PIRATES BLASTED BY BRUINS

Pirate Goalie Jhonas Enroth (CMSB/Pierre's of Exchange St)

The Providence Bruins came to play Sunday. The Portland Pirates not so much. The Bruins beat the Pirates 5 - 1, to take a 2 - 1 Series lead over the Pirates. Pirates Coach Kevin Dineen was not impressed by his team's effort.

"(I saw) a flatness...we haven't seen in a long time," said Dineen. "That is the one complaint I haven't had (of) my players, is the lack of effort and composure and those were 2 pieces of the puzzle that were missing tonight."

The Bruins dominated every statistical category. 44 - 26 shots on goal, 2 - 6 on the Power Play with a shorthanded goal compared to 0 - 6 for the Pirates and 25 Penalty Minutes to 45 for the Pirates.

The 1st half of the 1st period was a back and forth game with both teams playing solid D. The Pirates were without both Mike Kostka (injury) and Chris Butler (family emergency), so the defensive pairings were much different for this game.

The Bruins broke the ice on scoring at the 13:58 mark of the 1st period as Martin St Pierre scored his 1st goal of the playoffs. St Pierre beat Pirates goalie Jhonas Enroth on a pretty wrist shot from the slot to put the Bruins up 1 - 0. Defensive hockey reigned for the rest of the 1st Period, ending with Providence holding the 1 - 0 lead.

The Bruins took complete control of the game in the 1st 7 minutes of the 2nd period. Brad Marchand got things going just 59 seconds in when, along with St Pierre, moved in on one of many odd man rushes for Providence and Marchand buried the puck past Enroth for the 2 - 0 lead.

Things got out of hand quickly for the Pirates, even with a 5 on 3 advantage.

The Bruins Adam McQuaid and Ryan Stokes went off within 15 seconds of each other to give the Pirates the 5 - 3 advantage. After a couple of sloppy rushes by the Pirates, Tim Kennedy got called for interference to brings things to a 4 on 3.

It only took Vladimir Sobotka 5 seconds to steal a pass from Tim Murphy, rush into Pirates defensive zone and hit Johnny Boychuck for a quick blast. Enroth made the initial save but with no defensive help, left the rebound to his right, where Sobotka buried the backbreaker into a wide open net for the 3 - 0 lead.

"It always hurts," said Pirates Forward Nathan Gerbe."Whenever you get scored on your power play, it stinks."

" The first five minutes of the 2nd period were a death toll for us," said Dineen. "You get a 5 on 3..and then you are down by 4 goals."

Providence's scoring was finished off by 2 blue line bombs from Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk. The 1st bomb lead to Enroth leaving in favor of Kellen Briggs.

Things got interesting late in the 2nd when Bruins winger Jordan Knackstedt took down Pirates defenseman Kenny MacAulay behind the Pirates goal. MacAulay came up shoving and all hell broke loose. Kyle Rank, the only Pirate with hustle and gritty play all night, took on Bruins defenseman David Kolomatis for a few lefts and rights, until the refs broke it up. When all was said an done, 6 players were nailed with 46 penalty minutes, including 2 10 minute misconduct penalties.

The lone Pirate goal came late in the 3rd from Derek Whitmore, at the 11:57 mark.

Providence goalie Tuukka Rask was happy about the Bruins performance.

"(It was a) solid effort," said Rask. "A complete 60-minute effort."

Dineen concurred.

"They beat us in pretty well every aspect of the game,"said Dineen.

SERIES NOTES

The Pirates Top Scoring line has 0 points through 3 games, compared to the Bruins Top Line which has 16 points...The Portland Pirates are 0-13 on the power play

POST GAME AUDIO

Pirates Coach Kevin Dineen

Pirates Winger Derek Whitmore
Pirates Winger Nathan Gerbe
Providence Bruins Goalie Tuukka Rask