for an extra skater late in the third period and the Friars cut the lead to 4-3 when Derek Army pounced on a loose puck in front and netted his first collegiate goal. Senior Ian O'Connor (Londonderry, N.H.) assisted on the goal. Mike Connolly added an empty-net goal with three seconds left to seal the victory.
Beaudry finished with 33 saves, while Reiter had 23 stops.
The two teams will complete the two-game set Saturday night at 8:07 p.m. in Duluth, Minn.