P-Bruins Go Down 2-0 In Series
P-Bruins Release
Providence,
RI — The
Providence Bruins were defeated 5-4 in overtime today by the Hershey Bears in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals this
afternoon at the Dunkin' Donuts Center.
The team put up a season record 58 shots and former Hershey Bears players Graham Mink and Chris Bourque each scored as did Carter Camper. Niklas
Svedberg made 24 saves in the loss.
From the opening faceoff, both teams started
getting chippy with each other. It only took 23 seconds for Bobby Robins to drop the gloves with
Patrick Wellar in the offensive zone. After landing some hard punches on
Wellar, Robins got the take down along the half wall. The offensive zone is
where Providence spent most of the period with the final tally on shots being
25 to 8 in their favor after 20 minutes of play. Hershey opened the scoring
3:14 into the period with a backhander from Ryan Stoa that beat Svedberg for
the early lead. The Bears' captain Boyd Kane took a boarding penalty a few
minutes later to give the P-Bruins their first man advantage of the game. Despite their best effort, Jamie Tardif and Carter Camper could only each ring the post with the extra skater.
Only five seconds after the penalty expired, former Hershey Bear Graham Mink got possession of the puck
and beat Phillipp Grubauer to even the score with under 11 minutes to go. Matt Bartkowski and Camper had assists
on the goal. At 13:04, Justin Florek
took a high-sticking penalty to put the P-Bruins last ranked penalty kill in
the playoffs to the test for the first time in the game. With less than 10 seconds to go,
Nicolas Dechamps deflected the puck into the net from the crease to make it 2-1
for the Bears. While both teams continued to jaw at one another as the clocked
tick down, neither would score again and they would go to their dressing rooms
with the score at 2-1.
It only took 1:09 into the second period for
the P-Bruins to tie the game up. A turnover in the neutral zone caused by Jordan Caron allowed him to set up Craig Cunningham rushing into the
zone. Cunningham then got the puck
to Camper whose shot trickled just over the goal line to make it 2-2. The play
continued at a quick pace with no penalties and hard hits. Just past the halfway
mark with 9:27 to go, Garrett Mitchell held onto the puck inside the left
faceoff circle before shooting it at the net and beating Svedberg blocker side
to retake the lead. About 20 seconds after the goal and taking a puck to the
face, three time Calder Cup Champion with the Hershey Bears, Chris Bourque took a slap shot from
just inside the blue line that hit the back of the net to tie the game yet
again. Tardif and David Warsofsky
had the assists on the goal. While there would be no more goals from Providence,
their dominance in shots carried over from the first period with 16, bringing
their total to 41 while the Bears were held to only 10 more shots bringing
their total to 17.
Both teams came out hard looking for the
deciding goal. Hershey almost had it early on when Mitchell came streaking down
the ice on a breakaway but his shot was denied by Svedberg. It was Providence
who would get to the fourth goal first. At 13:02, Maichael Latta went off for
hooking, giving Providence their third power play opportunity of the game.
Camper was set up just to Grubauer's right when he sent a beautiful pass to
Mink right in front of the net who tapped it in to give the P-Bruins their
first lead of the game with 5:42 to go. Tommy
Cross had the secondary assist on the goal. With only a minute and a half
to go, Hershey had an extra skater with the goalie pulled to help set up Joey
Crabb to beat Svedberg to again tie the game. Despite another dominant period
of shots with Providence outshooting Hershey, 17 to 10. At the end of
regulation, shots totalled 58 to 27 in favor of the P-Bruins which surpassed
their season high of 52 from December 2nd against the Worcester
Sharks.
Overtime started with Providence quickly down
by a skater. Just over a minute into overtime, Garnet Exelby took a high sticking penalty to give the Bears a
power play chance in over time. With only 13 seconds left in his penalty, Jon
DiSalvatore beat Svedberg for the overtime winner and a final score of 5-4.
Despite the high number of shots throughout the game, Providence did not get
any shots in overtime while Hershey got two. The final shots was 58 to 29 in
favor of Providence.
