Providence Bruins Beat Springfield 2-1, Improve to 48-13 Behind Tufte's 28th Goal

The Providence Bruins edged the Springfield Thunderbirds 2-1 for their 48th win of the season Wednesday night at the MassMutual Center. The P-Bruins are now one of the most dominant teams in the American Hockey League, and this latest win did nothing to soften that reputation.

On a night featuring the highly anticipated debut of Bruins prospect James Hagens, it was Providence's leading goal scorer Riley Tufte who broke the ice at 11:52 of the first, crashing the net to pot a rebound goal from Matej Blumel and Matthew Poitras to open the scoring. The goal was Tufte's team-leading 28th of the season.

Julien Gauthier answered for Springfield, protecting the puck around a defender in the left circle before cutting to the crease and flipping a shot into the upper-left corner of the net to tie the game at 1-1 with 6:03 to play in the second frame.

The tie held into the final period, but Providence needed only one critical sequence to settle it. A turnover in neutral ice cost the T-Birds, as Jake Schmaltz took a breakaway touch pass from Joey Abate and snapped home the game-winning goal on a breakaway 3:56 into the final period. Abate had poked the puck ahead of Schmaltz and across the blue line to send him in alone, where he fired a shot past the glove of the goaltender to give Providence the 2-1 lead.

Save for the Tufte goal, Springfield starting goaltender Will Cranley was stellar in the opening period, stopping 17 other Bruins attempts. Cranley's fantastic night finished with an AHL career-high 39 stops, while Michael DiPietro became the first AHL goalie to reach 30 wins as he stopped 25 of 26.

Neither team's power play found success on the night, with each club's penalty kill going a perfect 4-for-4.

Schmaltz's breakaway winner continued a strong recent stretch for him personally. Four days earlier, he was also among the goal scorers when the Bruins powered past the Utica Comets 5-2 at the Amica Mutual Pavilion. In that game, Georgii Merkulov led the Bruins in points on the season with 50, while Tufte's production has been relentless all year. The goal against Springfield was his 28th, padding his lead as the team's top finisher.

At 48-13-1-0, Providence owns the best record in the AHL. The Bruins are 5-4-0-0 against Springfield this season, a rivalry that has generated a full range of outcomes, including a recent Springfield 3-2 victory in which Thunderbirds goaltender Vadim Zherenko made 31 saves and became the winningest goaltender in T-Birds club history with 46 wins. Wednesday night, it was DiPietro and the Bruins' blue-collar defensive structure that controlled the margin.

The T-Birds next take to the ice in a pivotal matchup in Allentown against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, who sit two points ahead of Springfield for the final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division with 10 games remaining. Providence, already well clear of the playoff threshold, keeps building a case as the league's measuring stick heading into the Calder Cup run.