"For the most part I thought we played the game we wanted to play," said Providence head coach Jay Leach after the loss. "Took a bad penalty on their power play... they can make you pay. They're an opportunistic bunch. They've got a potent offense and give them a 5-on-3, you're asking for trouble."
The trouble began when Adam Payerl was whistled for kneeing at 13:03 of the second. Then at 13:51, Connor Clifton was called for a cross-check to give the Phantoms the two-man advantage.
The Phantoms received power play goals from Greg Carey and Danick Martel just 41 seconds apart to take the lead for good.
"I think you take a lot of lessons through the whole game," said Leach. "We can't give them five power plays. We can't give them a 5-on-3. At the same time, we can continue to do what we did out there and we need to get to the net front and make it hard on their goalie."
The P-Bruins outshot their Atlantic Division rivals 41-24, and controlled the play for much of the game, including the first 10 minutes in which they fired 10 shots on goal while allowing only one.
"We did get some chances," said Leach. "I think at the same time, I think we can do a better job of getting in front of him and making it a lot harder for him to make those saves. Yup, we can build off it and learn from it at the same time."
With game two of the series coming up on Sunday night, the group will need to focus on ways to solve Phantoms goaltender Alex Lyon.
"We threw a lot of shots on him and he played great," said Fitzgerald. "We were lucky to get a few in but I think just putting down the penalties and things like that, we should bounce back tomorrow."
The top trio of Ryan Fitzgerald, Jordan Szwarz and Austin Czarnik were dominant for Providence.
"They were terrific," said Leach. "They created nonstop. Really a threat most times. I think there was one time they were in the D-zone, other than that I don't really remember one. Czarny [Austin Czarnik] hit the post and obviously Fitzy [Ryan Fitzgerald] had two and Szwarzy [Jordan Szwarz] had plenty of opportunites as well. They were very good."
The P-Bruins will continue the best-of-five first round series against the Phantoms on Sunday night at 7:05 pm.
