Providence masters the Blues

Despite being the worst team in the Junior League - by far - the Providence Bruins entered Saint Louis intent on keeping their chins up.

While doing made them much more likely to get a cheap shot to the chin from Percy Foley's Tiny Thug Notes (they represented U-Town quite well), the Bruins skated tall - and apparently better than the Tiny Notes.

The first period was quiet save for two penalties, split between the teams. The capacity crowd of 10,000 booed at the figure skating going on, and was good and excited for the second period.


The action they really wanted didn't come. At 00:55, Martin Samuelsson made Joni Puurula look as effective as a statue getting pooped on by birds. Zach Tarkir and Pierre-Luc Edmond fed him the assists on the goal to move Providence out to a 1-0 lead. While St. Louis retaliated just over thirty seconds later to tie the game on Greg Black's seventeenth goal of the year, the momentum would not last long.

The Baby Bruins struck again at 07:10 on Rick Kozack's thirteenth siren-spinner to reclaim the lead, while Jiri Jakes intercepted an errant Antoine Bergeron pass and broke away for an easy goal for minutes subsequent. Just for good measure, he resumed his role as punk at 14:30 when whistled for a cross checking minor.

The action had been pretty furious in the period, but the home team went into the second intermission down 3-1 and with a sputtering offense that was being outshot eighteen to fifteen. The fans were drove to the bars at intermission to ger a beer to drown their worries (Budweiser, of course - this is St. Louis).

The third period did not boost the confidence of Tiny Note fans. Offsetting roughing penalties by Andrej Meszaros and Justin Maiser left four-on-four hockey for two minutes, though neither team capitalized on the open ice. A minute after the penalties ended, though, Andreas Lindstrom poked the puck loose from Bergreon again, fed it to Brett Nowak, who then wrapped around to beat Puurula for the fourth and final Bruins goal of the night. Gregg Johnson added a garbage goal with twenty-seconds left in the period to make the game look closer than it was.

Brock Hooten claimed his first victory of the season on twenty-two saves off twenty-four shots to improve to 1-3-0. Jordan Sigalet has rested for multiple nights, so is expected to be back on ice tomorrow, but the coaching crew has said that will be a game time decision. Brett Nowak (1-0-1) and Rick Kozack (1-0-1) claimed the first and second game stars, while Hooten was awarded the third.