By: Mark Allred | Follow me on Twitter @BlackAndGold277
Throughout the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs, the American Hockey League’s Providence Bruins have been notoriously bad at starting many of these postseason contests. So far, in seven games played, only two of those games saw the top minor-pro affiliate of the Boston Bruins begin with the same pace as their opponents. In five of those seven games, the Bruins’ opponents commanded the first periods and outscored Providence by a 9-1 margin.
While the Providence team has had an up-and-down postseason thus far, something has to be said about the message being sent and how the team responds with come-from-behind execution. It’s not ideal to continue this playoff run with a team that cannot get out of the gate and set the tone for any contest. The resilience of this team and guidance from leadership have been encouraging to watch, and how this group quickly turns things around after having a group discussion during the first intermission.
Obviously, a great deal of credit goes to Providence Head Coach Ryan Mougenel and the assisting staff of Trent Whitfield and Matt Thomas, driving the message of playing meaningful games this spring and playing for one another. The determination to succeed as a group, even though the starts have been frustrating, it’s been admirable to watch Providence work hard to tilt the ice in their favor.
Last night, in game four of the second round best-of-five series against the Charlotte Checkers, the Bruins went with starting goaltender Michael DiPietro as he looked to continue a career AHL year and help his team to a second victory of this series. Unfortunately, the 25-year-old DiPietro would see a little over two minutes of game time to start the first period as he left the game with what appeared to be a lower-body injury. The injury happened when a Checkers player collided with DiPietro at the top of the crease, which didn’t look intentional. As DiPietro was helped off the ice by training staff and fellow teammates, he did not put any weight on one of his legs as he went down the tunnel for further evaluation.
Providence backup goaltender Brandon Bussi would come in for the injured DiPietro and finish the game. Bussi’s last game action came close to a month ago when he let in two goals, stopping 23 Hartford Wolf Pack shots in a 6-2 regular-season victory. Bussi didn’t exactly have the greatest start to his 2024-25 regular season, but really bought in midway through the campaign, making the Providence goaltending tandem of Bussi and DiPietro one of the best duos in the league in the second half, leading up to this postseason.
Down 0-1 after the opening period at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, and down in the series best-of-five 1-2, the troops rallied around a stern conversation during the intermission from Mougenel and leaders in the room. In the second period, the Bruins would get on the board at the 9:26 mark when forward John Farinacci notched his first goal of the postseason. B’s forward Trevor Kuntar smartly got the puck over to a streaking Farinacci, who was cutting to the net, received the pass, and gave a shoulder fake backhanding the puck across the line, tying the game at one apiece. The secondary assist went to forward Joey Abate, who got his first point in these playoffs.
In the third period, the host Charlotte club would tie the game early in the frame at the 1:16 mark courtesy of Ben Steeves, who’s been very good for the Checkers in this series vs. the B’s. At the 14:51 mark of the final frame, Bruins forward Oliver Wahlstrom would tie the game at two apiece when he scored his third of these playoffs and now has points in three straight games. The helpers on the Wahlstrom tying goal went to forward Matt Poitras and defenseman Chris Ortiz. For Poitras, that assist snapped a three-game pointless streak and has 2-1-3 in seven career AHL playoff games. Ortiz is a newcomer to the Providence lineup in the second half of this season and has played a decent role on the B’s backend. With this assist, he notched his first career playoff point.
Deadlocked at two apiece between Charlotte and Providence, the Atlantic Division foes would need overtime and hit a significant crossroads in this series. Charlotte wins, and the Florida Panthers affiliate moves on to the third round. If Providence wins, it extends their season to game five this Sunday afternoon for the final time in the mid-Atlantic area.
Providence would eventually get the game-winner from the stick of Bruins captain Patrick Brown at the 7:08 mark of the extra frame, scoring his first of the playoffs and extending the series to a fifth and final game. Brown used the old back-scratching clapper to end the game, with the assists going to forward Vinni Lettieri and defenseman Michael Callahan. With the assist on the overtime goal, Lettieri has points in his last two games and has been an absolute pain in the ass to play against the postseason. Callahan snapped a four-game pointless streak with his efforts in the overtime thriller.
While a great deal of credit goes to Captain Brown and his heroic overtime efforts last night, and keeping this series alive, goaltender Brandon Bussi deserves some accolades himself, while fellow teammate DiPietro was off the ice, injured. No doubt, Bussi showed signs of rust in his return to the ice, but he was stellar at moments as one of Providence’s key factors in winning this game last night from the backend. Brandon’s strong play in a tight, pressured situation gives relief to Bruins fans that he can be relied on if fellow tandem member DiPietro is unable to return in this series.
Game five on Sunday will need to be a complete team effort from up and down the lineup if Providence wants to stay alive in this postseason. While there have been signs of a strong shutdown game defensively on both sides of the puck, players known for their offense must step it up while finishing plays and burying pucks. Solid play and impactful moments have been seen in these playoffs from players such as Poitras, Lettieri, Farinacci, Wahlstrom, Riley Tufte, Tyler Pitlick, and, when in the lineup, Fabian Lysell.
I still believe the Bruins need to find a way to create more offense to make up for defensive lapses, and these contests are close to one-goal games, so there’s really no room for error. The inevitable year-ending playoff bounce sending a team like the Bruins home is always a reality when you can’t create gaps offensively on the scoresheet.
To critique the Providence defense and what’s needed in this final game of the series, play a better-structured system. Force Checkers forwards to the outside, allowing minimal creativity in the passing lanes, where Charlotte’s side-to-side maneuverability has certainly had the Bruins’ number. They have exposed weaknesses throughout the series, particularly in the Bruins’ defensive zone transition. Better timing and an egregious effort is needed for this defense to make smart decisions with the limited seconds reacting to this playoff pace. Too often, the Bruins give up the puck and leave their goaltenders hung out to dry because of unnecessary plays inside their own zone.
I’m not worried about the goaltending moving forward to game five on the road tomorrow afternoon. This season, the effort in the crease has spoken for itself, regardless of the tough regular-season start for Bussi. If needed, the Long Island, New York native will be focused and ready for the next challenge, and if his fellow teammates in front of him play a strong defensive 60-minute grind, then I believe you’ll see a better crease effort from the pending unrestricted free agent.
It all comes down to tomorrow afternoon for the Providence Bruins. As always, I hope they can continue this playoff ride and we can provide more B’s-related content for our loyal supporters. If tomorrow happens to be the last game of the year for the NHL Bruins affiliate, I’d like to extend my appreciation to all who’ve stopped by and read my work over the last season. It’s been an incredible year of hockey coverage that checked off many boxes for me, bringing you AHL Bruins coverage from the places I travel to. We have some great ideas coming up for the 2025-26 hockey season, so please stay tuned…
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