By: Kenny Kaminsky | Follow me on Twitter/X @KennyKaminsky
After an exciting series in which the Providence Bruins fought off elimination twice to defeat the Springfield Thunderbirds in a best-of-three matchup, the team is now preparing to face a much more formidable opponent: the Charlotte Checkers. The Checkers have had a bye week after finishing second in the Atlantic Division, so they will be well-rested when they travel to Providence on Friday. Michael DiPietro has been exceptional in goal throughout the playoffs, and the P-Bruins will need him to maintain that performance if they hope to compete for the Calder Cup. Meanwhile, Kaapo Kahkonen will be Charlotte’s starting goalie in Game One.
The American Hockey League schedule has faced significant scrutiny in recent weeks. However, the Providence Bruins are set to begin the second round of the playoffs this Friday at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in downtown Providence. Their next game will take place on Sunday at the AMP. After that, both teams will travel to Charlotte, North Carolina, to compete in the remaining three games at the Bojangles Coliseum next week.
The Providence Bruins have shown they have the depth to compete with any team. However, they will still be without Georgii Merkulov, Billy Sweezey, and Jake Gaudet. The timeline for their return is unclear since they were unavailable during the recent series against Springfield. The Checkers had a respectable record against the P-Bruins this season, winning three out of four matchups, but this Bruins team is significantly different from earlier encounters. The Checkers have only seen one period of a banged-up DiPietro.
The P-Bruins dominated the last series but faced strong resistance throughout. Colten Ellis had an outstanding performance, stopping some of the best players in the AHL. He was the sole reason the T-Birds remained competitive in the series. However, the P-Bruins eventually found a way to break through, with Matthew Poitras and Riley Tufte each scoring two goals late in the third period, crushing Springfield’s playoff hopes. Although Providence played consistently well, they struggled to score at times. Hopefully, that hurdle is now behind them.
One interesting aspect of this series is that the Providence Bruins and Charlotte Checkers lead the league in special teams’ performance. The P-Bruins demonstrated the effectiveness of their special teams in the last series by neutralizing the Thunderbirds and taking advantage of their power play opportunities. In Game 3 against Springfield, the Baby Bs went three for five on the power play and successfully killed all four penalties they faced.
The players to watch in this series are Dans Locmelis, Matthew Poitras, and Vinni Lettieri. It took some time for this trio to find their rhythm, but they became the most influential part of the series once they did. Locmelis finished the season strong, averaging two points per game, although he went pointless in the first two playoff games. Poitras and Lettieri are both leaders on the team and when they perform well, the entire team tends to follow suit. Lastly, I can’t overlook Patrick Brown’s commitment; he took a shot to the face to help keep Providence’s playoff hopes alive.
Catch the Providence Bruins this Friday as they begin their series against the Charlotte Checkers at 7:05 PM. If you don’t have access to Flo Hockey, you can tune into live commentary from Sam Smith and myself on the Black N’ Gold Production YouTube channel.
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