Boston Bruins: Frank Vatrano White-hot in Providence

As sports fans, we’re all familiar with ESPN’s terrific series ’30 for 30.’ As Bruins fans, we should look to Rhode Island where a new form of 30 for 30 was branded on Friday night. Center Frank Vatrano kept up his white-hot American Hockey League play when he notched his 30th goal in his 29th AHL game with a goal in the Bruins 3-2 loss to the Hartford Wolfpack. He leads the league in goals, despite playing 24-28 games fewer than some of the other leaders.

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Currently sitting atop the league now with 30 in 30, Vatrano also made history last week when he became just one of three players in league history to record an unassisted hat-trick on Sunday, March 6th when the paced his squad to a 4-3 win over the Portland Pirates. Vatrano also had an eye-popping 11 shots on goal in that game. The unassisted hat trick hasn’t happened in the AHL in over 20 years, when Michel Picard of the then-PEI Senators recorded a purely unassisted hat trick, and the duo are the only two players to accomplish this since Alex Ritson did so in 1943 for the Indianapolis Capitals.

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Since being demoted, Vatrano has recorded points in 14 of 16 games. He leads his team in shots with 155, which is all the more impressive knowing he has played fewer games than his teammates. He also leads the Baby Bruins in plus/minus with +13, and in points per game with 1.43. He is also the only member of the team to have hit double-digits in power play goals, with a dozen.

So will this prolific Providence pace precede a promotion back to The Show? Right now, probably not. Since the additions of Noel Acciari (call up from Providence) and John-Michael Liles and Lee Stempniak (trades,) the Boston Bruins have points in six straight games, with a 4-0-2 mark.

Next: Frank Vatrano Consistently Scoring

For Vatrano, who turns 22 tomorrow, there’s very little left to prove in Providence. Unfortunately, it’s doubtful that Claude Julien will want to tinker with his line-up right now, so for Vatrano that means another five weeks of adding to his statistics in the AHL.

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