Hartford's Boo Nieves shown scoring what would turn out to be the

game-winning goal on a power play in the second period.

By Matt Morin





HARTFORD –Boo Nieves scored the game-winning goal on a second-period power play, and Chris Nell made 21 saves Saturday night at the XL Center, as the Hartford Wolf Pack defeated the Providence Bruins, 2-1, in front of a season-high crowd of 9,021.





Lias Andersson also scored for the Wolf Pack, who won for the seventh time in their last eight home games, and Peter Cehlarik had the only Providence goal.





Saturday night’s game was a defensive battle for the first thirty minutes, with neither team finding a way to put any pucks into the net, and the first goal of the game did not prove to be any different. Andersson hung tough in front of the net amongst a host of Bruins defenders and found a way to tap in a stopped shot from Brendan Smith, to break the 0-0 tie at 10:32 of the period.





Smith said, “I got lucky finding [Andersson] going to the net hard and was able to put him in a good position.” Smith was credited with an assist on that goal.





Just a few moments later, Anton Blidh was sent to the box for holding and the Hartford power play unit, which came into the game ranked eighth in the AHL, went to work. Off a faceoff in the Providence zone, Scott Kosmachuk found an open Ryan Sproul at the blue line, and he took a few steps to the net and fired a rocket towards Jordan Binnington. The Providence netminder was able to put a shoulder on the shot, but Nieves was there to clean up the rebound and score. Sproul’s assist extended his point streak to five games, and he now has a point in seven of his last eight. With 6:01 left in the second period the Wolf Pack led the Bruins, 2-0.





The job was not done yet, though. At 7:38 of the third period, Cehlarik found a way to sneak one past Nell to put the Bruins on the board and cut the Wolf Pack’s lead in half. Cehlarik’s goal came on a re-direction of a shot from the left point by Emil Johansson. Other than the goal from Cehlarik, the Pack’s defense had a stellar performance.





An Adam Tambellini tripping penalty with 1:14 left in regulation, and when Providence pulled Binnington it gave the P-Bruins a six-on-four advantage. However, the Pack were able to stonewall multiple Providence shot attempts in the last game's final 70 seconds and cleared the puck to ice the game.





“I liked our back end. I thought we played a heavy game back there,” Wolf Pack head coach Keith McCambridge said. “Sproul and Smith, obviously lots of experience there, we were able to get pucks back in coverage and advance them up to our forwards, let them do their job.”





Smith thought the Wolf Pack did a better job Saturday, compared to Friday night’s 4-2 loss to Hershey, with, “smarter plays [and] smarter reads, and that was best for us with the outcome.”





The Wolf Pack and Bruins complete a home-and-home set this afternoon in Providence, with faceoff at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center at 3:05 p.m. All of the action can be heard live on News Radio 1410 WPOP, and on-line at www.newsradio1410.com and iHeartRadio . Video streaming is available at www.ahllive.com





The Wolf Pack’s next home game on Saturday, March 3, also vs. the P-Bruins, with faceoff at 3 p.m. Saturday will be “Military Appreciation Day” at the XL Center, with the first 2,000 fans through the turnstiles receiving Wolf Pack “Dog Tags” presented by Go Graphix. In addition, the Wolf Pack players will wear special military-themed jerseys which will be auctioned off, with proceeds benefitting military-related charities.





at the Agera Energy Ticket Office at the XL Center, on-line at Season ticket information for the Wolf Pack’s 2017-18 AHL season can be found on-line at www.hartfordwolfpack.com . To speak with a representative about all of the Wolf Pack’s ticketing options, call (855) 762-6451 Tickets for all remaining Wolf Pack 2017-18 home games are on sale nowon-line at www.hartfordwolfpack.com and by phone at (877) 522-8499



