Providence's Brendan Gaunce scored twice early in the second period Wednesday night, and the Bruins held on to beat the Charlotte Checkers 4-2 at Bojangles Coliseum. A night earlier, forward Sam Lafferty scored three times in a 4-2 Checkers win.
Forward Nate Smith answered Gaunce's second goal at 9:15 of the second period. Providence's Ivan Ivan scored on a power play at 13:05 to make it 3-1, and defenseman Alex Petrovic cut the lead to one with 1:34 left in the period, a power-play point shot through traffic, the club said.
Charlotte outshot Providence 35-20, 11-6 in the third period, but Bruins goaltender Jiri Patera stopped all 11 third-period shots and finished with 33 saves. Lukas Reichel scored into an empty net with 1:07 left. Goaltender Kirill Gerasimyuk made 16 saves for Charlotte.
Checkers coach Geordie Kinnear said Patera "made some big saves, timely saves." He added: "We have more chances to execute on than we're actually doing right now, but that'll come over time."
The Checkers have scored on the power play in six straight games but have not won two in a row since Oct. 30 and Nov. 1 at Iowa, according to the club.
On Tuesday, before a sold-out crowd of 8,531, Lafferty tied the game 75 seconds after Providence scored first. He scored again on a power play at 8:51 of the second period, forward Robert Mastrosimone made it 3-1, and after the Bruins scored on a power play with 1:03 left, Lafferty finished the hat trick into an empty net with 32 seconds to go. Center Johnny Beecher assisted on Lafferty's first two goals, and Lafferty credited Beecher's passes on both. Goaltender Cooper Black made 25 saves. It was the second hat trick by a Checker this season, the club said.
The two games were Charlotte's first since the Florida Panthers recalled forward Jack Devine on Nov. 8. Devine led the Checkers with nine goals, four on the power play, and 12 points in 13 games, according to the club. "We just got to do it by committee," Lafferty said Tuesday.
Providence has won two of the three meetings this season, including 6-2 in Providence on Oct. 10.
The Checkers play three road games in four days: at Lehigh Valley at 7:05 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, at Hershey at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, and at Hartford at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17.