Projo Bruins Blog

Vladimir Sobotka and Andrew Bodnarchuk of the Providence Bruins, both of whom missed Game 1 with injuries, will play tonight in Game 2 in Worcester, according to coach Rob Murray.

Sobotka and Bodnarchuk were injured in Game 5 of the Portland series. Sobotka's was believed to be a lower-body injury, while Bodnarchuk's was upper body.

Ned Lukacevic and Matt Stephenson will sit to make room for Sobotka and Bodnarchuk.

Murray's keys to the game:

"We've got to match their physicality, which we did (in Game 1). We played a strong game. I don't think there was any intimidation factor.

"It's great when you score in the first minute of the game, too. It takes the wind out of your opponent's sail pretty quick cause you're just so jacked up to get the game going, then you're trailing by one and it's, like, what happened?

"So we need a good start again. One of the things we ran into problems with last game is we probably didn't win enough wall battles in getting pucks out. They do a good job of forechecking; their defensemen are very aggressive down the wall on our breakouts. It's something we need to be better at. It's just gutting it out for the most part. That's all it comes down to.

"When we did come out clean and made some plays past their pinching defensemen, we had two on ones, and odd-man rushes. We showed the guys: This is the payoff right here.''

Sharks coach Roy Sommer had this to say about the game in today's Worcester Telegram:

"I think we have to be more physical than we were -- do a better job managing pucks through the neutral zone because they're a good transition team. I thought we had some turnovers through there. And the biggest thing is their best player (Tuukka Rask), we have to do a better job against him."

"The bottom line is, after you took all the fluff out of the picture (in Game 1), I had us out-chancing them, 16-15, so it was pretty close. It was closer than the shots looked. We got a lot of stuff from the outside, from the perimeter. We have to generate more second- and third-chance opportunities off our shots."

Game 3 is Friday night in Providence.

 Tags  Andrew Bodnarchuk Boston Bruins Providence Bruins Rob Murray Vladimir Sobotka

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