The Providence Bruins and Connecticut Whale are minutes away from faceoff at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence.

Greetings from the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence where the Baby Bruins – winners of three of their last five – take on the Connecticut Whale, who are riding a four-game winning streak.  I will have updates after each period here, but you can also follow me on Twitter @_TimRosenthal and our official account @BruinsDaily.

Ryan Spooner, last week’s P-Bruins player of the week, is coming in averaging a point per game in his last six games, while goalie Niklas Svedberg has struggled despite going 3-2 in his last five starts allowing 18 goals in that span. Defenseman Tommy Cross was called up from South Carolina (ECHL) and will go up against former Boston College teammate Chris Kreider, who is tied for fourth on his team in scoring with 10 points (4 goals, 6 assists).

Providence comes into tonight’s game in fifth place in dead last in the Atlantic division with 15 points (7-8-0-1) trailing Manchester (9-6-2-1) and St. John’s (10-9-0-1) who each have 21 points and share the division lead. With 19 points, Connecticut (9-7-1-0) comes into tonight third in the Northeast trailing division leading Springfield (10-3-1-3) by five points and its in-state rivals Bridgeport (10-7-0-0) by one point for second place.

We are about 10 minutes away from faceoff here. I’ll be back at the end of the first and second periods to provide more updates.