Peebs stop greed in its tracks, squeaks past Portland to knot series, 1-1

By DAN HICKLING

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Greed is good, at least it is in a hockey sense.
Which is why the Portland Pirates dearly wanted to march out of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center two games up on the Providence Bruins in their best of seven Atlantic Division semifinal set.

And the Peebs were just as eager to prevent them from doing that.

This night, the Bruins prevailed taking a hard fought 2-1 grindout before a throng of 6,040.
Providence captain Jeremy Reich lashed in the game winner at 10:32 of the third stanza of a contest that burned up high octane by the tankful.

"It was exciting," Reich said about the tempo. "That's why you play the game. For the playoffs. The regular season is 80 games, and you get tuned up. Every guy was excited to play."

The same could be said of Portland.
“Once we got the first win (3-0 on Wednesday),” said veteran winger Mathieu Darche, “we definitely want both. We got one game, and we definitely wanted that. But you’re never satisfied. You get the first one, you want the second one.”
Said defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani, “After winning the first game, we talked about it and said ‘why not’. If you can do it one time, you can do it two times.”
Even so, the Pirates hold home ice advantage as series shifts to the Civic Center.
After the teams skated to a hard fought, and scoreless opening period, Providence grabbed its first lead of the series, on Vladimir Sobotka’s goal at 2:01 of the second.
Sobotka, who had missed a wide open net in the early moments of the first period, made good this time after a nifty lead feed from Brad Marchand sent him in alone on goalie Jhonas Enroth (38 saves).
Sobotka was allowed to swivel to the edge of the crease where he tucked the puck inside the right post.
Portland had an opportunity to respond, soon after, when it held a two man advantage for a full minute.
The Buccos did manage to get off a flurry of shots in that span, but none of them got past Providence goalie Tuukka Rask.
“That’s playoff hockey,” said Pirates coach Kevin Dineen. “We’re a long way from three (games) in three (nights) in December. It has a tone and an intensity.
With 3:33 gone in the third, Tyler Bouck let go a knuckler from between the circles that fooled Rask and hopped in off his glove, making it 1-1.
Moments after Portland blue liner made a huge play to sweep a loose puck off the goal line, Enroth made an enormous save on Johnny Boychuk, who had swooped in from the right point.
The deadlock held until Reich stepped away from the right boards and from 25 feet out, found space underneath the crossbar.
Portland pressed hard after that, but was unable to net the tying goal.
"Both games could have gone either way," said Providence coach Rob Murray. "It's potentially shaping up to be a seven game series."


EMPTY NETTERS: Dineen made one change from his Game One line up, inserting defenseman Geoff Waugh in place of rookie Matt Generous. Peebs coach Rob Murray also did some shuffling of his first and second lines, flipping wingers Brad Marchand and Mikko Lehtonen. “Call it a hunch,” said Murray. “I just felt more comfortable with that. I didn‘t think either line jelled together . So I decided to make the change.”…Enroth established a new franchise playoff shutout streak, 82:01. It surpassed the old mark, 77:53, set by Ron Tugnutt back in 1996…Meanwhile, the suddenly bountiful Portland blueline corps got even richer with the arrival of T.J. Brennan. Brennan, Buffalo’s top pick (31st overall) in the 2007 draft became available when his junior team, the Montreal Juniors, were ousted from the playoffs. The Pirates may be in line for another infusion of talent after the weekend ends…That depth might be put to the test, after the Pirates lost steady blue liner Mike Kostka to an unspecified right leg injury, sustained late in the second period. His status wasn’t immediately known…The teams will tangle again in Game 3 on Sunday (4 p.m.), when the scene shifts to Portland…