Providence scuttles the Pirates, takes 2-1 series lead

By DAN HICKLING


PORTLAND, Maine -- Advantage Providence.
The Peebs regained the upper hand -- and home ice advantage, too -- over the Portland Pirates in the their Atlantic Division semifinal series, by applying a 5-1 hammering to the Bucs, before 3,642 disgruntled fans at the Civic Center, Sunday.
Providence now leads the best of seven food I-95 spat, two games to one.
Unfortunately for them, they’ll have to wait until Thursday before playing Game 4, here. The circus, after all, is in town the next three days.
“It’s kind of hard,” said Bs d-man Johnny Boychuk, who bombed 10 shots on goal and connected on two of them. “We’ve been in a groove. You play one game, then have a day off. Then you play another one. Now you have a three day break. It’s kind of weird. You don’t want to give up all that momentum.”
The Peebs had surge to burn on Sunday.
They set the tone in the opening period, when they pelted Portland starter Jhonas Enroth with 18 shots, although they put just one shot past him.
The Peebs goal came at 13:58, when Martin St. Pierre cashed in a rink-wide pass from Brad Marchand with a slapper from the right circle.
It was Marchand’s theft from Mathieu Darche in the neutral zone that made that 2-on-1 possible.
“I thought it was a strong game by us,” said Providence coach Rob Murray. “I thought they might have been a little flat. Basically, I think we took advantage of it. We cashed in our opportunities. That was a big thing.”
Providence followed with a three-goal eruption in the second period, beginning with Marchand’s tally at the :59 mark.
That, too, was made possible by a Pirate snafu, when defensemen Marc-Andre Gragnani and Paul Baier collided, allowing Vladimir Sobotka to dish the loose puck to Boychuk. In turn, Boychuk managed to squeeze his 20-footer past Portland starter Jhonas Enroth.
Soon after, the Pirates were handed a lengthy two-man advantage to work with, but frittered it away and managed to put just two harmless shots on Peebs goalie Tuukka Rask.
“That was potentially a game changer,” said Murray. “If they’re able to get one or two, the game can change real quick.”
Instead, the Peebs kept their foot on Portland’s collective throat.
By the end of the period, Providence bulked its lead to an imposing 4-0 margin, using tallies by Sobotka (short-handed) and Boychuk (on a power play).
Enroth was pulled after Boychuk’s tally, with back up Kellen Briggs making his playoff debut.
Boychuk bombed in another goal early in the third.
By then, it was a full fledged rout.
“We just came together,” said Boychuk. “It felt good to score a couple goals. We wanted to bear down on our chances and we did that. I think that’s why we won.”


EMPTY NETTERS: Earlier in the day, Peebs’ rookie defenseman Dennis Reul was released from his ATO. Reul, Boston’s fifth round draftee in 2007, will get a full shot to make the Providence club in September. The Bruins did add defenseman Alain Goulet, whom they chose one round later that same year. Goulet most recently played for the Gatineau Olympiques, after having skated collegiately for Nebraska-Omaha for parts of two seasons…The Pirates were missing defenseman Mike Kostka, who incurred an injury to his right leg, Friday in Providence. Kostka, who hadn’t missed a game all year, took the pre-game skate, but was unable to play. Also, defenseman Chris Butler was absent due to a family emergency. Their places were taken by blue liners Matt Generous and Dennis Persson…Portland now has 10 defensemen on the active roster, after adding Sabre draft choices T.J. Brennan and Drew Schiestel, both of whom wound up their junior seasons this week. Brennan and Schiestel were Buffalo both second rounders in 2007.

Comments

[eric]

Was Reul released because of the Worlds or because they had seen enough, I thought he was decent the few times the played.