Fresh off his 1st All-Star game, rookie Niklas Svedberg earned 1st star in Providence’s 3-2 shootout win over Bridgeport on Thursday night. He is one of the AHL leaders in many goaltending categories, including wins.
Bummed about the Boston Bruins loss? Me too. But here is some great news: the baby Bruins won in a shootout tonight in a come-from-behind shootout victory against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Craig Cunningham and Jamie Tardif scored in regulation, Torey Krug had 2 assists, and Carter Camper had the deciding shootout goal to give the P-Bruins a 23-16-0-3 record on the season. They are now at 49 points – only 3 points behind the Atlantic division-leading Portland Pirates!
Niklas Svedberg made 34 saves and stopped all 5 Bridgeport shooters in the shootout, earning his the 1st star of the game. The Bruins out-shot the Sound Tigers 41-36 on the night.
Ty Wishart scored both goals for Bridgeport, including the opening goal of the game at 18:05 of the 1st period. It was his 3rd of the season, assisted by Matt Watkins.
Cunningham scored a huge goal before the end of the 1st period to tie the game at 1. The P-Bruins were on the power play, and Cunningham notched his 9th of the season 25 seconds remaining in the period, with assists from Camper and Krug.
Wishart scored his 4th of the season and 2nd of the game at 13:08 of the 2nd period on the power play from John Persson and Watkins. Bridgeport held a 2-1 lead until 14:47 of the 3rd period, when Tardif scored his team-leading 21st goal of the season from Ryan Spooner and Krug.
Garnet Exelby took a tripping penalty with 1 minute left in the 3rd period, and Providence successfully killed off the power play for the remainder of regulation and into overtime. The two teams remained tied and went into a shootout, where Spooner, Tardif, Max Sauve, and Cunningham all were shut down by Bridgeport goaltender Kevin Poulin before Camper scored on the last shot. Svedberg shut out all 5 shooters for Bridgeport to secure the win – his 20th of the season.
Bobby Robins, sporting one of the alternate captain ‘A’s on his sweater tonight, dropped the gloves with fighting opponent of the past, Brett Gallant, about halfway through the 1st period. Tyler Randell, playing for the sick Christian Hanson, fought with Bridgeport’s Jordan Hill a few minutes later. Providence went 1-for-2 on the power play and Bridgeport was 1-for-4.
Krug also led all Bruins skaters with 6 shots on net, followed by 5 shots from Justin Florek. Jordan Caron, in his 2nd game back from injury, recorded 2 shots and no points.
Ryan Spooner, as Mark Divver of the Providence Journal points out, has had an excellent month of January:
Spooner dished to Tardif for late tying goal. Puts wraps on very good Jan. for rookie — better than pt. per game since returning…from injury. 2-9-11 in 10 games. Maybe most impressive stat is his team-high plus-9.
Lots of Bruins seem to be getting hot heading into crucial months down the stretch. Camper had 11 points in January after totaling only 14 in the previous 3 months. In the last 3 games, Camper had 5 points. Cunningham also has a 3-game point streak, notching a point per game. Torey Krug has been particularly hot with 6 points in the last 3 games and 8 of his 14 points on the season coming in the month of January.
Things could get very exciting for this team if things keep going this way! They host the Albany Devils at the Dunkin Donuts Center tomorrow night to kick off the month of February.
Update: Apparently Caron took a slapshot to the face tonight, according to this facebook. He uploaded this picture:
A Cup A Bruin 