The P-Bruins, that is.
Welcome to a new week, folks!
It’s supposed to be a decent day in the Boston area, which is a blessing after pretty bad weather weekend.
It was an eventful weekend of playoff hockey at the NHL level, with St. Louis knotting their series with Winnipeg at 2-2, the Senators staying alive in OT, and Carolina jumping out to a 3-1 series lead, among other things.
The Tampa-Florida series got even more nasty, with the Lightning getting a game back and Matthew Tkachuk somehow avoiding a suspension for a late, late hit on Jake Guentzel.
And then there’s us Bruins fans, sitting around and looking forward to the draft lottery.
This must be how it feels to be a Sabres fan all of the time.
But don’t fret — the Providence Bruins, who headed into the weekend facing a do-or-die game in Springfield, won two in a row and are moving on to the second round of the AHL playoffs.
The P-Bruins won in OT on Friday night, with Vinni Lettieri scoring the game’s lone goal, then won 5-1 on Sunday to clinch the series.
Sunday’s game featured two-goal performances from both Matt Poitras and Riley Tufte, plus two-assist games from Lettieri and Patrick Brown.
The P-B’s actually fell behind in Game 3, then scored five unanswered goals (four in the third period) to send Springfield home (to Massachusetts, which is a different state than Rhode Island).
As the AHL playoffs move to the second round, the series become best-of-five.
The P-B’s will face the Charlotte Checkers in the second round. In a weird AHL quirk, the Checkers had a first-round bye, as they finished second in their division.
Even though they’re the higher seed, Providence will host the first two games of the series before shifting to Charlotte for the last three.
Your schedule:
- May 2: Charlotte @ Providence, 7:05 PM
- May 4: Charlotte @ Providence, 7:05 PM
- May 7: Providence @ Charlotte, 7 PM
- May 9: Providence @ Charlotte, 7 PM
- May 11: Providence @ Charlotte, 3 PM
As with the first round, you can stream the second round via FloHockey.
Hopefully the P-B’s have better playoff luck with Charlotte than the NHL Bruins have had in recent years with Charlotte’s NHL affiliate, the Florida Panthers.
(I was surprised to learn that my assumption that Charlotte was Carolina’s affiliate was, in fact, incorrect.)
Anyways, what’s on tap for today?