Monday, February 20, 2012

P-Bruins Indulge In American Influence Over Country’s Hockey Weekend

Few AHL teams are more Americanized than the Providence Bruins. The way each roster is presently structured, the Baby Bs are in a five-way tie for the most U.S.-born players on their bench with 10.

Only the Albany Devils (12) and aptly named Rochester Americans (11) had more active Star-Spangled skaters as of this weekend. And if not for Josh Hennessy’s call-up to Boston, the P-Bruins would be tied with Rochester for second on this list.

Regardless, six of the 10 American-born P-Bruins made a tangible contribution to the team’s cause as part of a 2-1-0 run through Hockey Weekend Across America. Forward Lane MacDermid and Zach McKelvie were the only two players in question to go pointless and not tack on any plus/minus points over the three most recent games.

As for the others, the man-by-man highlights as follows:

Matt Bartkowski (Pittsburgh, Pa.): A plus-three rating, which tied teammates and countrymen Kyle MacKinnon and Kevan Miller for the best on the night in Friday’s 6-0 win over Hershey.

Carter Camper (Rocky River, Ohio): First professional hat trick in Sunday’s 4-3 win over Connecticut, including the go-ahead, game-clinching strike.

Colby Cohen (Villanova, Pa.): Goal and assist on Friday, including a helper on Jamie Tardif’s icebreaker and eventual game-winner.

Steven Kampfer (Ann Arbor, Mich.): A plus-one rating on Sunday.

Kyle MacKinnon (Walnut, Calif.): Assist in Friday’s win.

Kevan Miller (Los Angeles, Calif.): Goal, assist and a plus-three rating on Friday. Another helper in Saturday’s 4-1 loss at Springfield.

Brad Robins (Peshtigo, Wisc.): Assist on Friday.

David Warsofsky (Marshfield, Mass.): Assist on Friday and a plus-one rating on Sunday.

In summation, five of the P-Bruins’ 11 goals and six of their 17 assists were supplied by homeland hockey talent.