DENVER, Colo. - The Providence College men's hockey team was defeated by Miami (Ohio), 6-2, Friday night in the first game of the Denver Cup Classic at Magness Arena in Denver, Colo.
Miami (7-6-2) took a 1-0 lead at 4:10 of the first period when Alden Hirschfeld scored from in close after a feed from Trent Vogelhuber. The RedHawks increased their lead to 2-0 with 4.5 seconds left in the period when Reilly Smith skated on a two-on-one rush and snapped a high wrist shot into the net.
Providence (6-5-1) cut the lead to 2-1 early in the second period as Colorado native David Brown scored his second career goal. Brown stole an errant pass in the Miami slot and fired a low wrist shot past goalie Connor Knapp at 2:34. However, Hirschfeld, Blake Coleman and Jimmy Mullin each scored for the RedHawks in a span of 5:17 to extend the lead to 5-1. The Friars pulled to within 5-2 late in the period as sophomore Derek Army (North Kingstown, R.I.) scored his fifth goal of the season. Freshman Drew Brown (Grass Lake, Mich.) and sophomore Chris Rooney (Canton, Mass.) assisted on the goal. For Rooney, it marked the fourth consecutive game with one assist. Coleman added his second goal of the night for the RedHawks in the third period to seal the win.
Senior goalie Alex Beaudry (Cumberland, Ont.) made 18 saves and classmate Justin Gates (Cranston, R.I.) stopped 16 shots for the Friars. Knapp finished with 19 stops for Miami.
The Friars will play Princeton at 6:07 p.m. ET on Saturday, November 26 to complete the Denver Cup Classic.