The first place Worcester IceCats battled against the fourth place Providence Bruins last Tuesday at Worcester's Centrum Centre and the 'Cats took the lead early and never looked back. At 3:07 in the first period IceCat Rob Pearson scored a power play goal with assists from Jaime Rivers and Konstantin Shafranov. Five minutes later the 'Cats scored again this time with a goal from Mike Maneluk and an assist from Terry Virtue. The Baby Bruins weren't going to be shutout though as Bruin Todd Elik scored a short hand goal assisted by Rob Beers and Cam Stewart at 13:54.
The second period saw only one goal scored and it was off 'Cat Alex Vasilevski at 14:11 with assists from Chris Kenady and Stephane Roy. The third period saw plenty of red lamps as the two teams fought it out. Bob Lachance gave the IceCats a three goal lead with his power play goal at 1:52 with help from teammates Kevin Hilton and Mike Maneluk. The Bruins weren't about to give up though as they brought themselves within one goal. Bruins John Gruden and David Emma each lit the red lamp at 4:59 and 13:12 respectively. From there the Bruins attacked the IceCat goal with renewed hope that they could win or send the game into overtime. The Bruins attacks were stopped short with the outstanding performance of IceCat goalie Mike Buzak who made many spectacular saves the entire game. As the third period neared an end the Bruins pulled their goalie in the hopes of sending the game into overtime but Rob Pearson smashed that hope as he scored the game clincher with 31 seconds left.
The victory extended the IceCats undefeated streak to 8 games with a record of 6-0-2. They also continue to rank first in power play goals scoring 23% of the time and in penalty killing with a 87% success rate. Defense continues to be one of the 'Cats strong points as demonstrated in the game. Buzak blocked 32 of 35 shots while Bruins goalie Scott Bailey made only 25 saves out of 29 shots.
The Cats are also closing in on a team record of 36 victories. They have 32 victories with 23 games left to play in the regular season. Only Philadelphia and Hershey have also won more than 30 games this season, they are also the only teams with more points than the IceCats. The IceCats next home game is tomorrow night against Springfield at 7:05pm.