( Photo Credit: Providence Bruins / Flickr )

By Carrie Young | Follow me on Twitter @carrieyoung512

The Providence Bruins were at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center on Sunday for an afternoon matchup against the Laval Rocket. The Bruins were looking to continue their winning ways after defeating Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on February 14th.

Starting Lineups

Providence Bruins:

Gaunce – Woods – Senyshyn

Vaakanainen – Kampfer

Vladar

Laval Rocket:

Veilleux – Dauphin – Waked

Alzner – Fleury

Primeau

Game Recap

First Period

Laval’s Yannick Veilleux was sent to the box for boarding just 36 seconds into the game. Providence was unable to convert on their first power play. A few minutes later, Josiah Didier drew a penalty on Laurent Dauphin, but the Bruins remained scoreless. With under a minute left in the power play, The Rocket’s Alain was called for elbowing, and Steven Kampfer was whistled for holding on the same play.

The Bruins were sent to the penalty kill for the first time when Brendan Gaunce was whistled for hooking at 9:10 of the first period. Laval could not convert on their power play.

With 7:52 left in the period, Brendan Woods was given a boarding penalty. The Providence power play remained strong, going 3-for-3 in the first.

At 15:46, Matthew Peca skated into goalie Dan Vladar and got an interference penalty. Just nine seconds later, Brendan Gaunce scored to put Providence up 1-0. Brett Ritchie and Jack Studnicka provided the assists.

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The Bruins headed into the first intermission leading in shots 12-9.

Second Period

After seven minor penalties were called in the first period, the second saw a lot more five-on-five play. Still, just two minutes in, Kampfer was called for delay of game. After killing that penalty, Providence went right back to being shorthanded with Jakub Zboril whistled for tripping.

With 1:38 left in a rather uneventful second period, Jesperi Kotkaniemi was sent to the box for tripping. The Bruins could not covert and went to the second intermission still up 1-0. Shots were 24-16 in favor of the home team.

Third Period

Paul Carey was able to stuff the puck past Cayden Primeau 38 seconds into the third. It was the Providence captain’s 18th goal of the season, assisted by Kampfer.

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Just a few minutes later, Ryan Fitzgerald netted his 11th goal to put the Bruins up 3-0. Urho Vaakanainen and Robert Lantosi provided the assists, giving eight different Bruins at least one point on the night.

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Charles Hudon and Cameron Hughes were each given two minutes for roughing in a confrontation after the whistle. A minute later, Lantosi was sent to the box for hooking. Laval did not score on the 4-on-3 power play.

Right after successfully killing Lantosi’s penalty, Providence found themselves shorthanded again with Zboril called for a trip. The Bruins penalty kill ended up 6-for-6 on the night.

The game got physical in the third period. Brendan Woods and Josh Brook dropped the gloves, then Laval received another penalty for slashing Vladar after he had frozen the puck. This brought the total of minor penalties in the game to 15, along with two majors.

Vladar was able to maintain the shutout and the game ended with Providence up 3-0. Laval outshot the Bruins 32-30.

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“It was a good day overall for the whole team,” Vladar said after the game, having secured his third shutout of the season. “It doesn’t really matter if [Max Lagace] or I get a shutout, it’s just those two points that we really need.”

Though he now leads the AHL in save percentage and GAA, Vladar was quick to put the team first rather than his personal accomplishments. “I just try to go into every game giving our team a chance to win, and thankfully it happened today. We just have to get ready for Bridgeport, because they beat us two times last weekend. We have lots of work in front of us.”

The Bruins will be looking to continue their winning ways on Monday, with a home game against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at 3:05 pm.

Check out the new Black N’ Gold Hockey Podcast episode 166 that we recorded below! You can find our show on many worldwide platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Stitcher.

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