Providence officially backed against the wall by Hershey

Reich

PROVIDENCE — The Providence Bruins have less than 18 hours to wrap their heads around their Game 4 loss and figure out a way to earn a victory in Game 5 to stay alive in their Eastern Conference finals series with the Hershey Bears.

Graham Mink’s goal with 4:50 remaining in overtime capped a second straight Bears comeback win in tonight’s Game 4 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Hershey, a 3-2 winner in the game, now leads the series 3-1 with Game 5 scheduled for 4:05 p.m. Monday.

It’ll be up to the P-Bruins’ veterans to rally one of the league’s youngest teams to make sure the season doesn’t end on Memorial Day.

“I might say a few things. But most guys have been through it, you’ve got to leave it out there,” said captain Jeremy Reich. “You’ve got to live to fight another day. We’ve got to go out, and we’re playing for our lives right now.”

Head coach Rob Murray is hoping Reich, Peter Schaefer and the few P-Bruins veterans can get their message through to the youngsters in the aftermath of his team blowing a three-goal lead and a two-goal lead in Game 3 and a two-goal lead in Game 4.

“They’re experienced and they have to kind of explain to the guys this doesn’t come along very often,” said Murray. “And it’s an opportunity for us. It’s a long road to get to this point. It’s fantastic that we have, but you can’t be satisfied. You have to try to get through this. It’s a monumental task right now.”

Providence, which lost forward Vladimir Sobotka to an undisclosed injury late in the second period, had plenty of chances to add to their 2-0 lead and then win the game once it was tied. But Brad Marchand missed an open net late in the first period after Schaefer and Jeff Penner had already scored for Providence.

Bryan Helmer and Keith Aucoin tied the game with goals in the second and first period, respectively. But with less than a minute to play, Reich had a golden opportunity on a 3-on-2 and rattled the crossbar.

The Hershey comeback was inevitable with the P-Bruins’ inability to cleanly move the puck out of their own zone allowing the Bears to set up in the attack zone for lengthy periods of time. In order to make sure they get to take a trip to Hershey, the P-Bruins are going to have to clean that up and bear down defensively against the line of Aucoin, Mink and Alexandre Giroux — a trio that combined for six points in the Game 4 win.