It wasn’t quite an official game, but the youngsters were split into two squads for a short two-period scrimmage, much to the delight of a packed Ristuccia Arena that actually had to turn fans away after reaching capacity.
“It was good,” said forward Justin Courtnall, a camp invitee who will be headed back to Boston University for his senior season this fall. “I had a lot of fun playing with some high-caliber guys. It was a fun day for sure.”
The White team prevailed 2-1 despite the star power assembled on the Black squad, which included a starting lineup of Malcolm Subban in goal, Dougie Hamilton and Torey Krug on defense and Jared Knight, Ryan Spooner and Brian Ferlin up front.
Seth Griffith, a 2012 fifth-round pick from the OHL’s London Knights, scored the only goal of the opening period when he stuffed in a rebound past Subban, and Union College product Daniel Carr doubled the lead against Boston College goalie Parker Milner in the second period. Ferlin scored a goal that deflected off Carr and past Lars Volden for the Black team’s lone strike.
There wasn’t a lot of physical play, but Justin Florek delivered the biggest hit of the day as he bowled over Krug in the neutral zone, and Courtnall mixed it up on a few occasions.
“You’re playing against guys that you’re familiar with so you’re probably not going to be as physical for those guys, so they always have a tougher time,” Providence Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “That showed. There’s a couple of guys that finished their checks, [Anthony] Camara and Courtnall and [Cody] Payne I thought were trying to do it, but again, you’re playing against your own teammates so there’s a limit there that you can go.”
Courtnall did his best to push that limit. The son of former Bruin Geoff Courtnall, he showed a bit of his father’s feisty side as he shoved with Payne after a clash in front of the benches in the second period.
“I’ve always been a pretty intense player, that’s just how I play and always have,” Courtnall said. “I think I maybe got that from my dad a little bit, but that’s definitely part of my game. I love to be right in the middle of it.”
Courtnall also renewed the BU-BC rivalry with former Eagles defenseman Tommy Cross in a scrum in front of the White net earlier in the scrimmage.
“Sometimes when I’m battling with Tommy it feels like I’m in the game, I’m not even paying attention to wearing a Bruins jersey,” Courtnall said. “I just feel like I see him and I’m ready to go at it. It’s good. It’s been fun.”
While Courtnall supplied some fireworks, there wasn’t a lot of offense on display in the camp’s first scrimmage.
“They made a few good plays,” Cassidy said. “The goaltenders are obviously good, so it was OK. I mean obviously you’d like to see more scoring, you always do. You want to see lots of offense.”
Knight and Spooner are sure to produce plenty of offense in the years to come. They didn’t score on Sunday, but they appreciated the chance to skate together.
“I’ve always had really good chemistry with him,” Knight said. “Usually in these camps we’ve been on different teams and we’ve never been able to play together, but this camp we’ve tried to get on the same line as much as we could and I thought we had pretty good chemistry. He can find me, I can find him. He’s more of a disher and I’m more of a shooter, so that kind of works out.”
The camp has worked out well for the Bruins’ efforts to give the organization’s young prospects a taste of what to expect in pro hockey. They’ll give them another shot at getting the offense going on Monday when the camp concludes with one more scrimmage. That’s after another power-skating session, of course.
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