ONE WIN FROM THE CUP… 

The Bridgeport Sound Tigers were a desperate team. If they lost a point in the standings in either Saturday or Sunday’s match-ups in any manner to their interstate rivals to the north, or if the Hershey Bears managed to get a point in either of their games then the Sound Tigers (40-35-1-3) would be eliminated from playoffs. Unfortunately for the Sound Tigers, that desperation didn’t translate to their play on the ice and except for a stronger showing in the second period were totally flattened by a far superior Wolf Pack squad, 5-2 Saturday night in front of 6,536 raucous fans at the XL Center in Hartford. ON a less important note, the loss in regulation to the Wolf Pack also meant the Tigers were on the verge of losing the GEICO CUP, given to the Connecticut team that wins the season series, for the fifth consecutive year.

The home team completely dominated play in both the first and third periods backed by another dominant performance from “First Star of the Game,” Hugh Jessiman. The Darien native contributed what turned out to be his fourth game winning goal of the season and second in the last three games while assisting on the Pack’s second goal. Jessiman’s play has greatly improved over the past couple of weekends and has been playing the kind of power forward game that led the New York Rangers to draft him 12th overall in the first round, in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. The 6’6″ 224 pound forward has been an enigma to his coaches and the organization since his arrival in 2005 but seems to be peaking at just the right time which could mean big things for the soon-to-be restricted free agent.

On the other hand, rookie center-man Artem Anisimov, has had an excellent first season and last night was no different. The contest’s Third Star of the Game contributed a key goal and two assists on his way to a plus-4 night while his line-mate, Dane Byers was also productive adding an assist and a plus-3. In recent games the line of Anisimov centering Jessiman and Byers has been a VERY productive combination and highly challenging for the opposition to control.

In the cage, Pack goaltender David LeNeveu’s (27 Saves) work has been nothing short of his magnificent. Since joining the Wolf Pack (49-20-2-8) in a February trade that sent the team’s second all-time leader in wins, Al Montoya and NY Ranger forward Marcel Hossa to San Antonio for forward Josh Gratton, a fourth round draft pick and LeNeveu, the product of Fernie, British Columbia is 8-3-2 with a solid 1.83 Goals-Against-Average and a .924 Save percentage. His all inclusive numbers for the season are 17-10-5 2.33GAA .916%.

The Pack wee into this one early. At the seven minute mark of the first period when the hard charging Byers made clearly the hardest hit of the season. Byers saw Tiger defenseman Scott Ford skating with his head down and sent the 6’3″ puck carrier airborne in a super hard hit that ignited the crowd and the team. Less than 30 seconds later Alex Bourret rushed the puck up left wing stopped, spun and made a highlight reel pass tape-to-tape right to the stick of the streaking Michael Sauer who simply deflected it past starter Joey MacDonald (22 saves).

The Pack doubled their lead at 18:37 after Jessiman put fantastic forecheck pressure all over the Tigers’ defensive pair of Matthew Spiller and Dustin Kohl. Jessiman stripped them of the puck and found Anisimov, who had beaten Jeremy Colliton to the front of the net and tucked it under MacDonald.

Jessiman took a hooking penalty at 18:49 and it appeared that the Pack would end the period still on the penalty kill, but with just 13.7 left, rookie Kyle Okposo took a Ben Walter feed and put a shot on LeNeveu. The shot rebounded in front and Tim Jackman put it in over an outstretched LeNeveu cutting the Pack lead to 2-1 as the first period came to a close.

The Pack generally let down while the Tigers sense of urgency kicked in and they came out with far more intensity in the second period. At 9:42 the Tigers knotted the game as Jackman got his second of the night when he beat LeNeveu high to the stick side off a shot from the left circle off a Jeff Tambellini pass.

At 10:01 the Pack were shorthanded when Mike Ouellette took a hooking penalty. At 10:56 Lauri Korpikoski stole the puck from center Trevor Smith on the left point. Korpikoski broke in on MacDonald alone and Smith had no choice but to hook him hard. Referee Francois St. Laurent, usually a thorn in the side of the Pack, called for a penalty shot. As seen somewhat in the following video taken by a Sound Tigers fan, Korpikoski came in hard and made more moves than a lump of Jello on a plate in Michael J. Fox’s hands. At the last second, MacDonald kicked out his right leg and denied the Turku, Finland forward. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-zZ_BGfFTQ&hl=en]

The Pack broke the deadlock at 4:28 of the third period. After Tiger Colton Fretter hit the post at 4:15, the Pack took the puck and rushed it up ice. Byers took the puck from behind the goalline and from the cutting Jessiman in the slot and fed him a great pass. Jessiman took the puck and fired it over the stick side blocker of MacDonald for what would be the game winning tally.

Popular 6’8″ forward Mitch Fritz, who has been very solid since missing the majority of the season with a shoulder injury, broke in on a 2-on-1 with Anisimov off a great outlet pass by Ivan Baranka who was also returning from a shoulder injury. After Spiller over-committed to Anisimov, who had the puck leaving Fritz all alone on the left side of the slot. The young Russian center made an excellent pass which Fritz lifted over MacDonald for his first of the season. The Pack bench mobbed Fritz and the crowd erupted in cheers. Fritz has a goal and four assists in the ten games since returning to play.

With 1:39 remaining Bridgeport pulled MacDonald. The Pack took all of eleven seconds to capitalize when Baranka and Anisimov gave the puck to Korpikoski who launced a bomb from in front of the bench at the red line putting in the empty-netter.

Bruce Berlet returns from the Masters Golf tournament in Augusta for Wednesday’s opening game of the play-offs with the Portland Pirates. In his place is David Heuschkel posts the views from inside the Pack locker room in the Hartford Courant. Meanwhile, the Connecticut Post chose not to run a game story but instead elected to run an interesting Michael Fornabaio profile of defenseman Mark Wotten instead.

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

*****NOTES*****
* With the win, the Wolf Pack set a team record with 108 points. They beat their previous best of 107 by the 1999-2000 team that went on to win the Calder Cup.

* Should the Pack win in Bridgeport Sunday afternoon, they will have 50 wins on the season for only the second team in the teams’ eleven year history. The last time they did it? 1999-2000.

* Since ending a three-game losing streak on March 7th, the Pack are 12-2-0-2

* The Pack’s attendance for the season, which lingered in the lower bottom third for all teams for much of the season finished the season in 18th out of 29 teams. The team averaged 4,405 per game and drew a total of 176,213 for the season. Congratulations to AEG and the Wolf Pack Sales Department for a great comeback effort.

* P.A. Parenteau sits three points (33, 47, 80) behind Manchester’s rookie sensation Teddy Purcell (25, 68 83) for third in the AHL scoring race.

* Unless things radically change today, the Wolf Pack’s first pair defensive team of Corey Potter (+33, second overall #1 among defensemen) and Andrew Hutchinson (+28 fourth overall third amongst defensemen) will both finish in the league-wide Top 5 in plus/minus. Greg Moore is a respectable +24.

* The Wolf Pack regained second place overall in the AHL in the power play at 21.5%. It’s highly unlikely that they will catch Manchester’s 23.8%. They would need an ungodly number of opportunities and success rate to do it. It’s still a terrific accomplishment. On the penalty kill they are ranked 14th at 83.5%.

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

Hutchinson – Potter
Pock – Sauer
Baranka – Sanguinetti

LeNeveu

*****SCRATCHES*****
Liffiton – Concussion – Season
Lessard – Knee – Season
Zaborsky – Healthy
M. Taylor – Healthy
Dupont – Concussion – Day-to-Day

*****THREE STARS*****
1. HFD – 27 Hugh Jessiman
2. BRI – 16 Tim Jackman
3. HFD – 42 Artem Anisimov

*****OFFICIALS*****
Francois St. Laurent (38), Referee
Paul Simeon (66), Linesman
Rich Patry (52), Linesman

(Hugh Jessiman photo courtesy of Chris Rutsch via hartfordwolfpack.com)