Providence Bruins come from behind to beat the Penguins 5-4

Apr 13, 2014; Newark, NJ, USA;

Boston

Bruins center

(76) skates during the first period of his NHL debut against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

The Providence Bruins came from behind to squeak out a 5-4 victory this afternoon at the Dunkin Donuts Center. Alexander Khokhlachev scored with 1:29 remaining in regulation(his ninth goal of the year) to give the P-Bruins the win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

The game was played by two teams that seemed to have little love for each other. Both squads racked up forty-six minutes in penalties throughout the match. The worst offender of the night was Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond. He earned a major(interference) and a match penalty(boarding) for a hit he put on Seth Griffith halfway through the first period. (He will likely be suspended for that hit.) It took Griffith a few moments to get back to his feet, but he got off the ice under his own power and was able to finish the game.

While the Penguins went on to outshoot the Bruins by a two-to-one margin (thirty-three to seventeen), the teams went back and forth throughout the entire game. Eight goals were scored by both teams in the first two periods in what was a relatively even match. Neither the Penguins or the Bruins held more than a one goal lead at any time during the game. Both teams relied on strong offensive play this afternoon.

While the first two periods saw a flurry of opportunities for both squads, the third was subdued. Providence only had four shots on goal during the final period of regulation. It required B’s goaltender Jeremy Smith to make fourteen saves in the third period to keep Providence in the game.  Bruins forward Colin Stuart was able to made a pivotal takeaway in the offensive zone, and quickly got the puck to Khokhlachev who fired it past WB/Scranton’s Jeff Zatkoff to earn the game-winning goal.

The win gave the Bruins two very needed points. That raises their total to forty-four points on the season.  They are currently in tenth place in the Eastern Conference. Like their NHL counterparts were a month ago, the Bruins are on the outside looking in. They’ve gone 4-3-2-1 in their last ten games, and they understand that every point is totally crucial moving forward in the season.

In a way, the game highlighted some of the big differences between the NHL and the AHL.

It’s not often you see a sub .850 performance from a NHL goaltender. Tonight, Penguins goaltender Zatkoff went twelve for seventeen. That’s a .705 save percentage. (For comparison sake,  Bruins net minder Smith made twenty-nine saves on thirty-three shots on goal(.878).) A .705 save percentage is bad for a local beer league. It was downright surprising to see a player that had such a respectable season going into tonight’s game(.922 save percentage and a sub-two goals (1.94) against average)have such an off night without getting pulled.

There are still goons in the AHL. There were two players for the Penguins that had a combined fifty-seven games played, but nearly two hundred and fifty minutes in penalties. (Imagine John Scott, but take it up a notch.) The Pens leading offender had one hundred and twenty-nine minutes in penalties and two points(no goals) on the season.  He added fifteen minutes to his total this afternoon.

The selection of the Three Stars seems more off-kilter in the AHL than the NHL. One of the off-ice officials asked the media members present to informally pick the three best players on the ice this afternoon. We quickly reached the consensus that B’s defenseman Ben Youds had earned the First Star of the Game for his two goal performance, and that Pens forward Scott Wilson and B’s Matt Lindblad had earned Second and Third Star honors respectively for their three point games.

The league didn’t quite see it that way.  While we agreed on Ben Youds earning the First Star, the other two were a little off. Alexander Khokhlachev (who was a -1, with only one shot on goal and two penalty minutes) was deemed the Second Star. Scott Wilson was given the Third Star.  That off-ice official later said the AHL’s selections were ‘asinine’.

The Providence Bruins are back in action against the Hartford Wolf Pack on Wednesday.