Bruins Spoil T-Birds Home Finale
Apr 14, 2018The Springfield Thunderbirds (32-36-5-2) welcomed 6,793 fans for the team's ninth sellout at the MassMutual Center, but the Providence Bruins (44-26-3-2) spoiled the party in a 5-0 win on Saturday night.
The Thunderbirds were guilty of a slow start on Friday against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but they started quicker on Saturday, with Alex Grenier flinging a wrister off the post just nine seconds into action.
Springfield register five of the game’s first seven shots, but could not beat Zane McIntyre, who stopped eight total shots in the first period.
At the other end, the Bruins got only six in the direction of Sam Montembeault, but the special teams were magical for Providence, beginning with a power play goal for rookie Jack Studnicka at 8:53. The goal, assisted by Kenny Agostino and Tommy Cross, was the first professional tally for the first-year pro out of the Oshawa Generals of the OHL.
After the power play tally, the Bruins then did the job shorthanded, with Adam Payerl setting up Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson on a 2-on-1 rush, with the latter picking up his 14th goal of the season to make it 2-0 at 13:32 of the first.
Providence got more of the same early in the second period, beginning with a Payerl power play wrist shot over Montembeault’s glove at 2:56 of the middle period.
Forsbacka-Karlsson added another just under four minutes later when he moved to the middle from the left-wing side and snapped another high-glove wrist shot past Montembeault. That made it 4-0 at 6:34.
Montembeault would be relieved of the net in favor of Harri Sateri, who, in turn, stopped the first 10 shots he saw to close the second period.
The Bruins added one more in the third, as Kenny Agostino punched a pass from Forsbacka-Karlsson through Sateri at 10:03.
McIntyre picked up his league-high seventh shutout, stopping 24 total offerings by the time the night came to a close.