Photo: Providence Bruins

The Providence Bruins blanked the Hershey Bears, 5-0 Friday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The loss drops the Bears record to 24-16-3-3 (54 points) on the season.

The Bruins notched a pair of tallies in the first frame for a 2-0 lead at the first intermission. Following a scoreless middle frame, The Bruins tacked on three more scores in the third period for the 5-0 win.

Bears’ goaltender Zach Fucale struggled in his third-straight game, giving up five goals on 26 shots faced. In his last three starts Fucale has stopped 8 of 13 shots, 18 of 20 shots and 21 of 26 shots faced for a combined .796 save percentage.

STARTERS

The visiting Bears started goaltender Zach Fucale (7-6-4-0, 2.83 GAA, .881 sv%) in net, while the Bruins countered with Troy Grosenick (9-3-1-1, 2.44 GAA, .912 sv%) in goal. The starting forward lines and defensive pairs for the Bears:

Injuries: Garrett Pilon (upper-body injury), Mike Sgarbossa (upper-body injury), Matt Moulson (back surgery) and Bobby Nardella (lower-body injury).

Scratches:  Drake Rymshaw.

Released: forward Colby McAuley and defenseman Tariq Hammond from their tryout agreements.

FIRST PERIOD

Providence opened the scoring a little over half way through the first period. Eduards Tralmaks (7) notched the tally at 12:57, assisted by Steven Fogarty (17).

Less than three minutes later the Bruins would make it 2-0 with a power play goal from Victor Berglund (2) at 15:52 of the first frame.

The Bruins led 2-0 after the first 20 minutes of play. Hershey led in shots 14-5 for the first period. Hershey was 0 for 1 and Providence 1 for 2 on the power play in the first period.

SECOND PERIOD

The Bears and Bruins skated to a scoreless draw in the middle frame.

Hershey led in shots 15-13 in the second period, and 29-18 after two periods of play.

Providence was 1 for 3 and Hershey 0 for 2 on the power play after two periods.

THIRD PERIOD

It was all Bruins in the final frame.

Cameron Hughes (8) made it 3-0 just 3:20 into the final frame. The goal was unassisted.

Jesper Froden (11) scored a power play tally midway through the final frame to make it 4-0. Justin Brazeau (3) and Steven Fogarty (18) had the helpers.

Less than two minutes later Chris Wagner (9) added insult to injury to make it 5-0. Joona Koppanen (7) and Matt Filipe (7) had the assists.

The Bears are back in action on Saturday when they visit the Bridgeport Islanders. Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM.

SHAVINGS

• AHL box score
• This was Shane Gersich’s 200th AHL game.
• Zach Fucale stopped 21 of 26 shots for a .807 game save percentage.