Carey Carries P-Bruins To Overtime Win

By: John Sparenberg

A shoulder injury that required former Hershey Bear Paul Carey to undergo the knife cut short his first season with the Chocolate and White a few years ago, but on Saturday night in Providence at the Dunkin' Donuts Center he carried his current club, the Providence Bruins, to an overtime victory over the Bears by shouldering the scoring load with a pair of late goals.

The Bruins carried a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, a lead that could have been a lot wider if not for some spectacular goaltending by Ilya Samsonov, who stopped 11 salvos in the frame, including a pair of stops within a matter of seconds, the first being a sensational toe save on Bruins captain Jordan Szwarz, and the second a sprawling effort that kept Karson Kuhlman from lighting the lamp.

Riley Barber, who established a new career high the previous night scoring by scoring the Bears' first goal, did the same honor again, tying the game at 1-1 early in the second period on a delayed penalty to Carey. Barber's tally had it's origins in the Bears defensive zone when Carey hooked down Mike Sgarbossa. Falling to the ice, Sgarbossa slid the puck to Barber, who realizing the impending situation, calmly passed the puck back into his own zone to defenseman Aaron Ness, who also showed no sense of urgency and retreated behind his own net as the Bears began their attack. Jayson Megna put a shot towards the net that a crossing Liam O'Brien deflected, but it never made it to the net, instead bouncing to Barber who banked goal number 28 on the season.

A bad bounce power play goal gave the Bruins another one-goal lead, but Barber was at it again before the end of the period, outracing a Bruins defenseman to a loose puck just inside the Province zone, and then brilliantly shielding off a defender to tie the game at 16:45 by beating P-Bruins netminder Dan Vladar through the five hole.

Megna, who missed a few golden opportunities on Friday, finally found the back of the net midway through the third period, wristing a shot from just inside the blueline by Vladar to give the Bears a 3-2 lead, a lead that held up until a defensive mix-up on the penalty kill allowed Carey to camp out in front of Samsonov, whom he beat with a slick skate-to-stick move to tie the game. 

 In overtime, the trio of Szwarz, Connor Clifton, and Carey combined made quick work of the Bears, with Carey capping off the game after receiving a pass from Clifton by buzzing a wrist shot that buzzed by the blocker of Samsonov, following a center ice faceoff win by Szwarz.