VERSUS 
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.
Posted in AHL, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, ECHL, Greenville Road Warriors, Hartford Wolf Pack, Hockey, New York Rangers, NHL, Sports
Tagged Andre Deveaux, Andreas Thuresson, Brendan Bell, Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Johnson, Ken Gernander, Pirate, Pirates, Portland Pirates, Springfield Falcons, Tommy Grant, XL Center
BY: 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.
Posted in AHL, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Hartford Wolf Pack, Hockey, New York Rangers, NHL, Sports
Tagged AHL, Cameron Talbot, Chad Kolarik, Columbus Blue Jackets, Connecticut Whale, Craig Weller, Damien Hess, John Tortorella, Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, Ken Gernander, New York Ranger, Wade Redden, Whale, XL Center
By 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.
BY: 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.
![Connecticut-Whale_thumb_thumb_thumb_[2]](http://howlings2.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/connecticut-whale_thumb_thumb_thumb_21.jpg "Connecticut-Whale_thumb_thumb_thumb_[2]")
VERSUS 
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.
Posted in AHL, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Hartford Wolf Pack, Hockey, New York Rangers, NHL, Sports
Tagged AHL, Andre Deveaux, Andreas Thuresson, Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Cam Talbot, Casey Wellman, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Jeff Woywitka, Kelsey Tessier, Ken Gernander, Kris Newbury, New York Ranger, Wade Redden, Whale, Wojtek Wolski, Worcester Sharks, XL Center
BY: Bruce Berlet
In 13 seasons in the NHL, Wade Redden never missed more than 18 games. In fact, in 10 of those seasons, the defenseman played at least 75 of 82 games.
So the 22 games that Redden has had to sit out since he was injured in the Connecticut Whale’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Providence Bruins on Dec. 17 have been uncharted territory. Not to mention being rather agonizing and a bit boring at times, though it did provide more time at home with wife Danica and 17-month-old daughter Leni.
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Posted in AHL, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Hartford Wolf Pack, Hockey, New York Rangers, NHL, Sports
Tagged AHL, Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, New York Ranger, New York Rangers, NHL, Pavel Valentenko, Redden, Springfield Falcons, Wade Redden, Whale, Wojtek Wolski, XL Center
BY: Bruce Berlet
Brent Thompson could be in line for a Coach of the Year daily double.
The former Hartford Wolf Pack defenseman was named ECHL Coach of the Year last season after leading the Alaska Aces to the regular season and playoff titles. Now Thompson is a leading contender for AHL Coach of the Year after guiding the Bridgeport Sound Tigers from seeming oblivion to challenging the Connecticut Whale for the Northeast Division lead.
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Posted in AHL, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Danbury Whalers, ECHL, Greenville Road Warriors, Hartford Wolf Pack, Hockey, New York Rangers, NHL, Sports
Tagged Brent Thompson, Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Jeff Woywitka, Justin DiBenedetto, Ken Gernander, New York Ranger, Northeast Division, Sound Tigers, Sunday, Trevor Gillies, Whale, Wojtek Wolski
![Connecticut-Whale_thumb_thumb_thumb_[1]](http://howlings2.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/connecticut-whale_thumb_thumb_thumb_11.jpg "Connecticut-Whale_thumb_thumb_thumb_[1]")
VERSUS 
“All good things must come to an end,” goes the old English proverb. For the Connecticut Whale their five-game winning streak ended in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers before 7,693 at the Webster Bank Arena Sunday afternoon.
David Ullstrom used defenseman Tim Erixon as a screen just 37 seconds into overtime and fired it over the glove of Chad Johnson (15-10-5, 40 saves) to finish off a game that had both teams digging and clawing to get any traction at all through the game’s first 60 minutes.
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Posted in AHL, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Hartford Wolf Pack, Hockey, New York Rangers, NHL, Sports
Tagged Blake Parlett, Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Chad Johnson, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Jeff Woywitka, Johnson, Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, Ken Gernander, Mats Zuccarello, Whale, Wojtek Wolski
VERSUS 
The Connecticut Whale struck three times in a span of just 1:31 in the second period and then rode solid goaltending by Chad Johnson to win their fifth straight game 4-1 at the Verizon Wireless Center in Manchester over the Monarchs Saturday night.
In the second period, newcomer Casey Wellman and Jonathan Audy- Marchessault set each other up for goals just nine seconds apart at 12:01 and 12:10 respectively and Kris Newbury scored on the power play 1:22 later to break the game open for the visiting Whale. The two goals by Wellman and Audy-Marchessault were just one second off the team record that came against the former Albany River Rats on January 5, 2002. Both goals in the record eight seconds came off the stick of then Hartford Wolf Pack centerman Benoit Dusablon.
Posted in AHL, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Greenville Road Warriors, Hartford Wolf Pack, Hockey, New York Rangers, NHL, Sports
Tagged Ken Gernander, Hartford Wolf Pack, Chad Johnson, Manchester Monarchs, Kris Newbury, Blake Parlett, Kelsey Tessier, Connecticut Whale, Mats Zuccarello, Richard Clune, Wojtek Wolski, Whale, Tim Erixon, Andreas Thuresson, Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, Brendan Bell, Johnson, Andre Deveaux, CTWhale, Audy-Marchessault, Casey Wellman
![Connecticut-Whale_thumb_thumb_thumb_[2]](http://howlings2.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/connecticut-whale_thumb_thumb_thumb_2.jpg "Connecticut-Whale_thumb_thumb_thumb_[2]")
VERSUS 
There is something about the entire New York Rangers organization in 2011-2012…they just seem to dialed in to winning…even when they’re losing.
In New York, the Rangers are tops in the Eastern Conference and are three points behind the President’s Trophy leading Detroit Red Wings. The Rangers have four games in hand.
In Greenville of the ECHL, the Road Warriors are fifth overall in their conference and just five points out of the top spot in their conference and are 6-3-0-1 in their last ten games.
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Posted in AHL, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Hartford Wolf Pack, Hockey, New York Rangers, NHL, Sports
Tagged Brendan Bell, Cam Atkinson, Chad Johnson, Connecticut Whale, CTWhale, Detroit Red Wings, Falcon, Greenville Road Warriors, Jeff Woywitka, Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, Ken Gernander, Kris Newbury, Manny Legace, MassMutual Center, Mats Zuccarello, New York Ranger, Springfield Falcons, Tim Erixon, Whale, Wojtek Wolski
Recognized as the Top AHL blog by SportsMemorabilia.com readers!
Mitch Beck spent over 20 years as an on-air radio personality and Standup comedian. He is self employed and has been reporting on the Hartford Wolf Pack / Connecticut Whale exclusively since 2005.
