Florek,
Trotman, and Tremblay All Contribute
March 27,
2012
By Thomas
Chace Jr.
Recent
weekends have not been kind to the Providence Bruins of late. Several weeks ago their starting goaltender,
Anton Khudobin suffered a glove hand injury trying to play the puck in a game
in which Providence led, but ultimately lost.
The next two games were losses as well and then Boston lost the services
of their netminder, Tuukka Rask to injury. Providence was forced to turn to Karel St.
Laurent and Adam Courchaine when Providence’s other goalie Michael Hutchinson
was recalled by Boston.
At the
same time, due to a rash of injuries on both Bruins teams, many players
shuffled up and down Rt. 95 or could not play altogether. When you’re battling for your playoff life,
this was not the best case scenario for Head Coach Bruce Cassidy.
However,
this past weekend brought much needed relief.
Several college students made Providence their spring break destination
and the team, with Khudobin’s return has rebounded with enthusiasm and
wins. A six point weekend has the
Providence Bruins just two points out of the eighth and final playoff spot in
the Eastern Conference.
Justin
Florek was Friday night’s unlikely hero. He arrived in Providence around 1:00
am in the morning from Northern Michigan University, practiced at 10:30 with
his new team, signed an ATO agreement at 5:00 pm, and then promptly went out
and scored 2 goals and got 2 assists leading Providence to a 5-2 victory over
one of the many teams ahead of them, the Manchester Monarchs. Florek was not supposed to even play but
sickness to Colby Cohen put Florek in the lineup as the 13th forward.
Florek
was still running on adrenaline after the game.
“It was fun. It’s been a pretty hectic day. I never had four points in a game in my whole
college career.” A secondary education
major, he will finish this semester, do some student teaching, and then
complete his degree after his pursuit of an NHL career ends.
Saturday
night’s battle in Connecticut was another test against a division leader. On this night, it was newcomer Zach Trotman,
a 6’4” defenseman from Lake Superior State who scored the winning goal in the
third period to beat the Whale 3-2.
Trotman arrived in Providence on Friday night and with Cohen still out
on Saturday was inserted into the P-Bruins lineup. Florek’s screen in front of the Whale net
allowed Trotman to register his first professional goal in his first pro game.
Sunday in
Providence the Bruins faced yet another team in front of them in the standings,
old foe, the Portland Pirates. Clarkson
University product Nicolas Tremblay had only played in two games thus far for
Providence but today was his day in the sun.
Tremblay scored with just 6:42 left in regulation to tie the game at
1-1. After a scoreless overtime, the
teams prepared for the shootout.
Providence scored on all four of their shootout attempts including one by
our latest spring breaker, Tremblay.
Providence won 2-1 to complete a six point weekend and a yellow hard hat
was given to Tremblay by his teammates for his efforts on Sunday.
Anton
Khudobin made a strong return from his wrist injury allowing just four goals in
two games. He faced 65 shots in those
two games and with Rask still out in Boston and Marty Turco unable to play in
the NHL playoffs, the scuttlebutt has Khudobin possibly being recalled to
Boston early this week.
Spring of
course, brings hope, and to Providence a well deserved break. Those college kids just re-energized the
franchise for the weekend, now they hope to pull off a great run and get into
the playoffs. Of course, none of those
boys will be eligible to play, but that’s ok.
After the
six point weekend, Coach Cassidy said, “Two or three weeks ago, it didn’t look
good. We were losing bodies and games,
but all of a sudden we’re back in it. Why not us? We’ve given ourselves a chance and that’s
good for all the guys.” Agreed.
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