SO MUCH FOR REUNIONS… 

The start time for the Hartford Wolf Pack, San Antonio Rampage game Friday night at the XL Center was 7:05pm…at least for the Wolf Pack and San Antonio goaltender, Josh Tordjman it was. Unfortunately the rest of the visitors squad didn’t bother to show up until around 7:30.

For the first 15 plus minutes of the first period poor Tordjman (30 saves) had more shots fired at him than Sonny Corleone at the causeway toll booth in “The Godfather.” The Wolf Pack peppered the Montreal native 17-4 (15-1 at one point) in the first period. Tordjman was magnificent stopping great scoring chance after great scoring chance before his Fredo-esque teammates decided that maybe they should help him out and defend the net.

The problem was by that point they trailed 1-0 when Jordan Owens had an impressive shift and threw a relentless forecheck on the hapless defense and took the puck away from them. His pass to ex-Rampage forward Josh Gratton led to a shot that he fired and rebounded to a wide-open Mike Ouellette who put it away. If not for Tordjman acrobatics, the Rampage would probably been down four or five goals.

In the second period the Rampage put a little more effort in. At 11:23 however, Mark Lee picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and fed P.A. Parenteau down low on the left behind the goal line. Parenteau then did what he does best and made a magnificent pass finding Artem Anisimov alone on the doorstep to Tordjman’s left. The rookie from Yaroslavl, Russia finished for his 12th of the season and a 2-0 lead.

By the end of the second period, you couldn’t help but feel for Tordjman as the Rampage were being outshot 30-10. The Rampage were bad in virtually every area there is to be bad at in a hockey game. Even when they took liberties and cheap shots that went uncalled by referee Chris Brown they paid the price. At 18:02 Rampage Right-winger Adam Keefe took a cheap shot at Pack defenseman Michael Sauer behind the Pack net. When the 5’10” 200 pounder skated out from behind the net, he was greeted by 6’6″ 231 pound Hugh Jessiman. The two dropped their gloves and Jessiman, not the greatest fighter in the world, just plain pummeled Keefe landing upper cuts and a variety of jabs. Keefe was penalized for the interference on Sauer, the fight and given a ten minute misconduct as well. Jessiman was given five for fighting.

Here’s your look at a piece anyway of the Jessiman – Keefe bout.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=japqa-Zi7DA&hl=en]

At 15:35 of the third period Parenteau would lead another charge out of the Pack end and rushed around the hapless defenders with the black jersey’s on and wound up on a two-on-one rush with Ouellette on his wing against former Ranger’s draft pick and Wolf Pack d-man Dylan Reese. Parenteau drew Tordjman towards him and while Reese was late getting back on Ouellette. Parenteau put a perfect pass on the stick of Ouellette who tucked the puck past Tordjman and it was 3-0.

Coyotes Head Coach Greg Ireland, who would probably have been happier attending a St. Patrick’s Day party than being behind the bench for this one, then pulled his goaltender with 3:50 left in the game. Just a minute later, Greg Moore took a puck and fed Korpikoski in the Pack zone. Korpikoski saw Gratton streaking for the Rampage net and sent a pass right up the middle right on Gratton’s stick. Alone in the high slot, Gratton put it in the empty net for the 4-0 final score.

David LeNeveu (18 saves) had a solid game himself getting his first shut as a member of the Wolf Pack. Since coming over in the trade LeNeveu has been incredible. He’s posted a minuscule GAA of just 1.01 and has stopped 91 of 95 shots he’s faced. His biggest save in this one came at 7:25 of the third when he stopped a hard charging Cam Paddock, no relation to ex-Pack Head Coach John Paddock, with a perfectly timed poke-checked that ended the threat.

Bruce Berlet gets the views from inside the locker-room in his recounting the game in the Hartford Courant. Meanwhile back in San Antonio, there isn’t much MySA.com.

For stats, there is always the Game Summary and the Official Scorer’s Sheet.

*****NOTES*****
* Brad Brown played in his first game since being signed by the Pack and took one shot and was plus-1 for the game.

* Mark Lee contributed an assist in his first game since being recalled from the Charlotte Checkers of the ECHL on Thursday.

* There was no explanation as to why former Pack netminder Al Montoya did not play in this one. He sat in the visitors entrance and watched and had conversation with many of the fans surrounding him. Midway through the third period, Montoya was shown on the scoreboard screens and received a nice round of applause and a smattering of cheers.

* San Antonio did not get their first shot on goal till 12:07 of the first period. They trailed 1-0 and were down 10-0 in shots at that point.

* Owens missed part of the second period and the beginning of the third after taking a pretty hard slash that went uncalled.

* At 11:32 of the third period, Sauer was called for interference when he never made contact with the Rampage player who completely bowled over LeNeveu and that too was not called.

* For the game the Pack outshot the Rampage 34-18

* The second place Portland Pirates had 24 shots in the third period alone, more than the Norfolk Admirals had the entire game and still lost 4-3. The battle of naval nicknames shot total saw the Pirates smoke the Admirals 46-21 for the game. The loss coupled with the Pack’s win gives both teams a total of 86 points and puts them back into second place by virtue of the two games they have in hand on Portland.

* Providence is the first team in the AHL to clinch a play-off birth. They lead the Pack by 9 points.

* The Wolf Pack (Wiikman – 9th, LeNeveu -15th) and the Houston Aeros (Nolan Schafer – 4th, Barry Brust – 7th) are the only teams in the AHL to have two goaltenders in the Top 15 in the league.

* The Pack are now 23-2-2-1 when leading after one period and a staggering 33-0-1-3 when leading after two periods.

*****LINES*****
Gratton – Moore – Korpikoski
Pock – Anisimov – Parenteau
Dupont – Ouellette – Jessiman
Owens – Lee

Taylor – Baranka
Potter – Brown
Constant – Sauer

*****SCRATCHES*****
David Liffiton – Concussion (Season)
Francis Lesard – Knee (Season)
Alex Bourret – Concussion (Indefinite)
Mitch Fritz – Shoulder (Undetermined)
Andrew Hutchinson – Hip (Day-to-Day)
Dane Byers – Suspension (Two more games)

*****THREE STARS*****
1. HFD – 44 Mike Ouellette
2. HFD – 21 Josh Gratton
3. HFD – 32 David LeNeveu

*****OFFICIALS*****
Chris Brown (86), Referee
Kevin Redding (16), Linesman
Luke Galvin (2), Linesman

(Mike Ouellette photo courtesy of Chris Rutsch and David LeNeveu courtesy of Rich Zacher both via Hartfordolfpack.com)