SERIES PREVIEW: WOLF PACK AND BRUINS RENEW RIVALRY IN ATLANTIC DIVISION SEMIFINALS

Apr 30, 2024

For the second time in as many springs, the Hartford Wolf Pack went through the handshake line with smiles after their First Round Calder Cup Playoff series. The Wolf Pack stormed back after losing Game 1 to the Charlotte Checkers to take their best-of-three series 2-1. Their reward? A date with the Providence Bruins.

This will be the seventh all-time playoff meeting between the Wolf Pack and the Bruins. That, without a doubt, makes the Bruins the biggest playoff rival in the 27-year history of the Wolf Pack. Another chapter of this heated rivalry is about to be crafted on the ice.

The full Atlantic Division Semifinals series schedule is as follows:

Game 1: Wednesday, May 1^st, @ Providence (Amica Mutual Pavilion, 7:05 p.m.)
Game 2: Friday, May 3^rd, @ Providence (Amica Mutual Pavilion, 7:05 p.m.)
Game 3: Wednesday, May 8^th, @ Hartford (XL Center, 7:00 p.m.)
Game 4*: Friday, May 10^th, @ Hartford (XL Center, 7:00 p.m.)
Game 5*: Sunday, May 12^th, @ Providence (Amica Mutual Pavilion, 3:05 p.m.)
*If nec.

Let’s see how these two historic rivals stack up ahead of their seventh all-time meeting in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

History: As mentioned, the Wolf Pack and Bruins are meeting for the seventh time in Calder Cup Playoff history. That is the most of any opponent in Wolf Pack history. The Portland Pirates, whom the Wolf Pack met four times in the Calder Cup Playoffs, are the closest in terms of head-to-head postseason matchups.

The rivals first met in 1999, an Eastern Conference Semifinals series that the Bruins swept 4-0 en route to a Calder Cup Championship. A year later, the sides met again, this time in the Eastern Conference Final.

The Wolf Pack would get their revenge, despite trailing 3-1 in the series. Hartford took Game 5 3-2 at home, then went to Providence and took Game 6 5-3. That win snapped a 16-game home winning streak for the Bruins in the playoffs. Back in Hartford, Terry Virtue would score 7:32 into overtime to push the Wolf Pack to the Calder Cup Final, which they would win in six games over Rochester.

They would also meet in 2001, an Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series won 3-2 by the Bruins, in 2007, an Atlantic Division Semifinals series won by the Bruins 4-3, and in 2015, an Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series won by Hartford 3-2.

The rivalry went dormant for eight years until last spring when the Bruins won the Atlantic Division title during the regular season and faced the Wolf Pack…