Anybody can beat anybody in college hockey.
Heading into the season opening contest for both Ohio State and Providence, the big question of the night for the home team was how they were going to put pucks in the net after losing both Ryan Dzingel and Max McCormick to pro hockey, especially against one of the nation’s best netminders in Jon Gilles.
Question asked, question answered.
Ohio State and Providence played a tennis match the entire night at Value City Arena, with Anthony Greco netting his third goal of the game in overtime to help his team pull off the upset in front of a crowd of 2,830.
Providence got on the board first 13:44 into the game on a pretty goal by junior Nick Saracino. Taking a loose puck behind the net of sophomore Christian Frey, Saracino made a spin-o-rama move in order to get himself in front of the crease, where he fired a shot past the blocker of Frey.
Just 19 seconds later, Greco tied the game with the help of a nifty Tanner Fritz pass on a two-on-one play. Fritz and Greco showed a chemistry throughout the night that developed at the tail end of last season.
“Last year, we got together with Max (McCormick) at the end of the year and I think that built some chemistry going into this year,” Fritz said. “He’s fun to play with; he’s probably one of the fastest guys in college hockey, so it’s a lot of fun”
Freshman Brian Pinho gave the Friars a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission after taking a between-the-legs pass from Ross Mauermann on the low, left hand circle and ripping a shot top shelf past the blocker of Frey.
Within a minute of coming out of the penalty box in the second period, Greco tallied his second mark by firing an absolute laser over the glove of Gillies 6:48 into the middle frame.
“It was just one of those things where our (defense) got the puck and brought it into the neutral zone and I was just trying to spread it out,” said Greco “(Johnson) gave it to me and I was just trying to put the puck in the net.”
Providence responded again with another late-period goal. Trevor Mingoia was the benefactor of a three-on-one pass that found him open on the right side of the net. Anthony Florentino found the junior, who buried the puck under the left pad of Frey.
Tanner Fritz tied the game at three on a power play just 3:15 into the final period. A rebound off the shot of Sam Jardine found its way to Fritz, who had an easy tap-in goal.
Gillies made 20 saves on the night and Ohio State finished three of seven on the power play.
Following the theme of the night, the Friars again stepped out in front thanks to an odd goal from junior Brian Parisi. Trying to center a pass out front while behind the net, the puck went off the skate of Frey and found its way behind the goal line.
Frey finished the night with 26 saves.
Having a never-say-die attitude that one would need in order to pull off an upset, Fritz scored his second of the night on another power play with 7:50 remaining in the game.
“We should’ve put that game away,” Providence coach Nate Leaman said. “We made it easy for them to come back.”
“At the end of the day, you’re not going to be successful having to kill 14 minutes a game,” Leaman said. “Their power play led the Big Ten last year. We made some bonehead plays, and it cost us. I don’t know if we respected the game enough.”
The exciting season opening match-up found its way to overtime, where Greco finished off his hat trick.
Taking advantage of a power play that started with 45 seconds left in regulation, the Buckeyes set up shop in the Friars zone, worked the puck up top at the point, and freshman Matt Weis, picking up his second assist of the evening, found Greco on top of the left circle, who fired a bullet past Gillies, completing the upset victory.
Greco, who had 10 goals in his career to this point, knew that he’d be lighting the lamp sooner or later.
“I think I always had it in me; I just needed to let it come out.”
