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Affiliate Report: Shorthanded Providence suffers setback in home loss to Hartford

With several key contributors for Providence filling in at the NHL level, a severely undermanned P-Bruins team dropped a tough game on Thursday.

By Dan Shulman
Providence Bruins v Laval Rocket
Anton Blidh.
Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Five days following a 6-1 thrashing of Hartford on the road, the Providence Bruins were flying high. With Jeremy Swayman back from the Boston taxi squad, there was no sign of Providence being derailed atop the Atlantic Division.

But some uncharacteristically undisciplined play, and a rusty-looking Swayman saw a four-game winning streak come to a crashing end with a 4-2 loss to Hartford at New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Mass. last Thursday. Providence fell behind just eight minutes into the opening frame, surrendering a power play goal. Thirty seconds later, the wheels came off.

Defenseman Ian McKinnon was slapped with an instigator penalty, a fighting major, and a 10-minute misconduct. The Wolfpack scored on the ensuing power play — the first of Morgan Barron’s two goals on the day.

Hartford added another goal before the first period came to an end, followed by a fourth goal midway through the second period from Barron.

Swayman hung tough, shutting down the Wolfpack for the remainder of the day, while Providence showed some fight in mounting a bit of a comeback.

Goals from Anton Blidh and Robert Lantosi cut the lead in half, but it was too little too late. Another misconduct on McKinnon capped off a frustrating game for Providence, who was without the likes of Dan Vladar, Zach Senyshyn, Karson Kuhlman, Jack Ahcan, Oskar Steen, and Jack Studnicka due to injury and COVID shortages with the NHL club.

Player of the Week: Anton Blidh — Good to see this prospect is still contributing at the lower level as he remains an important piece of organizational depth. Blidh finished the game with a goal, three shots, and a plus-one rating.

A stick tap to the other scorer Robert Lantosi as well, who led the way with six shots.

Up next: Back to some consistent action this week for Providence. It starts on Wednesday with a 1 p.m. matchup at Bridgeport. Followed by a new opponent on Saturday with a trip to face the Utica Comets at 3 p.m. To close out the week, Bridgeport pays a visit to Marlborough on Monday at 1 p.m.