| 30 October 2011
With a win on Sunday, the Providence Bruins have slid in into second place in the Atlantic Division. Despite losses to the Norfolk Admirals and Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the overtime victory over St. John’s solidified their place.
The line up is still missing part of their top end group in Maxime Sauve, Trent Whitfield and Jamie Tardif so line combinations have had to be switched up.
“We’re just trying to find some pieces that complement one another,” Cassidy said of the line of Lane MacDermid, Carter Camper and Zach Hamill. “We kind of want big bodies with them. We don’t have a lot of big bodies so we’re kind of limited.”
In Friday’s game, the Admirals opened the scoring at the 4:30 mark when Carter Ashton got a puck past Anton Khudobin. Khudobin turned to look for the puck but all he saw was it going into the net. Trevor Smith extended the lead with only 33 seconds to go in the period when he scored on a 2-on-1 putting Providence down 2-0 heading into the first intermission.
Dana Tyrell made 3-0 at just 2:49 of the middle frame. The Bruins continued to struggle as the period went on, only recording two shots through 10 minutes of play. It was not until 17:21 that the Bruins would break the shut out when Craig Cunningham scored the first goal of his pro career. Kirk MacDonald and Matt Bartkowski got the helpers.
Zach McKelvie and Carter Ashton exchanged punches early in the final period. Both were assessed with fighting majors and McKelvie got an extra two minutes for roughing that left Providence down a man. After creating offense during the previous penalty kills, this proved to be the best one when Stefan Chaput deflected a shot from Kevan Miller at 4:05 to make it a one-goal game.
It was the second period that turned things around for the Bruins as the ice was almost tilted in favor of the Admirals in the first period but they were the better team on the ice all night, winning most of the small battles.
“You can draw up all the Xs and Os you want,” Cassidy said, “If you win the share of the battles, that team will generally get better chances.”
That would be as far as the Bruins could come back however as just three minutes later Norfolk found the back of the net to make it 4-2. Khudobin made 37 saves in the loss to end a five game point streak for the team.
All the help from the young players is something that is important but as this point, Coach Cassidy is now looking for some of the more experience played to start producing.
“We sit here and talk about our inexperience but we’ve also got a lot of guys in the lineup that have been in the league that haven’t found their offensive game yet, he said Friday, “Seems like every night someone’s got their first professional goal.”
Back in action Saturday night, Providence fell 3-2 to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Michael Hutchinson made 25 saves in the start, his first since returning from injury. Chaput scored his second goal in as many games at 17:21 when he redirected a shot from Zach Hamill at the right point. Lane MacDermid had the secondary assist.
The game was tied after two periods after a goal form Justin DiBenedetto of the Sound Tigers. His teammate Casey Cizikas extended the lead for Bridgeport at 8:09 of the third period but Providence answered with a goal from Hamill at 12:02. Cizikas would score again to make 3-2 which would be the final score.
Only 3 penalties were called in the entire game; the Bruins went 0-for-2 on the power play but were 1-for-1 on the kill.
Sunday’s opening night rematch against the St. John’s IceCaps put Providence back in the win column when they came out on top 4-3 in overtime.
The first period was scoreless but both teams netted a pair in the second period to make it 2-2 heading into the final frame. Carter Camper notched the first goal then Chaput continued on his scoring streak with the second.
Kyle MacKinnon regained the lead for the Bruins just over 4 minutes into the final period but St. John’s answered at 11:44 where the score would stay tied until overtime. Overtime did not last long as Andrew Bodnarchuk got a puck past David Aebischer (30 saves) just 18 seconds in to give Providence the win.
The Providence Bruins take on their division rivals the Manchester Monarchs back-to-back this weekend on Friday and Saturday before they play Norfolk again on Sunday.
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