Blog.WBRU

The Providence Bruins (16-10-1-1) finished off a tough weekend with a loss to the Manchester Monarchs (12-10-0-4) by a score of 3-1 at the Dunkin Donuts Center. The two teams also faced off on Saturday in Manchester, a game that resulted in a 5-4 shootout victory for the Monarchs. The two losses give the P-Bruins an 0-2 record against the Monarchs on the season.

The Monarchs struck first when David Meckler came through on a powerplay, following a misplay by P-Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask in which Rask lost control of the puck behind the net. It was Meckler’s 7^th goal of the season, with assists by Eric Werner and Trevor Lewis.

After a scoreless 2^nd period, Manchester took a 2-0 advantage with a 5-on-3 power play goal in the 3rd when Trevor Lewis scored his team-leading 8^th goal of the season. Viatcheslav Voynov and Marty Murray got the assists.

The P-Bruins finally got on the board in the 14^th minute of the 3^rd period when Byron Bitz made a perfect pass from behind the net straight to Jeremy Reich, who tapped it in to make it a 2-1 game.

Scott Parse scored an empty-net goal for the Monarchs in the final minute to make the score 3-1 and hand the Bruins their second loss in as many days.

F

Schaefer – St. Pierre – Karsums

Reich – Bitz – Marchand

Marquardt – Hamill – Lehtonen

Lukacevic - Rabbit – Nelson

D

Penner – Boychuk

Engel – Stokes

Bodnarchuk - McQuaid

The Bruins were a disappointing 0-for-6 on the power play and 4-for-6 on the penalty kill.

The P-Bruins are off until Wednesday night when they will face the Hartford Wolf Pack (13-11-1-3) at the XL Center in Hartford. The Bruins are back at home at the Dunk on Friday when they take on the Toronto Marlies (12-12-0-2) at 7:05 PM for a Family Game.

-GP

The Providence Bruins (16-9-1 33 PTS, T-1st Atlantic) defeated the Lowell Devils (11-10-9-1, 26 PTS) in a 3-0 shutout at the Dunkin Donuts Center. It was only a week since these teams last faced-off, Lowell escaping with the 3-1 win. Tonight’s game marked the fourth of ten matchups between the two teams this season. The Providence win evened the series at 2-2.

Providence first got on the board with a 5v3 PPG from Martin St. Pierre burying the rebound of a Martins Karums shot.

Ned Lukacevic scored his first goal as a Bruin on a fast 2-on-1 break. Wacey Rabbit placed a beautiful cross ice pass right on Lukacevic’s stick. Lukacevic let the puck rip from the left cirle.

Mikko Lehtonen scored the final goal of the night. Babysitting the puck, Lehtonen looped around to the blue line and walked in to fire off a shot through traffic, ringing the iron on the way in.

F

Marquadt - Marchand - Lehtonen

Schaefer - St. Pierre - Karsums

Riech - Hamill - Bitz

Lukacevic - Rabbit - Nelson

D

Stokes - Boychuk

Bodnarchuk - McQuaid

Penner - Engel

Tukka Rask earned his second shutout of the season, stopping Lowell’s 20 shots.

The Providence Bruins still have 6 game left on their 8 games in 12 days. Next up is a Home-at-Home with Manchester. The Manchester Monarchs come to town on Sunday at 4pm.

-Kit

Coming off 4 days rest, while riding a 3 game winning streak, The Providence Bruins lost 3-1 to the Lowell  Devils last night at the Dunkin Donuts Center.

People can make the excuse that the Bruins were missing two key defensivemen, Johnny Boychuk and Matt Lashoff, who were sent up to Boston, but the Bruins lacked effort in every aspect. The Bruins struggled to create any offense and when given 4 minutes of powerplay to start the 2nd period, came up short.

Marquadt - Marchand - Karsums

Sobotka - St. Pierre - Karsums

P. Schaefer - Hamill - Lehtonen

Nelson - Rabbit - Knackstedt

D

Engel - Penner

McQuaid - Bodnarchuk

Stokes - K. Schaefer

Tuukka Rask played in goal and saved 28 shots while allowing 3 goals against.

Vladamir Sobotka scored the sole Providence goal to match his jersey number (10) for goals on the season.

The Bruins are at home next on Sunday to host Springfield Falcons(10-9-2-1) 23 PTS (T-5th Atlantic)

-Kit

The Providence Bruins finished another 3-and-3 weekend, their third straight weekend with 3 games in three days. This weekend they finished 2-1 with wins against the Portland Pirates and Hartford Wolfpack. The P-Bruins are now 11-6-1 with 23 PTS (2nd Atlantic)

Friday…
Providence kept the fans late by taking the Pirates into a shootout. The game was tied at two after regulation thanks to the equalizing goal from Byron Bitz, who found the rebound in front of the net. G Kevin Regan, stepping in for the injured Tuukka Rask, was perfect on the shootout and Peter Schaefer was the lone goal scorer.

Also, on Friday, Bruin’s 2007 first round draft pick Zach Hammil made his season debut after suffering a thumb injury that benched him for the first 17 games of the season. Hamill played on the 3rd line as a Right Winger with Peter Schaefer and Wacey Rabbit.
Zach on his recovery and current line situation…

Sunday…
Coming off a 5-1 loss against Spingfield on Saturday, the Bruins rebounded and dictated the scoring. Vladamir Sobotka netted two goals, Peter Schaefer and Martin St. Pierre also recorded goals on the night.

F

Riech - Rabbit - Bitz

St. Pierre - Sobotka - Karsums

Schaefer - Hamill - Marchand

Knackstedt - Nelson - Marquadt

D

Bodnarchuk - McQuaid

Penner - Boychuk

Schaefer - Martin

MILESTONE: Zach Hamill netted his first goal of the season and first regular season goal as a professional.

WEEKEND STICK SALUTE: Brad Marchand. Tough presence on ice, especially on boards and digging rebounds. Also put his body on the line to block a shot on Sunday’s game.

-Kit

P-Bruins, currently second in their division, went head to head with Portland Pirates, ranked first, tonight in a forced 3-2 shootout win. The first two periods were relatively quiet and tame as the teams struggled to build momentum both on the ice and in the crowd. Few attempts were made, like Adam McQuaid dropping gloves to take on Portland’s Bouck. Not until late in the third period did both teams get on the scoreboard. Vladimir Sobotka and Byron Bitz netted goals for the Bruins to tie the game and bring it to a shootout overtime. Goalie Kevin Reagan was perfect on the shootout and the lone Providence goal came from Peter Schaeffer. Bruins continue their three games in three days by traveling to Springfield tomorrow and returning on Sunday to host the Hartford Wolfpack.

-Mauie

The Providence Bruins(3-0-0) finished off their first three games of the season at home tonight night with a 6-3 win over the Springfield Falcons(1-1-1).

The Bruins jumped to an early 4-1 lead in the first period with goals from Martin St. Pierre, D Jeff Penner, RW Jordan Knackstedt and RW Martins Karsums. The Flacons crept back scoring three unanswered goals but the Bruins put the game away with a 5-on-4 PowerPlay Goal from D Matt Lashoff and then a Short-Handed Goal on a C Wacey Rabbit breakaway. Rabbit streaked down the center then quickly switched to backhand and put it away top shelf.

Today’s Lines:
Karsums - St. Pierre - Lehtonen
Riech - Rabbit - Bitz
Marquadt - Marchard - Knackstedt
Lukacevic - Nelson - Bombersback

Defense:
Bodnardchuck - Boychuk
Lashoff - McQuaid
Penner - Martin

The first line stayed together to form the power play unit which finished 3/6. The Bruins killed off 5 of 7 Springfield powerplays.

The gloves were dropped on four accounts, most notably from D Adam McQuaid, who, once he got his arm free from the sweater, unleashed some devastating haymakers on Springfield’s Theo Peckman. Jeremy Riech was the first to make contact in today’s game and the Bruins made a team effort in sticking up for eachother with fights also from Lashoff and D Johhny Boychuck.
The Bruins, as a team, have definitely made a statement of their toughness after loosing heavyweight Steve MacIntyre.

G Kevin Regan got the knod and posted 24 saves. Coach Rob Murray made the decision to give Regan his first start of the season at home instead of on the road. The Bruins will be on the road for six games and will return to The Dunk on Nov. 7th to play the Chicago Wolves.

Postgame interview with Head Coach Rob Murray will be posted shortly. He spoke about team toughness, powerplays, Regan and. . . Peter Schaefer’s absence from the ice.
With the new website, we are having difficulty with the podcasting. Stay tuned!

-Kit

The 1-0-0 Providence Bruins captured their season opener with a 4-3 shootout win over the Lowell Devils. All three regulation goals were scored on powerplays. It seems shocking but there were 19 total power plays in the game.

The game started with a ceremony comemorating the success of last season with the unveilling of two new banners. The new yellow and white banners honored the 2007-08 regular season domination (league leading 117 points) and the championship of the Atlantic Division.

However, this year’s Bruins are different. Having lost key players like Nate Thompson, Chris Collins, Jeff Hoggan and Matt Hendricks, the PBruins consist of several new, young players. In fact, only seven of last night’s players had played in Providence last season.

Key new additions making an impact last night included D Johnny Boychuk, who netted the first of three powerplay goals, RW Mikko Lehtonen, who scored the first shootout goal, and newcomer and highly touted  C Matrin St. Pierre, who scored the second shootout goal for Providence and earned an assist. Second year veterans C Vladamir Sobotka and RW Byron Bitz netted the other two powerplay goals and also earned an assist each.

With the arrival of LW Jeremy Reich from Boston training camp, I was interested to see what the lines would be for the game. Head Coach Rob Murray had two solid lines and mixed the third and fourth line up throughout the game.

Offense:

Marchand - Sobotka - Bitz

Marquadt - St. Pierre - Karsums

Reich - Classen - Lehtonen / Riech -  Rabbit - Bombersback

Defense:

Lashoff - Boychuk

Penner - Bodnardchuk

Hunwick - McQuaid

RW Martins Karsums, St Pierre and Marquadt got the nod for the powerplay line while C Wacey Rabbit saw plenty of action on the penalty kill.

And a lot must be credited to D Ryan Stokes who went toe-to-toe with two heavy hitters(LeBlond and Jay Leach) when dirty hits were placed on his teammates.

Post-game interview with Head Coach Rob Murray will be posted shortly.

-Kit

In preparation for 2008 NHL Entry Draft this weekend, the Bruin’s 2007 1st Round selection Zach Hamill chatted with fans online today. Some good questions about Hamills expectations for next year and his relationship with teammate Jordan Knackstedt. . .

http://bruins.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=366253