PORTLAND, ME – In a tight battle, the Providence Bruins beat the Portland Pirates at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine on Thursday night 2-1. The Bruins victory puts them up three games to one as they head to “The Dunk” Friday night for game five, a Providence victory will eliminate their bitter rival. After squandering their first power play opportunity, Portland scored their only goal of the night at 11:55 of the first period. Mark Mancari scored his first goal of the series with assists to Marek Zagrapan and Tim Kennedy. Portland is now 0 for 14 on the power play in this series. Their two leading regular season goal scorers, Martin Gerbe and Mathieu Darche, have zero points between them. Twenty-four goal scorer, Colton Fretter has also been shut down offensively by the stingy P-Bruins. A penalty shot by Colin Murphy was thwarted at the 17:50 mark, on a big stop by Bruin goaltender Tuukka Rask. For his efforts Rask was named the number one star of the game. The second period began with a great save by Rask five minutes into the period. Two consecutive power plays for Providence led to numerous shots, but Pirates netminder, Jhonas Enroth was up to the task and he stopped all the Bruins chances. At the 17:13 mark, the Bruins got a good bounce as Johnny Boychuk’s shot was tipped in by Brad Marchand, who netted his second goal of the series. An assist was also credited to Martin St. Pierre. That tied the game at 1-1 and was followed two minutes and thirty seconds later with a top shelf goal by Bruins right winger Kirk MacDonald. His first goal of the series was assisted by captain Jeremy Reich and center Wacey Rabbit. That goal put the Bruins into the dressing room up 2-1 and gave them their first lead of the night. It was a lead they would not relinquish. The third period action was filled with very tight checking and solid goaltending on both sides. An ill-advised cross checking penalty to Providence’s Rabbit with about five minutes remaining made for some anxious moments, but there would be no tying goal. Providence outshot the Pirates for the third game in a row, 37-32. The Bruins were scoreless in three chances on the power play while the Pirates were scoreless in two opportunities. As previously mentioned, Rask was the number one star, Enroth number two, and MacDonald was number three.
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