Playing in just his seventh professional game, Frank Vatrano scored four times on Sunday afternoon as the Providence Bruins defeated the Portland Pirates, 6-4.
Vatrano, a rookie out of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, opened Sunday’s scoring just seven seconds into the game, and gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead with a power-play goal late in the first period.
He completed the hat trick early in the third, and tacked on his fourth goal of the game with 1:41 remaining. It was the first four-goal game in the AHL in exactly one year, since Albany’s Paul Thompson scored four times at Adirondack on Oct. 11, 2014.
The 21-year-old Vatrano, who also scored the Bruins’ only goal in their season opener vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday, signed as a free agent with the Boston Bruins on Mar. 13, 2015, and tallied one goal in five games with Providence last spring.
