P-Bruins Magic Number Down to Four After 3-1 Win over Penguins
March 31, 2018 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Providence Bruins News Release
Wilkes-Barre, PA - The Providence Bruins defeated the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins Saturday night 3-1 to take the season-series with their division rival. The P-Bruins got goals from Adam Payerl, Trent Frederic and Jordan Szwarz while Jordan Binnington made his 25th start of the season in net. With the win, the magic number to clinch a playoff spot is down to four.
Providence found themselves shorthanded twice early in the period, but the penalty killers provided a boost by completely shutting down Wilkes-Barre's attack. At 14:06, a former Penguin gave the P-Bruins a 1-0 lead with a power play goal. Colby Cave won the face off to Sena Acolatse and he fired a shot towards Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry. He made the stop, but Payerl was alone in front to backhanded the rebound in for his seventh goal of the season.
With 2:12 remaining in the opening period, Frederic took advantage of poor defense to double the Providence lead. A Wilkes-Barre defender knocked the puck away from behind Frederic, but a host of Penguins couldn't stop Providence from keeping possession. In a quick sequence, Szwarz tapped the puck to Frederic who beat Jarry for his second career goal to give the P-Bruins a 2-0 lead. The Penguins responded with 1:10 remaining in the period, using a turnover in the Providence defensive zone to get Jean-Sebastien Dea his 16th goal of the season and cut the P-Bruins lead to 2-1 after 20 minutes.
After a scoreless second period, Providence gave themselves some breathing room with their second power play goal of the night. The P-Bruins used some quick tic-tac-toe passing to set up their goal at 8:32. Austin Czarnik from the halfboards sent the puck to Ryan Fitzgerald at the goaline. He tapped it out to Szwarz in the slot and he buried his 20th goal of the season. Binnington did the rest in net as Providence went on to the 3-1 victory at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Binnington stopped 34 of 35 shots while Jarry stopped 24 of 27. Providence was 2-6 on the power play and 5-5 on the penalty kill. The P-Bruins conclude their four-game road trip in Bridgeport when they take on the Sound Tigers for their only morning game of the season and only Tuesday game of the season at 10:30am. A win in regulation would clinch a postseason berth for Providence for the sixth straight season.
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