Jake Leschyshyn scored his second goal of the night with 9:41 gone in overtime, sending the Hartford Wolf Pack into the Atlantic Division finals with a 2-1 win over Providence on Friday night.
The Wolf Pack ousted the Bruins in the division semis for the second year in a row, and now await the winner of the Hershey-Lehigh Valley series.
Just before the midway point of the overtime period, Victor Mancini’s slapper from the right-wing circle rang off the post and bounced in off Leschyshyn, who was battling for position in front.
Leschyshyn had opened the scoring at 14:30 of the first period with a power-play goal, taking a drop pass from Brennan Othmann and firing a shot that beat Brandon Bussi short side.
Providence was held off the board until 10:01 of the third period, when John Farinacci gathered a loose puck off a goal-mouth scramble and slipped in his first goal of the series.
Dylan Garand made 26 saves in the win, Hartford’s fifth in six games after losing their playoff opener to Charlotte.
For the Bruins, it was their sixth consecutive series loss since reaching the conference finals in 2017. They also lost for the 13th time in their last 14 postseason overtime games.
(Hartford wins series, 3-1)
Game 1 – Wed., May 1 – Hartford 4, PROVIDENCE 3
Game 2 – Fri., May 3 – PROVIDENCE 6, Hartford 0
Game 3 – Wed., May 8 – HARTFORD 3, Providence 2 (OT)
Game 4 – Fri., May 10 – HARTFORD 2, Providence 1 (OT)
