Springfield Falcons Can’t Fly Past Bruins

The Springfield Falcons took on the Providence Bruins last night in the second game of a home and home series. Friday night, they fell to the Bruins in Providence 3-2 in the shootout. Coming into last night’s game, the Falcons had earned just four points in their last five games. After starting out so red hot, the Falcons are still sitting comfortably at the top of their division despite their recent slide. The coach and players seem confident that they can turn it around, but their turn around would not start against the Bruins.

“We your confidence goes, that’s when you’re not scoring goals. We’re having trouble scoring,” Head Coach Brad Larsen said. “It’s going to take all four lines to chip in.”

The first period was a little bit slow to start on both sides, but forward Nathan Moon found the back of the net to put Springfield up 1-0. Dalton Smith took a shot that rebounded right onto the stick of Nathan Moon. He took a quick shot into the corner of the net as he was falling to the ice and it was enough to score. The Bruins were determined to go into the intermission tied, though, as Colby Cohen took a hard shot from the point and Justin Florek tipped it in past Falcons goalie, Paul Dainton.

The second period saw two of only three penalties throughout the whole game, both to the Bruins. Despite generating some good chances, the Falcons could not get anything really set up to capitalize on their advantages. In their last eighteen man advantage situations, the Falcons have only been able to score three powerplay goals.

The game really got away from the Falcons in the third period. After having played a solid first and second period, the Bruins pulled away in the third and showed why they have been so successful of late. The Falcons took their only penalty of the night a minute into the period. Recent addition Spencer Machacek, acquired through a trade, was called for interference. Halfway through the penalty, Ryan Spooner put the Bruins up 2-1 on a power play goal. About halfway through the period, Springfield answered to tie it up. Nick Drazenovic notched his seventeenth of the season from Ryan Russell and Bryan Helmer. That was as close is it would get though as Providence would put up two more goals, from Kyle MacKinnon and Maxime Sauve. The Falcons pulled their goalie to try and overcome the 4-2 deficit, but instead Kyle MacKinnon got around the Springfield defense to seal the game with an empty net goal, his second of the night.

“We only took one point out of four so there aren’t a whole lot of positives,” Larsen said of the home and home with the Bruins. “But I loved us in the first two periods tonight, so that’s going to have to be the more consistent game.”

With the loss to the Bruins, the Falcons fall to 3-5-1-1 in their last ten games. As the season winds down, the Falcons are still very convincingly in the lead for their division. However, the team hopes to start putting some wins together again. The Falcons head down to face off against the Connecticut Whale in a Sunday matinee and hope that they will be able to get a win to end their five game losing streak.