SHUTOUT 

VERSUS
The Wolf Pack took to the road Friday night for their first regular season game away from Hartford and the XL Center and were completely shut out by the Hamilton Bulldogs 2-0 before a generously announced crowd of 5,503 at Copps Coliseum.

What proved to be the game winning goal came in the first period. Ben Maxwell emerged from a scrum with the puck from along the left boards moved in and fired a low laser shot under Miika Wiikman’s out stretched glove. Maxwell’s goal put the Pack in unfamiliar territory. It was the first time this season the Pack had not scored the games’ first goal.

The Pack, who were making only their second visit ever to Hamilton, effectively shot themselves in the foot. With no sustained offensive to speak of, the team seemed like a frustrated bunch and in the third period took a slew of penalties (four). The back breaker came at the 10:00 mark when P.A. Parenteau viciously hit Bulldog’s defenseman Yannick Webber from behind. Webber spent quite a bit of time down on the ice and fortunately left on his own power, but the severity left referee Jeff Smith little choice but to toss Parenteau from the game. The call would have given the home team a full five-minute power play for the boarding major, but two of those minutes were lost when Webber’s defensive partner, Shawn Belle, jumped Parenteau and leveled him with a couple of hard punches.

2:10 into the man-advantage, center Yanick Lehoux sent what seemed to be a pass across the crease but instead hit Pack defenseman, Corey Potter who redirected it past Miika Wiikman (27 saves). The Swedish netminder was simply brilliant all night long. It was a good thing too, because had he not it could easily have been a whitewashing by the undefeated Bulldogs (3-0-0-0).

Marc Denis (27 saves) was the games well deserved first star making some brilliant saves for the Montreal Canadiens top AHL affiliate. The eleventh year pro also got some help from the goal posts which stopped two Wolf Pack shots especially a brilliant shot from forward Hugh Jessiman who hit it hard in the second period.

While the team is not off to an especially good start, they have demonstrated a cohesiveness of sorts on the defensive side of the puck. In their three games, the Pack, (1-2-0-0) have relinquished few odd man rushes and the opposition has rarely had them pinned in their own end. The work ethic has been good on the penalty kill were the team have killed 18 of 21 (85.7%, 12th overall) short handed opportunities.

On the other hand, the offensive aspect of their game is still lagging far behind. Last years’ squad was so fluid and so in sync together that virtually every power play seemed automatic. The Pack have struggled thus far with the man-advantage going 0-5 in this contest and 1-15 (6.7%, 25th overall) on the season.

Offensively speaking, the Pack has shown little to no chemistry on any of their line combinations scoring just four goals in four games. Patience is required as this is a young team and in many cases winning chemistry can take longer as the team seeks to find its identity. While many of the team’s core is back this time around, this squad is a much younger and less experienced than last season’s unit. The Pack dressed seven new faces, four of whom are rookies, in the Hamilton game. Head Coach Ken Gernander will continue to work with his players but it’s going to take some time to find a rhythm and for the players get to know one another’s tendencies on the ice.

Garry McKay has the Bulldogs perspective in the Hamilton Spectator.

Here is the Game Summary and Official Scorer’s sheet.

NOTES
* Heavy weight Brandon Sugden made his debut in the red, white and blue and fought Hamilton’s tough guy, Ryan Flinn. While the bout wasn’t much, Sugden did land a couple of shots that bloodied Flinn and caused him to leave the game for repairs.

* Justin Soryal, also not afraid to drop the mitts, did so early in the second period and also fought Flinn, but did not fare nearly as well as Sugden did later on.

* The Pack were outshot 29-27 for the game.

* Before the game, General Manager Jim Schoenfeld announced that the team has loaned forward Mike Taylor to the Charlotte Checkers. Taylor had yet to suit up in a game for the Wolf Pack.

For those who don’t know, Taylor is a rookie out of Harvard University, who signed with the Pack on July 1st. He played eight games last year with the Wolf Pack, following the conclusion of his college season, and chipped in two goals and two assists for four points. In 34 games with Harvard, Taylor notched 12 goals and 23 assists for 35 points and had eight penalty minutes.

* Speaking of Mike Taylor, he had an assist in the action in Charlotte as the Checkers dropped the season opener against the Florida Everblades 6-3.

Here is their Game Summary.

Former Rangers 2004 8th round draft pick (247 overall), Jonathan Paiement, did the most damage to the Checkers putting up a three point night with a goal and 2 assists for Florida, while Peter Tsimikalis had a third star performance in the contest netting 2 tallies.

* The Rangers played the Toronto Maple leafs Friday night, Saturday the Pack travel to Toronto to take on the JV Marlies with the game getting underway at 7.

LINES
Soryal – Moore – Jessiman
Byers – Anisimov – Parenteau
Dupont – Pyatt – Weise
Sugden – Ouellette – Owens

Sanguinetti – Potter
Fahey – Denisov
Murray – Graham

Wiikman

THREE STARS
1. HAM – 38 Marc Denis
2. HAM – 4 Dan Jancevski
3. HFD – 62 Miika Wiikman

REFEREES
Jeff Smith (49), Referee
Jason Finley (6), Linesman
Kevin Hastings (61), Linesman

(Marc Denis and Dale Weise photo courtesy of thespec.com)