P-Bruins Fall 4-3 in Donato's Team Debut
November 2, 2018 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Providence Bruins News Release
Charlotte, NC - The Providence Bruins fell to the Charlotte Checkers Friday night 4-3 in the first game of their two-game series. The P-Bruins got goals from Jan Kovar, Trent Frederic and Jordan Szwarz while Dan Vladar made his fifth start of the season in net.
Kovar put Providence on the board early in the first period with a blast between the circles. Jordan Szwarz and Ryan Fitzgerald brought the puck up the left side 2-on-2 in a broken play, and the puck trickled out to a trailing Kovar with space. He picked up his third goal in four games at 3:36 to give the P-Bruins a 1-0 lead. Shortly after taking the lead, a bad bounce led to a gift-goal for Charlotte. Patrick Brown was only trying to chip the puck into his zone from center ice, but the bouncing puck went through Vladar to tie the game 1-1. Morgan Geekie gave the Checkers a 2-1 lead midway through the period thanks to tic-tac-toe passing on the power play. Greg McKegg and Janne Kuokkanen made quick passes from dot-to-dot and quickly fed Geekie backdoor for an easy tap-in goal to give Charlotte the lead heading into the intermission.
The second period was a rough one for Providence, as they were not only outshot 9-3 but also gave up a pair of special teams goals. The first came midway through the period as Saku Maenalanen sniped home a shorthanded chance. Ryan Donato originally created the power play by speeding up the left side and drawing a hooking call, giving his team a golden chance to tie things up. However, Maenalanen gained possession of the puck in the neutral zone and beat Vladar's glove-hand to make it 3-1 Charlotte. With 4:20 left in the period, Trevor Carrick made it 4-1 Checkers on the power play. Josiah Didier received the puck from Geekie at the right point and fired a slapper towards Vladar. Carrick cut in front and got his stick on the puck, deflecting it in for his first goal of the season and giving his team a 4-1 lead after two periods.
The P-Bruins would not go down without a fight in the third, cutting their deficit to 4-2 at 13:29. Karson Kuhlman grabbed the puck in the right wing corner and fed Frederic in the slot. His shot snuck under the pad of Alex Nedeljkovic for his fifth goal of the season and the Checkers lead was cut to two. With 1:23 left, that lead was trimmed to one with Vladar pulled for an extra attacker. Donato blasted a slap-shot from the point towards Nedeljkovic with host of Bruins in front. The puck deflected off of Szwarz and in for his first goal of the season, but that is where the comeback ended as Providence fell 4-3.
Vladar stopped 20-24 shots while Nedeljkovic stopped 21-24. Providence was 0-3 on the power play and 2-4 on the penalty kill. The P-Bruins are back in action again tomorrow night at Bojangles' Coliseum when they take on the Checkers for game two of this two-game series at 6pm.
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