Springfield Thunderbirds miss prime opportunity against first-place P-Bruins

SPRINGFIELD – For the fourth consecutive meeting, the outcome between the Thunderbirds and Bruins was decided by one goal. The only problem, though, is that Springfield finished on the wrong side of a 2-1 outcome against Providence on Wednesday night at the MassMutual Center. “There were a lot of details, but there were more than one or two turnovers,” Thunderbirds coach Steve Ott said.

“And (the Bruins) are a team that makes you beat yourself. And I thought for the most part, they did that to us. “We became unpredictable throughout the game, and it just makes it a real hard game to gain any traction in it.

So you know, hats off to them. We knew that we’d get their best tonight, and I thought we did. ” Wednesday was more than a late regular-season game between rivals, as the Thunderbirds entered action only two points behind Lehigh Valley for the sixth and final postseason spot in the Atlantic Division with 11 games left on the schedule.

Springfield, though, was unable to seize the opportunity as the Thunderbirds suffered their sixth-season loss against first-place Providence. But the bright spot is that Springfield (25-29-6-2, 58 points) is still ahead of Hartford (24-32-4-2, 54 points) for seventh place in the division with 10 regular-season games left. The Boston Bruins also announced earlier this week that former Boston College men’s hockey star and their top prospect, James Hagens, signed an amateur tryout agreement with Providence.