Scranton-WB evens series with P-Bruins in overtime

PROVIDENCE — The Providence Bruins fell to the WilkesBarre Scranton Penguins Sunday afternoon 6-5 in overtime as their series is now knotted at 1-1. The PBruins got goals from Tommy Cross, Danton Heinen, Peter Mueller and two from Chris Porter while Zane McIntyre earned his second straight playoff start in net.

After a scoreless first, former PBruin David Warsofsky scored twice in 23 seconds in what became a wild second period. A slap-shot from the top of the point on a power play and a blast off a Kevin Porter faceoff at the right blue line made things 2-0 Penguins. Tom Sestito made it 3-0 at 9:45, but Porter responded seven seconds later while the teams were playing 4-4. Matt Grzelcyk sent a pass across the blue line to Alex Grant at the left point. Grant’s slap-pass into the crease found Porter, who tipped in his first goal of the playoffs to make it 3-1 Penguins after 40 minutes.

The scoring was just beginning for Providence, as Porter netted his second of the game at 17:11. Austin Czarnik sent a pass to Grant at the right point, and his one-timer was stopped but knocked loose in the crease. Porter came rushing in from the left dot to put home the goal that made it 3-2 Penguins. Just 63 seconds later, Cross tied the score at 3-3 as he came up the left side and fired a wrister by Casey DeSmith. His first goal of the playoffs sent the clubs to the locker room tied after six total second period goals.

The craziness continued into the third, as just 3:58 into the final period the Penguins retook the lead. Garrett Wilson took the puck behind the net and found Josh Archibald flying in at the center point. Archibald buried his first goal of the series to give his club a 43 lead. That lead was short lived, as Providence came storming back again to tie it 4-4. Simpson led Cross into the attacking zone up the right side, and he sent a pass across the zone to Heinen. His wrister went bar down for his second goal of the series and the teams were knotted up again.

Mueller finally gave the P-Bruins their first lead of the game at 12:48. Peter Cehlarik found Tommy Cross at the left blue line and he put a shot on DeSmith. The rebound found Mueller at the hash, and he went five-hole for his first goal of the playoffs. With the goalie pulled at 18:57, Archibald and the Penguins tied things up again. With traffic in front of the net, Archibald found the puck in the crease and batted in his second goal of the night to send the game to overtime.

It took until 7:49 of the overtime, but Wilkes-Barre was able to break the tie to take game two. Kevin Porter’s fourth assist of the night led to traffic in front for Derrick Pouliot. Pouliot’s first goal of the playoffs sent the Penguins home 6-5 winners and evened this best-of-five series at 1-1.

McIntyre stopped 38 of 44 shots while DeSmith stopped 28 of 33. Providence was 1-3 on the power play and 2-3 on the penalty kill. The P-Bruins will look to take a 2-1 series lead Thursday in Wilkes-Barre at 7:05, where the teams will play the remaining games of this series.