Category Archives: AHL

BLAKE PARLETT REASSIGNED TO ECHL GREENVILLE

Bob CrawfordBY: Bob Crawford, Voice of the Connecticut Whale

Connecticut Whale general manager Jim Schoenfeld announced today that the parent New York Rangers have reassigned defenseman Blake Parlett from the Whale to its ECHL affiliate, the Greenville Road Warriors.

Parlett, a second-year pro, has skated in 50 games this year with the Whale, scoring four goals and adding 10 assists for 14 points, with 34 penalty minutes.  He signed with the Rangers as a free agent June 2, 2011, after playing last season with the Whale on an AHL contract.

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WHALE SINK PIRATES SHIP

Connecticut Whale     VERSUS     Portland

BY: Bruce Berlet

Special teams often are the difference at all levels of hockey these days, and the Connecticut Whale proved that again Friday night against the Portland Pirates.

Andre Deveaux and Brendan Bell scored the game’s first two goals with the man advantage, then the Whale got three tallies from secondary sources in a 5-1 victory before 4,722 at the XL Center.

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IMPORTANT TIME CHANGE FOR CTWHALE

Connecticut WhaleSTART TIME CHANGED FOR WHALE’S HOME GAME APRIL 1

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Sunday Faceoff with Providence will now be 2:00 PM

HARTFORD, February 24, 2012:  Whalers Sports & Entertainment president and COO Howard Baldwin, Jr. announced today that the faceoff time for the Connecticut Whale’s home game Sunday, April 1 vs. the Providence Bruins at the XL Center has been changed to 2:00 PM.

The game was originally scheduled to be a 3:00 PM start.

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MARCH 10th – A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

Dave_CHL

SPOTLIGHT: CHAD KOLARIK

Bruce BerletBY: Bruce Berlet

One of the Beatles’ most famous songs in a litany of platinum recordings was entitled “The Long and Winding Road.”

The creation of songwriters Paul McCartney and the late John Lennon was released 16 years before Chad Kolarik was even born, but the Connecticut Whale wing can certainly relate.

The 26-year-old Kolarik skated with the Whale on Tuesday for the first time since he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in New York Rangers training camp Sept. 20. Kolarik had surgery Oct. 5 and then began that long and winding road back with intensive rehabilitation under the guidance of Whale athletic trainer Damien Hess and strength and conditioning coach/trainer Mark Cesari.

Kolarik also received a very helping hand from college sweetheart Kylee Botterman, a gymnastics star at the University of Michigan whom he married in July during an upbeat offseason in which he also signed a new contract with the Rangers after a promising four games on Broadway and getting 17 goals and 14 assists in 36 games with the Whale after being acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets for former Hartford Wolf Pack captain Dane Byers.

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GREENVILLE NEWS

Ray SchmittBY: Ray Schmitt, Voice of the Greenville Road Warriors

The Greenville Road Warriors announced today that they have received goaltender Jason Missiaen and defenseman Benn Olson from the American Hockey League.

Missiaen, 21, has been reassigned to the Road Warriors by the New York Rangers from the AHL’s Connecticut Whale. The rookie goaltender returns to Greenville after backing up Cameron Talbot for two games on February 18 and 19. Missiaen has appeared in more games than any other Road Warriors goalie this season, 26, and is tied for the team lead in wins with a 13-10-2 record. The 6-8, 200-pound netminder is also tied for second in the ECHL with three shutouts this season. A former fourth-round draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens, Missiaen was signed to an NHL contract by the Rangers last March.

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SPOTLIGHT: MELROSE PICKS

Bruce BerletBy Bruce Berlet

Former NHL player and coach Barry Melrose has always been an entertaining personality and a straight shooter as an ESPN hockey analyst.

Not surprisingly, Melrose picked two former Hartford Whalers as the greatest power forwards in NHL history. Melrose’s criteria was the candidate has to be a frontline player, very physical and has to fight. He’s not just a big guy who is a very good player who scores but is a big, mean, nasty, physical, tough guy to play against. Melrose’s picks have a lot of goals and penalty minutes and are the type of guy the other team didn’t like to play against.

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WHALE WEEKLY: February 21 – 26, 2012

Bob CrawfordBY: Bob Crawford, Voice of the Connecticut Whale

The Whale posted another successful week as they entered the third weekend in February, winning two out of three games on their slate. Connecticut began the weekend with a 6-3 defeat of the Springfield Falcons on Friday at the XL Center, before winning a home-ice thriller against the Worcester Sharks, 3-1, on Saturday night. The Whale closed out the weekend’s action Sunday in Providence, where they dropped a narrow 4-3 decision to the P-Bruins. Andre Deveaux was on fire this past weekend, scoring four times and adding an assist for five points in three games. Kris Newbury led the team in scoring over that span with a goal and five assists, and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault tallied four assists.

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THEY’VE BEEN BETTER

Connecticut-Whale_thumb_thumb_thumb_[2]      VERSUS      Providence

Sunday afternoon in Providence the Connecticut Whale could not find an answer for Carter Camper who’s hat-trick sealing third goal sunk the New York Rangers’ AHL affiliate 4-3 at the Dunkin Donuts Center in front of a raucous crowd of 10,951.

After Kelsey Tessier lifted the Whale out of a second period daze with a dramatic goal to erase what was a two-goal deficit and knot the score at three just 1:55 into the third period. The Whale picked up their game and kept pushing for more, but Camper, a Rocky River, OH native, followed up a Calle Ridderwall rebound off the chest of Cam Talbot (11-12-0, 35 saves) and backhanded it into the net for the game winner.

“We got that big one in the third (from Tessier),” Connecticut head coach Ken Gernander told the Whale’s Brian Ring after the game. “I thought things were moving in the right direction and they got that quick one and it’s hard to come back on the road when the other team is given the lead like that.”

THE PLAN IS COMING TOGETHER.

Connecticut-Whale_thumb_thumb_thumb_[2]      VERSUS      Worcester

Winning is contagious.

Much like Ronald Reagan’s trickle down economics, the same seems to be the case with the Connecticut Whale. After a horrendous January where they were winless, going 0-6-3-2, the Whale benefitted from the conditioning stints of Wojtek Wolski and Jeff Woywitka and won five of their first six games in the month of February before dropping a 2-1  loss to Bridgeport last Sunday.

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