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One fluky goal helps PC to its first national title

BOSTON -- From a purely theatrical perspective, the whole night was award-winning.

From a purely hockey standpoint, both coaches would have a long list of teachable moments after watching the video.

But what will be remembered most about the 2015 NCAA men's hockey national championship game is an unbelievably fluky goal that gave Providence College the lifeline it needed to finish the game.

The Friars scored two goals in a 2:19 span in the third period to tie and eventually secure a 4-3 win over Boston University at TD Garden. In doing so, they captured the school's first hockey national championship.

WIth his team trailing 3-2, PC defenseman Tom Parisi collected a BU clear attempt near center ice and sent a high lob back into the Terrier zone toward BU goalie Matt O'Connor. The junior caught the puck in his glove, but then it dropped between his legs, and ultimately, he pushed it back across his own goal line without realizing it.

"I couldn't really see it in my glove," O'Connor said. "I thought it rolled out."

The score might have been tied 3-3 at that point, and there might have been 8:36 left to play, but as it turned out, the thought process was very different, depending on the name on the front of the jersey.

BU was now hanging on, and PC was ready for more.

"They had us on our heels for a lot of that first and second period, and we were just kind of hanging in there," PC coach Nate Leaman said. "I thought it's kind of a little bit like our season: We started a little bit slow, but we got better and better. And we played a pretty good third period and obviously got a big bounce that I think got our bench alive a little bit."

With the ice tilted toward the BU end and a faceoff coming in front of O'Connor, Terriers coach David Quinn called a timeout at 13:41 to settle his team down.

Instead, disaster quickly struck again.

PC left wing Kevin Rooney won the faceoff, and right wing Brandon Tanev collected the puck and skated behind the play and across the slot before firing a wrister that deflected off O'Connor's left elbow and into the top right corner of the net.

It took just two seconds after the timeout for PC to take the lead.

"Just a heck of a faceoff call by Coach [Steve] Miller, and Kevin did a great job winning it back, and I was fortunate enough to get the puck up and get a clean shot off and happened to go over O'Connor's shoulder," Tanev said.

The Friars were able to stick to their game plan and weather the storm for the remaining 6:17 to secure the game and take the championship trophy back to Rhode Island.

In doing so, they denied BU a sixth national championship in a season that seemed destined for a storybook ending.

"Sometimes, experience is the best remedy to handle a one-goal lead in the third period of a national championship game," Quinn said. "We don't have a lot of it.

"It was a 60-minute game. We had chances to a get a two-goal lead. We couldn't do it. We give up the faceoff goal with six minutes to go, so there were a lot of reasons why we lost. And one of them, a big one, was the way that Providence College played."

The Friars hung around during stretches of the game when that was all they could deliver and took advantage of their opportunities when they arose, both worthy characteristics of an eventual champion.

After the game, both the winning Friars and the losing Terriers couldn't help but have O'Connor on their minds.

"I think it's definitely important to skate right over to OC," said BU captain Matt Grzelcyk, who, along with his teammates, tried to console O'Connor. "He's really been the backbone to our team all year. And I think every guy in the room would agree we wouldn't be in the championship game without him."

Even PC's Jon Gillies, who took an extra moment with O'Connor during the postgame handshake, understood what his goaltending counterpart was going through.

"As a goalie, you feel for a bounce like that," Gillies said. "And you've been there, so you know the bottomless feeling that it presents.

"He made huge stops throughout the entire game. You know that nothing you say right there can help, but just trying to get him to lift his head up and realize he played an unbelievable year as a whole."

Unfortunately for O'Connor, what will likely be remembered is that one unbelievable own goal.

David Albright covers college hockey for ESPN.com.