Frederic's Hat Trick Helps P-Bruins Clinch Playoff Spot
April 13, 2019 - American Hockey League (AHL) - Providence Bruins News Release
Springfield, MA - The Providence Bruins defeated the Springfield Thunderbirds Saturday night 5-3, clinching the fourth seed in the 2019 Calder Cup Playoffs. It is the seventh consecutive postseason berth for the team and their 22nd in 27 seasons. The P-Bruins got a hat-trick from Trent Frederic along with goals from Lee Stempniak and Anton Blidh while Dan Vladar made his 30th start of the season in net.
After a slow offensive start for both sides, Springfield netted the first goal of the night 11:27 into the first period. Dryden Hunt won a puck battle behind the net and centered to Juho Lammikko in the slot. With room to shoot, he fired a wrister by the glove a Vladar for his fifth goal of the season and gave the T-Birds a 1-0 lead. The score could have been much more lopsided, but Vladar made several tough stops on chances in close. His sharp play kept Providence within striking distance as they trailed only 1-0 into the intermission.
The second period was the Trent Frederic show, as he netted a trio of goals for his first career hat-trick. He started his scoring barrage 42 seconds into the period, stripping a defender to start the break before beating Samuel Montembeault with a wrister. Jakub Zboril and Ryan Fitzgerald picked up assists on his 12th goal of the year and the P-Bruins tied things up 1-1. Bobby Farnham scored for Springfield midway through the period to help them regain the lead, but Frederic and Pond teammed up for the game-tying shorthanded goal at 12:47. Pond stole the puck to start a 2-on-1 break, deked a defender and sent a spinning pass to a waiting Frederic. All he had to do was hit the open net for his second goal of the night and the game was tied again 2-2. At 15:41, Frederic gave Providence their first lead of the night with his 14th goal of the year and third of the game. With assists from Fitzgerald and Peter Cehlarik, he shot a long wrister through traffic by Montembeault to make the score 3-2 Bruins after 40 minutes.
Stempniak gave Providence some breathing room 5:22 into the third with his seventh goal of the season. While on the power play, Cehlarik sent a centering feed to Stempniak who was cutting in from the point. He tipped it by Montembeault for the goal and gave the P-Bruins a 4-2 lead. Anthony Greco scored a 5-on-3 power play goal midway through the third to cut the Springfield deficit to one, but an empty net goal from Blidh sealed a 5-3 Providence victory. The win secured a playoff spot for the Bruins, who qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs for a seventh consecutive season.
Vladar stopped 16-19 shots while Montembeault stopped 35-39 shots. Providence was 1-3 on the power play and 6-7 on the penalty kill. The P-Bruins are back in action tomorrow afternoon for their regular season finale when they welcome the T-Birds to the Dunk for a 3:05pm face off.
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