Baby Bruins Backs Against the Wall

The Providence Bruins seem to be imitating the Boston Bruins, as they have fallen into a 3-1 series deficit to the Hershey Bears. Game 4 was played Sunday night at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, where the Bruins fell to the Bears 3-2 in an overtime thriller. Their backs are against the wall as they look to keep their season alive Monday night in game 5, with the series still in Providence.

The scoring started off in the first period when defenseman Adam McQuaid rushed into the Bears’ zone dropping the puck to Mikko Lehtonen. Lehtonen then passed to Peter Schaefer at the faceoff circle and put the puck past goalie Michal Neuvirth. The Bruins went into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead, as defenseman Jeff Penner scored while rushing up on the play, assists going to Brad Marchand and Vladimir Sobotka.

The Bears cut the lead in half at the 7:31 mark of the second period with a goal from Bryan Helmer. Going into the second intermission the baby B’s led 2-1. The Bruins looked good through the first forty minutes of the game, and Hershey started finding their legs in the second period. For most of the third period it was scoreless, until Keith Aucoin tied the game at two, with 6:48 left in regulation. As the Bears’ bench celebrated, The Dunk crowd fell silent. Hershey scored two unanswered goals to tie the game, and game 4 was headed to overtime.

In overtime both goaltenders looked sharp. Bruins goalie, Tuukka Rask, was the more active one and made more saves as Hershey applied more pressure than the Bruins. Most of the extra period was spent in the Bruins zone, which led to the game-winning goal. The agitator of the night, Graham Mink, tallied the winner to put his team up a 3-1 series lead. Rask stopped 40 of 43 shots for Providence, while Neuvirth made 25 saves for the Bears.