By: Mark Allred | Follow me on Twitter / X @BlackAndGold277
The Providence Bruins are back in action tonight as they travel the 401 Canadian Highway east, continuing the five-game road trip that started on the right foot in Toronto, Ontario, in a game against the North Division Toronto Marlies. On Wednesday night, Providence forward Fabian Lysell and Bruins goaltender Michael DiPietro were the heroes in this first long road trip of the 2025-26 regular season. Lysell had two impressive goals in his return to the ice after suffering a lower-body injury, and DiPietro snapped a two-game losing streak, stopping 35 Marlies shots to improve to 14-3-0 on the year and 28 points.
Tonight, Providence will be at the CAA Arena in Belleville, Ontario, to face the North Division Belleville Senators. For the Bruins, the team looks to make it consecutive wins on this roadie in Southern Canada and extend the organization’s impressive away record to 7-0-0 this season. With the B’s currently riding a 6-0-0 road record, they’re one of the best teams in the league and could slide alongside the Central Division Grand Rapids Griffins, who have a 7-0-0-1 road record, sharing the league’s best with a win on the road tonight. Grand Rapids is not in action tonight as they finish their weekend action tomorrow afternoon at home against Iowa.
This is another important game for Providence in the Atlantic Division race against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, who are three points ahead of the Bruins in the standings, with both teams in action tonight. Providence is 7-3-0 in their last ten games and has notched 55 goals in 17 games played so far this season while giving up an AHL League best 32 goals-against. Grand Rapids has given up 34 goals all season. Going into tonight’s action, the Providence Bruins are currently 4-1 against North Division teams in this impressive year.
The Providence power play ranks 11th in the league, completing 22.6 percent of the team’s chances on the man-advantage. In the ten games so far this month (November 2025), the Bruins have scored five power-play goals. On the other side of the Bruins’ special teams, the team’s penalty kill has been floating up and down in the league’s top-ten rankings. After 17 games played, the B’s sit in the eighth position with a penalty kill success rate of 84.3 percent.
During the month of November, Providence faced 24 penalty killing situations, allowing only three shorthanded goals. Although the power play has dipped lately and is a work in progress, Providence has scored three power-play goals in the last three games. Two tallies against Toronto on Wednesday night and one on November 21st, against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Providence Bruins team captain and forward Patrick Brown moved into the team’s lead in point production this season with a three-point game on Wednesday night. Brown now has 8-12-20 numbers in 17 games played this season. Forward Fabian Lysell is currently in second place on the Bruins team with 8-6-14 numbers in 14 games played. In Lysell’s last six games, the former first-round selection has 4-3-7 totals, including a two-goal effort as mentioned on Wednesday night in Toronto.
Boston Bruins forward prospect Dans Locmelis is in his first full season of AHL competition after leaving the University of Massachusetts Minutemen last season. The Latvian native and former fourth-round pick in 2020 has 6-4-10 in 17 games this season, including his second multi-point game in the win over Toronto on Wednesday night.
Moving over to tonight’s road game against the Belleville Senators, the top minor-pro affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators, currently sits in the fourth spot in the American Hockey League’s North Division. The Sens have a 10-8-2 record so far this season with 22 points, and a home record of 3-3-1 at the CAA Arena in Belleville. The team is 6-3-1 in its last ten games. The Senators are coming back home tonight after spending the previous four regular-season games on the road in Manitoba vs. the Moose and in Quebec vs. the Laval Rocket, where the Sens went 1-3.
Belleville Senators players to watch out for as they get set to host the visiting Providence team tonight. Forward Arthur Kaliyev leads the Senators team with 11-8-19 numbers in his last 18 regular-season games, and in his previous ten AHL contests has produced 9-4-13 numbers. Kaliyev is currently on a two-game point streak. Center Philippe Daoust is in second on the Sens with 4-15-19 totals. Center Stephan Halliday is in third in Senators scoring with 1-15-16 numbers in 15 games this season. Right Wing Xavier Bourgault is in fourth place in Belleville, scoring this year with 7-7-14 totals in 20 games this season. Rounding off the top-five in Sens scoring this year is defenseman Carter Yakemchuck, who’s contributed 3-11-14 numbers from the Sens backend this year and has 1-6-7 in his last nine games.
This weekend’s back-to-back road games against Belleville will be the only contests of the 2025-26 AHL regular season. Last year, Providence went 2-0-0 against the Senators. In the past five years, the Bruins are 2-2-0 against the Sens. The B’s won the last time the team was in Belleville at the CAA Arena, back on October 24th, 2024, 3-2, with the shootout victory courtesy of Boston Bruins forward prospect Brett Harrison.
With two days’ rest and in a back-to-back road game situation, I’d expect Wednesday night’s game winner, Michael DiPietro, to get the start in goal tonight against the host Senators. So far this season, the former Vancouver Canucks draft pick is 8-2-0 on the year with a 1.80 goals-against-average and a .942 save percentage. Both DiPietro’s GAA ranks fourth in the league, and his Save% is tied for first place in the AHL with fellow Providence netminder Simon Zajicek, who also has a .942.
Zajicek and his 6-1-0 record, 1.70 goals-against-average, and league-high .942 save percentage could get the start on Saturday night at the CAA Arena. The AHL rookie has been a pleasant surprise so far this season, adjusting from the European game and bigger ice overseas to his first year of North American professional hockey.
If you’re in the Belleville area and want to attend tonight’s Providence Bruins road game against the Sens, or a future home or away game on the 2025-26 AHL schedule, please consider using our official StubHub Ticket-affiliated link by CLICKING HERE. This link is also suitable for concerts and other sporting events throughout North America. Please bookmark the link for future ticket needs, as it helps our Black N’ Gold Productions sports media company.
If you cannot attend any AHL games in person but want to keep up with the Providence Bruins and other American Hockey League action, please check out FloHockey.tv to watch home and away games throughout the 2025-26 regular season. For streaming package pricing and to signup for FloHockey experience, please CLICK HERE for more information.
Leave a Reply