A WIN IS A WIN… 

Special teams play…or the lack thereof, was the story in the Hartford Wolf Pack’s 4-1 victory over the Springfield Falcons Friday night. 4,486 at the MassMutual Center witnessed P.A. Parenteau’s second period power play goal that turned out to be the difference maker as referee Jeff Smith once again called a game where virtually anything goes.

The first period saw Smith stand idly by as Springfield’s Tim Sestito and Theo Peckham took cheap shot after cheap shot that went uncalled. Finally at 14:23 Hartford’s (48-20-2-8) Josh Gratton had seen enough and tangled with Peckham. Gratton scored early in the fight while Peckham got in some blows late. Apparently it wasn’t enough to slow down the “chippy” play, to be polite, by the home team. Just moments after the fight, Springfield’s D-Man Grant Potulny crashed the net and plowed over goaltender David LeNeveu (25 saves) and Smith made no call.

Rookie Michael Taylor dumped a puck in low behind Devan Dubnyk (25 saves). The puck bounced off of Mitch Fritz’s skate right to Artem Anisimov. The Pack’s top rookie then broke the scoreless deadlock when he slipped a shot between the legs of the Springfield (34-34-5-5) netminder at 2:46 of the second period.

Two minutes and thirty seconds later the Pack could not clear the puck from their own zone. TJ Kemp took a Liam Reddox feed at the right face off circle and fired a blast on LeNeveu. As the shot left Kemp’s stick, center Mike Ouellette skated in past the crease creating a screen that distracted the Pack netminder. Kemp’s shot beat LeNeveu high to the glove side knotting the score.

At 13:11 of the second period Smith had no choice but to finally make a penalty call after Parenteau got behind Peckham and broke in alone on Dubnyk. Peckham hooked and pulled down the Pack’s leading scorer sending the AHL’s third highest rated power play unit to the ice. 1:16 into the man-advantage, Parenteau benefited from a loose puck that hit a Springfield stick and came right to him on the right doorstep. It was nothing to tuck the puck in as Dubnyk was nowhere in sight.

The Pack caught a break early in the third period when Parenteau gave the puck away in the defensive zone to Robbie Schremp. The former first rounder saw Marc Pouliot all alone in the slot and got him the puck. Pouliot fired over the net. Just seconds later Schremp made his presence felt again when he made a great pass from behind the goal line to Raddox who was all alone in front one on one with LeNeveu. The Pack netminder stood tall stopping Raddox cold.

At 9:39 rookie call-up and first round draft pick Bobby Sanguinetti got his first point of the season when he took a Jake Taylor pass and fired it on net. Gratton deflected the puck for the 3-1 lead.

After Dubnyk was pulled with just under two minutes remaining Alex Bourret, after missing the last 13 games with a concussion and a flu virus, put in an empty net goal with 36 seconds reaming for the final 4-1 score.

For game stats there is the Game Summary and of course the Official Scorer’s Sheet.

Bruce Berlet is covering the Master’s Golf Tournament in Augusta, however David Heuschkel has the story in the Courant.. Meanwhile for the Springfield perspective Fran Sypek has the story at masslive.com.

The AHL features tonight’s Sound Tigers and Wolf Pack battle in “The Morning Skate”.

*****NOTES*****
* The boys from Hartford love to travel to Massachusetts this season. They are a combined 23-2-0-1 against the AHL’s three teams, from “Tax-a-chusetts” Lowell, Springfield and Worcester.

* The Pack finished the season with a 9-1-0-0 record against heir I-91 rivals.

* Game starts a half-an-hour AFTER the start of the NY Rangers playoff win against NJ and finish 12 minutes BEFORE them.

* There were two players that didn’t show up in the score sheet but made solid contributions for their respective teams. Ironically, both players at the trade deadline were rumored to have been discussed being traded for one another. Hugh Jessiman was a force down low and all over the ice for the Pack while Robbie Schremp on multiple occasions was involved in pinning the Pack in their own zone and putting shots on net.

* 40-0-1-3 is now the Wolf Pack’s record when leading after two periods, 27-2-2-1 when leading after the first.

* The Pack are 30-15-1-5 when outshooting their opponents and 10-3-0-0 in three goal games.

* P.A. Parenteau in his first game back since missing two games with an ankle injury had an unassisted goal giving him 80 points on the season (33G, 47A) good for fourth in the AHL in points.

* The Bridgeport Sound Tigers slaughtered the Lowell Devils 6-1. Meanwhile, former Wolf Pack forward Alexandre Giroux had a goal in a Hershey Bears 4-2 victory over Philadelphia making their magic number to eliminate the Sound Tigers to one. Expect the Tigers to come out hard against the PAck in the final home game of the season Saturday night.

*****LINES*****
Korpikoski – Moore – Parenteau
Byers – Anisimov – Jessiman
Bourret – Ouellette – Gratton
Fritz – M. Taylor

Hutchinson – Potter
Taylor – Sanguinetti
Pock – Sauer

LeNeveu

*****SCRATCHES*****
Zaborsky – Healthy
Baranka – Shoulder – Day-to-Day
Dupont – Concussion – Day-to-Day
Liffiton – Concussion – Season
Lessard – Knee – Season

*****THREE STARS*****
1. HFD – 42 Artem Anisimov
2. HFD – 17 Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau
3. HFD – 21 Josh Gratton

*****OFFICIALS*****
Jeff Smith (49), Referee
Jim Briggs (83), Linesman
Chris Low (88), Linesman

(Artem Anisimov photo courtesy of hartfordwolfpack.com)