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April 14, 2007

P-Bruins clinch playoff berth with 2-0 win

You can’t play for the Calder Cup unless you make it into the playoffs first.

The Providence Bruins assured themselves of at least that much of a shot at the Cup, last night, by clinching their Atlantic Division post-season spot, with their 2-0 win over the cellar-dwelling Springfield Falcons, before 5,716 at the MassMutual Center.

Jay Leach and Matt Lashoff provided the goals, and goalie Hannu Toivonen stopped all 22 Falcon shots for the shutout his second of the season. It was also his 11th of the his career, tying him for the franchise record with his good friend, Tim Thomas.

The P-Bruins’ final seeding won’t be settled until this afternoon’s regular season finale with the Atlantic champion Manchester Monarchs.

They could finish as high as third in the division and face the second place Hartford WolfPack, or remain in fourth and meet the Monarchs.

In either case, they would commence their best of seven series on the road with games Wednesday and Friday, before returning home to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center for games Saturday and Tuesday (both set to face off at 7:05 p.m.).

Providence now has a string of eight straight playoff appearances, and have made the post season in 12 of the 14 years the franchise has been in business.

Still, not content with the notion of backing into their post-season spot, the P-Bruins stormed out of the gate, amassing at one point, a 13-4 shot advantage on Springfield.

But they couldn’t put a shot past Falcon goalie Jonathan Boutin (32 saves) until Leach did it on a power play at 10:53 of the second period.

Leach was stationed in the lower part of the left circle when David Krejci hit him with a deft centering pass from behind the net. Leach promptly laced it past Boutin from a tight angle for just his second goal in 73 games this season.

Matters soon turned contentious when Leach tangled with former Bruin draftee Kyle Wanvig, and later, defenseman Dwayne Zinger traded blows with Mitch Fritz, Springfield‘s 6-foot-8 behemoth.

Providence wound up receiving an extended power play out of the melee, and cashed it in, when Lashoff fired in his 11th goal of the season at the 1:00 mark of the third frame.

Krejci had been stopped twice at the left post by Boutin, but Nathan Dempsey grabbed the rebound and fed it back to Lashoff for the slapshot.

From then on, it was cruise to the finish.

--DAN HICKLING (Special to the Journal)

Posted by Corey Bourassa  at 9:34 PM to P-Bruins | Permalink

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