Opening draw
The Providence Bruins will approach the halfway mark of their 2011-12 season series with the Manchester Monarchs upon visiting Verizon Wireless Arena Saturday night.
Winless in their last seven outings (0-6-1), the P-Bruins will look to pull ahead in the season series after most recently edging the Monarchs, 1-0, on home ice Nov. 11 and extracting a 3-2 shootout decision in their only other excursion to Manchester Nov. 5.
Manchester, on the other hand, hopes to avoid a second consecutive loss to an ostensibly weaker opponent. The Monarchs’ six-game winning streak was obliterated in Binghamton Friday night when the Senators claimed a 4-1 victory.
That upshot, coupled with the P-Bruins’ identical 4-1 falter against Connecticut, flip-flopped the Baby Bs and Baby Sens in their positions as the least successful teams in the Eastern Conference. Providence now has the second-worst winning percentage in the entire AHL (.375) behind the Hamilton Bulldogs (.350).
Notable names
Upon splashing a six-game production drought, winger Brandon Kozun has since tallied a point in each of his last three appearances, giving him a hand in three of the Monarchs’ last seven goals.
Defenseman Slava Voynov, who has played in each of Manchester’s first four meetings with Providence but only eight AHL games overall, was recalled to the parent Los Angeles Kings for the second time this season Nov. 15. He has not been back in the minors since, but rather cemented a regular spot on the active roster, appearing in eight straight NHL games.
Goaltender Martin Jones, Saturday’s presumptive starter for the Monarchs, has won each of his last three starts and is 2-1-0 against Providence with only one goal-against in each of those three meetings.
Miscellany
Both Providence and Manchester are experiencing a bit of a power-play drought. The P-Bruins have deferred on each of their last 15 man-advantage invitations, dating back to Jamie Tardif’s first-period conversion against Norfolk last Friday. The Monarchs, meanwhile, are 0-for-8 over the course of their last three games.
The Monarchs are still riding a five-game winning streak at home, although every win has been decided by a single goal, including one overtime and two shootout decisions.
The P-Bruins are off on Sunday while the Monarchs are slated to visit Worcester before the two parties converge yet again on the Dunkin Donuts Center next Friday.
Showing posts with label Providence Bruins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Providence Bruins. Show all posts
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Pre-game Puckbag: P-Bruins vs. Connecticut Whale
Opening draw
The Providence Bruins will try to avert their first empty three-game weekend of the 2011-12 campaign in Part I of a 10-game season series with the Connecticut Whale at the Dunkin Donuts Center Sunday afternoon.
The Whale were idle on Saturday and were thus inevitably bound to lose their one-point edge for first place of the Northeast Division with Bridgeport facing Springfield. (The Falcons prevailed, 4-1, to usurp the division lead.)
After a 5-1-2 start, the Whale have seen things grow more congested, as evidenced by the Pangaea-like compression in their division as well as their own recent results on the ice. Connecticut is 3-3-1 in its last seven outings, with all three wins coming in overtime or a shootout and all three regulation losses at the hands of the St. John’s IceCaps.
Notable names
Rookie Carl Hagelin is riding a six-game production streak and has inserted a goal in each of his last four outings. Overall, he is tied for the Whale team lead with John Mitchell for the team lead with an identical output of seven goals and 12 assists.
Winger Aaron Voros, who since 2004 has appeared in 251 AHL and 162 NHL games, joined Connecticut this past Tuesday on a professional tryout. He has yet to suit up for extramural action this season.
Since coming down from the parent New York Rangers, blueliner Tim Erixon has put in six appearances and charged up a 1-4-5 scoring log. Erixon enters Sunday’s contest on a three-game point streak, including most recently two helpers in a 3-2 overtime win over Bridgeport on Friday.
Miscellany
Overall, Connecticut has been involved in more shootouts than any other AHL team, upholding a 3-2 record in that scenario.
The Whale are led in the one-on-one department by Mitchell, who is 2-for-5 in his shootout attempts, Brendan Bell (2-for-3) and Mats Zuccarello (a perfect 2-for-2, and he was 2-for-6 throughout last year). For the P-Bruins, Jamie Arniel is 2-for-3 while Zach Hamill, Carter Camper and Josh Hennessy have each converted one shootout try.
The Whale will help to both usher in and end the P-Bruins’ longest hiatus from home ice (12 days) to date this season. After Sunday’s bout, Providence will hit the road for a Thanksgiving Eve visit to Hershey followed by a two-night stay in Norfolk. From there, the Bruins will return home a week from Friday, Dec. 2, to confront Connecticut at The Dunk yet again.
The Providence Bruins will try to avert their first empty three-game weekend of the 2011-12 campaign in Part I of a 10-game season series with the Connecticut Whale at the Dunkin Donuts Center Sunday afternoon.
The Whale were idle on Saturday and were thus inevitably bound to lose their one-point edge for first place of the Northeast Division with Bridgeport facing Springfield. (The Falcons prevailed, 4-1, to usurp the division lead.)
After a 5-1-2 start, the Whale have seen things grow more congested, as evidenced by the Pangaea-like compression in their division as well as their own recent results on the ice. Connecticut is 3-3-1 in its last seven outings, with all three wins coming in overtime or a shootout and all three regulation losses at the hands of the St. John’s IceCaps.
Notable names
Rookie Carl Hagelin is riding a six-game production streak and has inserted a goal in each of his last four outings. Overall, he is tied for the Whale team lead with John Mitchell for the team lead with an identical output of seven goals and 12 assists.
Winger Aaron Voros, who since 2004 has appeared in 251 AHL and 162 NHL games, joined Connecticut this past Tuesday on a professional tryout. He has yet to suit up for extramural action this season.
Since coming down from the parent New York Rangers, blueliner Tim Erixon has put in six appearances and charged up a 1-4-5 scoring log. Erixon enters Sunday’s contest on a three-game point streak, including most recently two helpers in a 3-2 overtime win over Bridgeport on Friday.
Miscellany
Overall, Connecticut has been involved in more shootouts than any other AHL team, upholding a 3-2 record in that scenario.
The Whale are led in the one-on-one department by Mitchell, who is 2-for-5 in his shootout attempts, Brendan Bell (2-for-3) and Mats Zuccarello (a perfect 2-for-2, and he was 2-for-6 throughout last year). For the P-Bruins, Jamie Arniel is 2-for-3 while Zach Hamill, Carter Camper and Josh Hennessy have each converted one shootout try.
The Whale will help to both usher in and end the P-Bruins’ longest hiatus from home ice (12 days) to date this season. After Sunday’s bout, Providence will hit the road for a Thanksgiving Eve visit to Hershey followed by a two-night stay in Norfolk. From there, the Bruins will return home a week from Friday, Dec. 2, to confront Connecticut at The Dunk yet again.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Pre-game Puckbag: P-Bruins vs. Springfield Falcons
Opening draw
The Providence Bruins will host the Springfield Falcons for the first time as non-divisional rivals Friday night at the Dunkin Donuts Center.
Despite presently sitting in fifth place of the Northeast Division, the 8-7-0 Falcons reside in the AHL’s most gridlocked sector. A vast convergence of favorable circumstances on Friday could have them in a virtual knot for first place with the Albany Devils, holding the upper hand by virtue of a game in hand, no less.
Both teams are vying to build upon a recent 3-2 victory over the regional rival Worcester Sharks. The P-Bruins attained that upshot at the DCU Center on Sunday on the strength of Carter Camper’s go-ahead goal before the Falcons triumphed by the same score in overtime at the MassMutual Center on Wednesday.
Notable names
Martin St. Pierre, prolific playmaker and the P-Bruins top scorer from 2008-09, is plainly his usual self, sitting atop the Springfield scoring chart with a 5-11-16 transcript. He is in a five-way tie for ninth on the AHL’s point-getting leaderboard.
Only Nick Drazenovic has more assists on the team with 12, including one in each of his last five outings.
First-year pro and Boston College alumnus Cam Atkinson has inserted four of his five goals on the power play. Only Texas’ Matt Fraser has collected more man-advantage markers.
Veteran goaltender Manny Legace, who joined the Falcons as a rookie in their first year of existence and stayed for three-plus seasons, is back in Springfield on a professional tryout. He has started four games in total, including each of the last two and notched his first win of the season with Wednesday’s overtime decision over the Sharks.
Legace has faced a penalty shot in each of his last two outings, denying Bridgeport’s Tyler McNeely last Saturday and Worcester’s Mike Connolly on Wednesday. The later save occurred at 0:52 of overtime, exactly 90 seconds of playing time before Alexandre Giroux inserted the walkoff strike on a power play.
Upon joining Springfield on Oct. 20, Legace was reunited with another original Falcon in assistant coach Nolan Pratt. Both played a role in Springfield’s playoff victories over the P-Bruins in 1996 and 1997.
Miscellany
The Falcons, who are 3-0 in the bite-sized bonus round, are one of only four teams who have yet to be involved in a shootout this season.
Both Providence and Springfield have losing records (1-3-0 and 2-3-0, respectively) when outshooting their opponent, but are above .500 (7-5-1 and 6-4-0) when outshot.
The Providence Bruins will host the Springfield Falcons for the first time as non-divisional rivals Friday night at the Dunkin Donuts Center.
Despite presently sitting in fifth place of the Northeast Division, the 8-7-0 Falcons reside in the AHL’s most gridlocked sector. A vast convergence of favorable circumstances on Friday could have them in a virtual knot for first place with the Albany Devils, holding the upper hand by virtue of a game in hand, no less.
Both teams are vying to build upon a recent 3-2 victory over the regional rival Worcester Sharks. The P-Bruins attained that upshot at the DCU Center on Sunday on the strength of Carter Camper’s go-ahead goal before the Falcons triumphed by the same score in overtime at the MassMutual Center on Wednesday.
Notable names
Martin St. Pierre, prolific playmaker and the P-Bruins top scorer from 2008-09, is plainly his usual self, sitting atop the Springfield scoring chart with a 5-11-16 transcript. He is in a five-way tie for ninth on the AHL’s point-getting leaderboard.
Only Nick Drazenovic has more assists on the team with 12, including one in each of his last five outings.
First-year pro and Boston College alumnus Cam Atkinson has inserted four of his five goals on the power play. Only Texas’ Matt Fraser has collected more man-advantage markers.
Veteran goaltender Manny Legace, who joined the Falcons as a rookie in their first year of existence and stayed for three-plus seasons, is back in Springfield on a professional tryout. He has started four games in total, including each of the last two and notched his first win of the season with Wednesday’s overtime decision over the Sharks.
Legace has faced a penalty shot in each of his last two outings, denying Bridgeport’s Tyler McNeely last Saturday and Worcester’s Mike Connolly on Wednesday. The later save occurred at 0:52 of overtime, exactly 90 seconds of playing time before Alexandre Giroux inserted the walkoff strike on a power play.
Upon joining Springfield on Oct. 20, Legace was reunited with another original Falcon in assistant coach Nolan Pratt. Both played a role in Springfield’s playoff victories over the P-Bruins in 1996 and 1997.
Miscellany
The Falcons, who are 3-0 in the bite-sized bonus round, are one of only four teams who have yet to be involved in a shootout this season.
Both Providence and Springfield have losing records (1-3-0 and 2-3-0, respectively) when outshooting their opponent, but are above .500 (7-5-1 and 6-4-0) when outshot.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
P-Bruins Log: Old Nemesis Legace Back In His Old Springfield Nest
The Springfield Falcons have not won a playoff series since they dislodged the Providence Bruins, four games to one, in the 1997 New England Division finals. They have since undergone three NHL affiliation changes, eight coaching changes, an arena name change and 10 Calder Cup playoff no-shows, including the last eight years running.
But for what it’s worth―which could very well be little more than a walking, talking, breathing specimen of nostalgia―the Falcons have an integral part of their best years back in town: goaltender Manny Legace.
One of only 12 remaining Hartford Whalers’ draft picks still active in North America or Europe and a veteran of 367 NHL games, Legace is back in his first professional domain on a professional tryout.
Since coming on board Oct. 20, he has appeared in four of a possible 10 games. That would include each of the last two after an injury sidelined him for two weekends.
If he makes it three outings in a row with Friday’s visit to the Dunkin Donuts Center, Legace will likely evoke bitter memories for the more seasoned sects of the Providence faithful.
Of their three playoff series triumphs since their 1994 inception, the Falcons have claimed two at the P-Bruins’ expense, bumping them off in back-to-back years in the 1996 first round and 1997 second round.
Legace, who shared the workload with Scott Langkow during those two seasons and playoff runs, was in Springfield’s crease for both handshake games against Providence.
He entered the first round of the 1996 playoffs on the heels of claiming the Baz Bastien Award as the AHL’s top goalie and retaining the league’s best goals-against average. In Game 4 of the best-of-five opening series, he compressed his own open wound after letting the Bruins leap out to a 3-0 lead and watched his teammates delete that whole deficit in the middle frame.
From there, the Falcons forced overtime and skated off with the series when Jason Simon beat P-Bruins’ stopper Rob Tallas at 2:41 of the sudden-death session.
A year later, Legace and Co. took continuous fits against Providence, losing the 1996-97 regular season series, 3-7-2. But after both teams pulled off memorable comebacks in the best-of-five first round against their regional rivals―Providence rallying from a 2-0 series deficit to beat the top dog Worcester IceCats and the Falcons doing to same against Portland―Springfield breezed to victory in the best-of-seven conference semifinal meeting.
Legace whiffed on his attempt to close out a sweep of the P-Bruins in a fall-from-ahead, 2-1 decision in Game 4 at what was then dubbed the Providence Civic Center. But the following night, in front of his own rooters at “The Nest,” he backstopped a 3-1 victory.
From there, the Falcons fell short seven games against the eventual champion Hershey Bears. And they have gone 0-3 in the postseason ever since.
Legace’s log has been comparatively more glamorous, to say the least. By the turn of the century, he had landed a steady job with the Detroit Red Wings, partaking in their 2002 Stanley Cup championship. In four consecutive NHL seasons between 2003-04 and 2007-08, he consumed at least half of the workload with the Wings or St. Louis Blues.
But since 2008-09, which he split between the Blues and their Peoria-based farm club, Legace has gone the rise-and-fall route. Over the past two-plus seasons, he has donned the jersey of the Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Wolves, Iserlohn (Germany) Roosters and, for one game this year, the San Antonio Rampage.
The 37-year-old Legace is one of five active AHL stoppers who have seen at least one full season solely in The Show, only to slip back into the continent’s second-best circuit. But none―including former Patrick Roy understudy David Aebischer (now with St. John’s) and Philadelphia playoff backstop Michael Leighton (Adirondack)―have been around as long and all have played at least 153 fewer NHL games.
A pair of former Providence goalies have penned similar diaries themselves and ostensibly skated through their closing curtains at the conclusion of 2010-11.
A now 36-year-old John Grahame, who springboarded a career of 224 NHL outings with the 1999 Calder Cup title, came back from a season in Russia spent the last two years with the Adirondack Phantoms and Lake Erie Monsters. Hannu Toivonen crammed 61 outings into three years between Boston and St. Louis, likewise went overseas to his native Finland in 2008-09, then played for Peoria and Rockford the last two seasons.
Neither has scraped any blue paint for extramural action this season. But for the indefinite moment, Legace still has a flame to stoke.
And for those who have immutably supported the Falcons for 18 seasons, dating back to the inception of the franchise and his own professional endeavors, he is around for a symmetric swan song, at the very least.
But for what it’s worth―which could very well be little more than a walking, talking, breathing specimen of nostalgia―the Falcons have an integral part of their best years back in town: goaltender Manny Legace.
One of only 12 remaining Hartford Whalers’ draft picks still active in North America or Europe and a veteran of 367 NHL games, Legace is back in his first professional domain on a professional tryout.
Since coming on board Oct. 20, he has appeared in four of a possible 10 games. That would include each of the last two after an injury sidelined him for two weekends.
If he makes it three outings in a row with Friday’s visit to the Dunkin Donuts Center, Legace will likely evoke bitter memories for the more seasoned sects of the Providence faithful.
Of their three playoff series triumphs since their 1994 inception, the Falcons have claimed two at the P-Bruins’ expense, bumping them off in back-to-back years in the 1996 first round and 1997 second round.
Legace, who shared the workload with Scott Langkow during those two seasons and playoff runs, was in Springfield’s crease for both handshake games against Providence.
He entered the first round of the 1996 playoffs on the heels of claiming the Baz Bastien Award as the AHL’s top goalie and retaining the league’s best goals-against average. In Game 4 of the best-of-five opening series, he compressed his own open wound after letting the Bruins leap out to a 3-0 lead and watched his teammates delete that whole deficit in the middle frame.
From there, the Falcons forced overtime and skated off with the series when Jason Simon beat P-Bruins’ stopper Rob Tallas at 2:41 of the sudden-death session.
A year later, Legace and Co. took continuous fits against Providence, losing the 1996-97 regular season series, 3-7-2. But after both teams pulled off memorable comebacks in the best-of-five first round against their regional rivals―Providence rallying from a 2-0 series deficit to beat the top dog Worcester IceCats and the Falcons doing to same against Portland―Springfield breezed to victory in the best-of-seven conference semifinal meeting.
Legace whiffed on his attempt to close out a sweep of the P-Bruins in a fall-from-ahead, 2-1 decision in Game 4 at what was then dubbed the Providence Civic Center. But the following night, in front of his own rooters at “The Nest,” he backstopped a 3-1 victory.
From there, the Falcons fell short seven games against the eventual champion Hershey Bears. And they have gone 0-3 in the postseason ever since.
Legace’s log has been comparatively more glamorous, to say the least. By the turn of the century, he had landed a steady job with the Detroit Red Wings, partaking in their 2002 Stanley Cup championship. In four consecutive NHL seasons between 2003-04 and 2007-08, he consumed at least half of the workload with the Wings or St. Louis Blues.
But since 2008-09, which he split between the Blues and their Peoria-based farm club, Legace has gone the rise-and-fall route. Over the past two-plus seasons, he has donned the jersey of the Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Wolves, Iserlohn (Germany) Roosters and, for one game this year, the San Antonio Rampage.
The 37-year-old Legace is one of five active AHL stoppers who have seen at least one full season solely in The Show, only to slip back into the continent’s second-best circuit. But none―including former Patrick Roy understudy David Aebischer (now with St. John’s) and Philadelphia playoff backstop Michael Leighton (Adirondack)―have been around as long and all have played at least 153 fewer NHL games.
A pair of former Providence goalies have penned similar diaries themselves and ostensibly skated through their closing curtains at the conclusion of 2010-11.
A now 36-year-old John Grahame, who springboarded a career of 224 NHL outings with the 1999 Calder Cup title, came back from a season in Russia spent the last two years with the Adirondack Phantoms and Lake Erie Monsters. Hannu Toivonen crammed 61 outings into three years between Boston and St. Louis, likewise went overseas to his native Finland in 2008-09, then played for Peoria and Rockford the last two seasons.
Neither has scraped any blue paint for extramural action this season. But for the indefinite moment, Legace still has a flame to stoke.
And for those who have immutably supported the Falcons for 18 seasons, dating back to the inception of the franchise and his own professional endeavors, he is around for a symmetric swan song, at the very least.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Pre-game Puckbag: P-Bruins @ Portland Pirates
Opening draw
Not unlike their parents in Boston, the Providence Bruins have a chance to surmount the .500 fence Saturday night when they visit the Portland Pirates at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
At 7-7-1, the P-Bruins will try to improve their season series to 3-0-0 with the Pirates, who are presently mired in the Atlantic Division cellar, on a two-game pointless skid and 2-6-0 in their last eight outings after an initial 2-1-1 start.
Entering Saturday’s action, the P-Bruins are one of a whopping 12 Eastern Conference inhabitants with a winning percentage of .500 or better. The Pirates are in the slim minority, joined by the defending Calder Cup champion Binghamton Senators and the Manchester Monarchs, whom the Bruins victimized with a dramatic 1-0 decision Friday at the Dunkin Donuts Center.
Notable names
Andy Miele, who returned to the Pirates last Friday after a two-week recall to the parent Phoenix Coyotes, is second only to Rochester’s Marcus Foligno with a 33.3 shooting percentage. Over seven AHL appearances, Miele, Carter Camper’s former teammate at Miami University, has inserted four goals on 12 SOG.
Brett Hextall and Ryan Hollweg are the only active Portland regulars in the plus/minus black with ratings of plus-3 and plus-1, respectively.
Veteran defenseman Nathan Oystrick is on the three-game point-getting streak with a goal and four assists in that span.
Miscellany
The P-Bruins slapped Manchester stopper Martin Jones with his league-leading seventh loss of the season Friday night while sparing their own Anton Khudobin the same fate. However, Khudobin is still tied with Portland’s Curtis McElhinney for third on that dubious leaderboard with six setbacks apiece.
The P-Bruins have a substantially better power-play conversion rate on the road (21.4 percent as opposed to 4.9 percent at The Dunk) while Portland has reaped more 5-on-4 rewards at home (20.7) than away (17.6 percent). The Pirates have also killed 92.3 percent of their road penalties, but only fended off 77.3 percent of opposing power play onslaughts at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
Not unlike their parents in Boston, the Providence Bruins have a chance to surmount the .500 fence Saturday night when they visit the Portland Pirates at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
At 7-7-1, the P-Bruins will try to improve their season series to 3-0-0 with the Pirates, who are presently mired in the Atlantic Division cellar, on a two-game pointless skid and 2-6-0 in their last eight outings after an initial 2-1-1 start.
Entering Saturday’s action, the P-Bruins are one of a whopping 12 Eastern Conference inhabitants with a winning percentage of .500 or better. The Pirates are in the slim minority, joined by the defending Calder Cup champion Binghamton Senators and the Manchester Monarchs, whom the Bruins victimized with a dramatic 1-0 decision Friday at the Dunkin Donuts Center.
Notable names
Andy Miele, who returned to the Pirates last Friday after a two-week recall to the parent Phoenix Coyotes, is second only to Rochester’s Marcus Foligno with a 33.3 shooting percentage. Over seven AHL appearances, Miele, Carter Camper’s former teammate at Miami University, has inserted four goals on 12 SOG.
Brett Hextall and Ryan Hollweg are the only active Portland regulars in the plus/minus black with ratings of plus-3 and plus-1, respectively.
Veteran defenseman Nathan Oystrick is on the three-game point-getting streak with a goal and four assists in that span.
Miscellany
The P-Bruins slapped Manchester stopper Martin Jones with his league-leading seventh loss of the season Friday night while sparing their own Anton Khudobin the same fate. However, Khudobin is still tied with Portland’s Curtis McElhinney for third on that dubious leaderboard with six setbacks apiece.
The P-Bruins have a substantially better power-play conversion rate on the road (21.4 percent as opposed to 4.9 percent at The Dunk) while Portland has reaped more 5-on-4 rewards at home (20.7) than away (17.6 percent). The Pirates have also killed 92.3 percent of their road penalties, but only fended off 77.3 percent of opposing power play onslaughts at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Pre-game Puckbag: P-Bruins vs. Norfolk Admirals
Opening draw
Reeling off their third road win out of four opportunities, the Providence Bruins will again try to remedy a mediocre 3-5-1 home record by hosting the Norfolk Admirals Sunday afternoon.
In an ironic twist, the 6-6-1 P-Bruins are also trying to hop back over the .500 fence for the first time in four outings. None other than the Admirals are liable for bringing them back down to .500 when they reaped a 4-2 decision at The Dunk nine days ago, which docked Providence to 4-4-1.
In their four ventures since, the Baby Bs have alternated between regulation losses and overtime/shootout wins. They most recently topped the Manchester Monarchs, 3-2, in one-on-ones at Verizon Wireless Arena on Saturday.
Norfolk, on the other hand, will vie to restore first place in the East Division, which it spilled with a 3-2 loss at Bridgeport combined with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s shootout win at Binghamton.
Notable names
Winger Carter Ashton, who opened the scoring in the Admirals’ previous encounter with the P-Bruins, has scored a goal in nine and a point in 10 out of 12 games. His strike in Syracuse last Saturday was already the fifth time he had inserted a game’s first goal.
Based on the 50-50 rotation between himself and Jaroslav Janus, Dustin Tokarski should get the nod in net for his second bout with Providence. Tokarski has started only once since his victory at The Dunk, losing a 1-0 decision at Albany this past Friday.
Since brooking six goals in a loss to Hershey on Oct. 14, Tokarski has authorized an identical number of six opposing tallies over the course of four full-length appearances.
Center Mattias Ritola was reassigned to Norfolk by the parent Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday after going pointless and retaining a minus-2 rating over five games-played in The Show. Ritola, a former teammate of the P-Bruins’ Jamie Tardif in Grand Rapids, logged a 9-18-27 transcript in 17 games for Norfolk last year.
Miscellany
The P-Bruins are the last stop in a string of seven consecutive road games for the Admirals, who will play four more on the road immediately after a home date with Albany this Wednesday. Norfolk will subsequently settle down for a six-game homestand that will include a two-night visit from the Bruins post-Thanksgiving.
The P-Bruins are now one of only six AHL teams who have yet to be involved in a shutout, either as the victor or the victim. Bridgeport, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Rochester and Worcester are the others.
Reeling off their third road win out of four opportunities, the Providence Bruins will again try to remedy a mediocre 3-5-1 home record by hosting the Norfolk Admirals Sunday afternoon.
In an ironic twist, the 6-6-1 P-Bruins are also trying to hop back over the .500 fence for the first time in four outings. None other than the Admirals are liable for bringing them back down to .500 when they reaped a 4-2 decision at The Dunk nine days ago, which docked Providence to 4-4-1.
In their four ventures since, the Baby Bs have alternated between regulation losses and overtime/shootout wins. They most recently topped the Manchester Monarchs, 3-2, in one-on-ones at Verizon Wireless Arena on Saturday.
Norfolk, on the other hand, will vie to restore first place in the East Division, which it spilled with a 3-2 loss at Bridgeport combined with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s shootout win at Binghamton.
Notable names
Winger Carter Ashton, who opened the scoring in the Admirals’ previous encounter with the P-Bruins, has scored a goal in nine and a point in 10 out of 12 games. His strike in Syracuse last Saturday was already the fifth time he had inserted a game’s first goal.
Based on the 50-50 rotation between himself and Jaroslav Janus, Dustin Tokarski should get the nod in net for his second bout with Providence. Tokarski has started only once since his victory at The Dunk, losing a 1-0 decision at Albany this past Friday.
Since brooking six goals in a loss to Hershey on Oct. 14, Tokarski has authorized an identical number of six opposing tallies over the course of four full-length appearances.
Center Mattias Ritola was reassigned to Norfolk by the parent Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday after going pointless and retaining a minus-2 rating over five games-played in The Show. Ritola, a former teammate of the P-Bruins’ Jamie Tardif in Grand Rapids, logged a 9-18-27 transcript in 17 games for Norfolk last year.
Miscellany
The P-Bruins are the last stop in a string of seven consecutive road games for the Admirals, who will play four more on the road immediately after a home date with Albany this Wednesday. Norfolk will subsequently settle down for a six-game homestand that will include a two-night visit from the Bruins post-Thanksgiving.
The P-Bruins are now one of only six AHL teams who have yet to be involved in a shutout, either as the victor or the victim. Bridgeport, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Rochester and Worcester are the others.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Pre-game Puckbag: P-Bruins @ Manchester Monarchs
Opening draw
Two teams with at least slightly better fortune on the road than at home will complete a back-to-back series Saturday night when the Providence Bruins visit the Manchester Monarchs at Verizon Wireless Arena.
The P-Bruins are vying to rinse out the vinegar from Friday’s 2-1 shortcoming at the Dunkin Donuts Center, which has already dropped them to 0-2-0 in their season series with the Monarchs.
Manchester improved to 4-4-0 on the road in Friday’s bout, with two wins apiece coming in Providence and Portland.
Conversely, the Monarchs have not won in their own domain since opening night, when they plastered the Springfield Falcons, 5-2. Since then, they have been blanked by St. John’s, 1-0, conceded a 2-1 decision to the Falcons and submitted to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 4-1.
Notable names
Winger Brandon Kozun, who commenced the scoring on Friday, is on a two-game goal-getting streak and has landed at least one shot on net in each of his last 10 appearances. Linemates Jordan Nolan and Andrei Lotkionov have assisted on each of those tallies. No other Monarchs are fostering an active string of consecutive appearances on the scoresheet.
With Anton Khudobin and Martin Jones having dueled in the creases on Friday, there is a reasonable chance Providence could give Michael Hutchinson the nod and pit him against Manchester’s Jeff Zatkoff.
Zatkoff is 4-3-2 all-time in 10 starts against the P-Bruins, winning his first four decisions but going 0-3-2 for the better part of last season. Hutchinson, on the other hand, is 3-0-0 versus the Monarchs.
Miscellany
Providence newcomers Josh Hennessy and Jamie Tardif have each claimed two of their first four points at Manchester’s expense. Tardif assisted on Hennessy first strike as a P-Bruin at The Dunk on Oct. 14 and both were credited with setting up Max Sauve’s goal in Friday’s bout.
This is only the P-Bruins’ second excursion to Manchester in this calendar year. They won their previous visit on March 9 after deleting 1-0 and 2-1 deficits before claiming an epic, 14-round shootout. Providence figures to have seven holdovers from that game suiting up tonight, including both of its goaltenders and Lane MacDermid, who gave the Bruins the 5-4 win in one-on-ones.
Two teams with at least slightly better fortune on the road than at home will complete a back-to-back series Saturday night when the Providence Bruins visit the Manchester Monarchs at Verizon Wireless Arena.
The P-Bruins are vying to rinse out the vinegar from Friday’s 2-1 shortcoming at the Dunkin Donuts Center, which has already dropped them to 0-2-0 in their season series with the Monarchs.
Manchester improved to 4-4-0 on the road in Friday’s bout, with two wins apiece coming in Providence and Portland.
Conversely, the Monarchs have not won in their own domain since opening night, when they plastered the Springfield Falcons, 5-2. Since then, they have been blanked by St. John’s, 1-0, conceded a 2-1 decision to the Falcons and submitted to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 4-1.
Notable names
Winger Brandon Kozun, who commenced the scoring on Friday, is on a two-game goal-getting streak and has landed at least one shot on net in each of his last 10 appearances. Linemates Jordan Nolan and Andrei Lotkionov have assisted on each of those tallies. No other Monarchs are fostering an active string of consecutive appearances on the scoresheet.
With Anton Khudobin and Martin Jones having dueled in the creases on Friday, there is a reasonable chance Providence could give Michael Hutchinson the nod and pit him against Manchester’s Jeff Zatkoff.
Zatkoff is 4-3-2 all-time in 10 starts against the P-Bruins, winning his first four decisions but going 0-3-2 for the better part of last season. Hutchinson, on the other hand, is 3-0-0 versus the Monarchs.
Miscellany
Providence newcomers Josh Hennessy and Jamie Tardif have each claimed two of their first four points at Manchester’s expense. Tardif assisted on Hennessy first strike as a P-Bruin at The Dunk on Oct. 14 and both were credited with setting up Max Sauve’s goal in Friday’s bout.
This is only the P-Bruins’ second excursion to Manchester in this calendar year. They won their previous visit on March 9 after deleting 1-0 and 2-1 deficits before claiming an epic, 14-round shootout. Providence figures to have seven holdovers from that game suiting up tonight, including both of its goaltenders and Lane MacDermid, who gave the Bruins the 5-4 win in one-on-ones.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Pre-game Puckbag: P-Bruins vs. Manchester Monarchs
Opening draw
Three weeks after brooking a 7-1 throttling at the hands of the Manchester Monarchs, the Providence Bruins will vie for a refreshing do-over with their Granit State rivals at the Dunkin Donuts Center Friday night.
Since their previous meeting, both parties in question have generally strode in opposite directions from where that 7-1 upshot may have pointed. The P-Bruins amassed their first win the subsequent night and have gone 5-2-1 to improve from 0-3-0 to 5-5-1.
Manchester, on the other hand, was initially off to a 3-1-0 start but has since dipped to 1-6-0. They disrupted a five-game losing streak with a 5-2 win at Portland last Friday, but then endured a 4-1
In terms of winning percentage, the Monarchs are last in the Eastern Conference and second-last in the league behind the Lake Erie Monsters with a .364 point-getting rate.
Friday’s bout will constitute Part I of a home-and-home set, which will pick back up Saturday evening at Verizon Wireless Arena. It will be one of three times this season that the P-Bruins swap visits with an adversary on back-to-back the nights, the other sets being with Connecticut (Dec. 10-11) and Worcester (Jan. 20-21).
Notable names
Despite missing the first two games of the season, Jake Muzzin is tied for second among league defensemen with three goals and fourth among all AHL blueliners with 30 shots on goal.
Richard Clune leads the AHL’s penalty minute leaderboard with 55 and is second in terms of five-minute majors with five such infractions.
Goaltender Martin Jones is tied with the P-Bruins’ Anton Khudobin for second in the league with five losses on the year. Only Lake Erie’s Trevor Cann has had more setbacks with seven.
Touted defensive prospect Thomas Hickey has three assists on the year, but has gone 46 consecutive regular-season games without a goal, dating back to Jan. 14 of last season.
Miscellany
The Monarchs are one of two teams, the other being the Rockford IceHogs, who have yet to go to overtime in a single game.
Over the next two full months, the P-Bruins will tangle with the Monarchs in seven of their next 24 dates, beginning Friday at The Dunk and ending on New Year’s Eve at Verizon Wireless Arena. After that binge of battles, the two rivals will go nearly two full months without crossing paths and will clash only twice more overall in the second half of the season.
Three weeks after brooking a 7-1 throttling at the hands of the Manchester Monarchs, the Providence Bruins will vie for a refreshing do-over with their Granit State rivals at the Dunkin Donuts Center Friday night.
Since their previous meeting, both parties in question have generally strode in opposite directions from where that 7-1 upshot may have pointed. The P-Bruins amassed their first win the subsequent night and have gone 5-2-1 to improve from 0-3-0 to 5-5-1.
Manchester, on the other hand, was initially off to a 3-1-0 start but has since dipped to 1-6-0. They disrupted a five-game losing streak with a 5-2 win at Portland last Friday, but then endured a 4-1
In terms of winning percentage, the Monarchs are last in the Eastern Conference and second-last in the league behind the Lake Erie Monsters with a .364 point-getting rate.
Friday’s bout will constitute Part I of a home-and-home set, which will pick back up Saturday evening at Verizon Wireless Arena. It will be one of three times this season that the P-Bruins swap visits with an adversary on back-to-back the nights, the other sets being with Connecticut (Dec. 10-11) and Worcester (Jan. 20-21).
Notable names
Despite missing the first two games of the season, Jake Muzzin is tied for second among league defensemen with three goals and fourth among all AHL blueliners with 30 shots on goal.
Richard Clune leads the AHL’s penalty minute leaderboard with 55 and is second in terms of five-minute majors with five such infractions.
Goaltender Martin Jones is tied with the P-Bruins’ Anton Khudobin for second in the league with five losses on the year. Only Lake Erie’s Trevor Cann has had more setbacks with seven.
Touted defensive prospect Thomas Hickey has three assists on the year, but has gone 46 consecutive regular-season games without a goal, dating back to Jan. 14 of last season.
Miscellany
The Monarchs are one of two teams, the other being the Rockford IceHogs, who have yet to go to overtime in a single game.
Over the next two full months, the P-Bruins will tangle with the Monarchs in seven of their next 24 dates, beginning Friday at The Dunk and ending on New Year’s Eve at Verizon Wireless Arena. After that binge of battles, the two rivals will go nearly two full months without crossing paths and will clash only twice more overall in the second half of the season.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Monarchs Have Tripped Since Trouncing P-Bruins
The presumptive debut of Chris Clark and possible returns of multiple scorers who were itching to break through even before their respective injuries is enough on the home front for the Providence Bruins to carry conviction into this weekend’s home-and-home set with Manchester.
Now throw in the fact that the Monarchs have done some, but certainly not much, to follow up on the 7-1 flare-up they inflicted on Providence in their last encounter three weeks ago. They did proceed to belt the Portland Pirates, 5-1, the following evening but have since gone 1-6-0, their other win being another lopsided upshot at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
The P-Bruins, who have gone a respectable 5-2-1 since hitting their nadir against Manchester Oct. 14, will have to play their cards carefully so as not to risk reinvigorating the Monarchs. That said, they will doubtlessly thirst for a redress in Friday night’s bout at the Dunkin Donuts Center considering the way the Monarchs made human Zambonis of them three weeks to date.
Other than a single play that saw Josh Hennessy, Jamie Tardif and the power-play brigade all break the ice after two games off, the P-Bruins let the data underline the stench that night.
En route to completing an empty three-game, season-opening homestand, they mustered but one goal for the third straight outing. They again let the final margin grow to three goals and beyond.
Moreover, despite manifestly out-disciplining Manchester, taking two minor penalties as opposed to the Monarchs’ seven, they reaped no rewards beyond Hennessy’s strike.
And it was patently a team loss. All 18 Providence skaters finished the night in the red under the plus/minus heading. The Monarchs had 17 players in the black while veteran Marc-Andre Cliche finished even.
The P-Bruins’ altogether unripe defense, which happened to be missing Matt Bartkowski in their first meeting with Manchester, has since improved to authorize 22 opposing tallies over eight games. That translates to a nightly average of 2.75 after letting in precisely five goals per night in their first three ventures.
On the other end, the Bruins have not let any adversaries confine them to fewer than two goals in any of their last eight outings.
Conversely, the 4-7-0 Monarchs have been outscored, 27-15, while going 1-6-0 over their last seven outings. In each of their last four losses, they have mustered two goals or less, including their second shutout setback of the year in a 5-0 whitewash at the hands of the Connecticut Whale.
Across their stats sheet, 12 individual Monarchs had at least three points in their first six games while four of them―Andrei Lotkionov, Cliche, Justin Azevedo, David Meckler―had at least three goals. Over Manchester’s last five ventures, no one has mustered any more than a single goal or two points.
In addition, the P-Bruins have settled six of their last seven games by a single goal, going a more-than-decent 4-1-1 in those arm-wrestling bouts. Overall, Manchester is 0-5-0 in games decided by two goals or fewer.
No time like Friday’s home date and Saturday’s rematch up at Verizon Wireless Arena for Providence to improve its handle on leads and exploit the Monarchs’ principal follies. Unless they let Monarchs extract the same minerals that have given them one scoring buffet in Providence and two in Portland, the Bruins ought to be raising the upper hand.
Now throw in the fact that the Monarchs have done some, but certainly not much, to follow up on the 7-1 flare-up they inflicted on Providence in their last encounter three weeks ago. They did proceed to belt the Portland Pirates, 5-1, the following evening but have since gone 1-6-0, their other win being another lopsided upshot at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
The P-Bruins, who have gone a respectable 5-2-1 since hitting their nadir against Manchester Oct. 14, will have to play their cards carefully so as not to risk reinvigorating the Monarchs. That said, they will doubtlessly thirst for a redress in Friday night’s bout at the Dunkin Donuts Center considering the way the Monarchs made human Zambonis of them three weeks to date.
Other than a single play that saw Josh Hennessy, Jamie Tardif and the power-play brigade all break the ice after two games off, the P-Bruins let the data underline the stench that night.
En route to completing an empty three-game, season-opening homestand, they mustered but one goal for the third straight outing. They again let the final margin grow to three goals and beyond.
Moreover, despite manifestly out-disciplining Manchester, taking two minor penalties as opposed to the Monarchs’ seven, they reaped no rewards beyond Hennessy’s strike.
And it was patently a team loss. All 18 Providence skaters finished the night in the red under the plus/minus heading. The Monarchs had 17 players in the black while veteran Marc-Andre Cliche finished even.
The P-Bruins’ altogether unripe defense, which happened to be missing Matt Bartkowski in their first meeting with Manchester, has since improved to authorize 22 opposing tallies over eight games. That translates to a nightly average of 2.75 after letting in precisely five goals per night in their first three ventures.
On the other end, the Bruins have not let any adversaries confine them to fewer than two goals in any of their last eight outings.
Conversely, the 4-7-0 Monarchs have been outscored, 27-15, while going 1-6-0 over their last seven outings. In each of their last four losses, they have mustered two goals or less, including their second shutout setback of the year in a 5-0 whitewash at the hands of the Connecticut Whale.
Across their stats sheet, 12 individual Monarchs had at least three points in their first six games while four of them―Andrei Lotkionov, Cliche, Justin Azevedo, David Meckler―had at least three goals. Over Manchester’s last five ventures, no one has mustered any more than a single goal or two points.
In addition, the P-Bruins have settled six of their last seven games by a single goal, going a more-than-decent 4-1-1 in those arm-wrestling bouts. Overall, Manchester is 0-5-0 in games decided by two goals or fewer.
No time like Friday’s home date and Saturday’s rematch up at Verizon Wireless Arena for Providence to improve its handle on leads and exploit the Monarchs’ principal follies. Unless they let Monarchs extract the same minerals that have given them one scoring buffet in Providence and two in Portland, the Bruins ought to be raising the upper hand.
Bruins Puckbag: Random And Various Observations On Boston And Providence
Thursday is the seven-year anniversary of the untimely and frankly terrifying passing of Sergei Zholtok, the former P-Bruins all-time scoring leader who also saw action in 25 Boston games. Besides being the first great producer in Baby Bs history, Zholtok is doubtlessly still remembered as a dedicated on-ice representative and off-ice philanthropist for his native Latvia.
Boston goaltender Tim Thomas is among those taking part in the latest round of Discover Card commercials, cast as one of the infamous “Peggy’s” frustrated customers. But did you know that in their formative years, the Bruins actually had a player who answered to that unlikely guy’s name? Between 1933 and 1937, forward James “Peggy” O’Neill logged 141 games, 32 points and 105 penalty minutes.
If you haven’t been to T. Chace, Jr.’s “Providence Bruins Insider” blog lately, I highly recommend the impressive, quantitative game-day photo galleries.
Kyle MacKinnon is the last P-Bruins’ regular still without any penalty minutes on the year. David Krejci and Daniel Paille are still pristine in that column for Boston.
Patrice Bergeron is fostering his fifth five-game point-scoring streak―including one in the postseason―since coming back from his protracted injury in 2007-08. If he has a hand in any goals against the Maple Leafs on Saturday, it will amount to his first six-game streak since between Feb. 6 and Feb. 26, 2007. And those six games were nonconsecutive. Bergeron missed five straight outings between Feb. 13 and Feb. 23 that year.
Anton Khudobin is the only AHL goaltender to have faced 300 or more shots so far (302 total). Trevor Cann of the Lake Erie Monsters is a distant second with 251.
Overall, Khudobin’s save percentage is a so-so .904. But in his six appearances since allowing four-plus goals in three consecutive outings, he has stopped 199 out of 215 stabs for a .926 success rate.
Joe Colborne, exported to Toronto’s farm system in exchange for Tomas Kaberle prior to last winter’s trading deadline, logged eight goals and eight assists for the AHL Marlies in 20 games for last year’s homestretch. He has already charged up an identical 8-8-16 log in his first nine outings this season.
Another former P-Bruin, Keith Aucoin, is tied with Colborne for the league lead with 16 points.
After going scoreless in the first four outings (and he is historically prone to lengthy cold streaks), Chris Kelly has had a point-per-game dating back to his shorthanded strike against the Blackhawks. In addition, he has reached three goals and seven points quicker than in any of his previous six NHL seasons and leads all Boston strikers with an 18.8 percent shooting percentage.
With Chris Clark confirmed as a P-Bruin and the likes of Max Sauve, Jamie Tardif and Trent Whitfield figuring to return in the near future, odds are a couple of forwards are likely to join Yannick Riendeau down in the ECHL. May this author suggest Tyler Randell? And maybe now that Ryan Button is back, toss in defenseman Zach McKelvie while you’re at it?
Dennis Seidenberg is still clinging tightly to the Bruins’ unofficial Any Day Now Award. His 30 shots on goal are exceeded only by Tyler Seguin for Boston’s team lead, yet his shooting percentage remains a big Blutarsky. In addition, he is tied with Krejci and Joe Corvo for a team-worst rating of minus-6.
Speaking of plus/minus, besides his spiked productivity rate, Seguin’s rating has improved noticeably since his rookie campaign. Appearing in 74 regular-season games as a rookie, he retained a minus-4. So far this year, he is running away with the team lead at plus-8.
As was the case in 2008-09, Sean Avery’s second stint in the Rangers’ farm system came and went before he could face the P-Bruins, who will host the Connecticut Whale two weeks from Sunday. In turn, whether or not we are better off not seeing what sort of reception he would get at the Dunkin Donuts Center we simply have to guess.
Boston goaltender Tim Thomas is among those taking part in the latest round of Discover Card commercials, cast as one of the infamous “Peggy’s” frustrated customers. But did you know that in their formative years, the Bruins actually had a player who answered to that unlikely guy’s name? Between 1933 and 1937, forward James “Peggy” O’Neill logged 141 games, 32 points and 105 penalty minutes.
If you haven’t been to T. Chace, Jr.’s “Providence Bruins Insider” blog lately, I highly recommend the impressive, quantitative game-day photo galleries.
Kyle MacKinnon is the last P-Bruins’ regular still without any penalty minutes on the year. David Krejci and Daniel Paille are still pristine in that column for Boston.
Patrice Bergeron is fostering his fifth five-game point-scoring streak―including one in the postseason―since coming back from his protracted injury in 2007-08. If he has a hand in any goals against the Maple Leafs on Saturday, it will amount to his first six-game streak since between Feb. 6 and Feb. 26, 2007. And those six games were nonconsecutive. Bergeron missed five straight outings between Feb. 13 and Feb. 23 that year.
Anton Khudobin is the only AHL goaltender to have faced 300 or more shots so far (302 total). Trevor Cann of the Lake Erie Monsters is a distant second with 251.
Overall, Khudobin’s save percentage is a so-so .904. But in his six appearances since allowing four-plus goals in three consecutive outings, he has stopped 199 out of 215 stabs for a .926 success rate.
Joe Colborne, exported to Toronto’s farm system in exchange for Tomas Kaberle prior to last winter’s trading deadline, logged eight goals and eight assists for the AHL Marlies in 20 games for last year’s homestretch. He has already charged up an identical 8-8-16 log in his first nine outings this season.
Another former P-Bruin, Keith Aucoin, is tied with Colborne for the league lead with 16 points.
After going scoreless in the first four outings (and he is historically prone to lengthy cold streaks), Chris Kelly has had a point-per-game dating back to his shorthanded strike against the Blackhawks. In addition, he has reached three goals and seven points quicker than in any of his previous six NHL seasons and leads all Boston strikers with an 18.8 percent shooting percentage.
With Chris Clark confirmed as a P-Bruin and the likes of Max Sauve, Jamie Tardif and Trent Whitfield figuring to return in the near future, odds are a couple of forwards are likely to join Yannick Riendeau down in the ECHL. May this author suggest Tyler Randell? And maybe now that Ryan Button is back, toss in defenseman Zach McKelvie while you’re at it?
Dennis Seidenberg is still clinging tightly to the Bruins’ unofficial Any Day Now Award. His 30 shots on goal are exceeded only by Tyler Seguin for Boston’s team lead, yet his shooting percentage remains a big Blutarsky. In addition, he is tied with Krejci and Joe Corvo for a team-worst rating of minus-6.
Speaking of plus/minus, besides his spiked productivity rate, Seguin’s rating has improved noticeably since his rookie campaign. Appearing in 74 regular-season games as a rookie, he retained a minus-4. So far this year, he is running away with the team lead at plus-8.
As was the case in 2008-09, Sean Avery’s second stint in the Rangers’ farm system came and went before he could face the P-Bruins, who will host the Connecticut Whale two weeks from Sunday. In turn, whether or not we are better off not seeing what sort of reception he would get at the Dunkin Donuts Center we simply have to guess.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
P-Bruins Constantly Short Of Breathing Room
In their first 11 games, the Providence Bruins have rolled up a cumulative 670 minutes and 30 seconds of ice time. Within that full timeframe, they have only spent an aggregate 138:07 of those minutes safeguarding a lead.
Out of their five wins, they have only once drawn first blood and stayed at least one notch ahead from there on in, namely in a 4-1 triumph at Springfield Oct. 16. They have not sculpted a multi-goal edge before or since on their 2011-12 schedule.
They also prevailed in a shootout against Worcester on Oct. 21, but only after never leading within the preceding 65 minutes of full-scale hockey action.
In total, the P-Bruins have taken nine individual leads, not counting the instant-dry 4-3 edge granted by Andrew Bodnarchuk in Sunday’s overtime session against St. John’s.
Of those that the opposition has had a chance to delete, the Bruins have spilled all but two. Four of their leads have not lived to see 10 minutes of age.
And on three out of nine possible occasions, they have let an advantage devolve into a deficit.
Two of those toe-curling scenarios transpired over the most recent weekend of game action. In Saturday night’s visit to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Providence struck first for the fourth time in 10 tries with Stefan Chaput converted at 17:21 of the first period.
That 1-0 edge, which also had the Bruins leading after the opening frame for only the third time, lived a 13-minute, 20-second lifespan. Justin DiBenedetto drew a 1-1 knot for the Tigers with 10:41 gone in the second and Casey Cizikas went on to grant Bridgeport and 2-1 and then permanent 3-2 lead.
Sunday’s bout with the IceCaps featured two outright lead changes and three equalizers. The P-Bruins’ 1-0 lead lasted a mere 9:24 in the middle frame and their later 3-2 advantage was zapped after a mere 7:34.
Most flustering for head coach Bruce Cassidy ought to be the fact that his pupils afforded themselves more chances to broaden their 1-0 gap in the last two outings than in previous ventures. That, and invaluable inches of ground they potentially squandered.
The P-Bruins’ 14-shot first period in Bridgeport was their single-most quantitative salvo in a 20-minute stanza up that point, yet Chaput’s connection was all they could boast.
On Sunday, they matched that mark by pelting St. John’s stopper David Aebischer 14 times in the second period, beating him on two of those. Carter Camper and Chaput each scored to sandwich a pair of IceCaps goals.
One more strike out of 34 and/or one more prevented against Bridgeport would have meant sparing at least one point, if not two on Saturday. One instance of a multi-goal advantage over St. John’s could have denied a divisional rival an overtime point.
Those scenarios could be a tad more frequent if the Providence strike force were to attack in droves, even with the resources they have had of late. This chiefly means drawing more out of proven sizzlers Jamie Arniel and Josh Hennessy, just to name a pair.
The solution going forward? The P-Bruins need to not only pester the opposing stoppers more consistently and assertively, but it couldn’t hurt to fluster the said goalie’s praetorian guards.
Tellingly enough, the Providence power play was 3-for-19 on the year in the wake of their 4-1 win over the Falcons. They had gone 2-for-5 with the corporeal advantage that night at MassMutual Center and all three of their conversions (including one the preceding night versus Manchester) had the help of Hennessy. Jamie Tardif had a hand in two.
Translation: The only night they have had any multi-goal leads has also been the only night that they have converted multiple power plays.
Since then, the man-up brigade has gone 2-for-24, inconsistently earning opportunities, much less cashing in. Tardif has been injured the last two weeks, but Hennessy has been available for the last seven games, yet launched a mere nine SOG and has yet to build upon his 2-1-3 scoring transcript.
Tardif, along with Max Sauve and Trent Whitfield could return to the lineup as early as this weekend. In addition, as of midday Wednesday, unemployed NHL veteran Chris Clark is reportedly on a professional tryout one month after being released from Boston’s training camp.
But an instantaneous impact from all or any of those four is hardly something to bank on. The P-Bruins’ active roster of the last two weeks has boasted enough of a definitive top six to be mounting more daunting deficits on their adversaries.
Out of their five wins, they have only once drawn first blood and stayed at least one notch ahead from there on in, namely in a 4-1 triumph at Springfield Oct. 16. They have not sculpted a multi-goal edge before or since on their 2011-12 schedule.
They also prevailed in a shootout against Worcester on Oct. 21, but only after never leading within the preceding 65 minutes of full-scale hockey action.
In total, the P-Bruins have taken nine individual leads, not counting the instant-dry 4-3 edge granted by Andrew Bodnarchuk in Sunday’s overtime session against St. John’s.
Of those that the opposition has had a chance to delete, the Bruins have spilled all but two. Four of their leads have not lived to see 10 minutes of age.
And on three out of nine possible occasions, they have let an advantage devolve into a deficit.
Two of those toe-curling scenarios transpired over the most recent weekend of game action. In Saturday night’s visit to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Providence struck first for the fourth time in 10 tries with Stefan Chaput converted at 17:21 of the first period.
That 1-0 edge, which also had the Bruins leading after the opening frame for only the third time, lived a 13-minute, 20-second lifespan. Justin DiBenedetto drew a 1-1 knot for the Tigers with 10:41 gone in the second and Casey Cizikas went on to grant Bridgeport and 2-1 and then permanent 3-2 lead.
Sunday’s bout with the IceCaps featured two outright lead changes and three equalizers. The P-Bruins’ 1-0 lead lasted a mere 9:24 in the middle frame and their later 3-2 advantage was zapped after a mere 7:34.
Most flustering for head coach Bruce Cassidy ought to be the fact that his pupils afforded themselves more chances to broaden their 1-0 gap in the last two outings than in previous ventures. That, and invaluable inches of ground they potentially squandered.
The P-Bruins’ 14-shot first period in Bridgeport was their single-most quantitative salvo in a 20-minute stanza up that point, yet Chaput’s connection was all they could boast.
On Sunday, they matched that mark by pelting St. John’s stopper David Aebischer 14 times in the second period, beating him on two of those. Carter Camper and Chaput each scored to sandwich a pair of IceCaps goals.
One more strike out of 34 and/or one more prevented against Bridgeport would have meant sparing at least one point, if not two on Saturday. One instance of a multi-goal advantage over St. John’s could have denied a divisional rival an overtime point.
Those scenarios could be a tad more frequent if the Providence strike force were to attack in droves, even with the resources they have had of late. This chiefly means drawing more out of proven sizzlers Jamie Arniel and Josh Hennessy, just to name a pair.
The solution going forward? The P-Bruins need to not only pester the opposing stoppers more consistently and assertively, but it couldn’t hurt to fluster the said goalie’s praetorian guards.
Tellingly enough, the Providence power play was 3-for-19 on the year in the wake of their 4-1 win over the Falcons. They had gone 2-for-5 with the corporeal advantage that night at MassMutual Center and all three of their conversions (including one the preceding night versus Manchester) had the help of Hennessy. Jamie Tardif had a hand in two.
Translation: The only night they have had any multi-goal leads has also been the only night that they have converted multiple power plays.
Since then, the man-up brigade has gone 2-for-24, inconsistently earning opportunities, much less cashing in. Tardif has been injured the last two weeks, but Hennessy has been available for the last seven games, yet launched a mere nine SOG and has yet to build upon his 2-1-3 scoring transcript.
Tardif, along with Max Sauve and Trent Whitfield could return to the lineup as early as this weekend. In addition, as of midday Wednesday, unemployed NHL veteran Chris Clark is reportedly on a professional tryout one month after being released from Boston’s training camp.
But an instantaneous impact from all or any of those four is hardly something to bank on. The P-Bruins’ active roster of the last two weeks has boasted enough of a definitive top six to be mounting more daunting deficits on their adversaries.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Pre-game Puckbag: P-Bruins vs. St. John's IceCaps
Opening draw
The bipolar Providence Bruins, whose wins and losses have come in crowds over the first 10 games of the season, will try to buck their second skid in a Sunday matinee home date with the St. John’s IceCaps.
The long-distance divisional rivals will lend a little symmetry to each other’s October slates, St. John’s having previously reaped a 4-1 victory from the Dunkin Donuts Center on opening night.
Since that meeting, the Caps have yet to relinquish full or partial control of the top seed in the Atlantic circuit. Although, given that the 4-0-0-2 Worcester Sharks have three games in hand on the IceCaps and four on the P-Bruins, Sunday’s game might as well be a battle for second place. Unless the Sharks crash on their sugar rush, Worcester is setting a tone as the real team to beat.
Notable names
After charging up a goal-assist value pack in their opening night victory at The Dunk, IceCaps’ defenseman Paul Postma had a momentary cold spell, going pointless in four straight outings. Since then, though, he has thawed back out for a 1-4-5 log over the last three games.
Captain Jason Jaffray, who inserted a shorthanded goal against the P-Bruins in their previous confrontation, had a hand in all three St. John’s goals as part of a 4-3 overtime loss at Springfield Saturday night. In addition, he tied teammate Marco Rosa for a game-high six shots on net and took two of the game’s six penalties.
Goaltender Peter Mannino was called up to the parent Winnipeg Jets Saturday while center Aaron Gagnon came down from The Show on Friday. Mannino and colleague David Aebischer have an identical 2-2-0 AHL record while stand-in Edward Pasquale has won his lone AHL start, a 28-save effort that helped thrash the Portland Pirates, 5-1, in Newfoundland last Tuesday.
Miscellany
St. John’s defensemen Travis Ramsey and Postma are the only IceCaps regulars to have not taken any penalties yet this season. Kyle MacKinnon, who garnered his first point Saturday in the form of an assist at Bridgeport, is the only Providence regular with the same spotless disciplinary record.
The P-Bruins and IceCaps will only meet twice more this regular season when they play a back-to-back, midweek set a Mile One Centre Feb. 7-8.
The bipolar Providence Bruins, whose wins and losses have come in crowds over the first 10 games of the season, will try to buck their second skid in a Sunday matinee home date with the St. John’s IceCaps.
The long-distance divisional rivals will lend a little symmetry to each other’s October slates, St. John’s having previously reaped a 4-1 victory from the Dunkin Donuts Center on opening night.
Since that meeting, the Caps have yet to relinquish full or partial control of the top seed in the Atlantic circuit. Although, given that the 4-0-0-2 Worcester Sharks have three games in hand on the IceCaps and four on the P-Bruins, Sunday’s game might as well be a battle for second place. Unless the Sharks crash on their sugar rush, Worcester is setting a tone as the real team to beat.
Notable names
After charging up a goal-assist value pack in their opening night victory at The Dunk, IceCaps’ defenseman Paul Postma had a momentary cold spell, going pointless in four straight outings. Since then, though, he has thawed back out for a 1-4-5 log over the last three games.
Captain Jason Jaffray, who inserted a shorthanded goal against the P-Bruins in their previous confrontation, had a hand in all three St. John’s goals as part of a 4-3 overtime loss at Springfield Saturday night. In addition, he tied teammate Marco Rosa for a game-high six shots on net and took two of the game’s six penalties.
Goaltender Peter Mannino was called up to the parent Winnipeg Jets Saturday while center Aaron Gagnon came down from The Show on Friday. Mannino and colleague David Aebischer have an identical 2-2-0 AHL record while stand-in Edward Pasquale has won his lone AHL start, a 28-save effort that helped thrash the Portland Pirates, 5-1, in Newfoundland last Tuesday.
Miscellany
St. John’s defensemen Travis Ramsey and Postma are the only IceCaps regulars to have not taken any penalties yet this season. Kyle MacKinnon, who garnered his first point Saturday in the form of an assist at Bridgeport, is the only Providence regular with the same spotless disciplinary record.
The P-Bruins and IceCaps will only meet twice more this regular season when they play a back-to-back, midweek set a Mile One Centre Feb. 7-8.
This Date In Providence Bruins History: October 30
1992: Five power play goals spell the difference in a 9-3 home victory over the Capital District Islanders. Jozef Stumpel stands out with a hat trick and four assists on the night.
1994: Brett Harkins, Guy Larose and Daniel Lacroix all beat Saint John Flames goaltender Dwayne Roloson within the final 10 minutes of regulation to delete a 4-1 deficit and stamp a 4-4 tie at the Civic Center.
1998: With a power-play goal, a shortie and a shutout, the P-Bruins garner their 200th all-time win by nicking the visiting Beast of New Haven, 3-0.
2002: For the first time in over five years, the P-Bruins pay a visit to the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena, where they top the newly established Binghamton Senators, 6-4.
1994: Brett Harkins, Guy Larose and Daniel Lacroix all beat Saint John Flames goaltender Dwayne Roloson within the final 10 minutes of regulation to delete a 4-1 deficit and stamp a 4-4 tie at the Civic Center.
1998: With a power-play goal, a shortie and a shutout, the P-Bruins garner their 200th all-time win by nicking the visiting Beast of New Haven, 3-0.
2002: For the first time in over five years, the P-Bruins pay a visit to the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena, where they top the newly established Binghamton Senators, 6-4.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Pre-game Puckbag: P-Bruins @ Bridgeport Sound Tigers
Opening draw
The Providence Bruins will place their 2-0-0 road record and Saturday record with a visit to Webster Bank Arena for their season-series opener with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
Providence and Bridgeport alike have already had three of their respective games spill beyond regulation. The Baby Bs are 0-1 in overtime and 2-0 in shootouts while the Tigers are 1-0 in lightning rounds and 1-1 in the bite-sized bonus stanza, their latest overtime affair being a 3-2 home loss to Worcester on Friday.
Notable names
Captain Jeremy Colliton, in his sixth nonconsecutive year with the team, hit two milestones on Friday. With his first shift, he officially surpassed Steven Regier for No. 2 on Bridgeport’s all-time appearance leaderboard by playing his 291st game for the Sound Tigers. And with an assist on Ty Wishart’s second-period goal, he became the franchise’s all-time leading playmaker with 111 career helpers.
Colliton had already entered the season as Bridgeport’s most prolific point-getter and currently has 177 and counting.
Third-year team member Justin DiBenedetto leads Bridgeport with seven points, all of them goals, including half of the team’s six power-play conversions. That puts him a four-way tie for fourth place among AHL goal-getters. Although, as of Friday’s falter to Worcester, he has been held off the scoresheet in consecutive games for the first time on the year and his rating has steadily dipped to a minus-4 in the last three outings.
Defenseman Benn Olson could potentially face P-Bruins forward Stefan Chaput for the first time since they were teammates with the Albany River Rats for two brief periods in 2008-09 and 2009-10.
Dan Kissel, who made his debut on Friday after signing a professional tryout agreement on Wednesday, spent three years at Notre Dame with Providence rookie Calle Ridderwall. Kissel split all of last season, his first in the professional ranks, between three different ECHL clubs.
Miscellany
The P-Bruins and Sound Tigers will cross paths eight times this season, though only twice before this calendar year is up. After Saturday, they will not lock twigs again until they converge on the Dunkin Donuts Center on Dec. 18.
The Providence Bruins will place their 2-0-0 road record and Saturday record with a visit to Webster Bank Arena for their season-series opener with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
Providence and Bridgeport alike have already had three of their respective games spill beyond regulation. The Baby Bs are 0-1 in overtime and 2-0 in shootouts while the Tigers are 1-0 in lightning rounds and 1-1 in the bite-sized bonus stanza, their latest overtime affair being a 3-2 home loss to Worcester on Friday.
Notable names
Captain Jeremy Colliton, in his sixth nonconsecutive year with the team, hit two milestones on Friday. With his first shift, he officially surpassed Steven Regier for No. 2 on Bridgeport’s all-time appearance leaderboard by playing his 291st game for the Sound Tigers. And with an assist on Ty Wishart’s second-period goal, he became the franchise’s all-time leading playmaker with 111 career helpers.
Colliton had already entered the season as Bridgeport’s most prolific point-getter and currently has 177 and counting.
Third-year team member Justin DiBenedetto leads Bridgeport with seven points, all of them goals, including half of the team’s six power-play conversions. That puts him a four-way tie for fourth place among AHL goal-getters. Although, as of Friday’s falter to Worcester, he has been held off the scoresheet in consecutive games for the first time on the year and his rating has steadily dipped to a minus-4 in the last three outings.
Defenseman Benn Olson could potentially face P-Bruins forward Stefan Chaput for the first time since they were teammates with the Albany River Rats for two brief periods in 2008-09 and 2009-10.
Dan Kissel, who made his debut on Friday after signing a professional tryout agreement on Wednesday, spent three years at Notre Dame with Providence rookie Calle Ridderwall. Kissel split all of last season, his first in the professional ranks, between three different ECHL clubs.
Miscellany
The P-Bruins and Sound Tigers will cross paths eight times this season, though only twice before this calendar year is up. After Saturday, they will not lock twigs again until they converge on the Dunkin Donuts Center on Dec. 18.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
P-Bruins Log: Hamill Looking More On Target
In the opening phases of the Providence Bruins season, nobody is taking the subtle, implied Zach Hamill ultimatum to heart more than Hamill himself.
Entering the final year of his entry-level contract with the Boston Bruins and slated to become a restricted free agent next summer, the former No. 7 overall draft choice is easily off to his best start in four seasons on the farm.
As the databases show, Hamill still has that prominent playmaking penchant from the full Rob Murray era. Ditto his average output under the shots-on-goal heading.
But along with that, in his first month under new head coach Bruce Cassidy, the shots-in-goal aspect is setting a promisingly unprecedented tone. While he has only tuned the opposing mesh in two individual games, with one being an empty netter, this is the first time he has scored more than once in the month of October.
Through eight games-played, Hamill has already charged up a team-best four goals and seven points on 18 registered shots. Contrast that with his 1-1-2 log with 15 SOG at the same point in his rookie year, his five assists and no goals on 20 shots in 2009-10 and his one solitary point with 15 shots and no strikes through last Halloween.
Most critically, Hamill is shooting at the right times and, in turn, finding more seams to exploit. His accuracy currently stands at 22.2 percent (4-for-18).
Moreover, Hamill’s first-time scoring celerity trumps his starts to any preceding professional campaign. Before this season, the earliest he had scored four goals was in 2008-09, when he sat out the first 15 games with an injury, then required 21 appearances to reach four strikes.
The following year, he hit the same plateau at the 27-game mark. The game in question was a Dec. 18 date with Bridgeport, although Hamill did have a somewhat respectable 11 assists by then.
Last season was, to say the least, the nadir of it all. Hamill’s first goal in 2010-11 fell in Game No. 15 (Nov. 19), his second on New Year’s Eve after 29 games.
His fourth strike? He cultivated that against Portland on Feb. 18, in his 46th appearance with Providence shortly after a brief call-up to Boston.
Granted, he had enjoyed his share of playmaking binges for a total of 25 helpers up to that point and 34 by season’s end. But that was accompanied by a career-low nine goals in 68 AHL games.
And while he improved his pace enough to tally six goals in the last 23 games of the season, his output was still sporadic, at best. After a three-game scoring streak in early March, he only activated one more red light in the last 13 ventures.
That excruciating inconsistency carried over into this year’s season-opening, three-game homestand. As the P-Bruins were blown out by a cumulative 15-3 tally in a troika of terrifying performances, Hamill was nowhere to be found on the scoresheet.
Since then, Providence has gone on a five-game point-getting streak with four consecutive victories and Sunday’s overtime falter versus Albany. In that span, the Bruins have outscored the adversaries, 15-9, with Hamill having a hand in barely less than half of those goals.
With the one cold spell and still-active hot streak, Hamill is on pace to finish with at least 66 points, assuming he does not miss a substantial portion of the AHL regular season.
Rigid mathematical calculations hold that he should insert up to 38 goals, but all things considered, anything between the upper 20s and lower 30s ought to suffice.
After all, in each of the last two seasons, the P-Bruins’ top scorer has turned in a 23-27-50 log (Mikko Lehtonen in 2009-10, Jamie Arniel last year). Their last 30-goal scorer was Pascal Pelletier in 2007-08.
And Hamill has never tuned the mesh any more than 14 times in a professional season. But this year ought to be different for the simple reason of the psychological springboard he has just built for himself these last two weekends.
Entering the final year of his entry-level contract with the Boston Bruins and slated to become a restricted free agent next summer, the former No. 7 overall draft choice is easily off to his best start in four seasons on the farm.
As the databases show, Hamill still has that prominent playmaking penchant from the full Rob Murray era. Ditto his average output under the shots-on-goal heading.
But along with that, in his first month under new head coach Bruce Cassidy, the shots-in-goal aspect is setting a promisingly unprecedented tone. While he has only tuned the opposing mesh in two individual games, with one being an empty netter, this is the first time he has scored more than once in the month of October.
Through eight games-played, Hamill has already charged up a team-best four goals and seven points on 18 registered shots. Contrast that with his 1-1-2 log with 15 SOG at the same point in his rookie year, his five assists and no goals on 20 shots in 2009-10 and his one solitary point with 15 shots and no strikes through last Halloween.
Most critically, Hamill is shooting at the right times and, in turn, finding more seams to exploit. His accuracy currently stands at 22.2 percent (4-for-18).
Moreover, Hamill’s first-time scoring celerity trumps his starts to any preceding professional campaign. Before this season, the earliest he had scored four goals was in 2008-09, when he sat out the first 15 games with an injury, then required 21 appearances to reach four strikes.
The following year, he hit the same plateau at the 27-game mark. The game in question was a Dec. 18 date with Bridgeport, although Hamill did have a somewhat respectable 11 assists by then.
Last season was, to say the least, the nadir of it all. Hamill’s first goal in 2010-11 fell in Game No. 15 (Nov. 19), his second on New Year’s Eve after 29 games.
His fourth strike? He cultivated that against Portland on Feb. 18, in his 46th appearance with Providence shortly after a brief call-up to Boston.
Granted, he had enjoyed his share of playmaking binges for a total of 25 helpers up to that point and 34 by season’s end. But that was accompanied by a career-low nine goals in 68 AHL games.
And while he improved his pace enough to tally six goals in the last 23 games of the season, his output was still sporadic, at best. After a three-game scoring streak in early March, he only activated one more red light in the last 13 ventures.
That excruciating inconsistency carried over into this year’s season-opening, three-game homestand. As the P-Bruins were blown out by a cumulative 15-3 tally in a troika of terrifying performances, Hamill was nowhere to be found on the scoresheet.
Since then, Providence has gone on a five-game point-getting streak with four consecutive victories and Sunday’s overtime falter versus Albany. In that span, the Bruins have outscored the adversaries, 15-9, with Hamill having a hand in barely less than half of those goals.
With the one cold spell and still-active hot streak, Hamill is on pace to finish with at least 66 points, assuming he does not miss a substantial portion of the AHL regular season.
Rigid mathematical calculations hold that he should insert up to 38 goals, but all things considered, anything between the upper 20s and lower 30s ought to suffice.
After all, in each of the last two seasons, the P-Bruins’ top scorer has turned in a 23-27-50 log (Mikko Lehtonen in 2009-10, Jamie Arniel last year). Their last 30-goal scorer was Pascal Pelletier in 2007-08.
And Hamill has never tuned the mesh any more than 14 times in a professional season. But this year ought to be different for the simple reason of the psychological springboard he has just built for himself these last two weekends.
Monday, October 24, 2011
P-Bruins Log: Big Breakout Weekend For Ridderwall
Call it coincidence or call it a pattern. But so far, Providence Bruins rookie winger Calle Ridderwall has clearly carried over a tendency to inject his team back into a game that began in the climactic phases of his college career.
Along with that, he variously figured in to an altogether irreproachable five-point, three-game weekend for the P-Bruins. His team trailed at least once in all three of their latest outings. And at least once, when there was a deficit glowering at him and his mates, Ridderwall either put a biscuit in the basket or an adversary in the penalty box.
And after each of those acts, the Providence strike force thawed out its sticks and found a way to elude a regulation loss, or better yet consume a victory.
This motif may not necessarily retract. The last time Ridderwall was a regular in an active lineup, he was similarly clicking in desperate situations.
Almost seven months ago, he connected on a power play to put his Notre Dame team on the board and whittle Merrimack’s 2-0 lead in half late in the first period of the NCAA Northeast Regional semifinals. And that was only 27 seconds after Merrimack had augmented its lead to begin with on a shorthanded goal.
Leading up to Ridderwall’s goal, the Warriors were also outshooting Notre Dame, 13-8. For the rest of regulation, the Irish went on a 28-16 run and deleted another two-goal deficit en route to a 4-3 overtime victory.
Less than two weeks later, in a Frozen Four semifinal bout with Minnesota-Duluth, Ridderwall inserted his own shorthanded strike with 17:55 to spare in regulation, closing a deficit to 4-3. Initiating an odd-man rush after a turnover in the Irish zone, Ridderwall escorted the puck to the point position and drilled a homeward-bound saucer through a forest of backchecking bodies.
From the next face-off onward, Notre Dame outshot Duluth, 14-1, although Bulldogs goalie Kenny Reiter answered everything to preserve his team’s victory.
Fast-forward to this past weekend. For the first time since joining the team as a free agent on an AHL contract in mid-August, Ridderwall got his chance to suit up for more than one game with the P-Bruins on the same weekend.
All he did with that was land a cumulative nine shots on goal, four on Friday versus Worcester and five on Saturday at Portland, with two of those amounting to his first professional points.
More telling, though, were the circumstances and timing of Ridderwall’s two strikes. Not unlike the Irish in those two NCAA tournament games, the P-Bruins were trailing the Worcester Sharks by a pair of goals for much of Friday’s first 40-plus minutes.
Then, with 1:46 off the third-period clock and just 78 ticks after Mike Connolly had pulled the visitors ahead, 3-1, Ridderwall absorbed a feed from fellow rookie Craig Cunningham and inserted a backhander. Although the Sharks continued to throw their share of flurries at the Providence net, the newly-fortified P-Bruins propped up the one-goal differential until Jamie Tardif’s extra-man conversion with 30 seconds left.
In Portland the following night, the host Pirates converted a power play in a hurry to claim a 3-2 advantage with 40 seconds off the clock in the third period. Providence was patently on its heels, as evidenced by Portland’s concomitant 4-0 run in the shooting gallery within the first five minutes.
But then, with 6:17 gone, Ridderwall simultaneously broke the Bruins’ drought and beat goaltender Justin Pogge to draw the third knot of the night. For the rest of the ride, the shooting was relatively even (9-8, Portland) and Carter Camper inserted the final goal for Providence en route to a 4-3 triumph.
Oh, and one-third of the P-Bruins’ nine third-period stabs were off of Ridderwall’s twig.
Most recently, playing his third game in as many days after seeing action in only one per weekend to start the young season, Ridderwall revitalized the Bruins in an uncredited way. In turn, he may have helped to salvage another point the same way he set the course to pilfer a pair of wins the preceding two nights.
Leading up to the halfway mark of Sunday’s opening frame at the Dunkin Donuts Center, the Albany Devils were subsisting on a 1-0 lead and running up an 8-2 edge under the SOG heading.
That was when Ridderwall nabbed the puck in his own end and broke it down to Albany property, where encountered a high-stick courtesy of Devils’ defenseman Brandon Burlon.
With Burlon bound for the sin bin at the 9:59 mark, the Bruins charged up five power-play shots and went on an 11-3 run. And less than four minutes after Burlon’s jailbreak, Zach Hamill finally solved Albany rookie stopper Maxime Clermont.
Albany and Hamill traded strikes once more in the third period, thus securing the single-point for Providence in an eventual overtime setback.
Along with that, he variously figured in to an altogether irreproachable five-point, three-game weekend for the P-Bruins. His team trailed at least once in all three of their latest outings. And at least once, when there was a deficit glowering at him and his mates, Ridderwall either put a biscuit in the basket or an adversary in the penalty box.
And after each of those acts, the Providence strike force thawed out its sticks and found a way to elude a regulation loss, or better yet consume a victory.
This motif may not necessarily retract. The last time Ridderwall was a regular in an active lineup, he was similarly clicking in desperate situations.
Almost seven months ago, he connected on a power play to put his Notre Dame team on the board and whittle Merrimack’s 2-0 lead in half late in the first period of the NCAA Northeast Regional semifinals. And that was only 27 seconds after Merrimack had augmented its lead to begin with on a shorthanded goal.
Leading up to Ridderwall’s goal, the Warriors were also outshooting Notre Dame, 13-8. For the rest of regulation, the Irish went on a 28-16 run and deleted another two-goal deficit en route to a 4-3 overtime victory.
Less than two weeks later, in a Frozen Four semifinal bout with Minnesota-Duluth, Ridderwall inserted his own shorthanded strike with 17:55 to spare in regulation, closing a deficit to 4-3. Initiating an odd-man rush after a turnover in the Irish zone, Ridderwall escorted the puck to the point position and drilled a homeward-bound saucer through a forest of backchecking bodies.
From the next face-off onward, Notre Dame outshot Duluth, 14-1, although Bulldogs goalie Kenny Reiter answered everything to preserve his team’s victory.
Fast-forward to this past weekend. For the first time since joining the team as a free agent on an AHL contract in mid-August, Ridderwall got his chance to suit up for more than one game with the P-Bruins on the same weekend.
All he did with that was land a cumulative nine shots on goal, four on Friday versus Worcester and five on Saturday at Portland, with two of those amounting to his first professional points.
More telling, though, were the circumstances and timing of Ridderwall’s two strikes. Not unlike the Irish in those two NCAA tournament games, the P-Bruins were trailing the Worcester Sharks by a pair of goals for much of Friday’s first 40-plus minutes.
Then, with 1:46 off the third-period clock and just 78 ticks after Mike Connolly had pulled the visitors ahead, 3-1, Ridderwall absorbed a feed from fellow rookie Craig Cunningham and inserted a backhander. Although the Sharks continued to throw their share of flurries at the Providence net, the newly-fortified P-Bruins propped up the one-goal differential until Jamie Tardif’s extra-man conversion with 30 seconds left.
In Portland the following night, the host Pirates converted a power play in a hurry to claim a 3-2 advantage with 40 seconds off the clock in the third period. Providence was patently on its heels, as evidenced by Portland’s concomitant 4-0 run in the shooting gallery within the first five minutes.
But then, with 6:17 gone, Ridderwall simultaneously broke the Bruins’ drought and beat goaltender Justin Pogge to draw the third knot of the night. For the rest of the ride, the shooting was relatively even (9-8, Portland) and Carter Camper inserted the final goal for Providence en route to a 4-3 triumph.
Oh, and one-third of the P-Bruins’ nine third-period stabs were off of Ridderwall’s twig.
Most recently, playing his third game in as many days after seeing action in only one per weekend to start the young season, Ridderwall revitalized the Bruins in an uncredited way. In turn, he may have helped to salvage another point the same way he set the course to pilfer a pair of wins the preceding two nights.
Leading up to the halfway mark of Sunday’s opening frame at the Dunkin Donuts Center, the Albany Devils were subsisting on a 1-0 lead and running up an 8-2 edge under the SOG heading.
That was when Ridderwall nabbed the puck in his own end and broke it down to Albany property, where encountered a high-stick courtesy of Devils’ defenseman Brandon Burlon.
With Burlon bound for the sin bin at the 9:59 mark, the Bruins charged up five power-play shots and went on an 11-3 run. And less than four minutes after Burlon’s jailbreak, Zach Hamill finally solved Albany rookie stopper Maxime Clermont.
Albany and Hamill traded strikes once more in the third period, thus securing the single-point for Providence in an eventual overtime setback.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Pre-game Puckbag: P-Bruins vs. Worcester Sharks
Opening draw
The Worcester Sharks will be one of the last four AHL teams to finally commence their 2011-12 schedule on the third day of the season when they drop in at the Dunkin Donuts Center at 4:05 Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, in the wake of Friday night’s 4-1 loss to the St. John’s IceCaps, the host Providence Bruins are trying to avert their first 0-2-0 start since the 1995-96 season.
Worcester returns 12 members of its 2010-11 roster, including four forwards, seven defensemen and goaltender Tyson Sexsmith. Blueliner Mike Moore is the only active Shark to have played for the team more than two seasons, having joined the team out of Princeton University late in the 2007-08 campaign and played 192 AHL games since.
In turn, Moore is Worcester’s only holdover from its encounter with the P-Bruins in the second round of the 2009 Calder Cup playoffs. Conversely, Providence still has Jamie Arniel, Andrew Bodnarchuk, Zach Hamill and Kirk MacDonald. All five players were classified as rookies that season.
Both the Bruins and Sharks are coming off non-playoff runs in 2011 and each striving to emulate their respective parent clubs, who both went to NHL conference finals last spring.
Notable names
Veteran pivot Ben Guite is primed to begin his stint with Worcester, his seventh AHL team and fourth New England-based club in an 11-year career.
In two seasons as a P-Bruin (2004-06), Guite saw action in 150 regular-season and 23 playoff games, charging up an aggregate 35 goals and 50 assists. His 22 goals and 31 assists from the 2005-06 campaign―when he claimed the MVP and Hendricks Fan Appreciation Award—remain a career-high for him.
More recently, Guite has played for four different organizations in as many seasons, including the young 2011-12 campaign with the Sharks. His most productive year since leaving Providence was last year with the Springfield Falcons, for whom he chipped in 17 goals and 30 helpers.
All six of Worcester’s top scorers from last year have gone elsewhere for this season. That leaves third-year professional and Boston College alumnus Benn Ferriero to step it up. Ferriero tied fellow returnee Brandon Mashinter for seventh on the Sharks’ scoring chart with 33 points, despite missing 37 games due to promotion to San Jose.
Miscellany
P-Bruins goaltender Michael Hutchinson went 1-1-2 in five appearances against the Sharks as a rookie last season. Late-season acquisition Anton Khudobin posted a 2-1-0 transcript in three bouts with Worcester.
Sexsmith, the presumptive frontrunner to replace Alex Stalock as Worcester’s starter, has faced the P-Bruins once in 19 total AHL outings. He was ultimately forked out of that Feb. 7, 2010 clash in favor of Stalock at 7:01 of the third period upon authorizing five goals on 35 shots en route to a 6-2 loss at The Dunk.
Through their first five years of coexistence, the P-Bruins have charged up a 31-18-5 all-time regular-season record against the Sharks. Although, Worcester has closed the gap within the past two seasons after Providence jumped out to an initial 22-8-2 advantage over the first three years.
The Worcester Sharks will be one of the last four AHL teams to finally commence their 2011-12 schedule on the third day of the season when they drop in at the Dunkin Donuts Center at 4:05 Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, in the wake of Friday night’s 4-1 loss to the St. John’s IceCaps, the host Providence Bruins are trying to avert their first 0-2-0 start since the 1995-96 season.
Worcester returns 12 members of its 2010-11 roster, including four forwards, seven defensemen and goaltender Tyson Sexsmith. Blueliner Mike Moore is the only active Shark to have played for the team more than two seasons, having joined the team out of Princeton University late in the 2007-08 campaign and played 192 AHL games since.
In turn, Moore is Worcester’s only holdover from its encounter with the P-Bruins in the second round of the 2009 Calder Cup playoffs. Conversely, Providence still has Jamie Arniel, Andrew Bodnarchuk, Zach Hamill and Kirk MacDonald. All five players were classified as rookies that season.
Both the Bruins and Sharks are coming off non-playoff runs in 2011 and each striving to emulate their respective parent clubs, who both went to NHL conference finals last spring.
Notable names
Veteran pivot Ben Guite is primed to begin his stint with Worcester, his seventh AHL team and fourth New England-based club in an 11-year career.
In two seasons as a P-Bruin (2004-06), Guite saw action in 150 regular-season and 23 playoff games, charging up an aggregate 35 goals and 50 assists. His 22 goals and 31 assists from the 2005-06 campaign―when he claimed the MVP and Hendricks Fan Appreciation Award—remain a career-high for him.
More recently, Guite has played for four different organizations in as many seasons, including the young 2011-12 campaign with the Sharks. His most productive year since leaving Providence was last year with the Springfield Falcons, for whom he chipped in 17 goals and 30 helpers.
All six of Worcester’s top scorers from last year have gone elsewhere for this season. That leaves third-year professional and Boston College alumnus Benn Ferriero to step it up. Ferriero tied fellow returnee Brandon Mashinter for seventh on the Sharks’ scoring chart with 33 points, despite missing 37 games due to promotion to San Jose.
Miscellany
P-Bruins goaltender Michael Hutchinson went 1-1-2 in five appearances against the Sharks as a rookie last season. Late-season acquisition Anton Khudobin posted a 2-1-0 transcript in three bouts with Worcester.
Sexsmith, the presumptive frontrunner to replace Alex Stalock as Worcester’s starter, has faced the P-Bruins once in 19 total AHL outings. He was ultimately forked out of that Feb. 7, 2010 clash in favor of Stalock at 7:01 of the third period upon authorizing five goals on 35 shots en route to a 6-2 loss at The Dunk.
Through their first five years of coexistence, the P-Bruins have charged up a 31-18-5 all-time regular-season record against the Sharks. Although, Worcester has closed the gap within the past two seasons after Providence jumped out to an initial 22-8-2 advantage over the first three years.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Top 10 Moments in Modern Rhode Island Sports History
Seeing as Friday night marks the fourth annual observance of Rhode Island Day at Fenway Park, there is no time like the present to reflect on the state's best sports memories.
Before proceeding, it should be noted that the Ocean State has been percolating its fair share of sports moments since the late 1800s with baseball's Providence Grays and well into the 20th century with the likes of basketball's Providence Steamrollers and hockey's Providence Reds. But too little exists in the way of readily accessible archived accounts to include those teams in this compilation.
And so, Daniel's Den & Dugout decided to zero in on one of the most all-encompassing landmark years on the Rhode Island sports scene and look at all events going back to 1972-73. That was the year the Providence Civic Center (now Dunkin Donuts Center) opened its doors specially for PC basketball, Providence College christened Schneider Arena as its new on-campus ice house, and the year the Pawtucket Red Sox upgraded from Double-A to Triple-A baseball.
With that, enjoy refreshing your knowledge of the 10 best moments in Rhode Island sports:
10. 1994: PC wins the Big East championship
A full decade before Boston baseball's Dirt Dogs had their day against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, the Friar cagers reaped their own semifinal thriller from a regional nemesis on March 12, 1994.
Rob Phelps and Dickey Simpkins combined for 43 points―nearly two-third of PC's total harvest―as part of the Friars' 69-67 upset of top-seeded Connecticut in the Big East semifinals.
The following day, Phelps and Simpkins joined tournament MVP Michael "The Animal" Smith on the All-Tournament team while the whole PC squad exulted in its 74-64 victory over Georgetown.
9. 1985: PC wins the Hockey East championship at the Civic Center
Backstopped by Warwick's Chris Terreri and captained by East Providence resident Tim Army, the PC men's hockey team nipped Boston College in double-overtime, 2-1, for the first Hockey East playoff crown.
Steve Rooney, PC's top goal-getter on the year, shoveled the puck home over a bevy of bodies late in the second sudden-death session, giving the Friars the right to accept the trophy from their former patriarch and first commissioner of the infant conference, Lou Lamoriello. From there, they proceeded to the NCAA tournament, where they won yet another OT marathon over the rival Eagles in the semifinals before falling short of a national laurel against Rensselaer.
Less than two decades later, Providence College cemented the distinction of winning both the inaugural men's and women's Hockey East championship. Bob Deraney's pupils from the women's wing of Schneider Arena took each of the WHEA's first three pennants in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
8. 1992: Pro hockey returns to Providence
Somehow, the Divine City and the American Hockey League survived 16 years of separation between the departure of the storied Rhode Island Reds and the advent of the Providence Bruins.
Once the P-Bruins did commence play at the Civic Center, the confounding mystery as to how everyone got along in the interim was only magnified. The first of seven capacity crowds turned up for the first home game. By season's end, Providence had averaged a league-leading average audience of 9,279 per night, which was then No. 2 on the AHL's all-time single-season attendance leaderboard.
The P-Bruins would dominate all AHL gates for each of the following three seasons.
7. 1973: PC reaches its first Final Four
Even after Memphis pulled their plug in the semifinals, and even after UCLA abolished the Tigers for the championship two nights later, the Friars boasted the NCAA tournament's top scorer in Ernie DiGregorio, who amassed 128 points in four games.
And one of the tournament's scrapbook moments was when DiGregorio's 30-point output buoyed Providence to a 103-89 victory over Maryland in the East Regional title game. In a 25-member field, the Terrapins had been the only team exempted from the regional quarterfinals.
6. 1998: Surprise Rhode to the Elite Eight
The URI men's basketball team came within less than a minute of reaching the 1998 Final Four, only to spill a six-point lead and drop a 79-77 decision to Stanford. (If only Lamar Odom had been eligible to start that season rather than the following year, right?)
But all things considered, reaching that point was a mind-boggling feat on its own. Under first-year coach Jim Harrick, the 25-9 Rams kept within the single digits under the "L" column for the first time since 1987-88, coincidentally the year of their only other Sweet 16 appearance.
The top highlight of the Rams' unlikely venture was easily one week before the near-upset of Stanford, when stamped their passport to the Sweet 16 by dumping the Midwest Regional's top dog from Kansas, 80-75. Cuttino Mobley's game-best 27 points that night in Oklahoma City eclipsed the 23-point input of a touted Jayhawk by the name of Paul Pierce.
5. 1984: Resilient PawSox win their second I.L. title
Had the parent club's "Impossible Dream" from 17 years prior ended in unadulterated sweetness, this is most likely how it would have felt.
Second-year manager Tony Torchia and the 1984 Pawtucket Red Sox pulled off 21.5-game turnaround from the preceding season and stamped the fourth and final International League playoff spot at the eleventh hour. From there, they discarded the Yankees' farm club from Columbus with startling facility, allowing them to engage the Maine Guides in the Governor's Cup championship series.
The elastic PawSox were presented with yet another gut-check when the Guides claimed the first two games of the best-of-five series at McCoy Stadium. But pitcher Robin Fuson, who had literally transferred from Maine during a series in Pawtucket three months prior, returned to his former office and helped to turn the tables with a Game 3 gem.
Subsequent 4-2 and 3-0 victories completed the comeback to give Pawtucket its first I.L. playoff crown in 11 years―and ultimately its only title under Ben Mondor's supervision.
4. 1987: Pitino leads PC basketball to the Final Four
The No. 6-seeded Friars entered the 1987 NCAA tournament lacking a single victory in the dance since 1974. By the time they conducted spring cleaning in the locker rooms, they had set a program record with four national tournament wins in a single run.
Bolstered by the likes of future ring-bearing Florida coach Billy Donovan, Rick Pitino's pupils entered the Southeast Region and dumped a quartet of local institutions: Alabama-Birmingham, Austin Peay State, Alabama, and Georgetown to claim PC's first Final Four berth since 1973.
Intriguingly, of the Friars' four tournament triumphs, none were more compelling than their second-round win over Austin Peay. Whereas the other three adversaries went down by no less than a 15-point differential, PC had to delete a double-digit deficit within the final six minutes and force overtime before nudging off Austin Peay, 90-87.
3. 1973: Pawtucket Red Sox win the Junior World Series
It might be because the team didn't stabilize financially until Ben Mondor took charge, but it's simply difficult to justify how easily the Pawtucket Red Sox' inaugural Triple-A season is lost in the franchise's annals.
After all, this was a team featuring late-season call-ups Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, along with the I.L.'s Most Valuable Pitcher in Dick Pole. And Pawtucket did win the International League pennant at the expense of future Red Sox manager Joe Morgan and the Charleston Charlies.
And the artist soon to be affectionately dubbed the PawSox (that moniker was an afterthought until Mondor arrived) did go on to win what was then known as the Junior World Series.
After conceding Game 1, the Sox swept the next four away from the American Association champion Tulsa Oilers by a cumulative score of 16-5. Rice's three-run dinger spelled the difference in a 5-2 series clincher at McCoy Stadium.
2. 1999: Providence Bruins win the Calder Cup
To call it a dream reversal would be to give a little too much credit to the average human's fantasizing skills.
After their sixth AHL season marked one of the most blunderstruck in league history with a basement-bound 19-49-12 record, the Providence Bruins enlisted Peter Laviolette as their new head coach for the 1998-99 season.
At the time, Laviolette was but two years removed from retirement as a player and was the P-Bruins all-time leader with 252 career games, many with the "C" over his heart. And the only two years they had gone without his services, namely the 1993-94 season when he took leave for the Olympics and the 1997-98 season when he was coaching in the ECHL, were the franchise's lone non-playoff campaigns.
If such a thing was possible, Laviolette endeared himself to the Providence fan base all the more when he unhesitatingly pledged to reverse the P-Bruins fortunes. And still all the more when his pupils followed through in record-setting fashion, placing first in the league at 56-16-8.
The rapid resurgence culminated in what was by then a predictable manner as the Spoked-Ps obliterated the Rochester Americans in five games for the Calder Cup championship, clinching with a 5-1 victory on an indescribably stimulating Sunday night at the Civic Center.
1. 1981: PawSox win The Longest Game at McCoy
What else could possibly cap this list?
If any true event generating from the Ocean State is ever the basis for a motion picture, it will have to be this.
In the 30 years since the PawSox and Rochester Red Wings played to a 32-inning deadlock on Easter weekend, then finished within one inning 66 days later, the game's devout followers and history students have made a point of learning every worthwhile statistic and anecdote.
It was a 33-inning affair that took a cumulative eight hours and 25 minutes to finalize. Rochester had a chance to cement a 1-0 or 2-1 victory, only to let the Sox draw a last-chance knot in the ninth and 21st innings, respectively.
It was 4:07 a.m. when play was suspended on Easter morning after the 32nd stanza with a mere 19 spectators still on hand at McCoy Stadium. The only reason the night went that long was because International League president Harold Cooper couldn't be reached to confirm curfew regulations.
Support staffers in both dugouts used broken bats as firewood for the sake of providing passable warmth.
Major League Baseball was on strike when the game was resumed on June 23, thus attracting national and international media outlets alike to see the 18-minute 33rd inning that culminated in Dave Koza's RBI single, which sent Marty Barrett home from third with almost absurd facility.
Everyone knows the story just that well, as they ought to. After all, this spontaneous special event gave the PawSox and their humble city an irrevocable badge of history.
Before proceeding, it should be noted that the Ocean State has been percolating its fair share of sports moments since the late 1800s with baseball's Providence Grays and well into the 20th century with the likes of basketball's Providence Steamrollers and hockey's Providence Reds. But too little exists in the way of readily accessible archived accounts to include those teams in this compilation.
And so, Daniel's Den & Dugout decided to zero in on one of the most all-encompassing landmark years on the Rhode Island sports scene and look at all events going back to 1972-73. That was the year the Providence Civic Center (now Dunkin Donuts Center) opened its doors specially for PC basketball, Providence College christened Schneider Arena as its new on-campus ice house, and the year the Pawtucket Red Sox upgraded from Double-A to Triple-A baseball.
With that, enjoy refreshing your knowledge of the 10 best moments in Rhode Island sports:
10. 1994: PC wins the Big East championship
A full decade before Boston baseball's Dirt Dogs had their day against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, the Friar cagers reaped their own semifinal thriller from a regional nemesis on March 12, 1994.
Rob Phelps and Dickey Simpkins combined for 43 points―nearly two-third of PC's total harvest―as part of the Friars' 69-67 upset of top-seeded Connecticut in the Big East semifinals.
The following day, Phelps and Simpkins joined tournament MVP Michael "The Animal" Smith on the All-Tournament team while the whole PC squad exulted in its 74-64 victory over Georgetown.
9. 1985: PC wins the Hockey East championship at the Civic Center
Backstopped by Warwick's Chris Terreri and captained by East Providence resident Tim Army, the PC men's hockey team nipped Boston College in double-overtime, 2-1, for the first Hockey East playoff crown.
Steve Rooney, PC's top goal-getter on the year, shoveled the puck home over a bevy of bodies late in the second sudden-death session, giving the Friars the right to accept the trophy from their former patriarch and first commissioner of the infant conference, Lou Lamoriello. From there, they proceeded to the NCAA tournament, where they won yet another OT marathon over the rival Eagles in the semifinals before falling short of a national laurel against Rensselaer.
Less than two decades later, Providence College cemented the distinction of winning both the inaugural men's and women's Hockey East championship. Bob Deraney's pupils from the women's wing of Schneider Arena took each of the WHEA's first three pennants in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
8. 1992: Pro hockey returns to Providence
Somehow, the Divine City and the American Hockey League survived 16 years of separation between the departure of the storied Rhode Island Reds and the advent of the Providence Bruins.
Once the P-Bruins did commence play at the Civic Center, the confounding mystery as to how everyone got along in the interim was only magnified. The first of seven capacity crowds turned up for the first home game. By season's end, Providence had averaged a league-leading average audience of 9,279 per night, which was then No. 2 on the AHL's all-time single-season attendance leaderboard.
The P-Bruins would dominate all AHL gates for each of the following three seasons.
7. 1973: PC reaches its first Final Four
Even after Memphis pulled their plug in the semifinals, and even after UCLA abolished the Tigers for the championship two nights later, the Friars boasted the NCAA tournament's top scorer in Ernie DiGregorio, who amassed 128 points in four games.
And one of the tournament's scrapbook moments was when DiGregorio's 30-point output buoyed Providence to a 103-89 victory over Maryland in the East Regional title game. In a 25-member field, the Terrapins had been the only team exempted from the regional quarterfinals.
6. 1998: Surprise Rhode to the Elite Eight
The URI men's basketball team came within less than a minute of reaching the 1998 Final Four, only to spill a six-point lead and drop a 79-77 decision to Stanford. (If only Lamar Odom had been eligible to start that season rather than the following year, right?)
But all things considered, reaching that point was a mind-boggling feat on its own. Under first-year coach Jim Harrick, the 25-9 Rams kept within the single digits under the "L" column for the first time since 1987-88, coincidentally the year of their only other Sweet 16 appearance.
The top highlight of the Rams' unlikely venture was easily one week before the near-upset of Stanford, when stamped their passport to the Sweet 16 by dumping the Midwest Regional's top dog from Kansas, 80-75. Cuttino Mobley's game-best 27 points that night in Oklahoma City eclipsed the 23-point input of a touted Jayhawk by the name of Paul Pierce.
5. 1984: Resilient PawSox win their second I.L. title
Had the parent club's "Impossible Dream" from 17 years prior ended in unadulterated sweetness, this is most likely how it would have felt.
Second-year manager Tony Torchia and the 1984 Pawtucket Red Sox pulled off 21.5-game turnaround from the preceding season and stamped the fourth and final International League playoff spot at the eleventh hour. From there, they discarded the Yankees' farm club from Columbus with startling facility, allowing them to engage the Maine Guides in the Governor's Cup championship series.
The elastic PawSox were presented with yet another gut-check when the Guides claimed the first two games of the best-of-five series at McCoy Stadium. But pitcher Robin Fuson, who had literally transferred from Maine during a series in Pawtucket three months prior, returned to his former office and helped to turn the tables with a Game 3 gem.
Subsequent 4-2 and 3-0 victories completed the comeback to give Pawtucket its first I.L. playoff crown in 11 years―and ultimately its only title under Ben Mondor's supervision.
4. 1987: Pitino leads PC basketball to the Final Four
The No. 6-seeded Friars entered the 1987 NCAA tournament lacking a single victory in the dance since 1974. By the time they conducted spring cleaning in the locker rooms, they had set a program record with four national tournament wins in a single run.
Bolstered by the likes of future ring-bearing Florida coach Billy Donovan, Rick Pitino's pupils entered the Southeast Region and dumped a quartet of local institutions: Alabama-Birmingham, Austin Peay State, Alabama, and Georgetown to claim PC's first Final Four berth since 1973.
Intriguingly, of the Friars' four tournament triumphs, none were more compelling than their second-round win over Austin Peay. Whereas the other three adversaries went down by no less than a 15-point differential, PC had to delete a double-digit deficit within the final six minutes and force overtime before nudging off Austin Peay, 90-87.
3. 1973: Pawtucket Red Sox win the Junior World Series
It might be because the team didn't stabilize financially until Ben Mondor took charge, but it's simply difficult to justify how easily the Pawtucket Red Sox' inaugural Triple-A season is lost in the franchise's annals.
After all, this was a team featuring late-season call-ups Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, along with the I.L.'s Most Valuable Pitcher in Dick Pole. And Pawtucket did win the International League pennant at the expense of future Red Sox manager Joe Morgan and the Charleston Charlies.
And the artist soon to be affectionately dubbed the PawSox (that moniker was an afterthought until Mondor arrived) did go on to win what was then known as the Junior World Series.
After conceding Game 1, the Sox swept the next four away from the American Association champion Tulsa Oilers by a cumulative score of 16-5. Rice's three-run dinger spelled the difference in a 5-2 series clincher at McCoy Stadium.
2. 1999: Providence Bruins win the Calder Cup
To call it a dream reversal would be to give a little too much credit to the average human's fantasizing skills.
After their sixth AHL season marked one of the most blunderstruck in league history with a basement-bound 19-49-12 record, the Providence Bruins enlisted Peter Laviolette as their new head coach for the 1998-99 season.
At the time, Laviolette was but two years removed from retirement as a player and was the P-Bruins all-time leader with 252 career games, many with the "C" over his heart. And the only two years they had gone without his services, namely the 1993-94 season when he took leave for the Olympics and the 1997-98 season when he was coaching in the ECHL, were the franchise's lone non-playoff campaigns.
If such a thing was possible, Laviolette endeared himself to the Providence fan base all the more when he unhesitatingly pledged to reverse the P-Bruins fortunes. And still all the more when his pupils followed through in record-setting fashion, placing first in the league at 56-16-8.
The rapid resurgence culminated in what was by then a predictable manner as the Spoked-Ps obliterated the Rochester Americans in five games for the Calder Cup championship, clinching with a 5-1 victory on an indescribably stimulating Sunday night at the Civic Center.
1. 1981: PawSox win The Longest Game at McCoy
What else could possibly cap this list?
If any true event generating from the Ocean State is ever the basis for a motion picture, it will have to be this.
In the 30 years since the PawSox and Rochester Red Wings played to a 32-inning deadlock on Easter weekend, then finished within one inning 66 days later, the game's devout followers and history students have made a point of learning every worthwhile statistic and anecdote.
It was a 33-inning affair that took a cumulative eight hours and 25 minutes to finalize. Rochester had a chance to cement a 1-0 or 2-1 victory, only to let the Sox draw a last-chance knot in the ninth and 21st innings, respectively.
It was 4:07 a.m. when play was suspended on Easter morning after the 32nd stanza with a mere 19 spectators still on hand at McCoy Stadium. The only reason the night went that long was because International League president Harold Cooper couldn't be reached to confirm curfew regulations.
Support staffers in both dugouts used broken bats as firewood for the sake of providing passable warmth.
Major League Baseball was on strike when the game was resumed on June 23, thus attracting national and international media outlets alike to see the 18-minute 33rd inning that culminated in Dave Koza's RBI single, which sent Marty Barrett home from third with almost absurd facility.
Everyone knows the story just that well, as they ought to. After all, this spontaneous special event gave the PawSox and their humble city an irrevocable badge of history.
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