By: Danielle DuBois | Follow me on Twitter @DanielleDuBois
The Providence Bruins have had an excellent regular season thus far, sitting in second in the American Hockey League Atlantic Division. After beating the Utica Comets on the road Saturday night 5-1, the team looked to keep the winning ways going on Sunday afternoon with a 3:05 puck drop against the visiting Syracuse Crunch at the Amica Mutual Pavillion in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. But, unfortunately, that wasn’t quite the case for the Bruins in front of 8,735 of the Providence faithful.
GAME RECAP
The Crunch got straight to work as Gemel Smith rebounded his shot for a goal, giving the Crunch an early lead. Shortly after Smith’s goal, Mike Reilly was called for hooking. With the Crunch being on the power play, Alex Barré-Boulet had a quick pass to Gabriel Dumont, who shot the puck into the back of the net, making it 2-0.
With a rocky start and the Bruins falling behind early on, they hoped to gain some energy as they got their first power play of the game. Unfortunately, despite having a solid amount of scoring opportunities, Providence failed to score a goal during the man advantage.
Syracuse continued scoring as Alex Barré-Boulet had a wrap-around goal with 3:30 minutes left in the first. This was Barré-Boulet’s 12th goal of the season. The period ended with the Crunch on top 3-0.
Starting Bruins goalie Keith Kinkaid was pulled after the first period as he was nursing a lower-body injury. With Kinkaid out, the Bruins brought in backup goalie Kyle Keyser. On 19 shots, Keyser had 18 saves throughout the night.
Considering the rough start, the Bruins returned to the ice, fired up and ready to fight. A minute and a half into the period, Simon Ryfors was called for tripping, putting the Bruins on the power play. Phillippe Myers scored short-handed on a 3-on-2 rush bringing the score to 4-0.
The Bruins had their fair share of shots throughout the second period. Providence had four power plays in the second, but they couldn’t convert any into scoring opportunities. It wasn’t for the lack of chances either. The Bruins had 18 shots in the period.
In the third period, no goals were scored for either side; however, there were many penalties. In total, there were five penalties during the period. The Bruins finished the night with six penalties and 51 shots. Regardless of their efforts, they fell short of the win.
FINAL SCORE: PRO – 0, SYR – 4
TOTAL SHOTS ON GOAL: PRO – 51, SYR – 32
Despite the hard loss, head coach, Ryan Mougenel, was still pleased with the Bruins’ performance saying, “Despite everything, I think we did a good job at playing the right way.” The Providence Bruins are now 24-9-7 and look to rebound against the Wolf Pack.
NEXT GAME: Providence Bruins versus Hartford Wolf Pack on Wednesday, February 1st, with puck drop at 7:00 pm EST.
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