Stick salute to former Friars’ stopper and soon-to-retire PC women’s goalie coach/Cox Sports color analyst Bob Bellemore, who garnered the AHCA women’s hockey assistant coach award this week.
Seeing last week’s installment of Saturday Night Live, the first new episode since bench player Paul Brittain’s abrupt departure, evoked memories of Tim Army’s last three seasons behind the Friars’ bench, when an overcrowded dressing room led to inevitable midseason precipitation. Think Bryce Aneloski, Joe Lavin, Alex Velischek, etc.
PC women’s recruit Molly Illikainen is among the 10 finalists for Minnesota High School Hockey’s coveted Miss Hockey award. To date, she has charged up 28 goals and 17 assists in 18 games for her Grand Rapids/Greenway team.
So far, four months and 26 games into his tenure, men’s head coach Nate Leaman has not overseen a losing streak longer than three games. The Friars will need to pluck at least one point out of Friday night’s home date with Maine to keep it that way.
A win over the Black Bears, who sit seven points ahead of them for fifth place in Hockey East, could also be a prerequisite to salvaging PC’s hopes for home ice in the conference quarterfinals.
Barring a bonus encounter in the postseason, which is better than possible, the PC women’s senior class is already assured a lifetime winning record against rival New Hampshire at 7-4. But they will need at least a split of this weekend’s two-night visit to Durham in order to secure a supra-.500 showing at the Whittemore Center. After a 0-2 start in their freshman campaign, the class of 2012 has since won three straight in the once-notorious road venue.
On the whole, the results are hardly immediate, but there are a few subtle signs as to freshman Shane Luke’s impact and influence on the PC men. The team is 2-6-1 since his belated debut, but Luke has chipped in five points, has not gone more than two straight games without appearing on the scoresheet and is in rare company with Steven Shamanski and Matt Montesano as the only Skating Friars with a positive rating (plus-4 apiece).
Saturday’s matinee with UNH will be forward-turned-defender Jess Cohen’s 100th career game. Cohen has yet to miss a game in her two-plus years of collegiate experience. But she will likely need to help the Friars to an appearance in both the 2012 and 2013 Hockey East championship game just to tie Katelynn Laffin and Erin Normore’s program record of 143 career outings.
The men’s team is 2-0-3 dating back to the start of last season against UMass-Amherst, which will host their season series finale up at the Mullins Center on Saturday. Although neither side has swept the other since 2005-06, a tie or win for the Friars will allow them to finish undefeated against the Minutemen for the third time in five years. They went 2-0-1 in that matchup in 2007-08, 1-0-2 last season and a 1-0-1 going into Saturday’s bout.
Club hockey made its Friartown debut last weekend with a home-and-home set versus Boston University. The newfangled team will engage crosstown rival Brown University at Meehan Auditorium Friday night. This author must offer some kudos to his former colleagues at the Cowl for shedding some light on what would otherwise be a little-known fact.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
This Date In Providence Bruins History: February 9
1997: After spilling 2-0, 3-2 and 5-4 leads―and briefly trailing, 4-3, in the interim―Providence wrests away a 7-5 barnburner from the visiting Carolina Monarchs, enough to grant them a six-game winning streak and eight wins out of nine tries.
2002: Andrew Raycroft answers 40 out of 41 shots, allowing the offense to pace the P-Bruins to a fight-filled, 4-1 win at the Springfield Civic Center.
2003: The P-Bruins win their first-ever meeting with the Manitoba Moose, claiming a 4-2 decision to extend their team-record home unbeaten streak to 16 games.
2007: Nathan Dempsey, Petr Kalus and Matt Lashoff each register three points in regulation before Ben Walter scores in overtime to top the Worcester Sharks, 5-4, at The Dunk.
2002: Andrew Raycroft answers 40 out of 41 shots, allowing the offense to pace the P-Bruins to a fight-filled, 4-1 win at the Springfield Civic Center.
2003: The P-Bruins win their first-ever meeting with the Manitoba Moose, claiming a 4-2 decision to extend their team-record home unbeaten streak to 16 games.
2007: Nathan Dempsey, Petr Kalus and Matt Lashoff each register three points in regulation before Ben Walter scores in overtime to top the Worcester Sharks, 5-4, at The Dunk.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
All-Star Hosting Rights Underscore P-Bruins’ Durability, Fan Base’s Leadership
Providence is to the AHL what Toronto is the NHL. No playoff appearances in recent memory, yet consistently one of the league’s best performers at the turnstiles.
The Providence Bruins are on the cusp of rounding out two full decades of existence, in which time they have never finished outside of the top 10 on the AHL’s attendance leaderboard. They may or may not salvage a surprise playoff passport in the forthcoming homestretch, but a third consecutive finish among the league’s five best draws is most likely.
Of the still-living franchises, only the Hershey Bears, Chicago Wolves, Grand Rapids Griffins and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have been comparably dynastic at the gate in recent memory. Like Providence, all four have finished within the top 10 every season and placed among the top five on multiple occasions since 2002-03. And all five are on pace to be among the 10 best draws in 2011-12.
And whether it was in the AHL or IHL, each of the aforementioned have hosted at least one All-Star Game more recently than the Baby Bs. Grand Rapids (1997 and 2004) and Hershey (1996 and 2011) have held two apiece in the interim, as have the Portland Pirates.
So while there are 16 other cities that have not seen a midseason classic since the P-Bruins helped to bring it back in 1995, there is no disgrace giving the game a second shift next season, which was confirmed in Wednesday’s press conference.
One week after playing its special exhibition on a thoroughly neutral pond in Atlantic City, the AHL was apt to abandon that experiment effective in 2013.
Wednesday’s announcement indicates league president Dave Andrews and his board of governors want to plant their All-Star magnet in an established, healthy market. They want to let the crowds watching the Eastern Conference combat the Western Conference to be constituted by a nucleus of an exemplary fan base supplemented by following tourists.
Andrews said it himself on Wednesday that “the Providence Bruins organization has been a cornerstone for the last two decades.”
The third-longest-tenured franchise in the circuit, the P-Bruins had their leanest year at the gate in 2007-08, when they placed 10th out of 29 teams with a nightly median audience of 6,107. And that was in spite of that team’s plow to the summit of the AHL standings and threat to eclipse the records set by their otherworldly predecessors from 1998-99.
Since that season, the results between the boards have withered. Yet the Bruins have ascended the attendance leaderboard with final average figures growing from 6,343 to 6,770 to 7,324.
An egregious start and futile homestretch cramming session en route to a second straight playoff no-show failed to curb fan support last season. On the contrary, Providence had its best finish on the attendance list (fourth) since 2003-04 and drew its greatest outpouring of spectators since 2004-05.
With that kind of upswing under these sorts of circumstances after that business nadir of four years ago, the P-Bruins and the Dunkin Donuts Center are the right label and right facility to draw attention to the AHL. Those flocking in from other markets or taking in a rare minor-league hockey television fix next Jan. 28 are all the more likely to absorb and transmit the host city’s passion for pucks.
Barring new trends between now and then, some of the most logical candidates for the 2014 All-Star Game include Lake Erie (Cleveland), Milwaukee, Peoria and San Antonio.
Either that or perhaps the peerless multitude of neighboring fan bases will follow the Divine City’s lead and ultimately prove itself worthy of providing future hospitality. Springfield, another classic AHL city, has seen its yearly attendance hover consistently within the 3,000-range since 2003-04 while the two Connecticut clubs have repeatedly drawn 5,000 or fewer for five-plus years.
Those cities and/or others could improve upon that by feeding off what stems from the 2013 AHL All-Star Classic at the Dunk.
It worked that way in 1995 when it was the Providence Civic Center. “Our league is a much different league than it was 18 years ago. Our thanks go to Providence for helping us kick that off and re-define who we were,” Andrews said Wednesday.
There is no reason to think it won’t work that way again.
The Providence Bruins are on the cusp of rounding out two full decades of existence, in which time they have never finished outside of the top 10 on the AHL’s attendance leaderboard. They may or may not salvage a surprise playoff passport in the forthcoming homestretch, but a third consecutive finish among the league’s five best draws is most likely.
Of the still-living franchises, only the Hershey Bears, Chicago Wolves, Grand Rapids Griffins and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have been comparably dynastic at the gate in recent memory. Like Providence, all four have finished within the top 10 every season and placed among the top five on multiple occasions since 2002-03. And all five are on pace to be among the 10 best draws in 2011-12.
And whether it was in the AHL or IHL, each of the aforementioned have hosted at least one All-Star Game more recently than the Baby Bs. Grand Rapids (1997 and 2004) and Hershey (1996 and 2011) have held two apiece in the interim, as have the Portland Pirates.
So while there are 16 other cities that have not seen a midseason classic since the P-Bruins helped to bring it back in 1995, there is no disgrace giving the game a second shift next season, which was confirmed in Wednesday’s press conference.
One week after playing its special exhibition on a thoroughly neutral pond in Atlantic City, the AHL was apt to abandon that experiment effective in 2013.
Wednesday’s announcement indicates league president Dave Andrews and his board of governors want to plant their All-Star magnet in an established, healthy market. They want to let the crowds watching the Eastern Conference combat the Western Conference to be constituted by a nucleus of an exemplary fan base supplemented by following tourists.
Andrews said it himself on Wednesday that “the Providence Bruins organization has been a cornerstone for the last two decades.”
The third-longest-tenured franchise in the circuit, the P-Bruins had their leanest year at the gate in 2007-08, when they placed 10th out of 29 teams with a nightly median audience of 6,107. And that was in spite of that team’s plow to the summit of the AHL standings and threat to eclipse the records set by their otherworldly predecessors from 1998-99.
Since that season, the results between the boards have withered. Yet the Bruins have ascended the attendance leaderboard with final average figures growing from 6,343 to 6,770 to 7,324.
An egregious start and futile homestretch cramming session en route to a second straight playoff no-show failed to curb fan support last season. On the contrary, Providence had its best finish on the attendance list (fourth) since 2003-04 and drew its greatest outpouring of spectators since 2004-05.
With that kind of upswing under these sorts of circumstances after that business nadir of four years ago, the P-Bruins and the Dunkin Donuts Center are the right label and right facility to draw attention to the AHL. Those flocking in from other markets or taking in a rare minor-league hockey television fix next Jan. 28 are all the more likely to absorb and transmit the host city’s passion for pucks.
Barring new trends between now and then, some of the most logical candidates for the 2014 All-Star Game include Lake Erie (Cleveland), Milwaukee, Peoria and San Antonio.
Either that or perhaps the peerless multitude of neighboring fan bases will follow the Divine City’s lead and ultimately prove itself worthy of providing future hospitality. Springfield, another classic AHL city, has seen its yearly attendance hover consistently within the 3,000-range since 2003-04 while the two Connecticut clubs have repeatedly drawn 5,000 or fewer for five-plus years.
Those cities and/or others could improve upon that by feeding off what stems from the 2013 AHL All-Star Classic at the Dunk.
It worked that way in 1995 when it was the Providence Civic Center. “Our league is a much different league than it was 18 years ago. Our thanks go to Providence for helping us kick that off and re-define who we were,” Andrews said Wednesday.
There is no reason to think it won’t work that way again.
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