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While the Boston Bruins struggle to get regulation wins at the NHL level, their affiliates have endured similar struggles over the past couple weeks.
Although AHL affiliate Providence remains one of the top teams in the league, the last couple weekends haven’t been kind. As for the ECHL Atlanta Gladiators, they’ve started to play better after a rough December, but still didn’t get a full slate of positive results.
Providence Bruins
It’s always tough to play three games in as many days, as most AHL teams are accustomed to doing on weekends.
For the Providence Bruins, the first weekend of January saw the Charlotte Checkers come to town and ended in a sweep for the road team. It was the fourth straight loss for the P-Bruins, coming on the back-end of a Friday night defeat to the Hartford Wolfpack.
In Friday’s defeat to Hartford, the game was tied with under a minute to play when Vinnie Lettieri scored the winner. Tim Gettinger provided an empty netter, his second of the night, with five seconds left to steal two points for Hartford.
Providence scored just once over the next two nights against Charlotte, losing 4-0 and 4-1 to the Checkers. Max Lagace had 39 saves on Saturday night while Dan Vladar turned aside 29 shots the following day.
Player of the Weekend: Anton Blidh
He only played in two games during the weekend and didn’t record a point, but he was the one making the most happen offensively by firing eight total shots.
NEXT UP: It’s a home-and-home series next weekend for Providence as they do battle with the Springfield Falcons. Saturday night will be a 7 p.m. puck drop on the road followed by a home matinee at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Atlanta Gladiators
After a miserable stretch of play in much of December, Atlanta has suddenly won three of its last five games including a pair of overtime victories. Those two defeats both came to the South Carolina Stingrays. They also beat the Stingrays once along with the Norfolk Admirals and Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
This past weekend, Atlanta took down Norfolk on Saturday night in its first game following the New Years’ holiday. Goaltender Chris Nell turned away 19 shots in the win for Atlanta. But on Sunday, a trip to South Carolina ended in a 3-2 defeat. Anthony Collins had a big game for the Gladiators with a goal and an assist.
Player of the Weekend: Logan Nelson
The forward helped set up the winning goal on Saturday and also scored a late first period tally himself against Norfolk. He ended that night with six shots, followed by another pair of shots on Sunday.
NEXT UP: It’ll be a busy week for the Gladiators. On Tuesday, Atlanta wraps up a two-game series at South Carolina before returning home to start a five game homestand.
Three of those home games will be this week against Greenville, the Jacksonville Icemen, and a rare visit from the Brampton Beast of the North Division.