On Friday night at the GIANT Center, the Providence Bruins continued their dominance over the Hershey Bears, powering past them for a decisive 4-1 victory. After taking a 3-1 win on Wednesday, Providence scored goals from Georgii Merkulov, Dans Locmelis, Matthew Poitras, and Ty Gallagher, netting four times against Clay Stevenson. On the visitor's end, a wall in net, Simon Zajicek, stopped 29 shots to earn the victory. Brett Leason scored the one and only goal for the Bears, which was his fifth goal of the season. The Providence Bruins are headed to face the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday, December 13th, while the Hershey Bears will host the Charlotte Checkers in hopes of snapping their two-game losing streak.
Providence Bruins Lineup:
Schmaltz - Merkulov - Duran
Bancroft - Poitras - Lysell
Farinacci - Tufte - Brown
Locmelis - Abate - Harrison
Sweezey - Riedell
Johansson - Gallagher
Brunet - Wolanin
Zajicek
DiPietro
Hershey Bears Lineup:
Miroshnichenko - Protas - Mateiko
Cristall - Rybinski - Leason
Bitten - Luypen - Clarke
Smith - Cruikshank - Nachbaur
Ness - Chesley
Schueneman - Belpedio
Gucciardi - McDonald
Steveson
Gibson
Georgii Merkulov found the back of the net to put Providence in front 1-0 while falling to the ice at 13:00 of the first period. He bounced on a rebound of Patrick Brown's shot, who fired from near the blue line, and tucked it across the goal line in the low slot. Brown and Frederic Brunet received the assists. Extending their lead to 2-0 not long after the first Bruins tally at 10:45 of the opening frame, Dans Locmelis fired a wrister past Clay Stevenson from the slot off a pass from Fabian Lysell as they skated up towards Hershey's net. Brunet was also credited with an assist on Locmelis' goal, recording his second assist of the night.
Brett Leason cut the Providence lead 2-1 in the second with 13:18 on the clock with a power-play goal, scoring off the rush, picking up his fifth goal of the season. He struck from the right circle after taking a pass from Stevenson before skating up, handing the puck to Andrew Cristall, who sent the puck back to him as Leason drove through the neutral zone and into the Bruins' zone. After a few denied attempts, Matthew Poitras took a cross-crease pass from Merkulov outside the left post, and Poitras flipped it into the back of the net past Stevenson for a power-play goal at 9:03 in the middle frame to give Providence a 3-1 lead. Brown received the secondary assist, also his second assist of the night.
With 9:30 on the clock in the third period, Ty Gallagher poked the puck across the goal line when he fired from the right circle, followed up on the rebound at the crease, and dived to get it past Stevenson for the 4-1 final. It was his first goal of the season. Brown picked up his third assist of the night on Gallagher's goal, and Riley Duran was also credited with an assist on the final goal.
Notes:
- The Bears are now 1-2-0-0 against the P-Bruins this season.
- Clay Stevenson made a total of 31 saves for Hershey, and Simon Zajicek made a total of 29 saves for Providence. ...Stevenson's assist was his first since January 10th at Charlotte.
- Shots: Hershey 30, Providence 35
- This was Patrick Brown's second three-point game of the season, and he improved to fourth in the AHL scoring 27 points (10 goals, 17 assists).
- With his assist on Brett Leason's goal, Andrew Cristall extended his team-leading assist streak to six games (8 assists).
- Jon McDonald and David Gucciardi both left the game during the second period with upper-body injuries. Gucciardi was ruled out for the remainder of the game.
- Hershey went 1-for-2 on the power play, while Providence went 1-for-5 and penalty kill was 1-for-2.
- The Providence Bruins improved to 19-5-0-0.
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