After going neck-and-neck with Springfield for 10 periods, the Bruins finally pulled away with a dominating third period last night.
Providence outshot the Thunderbirds 20-3 over the final 20 minutes of the series, scored four goals, and moved on to the division semifinals with a 5-1 victory.
Head coach Ryan Mougenel – who returned to the Bruins bench Sunday after taking a personal leave on Apr. 9 to attend to a family matter – was pleased to see his players take charge of the game and the series.
“They’re a real amazing group to be around,” Mougenel said. “I can’t say enough about our leadership. They made the decision to go to work and they got rewarded for it.”
Providence finished 16 points ahead of sixth-place Springfield in the regular season, but Mougenel knew better than to overlook the Thunderbirds, especially in a short best-of-three series.
“It’s actually one matchup we really didn’t want,” he said. “They’re extremely well coached. I think (Matthew) Peca’s one of the best players in the league and he showed it all series. And obviously their goaltending… It could have gone either way.”
The Cleveland Monsters will host Game 1 of their North Division semifinal series against Laval this week.
But when will that game be played? That will be determined tonight.
The Monsters and Rocket are tentatively scheduled to open on Wednesday night. But the Monsters’ fellow residents at Rocket Arena, the Cleveland Cavaliers, are also scheduled to play Wednesday night in what would be Game 5 of their NBA playoff series against the Miami Heat.
The Cavs currently lead that series, three games to none. If they finish the sweep in Game 4 tonight, the building would be available on Wednesday for the Calder Cup series to begin.
If the Cavaliers lose tonight, however, Game 1 between the Monsters and Rocket would move to Thursday.
