Providence, RI – The Providence Bruins defeated the Bridgeport Sound Tigers Saturday night 4-2, clinching a place in the 2018 Calder Cup Playoffs. The P-Bruins got goals from Jeremy Lauzon, Colton Hargrove, Paul Postma and Austin Czarnik while Jordan Binnington made his 26th start of the season in net.
After a slow start for both sides, Providence opened up the scoring at 6:29. Cam Hughes started the play up the right side, leading Trent Frederic into the offensive zone. Frederic fed Lauzon at the left dot, and his wrister beat Bridgeport goalie Chris Gibson top left corner. Lauzon’s first professional goal was the only tally of the period as the P-Bruins took a 1-0 lead into the intermission.
Ryan Hitchcock tied things up on the power play at 6:09, blasting a one-timer in for his third goal of the season to make it 1-1. The Providence offense took over from there, netting the next two goals of the period to retake the lead. At 8:52, the team took advantage of a power play of their own when Jakub Zboril blasted a slapper towards Gibson that Adam Payerl tipped. Hargrove grabbed the rebound in front and scored his 16th goal of the season to give Providence a 2-1 lead. Postma doubled that lead with 2:55 to play in the second, scoring his first goal as a P-Bruin. Jack Studnicka entered the zone and after skating the puck around the back of the net found Hargrove in the right wing corner. He fed Postma alone at the point, and his blast beat everyone to send Providence to the locker room up 3-1.
Czarnik put the game well out of reach 10:59 with the team’s second power play goal of the night. Tommy Cross looked over his options and passed the puck back door to Czarnik in the right slot. He ripped home his team-leading 23rd goal and 12th power play goal of the season and Providence went up 4-1. A late shorthanded goal from Jeff Kubiak was too little too late for Bridgeport as Providence won 4-2 win to clinch a place in the 2018 Calder Cup Playoffs.
Binnington stopped 23 of 25 shots while Gibson stopped 19 of 23. Providence was 2-6 on the power play and 3-4 on the penalty kill.
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