AT LEAST THEY SCORED…

VERSUS
The Hartford Wolf Pack ended a streak of six consecutive scoreless periods but it wasn’t enough as the Toronto Marlies got two goals from Kris Newbury, one from Jamie Stifers, and one from Staffan Kronwall en route to a 4-1 win in front of 1,753 at Ricoh Coliseum Saturday night.

It took Toronto just 59 seconds into the game to get on the scoreboard. Sifers, ironically a Connecticut resident, scored on the first shot of the game when his wrist shot from the right point got past Pack netminder Matt Zaba (17 saves) who appeared to be screened on the play.

The Pack carried play in the first period dominating with a 13-3 edge in shots and had plenty of scoring chances. At 5:50 of the first, it looked like the Pack had tied the game. Referee Jeff Smith saw it differently on what appeared to be a goal off a scramble in front of the net. Center Mike Ouellette slid a loose puck in the crease under Marlie goaltender, Justin Pogge. The goal judge threw the light on, but Smith waived it off.

The Pack missed a golden opportunity to tie the game early in the second period. Parenteau found a streaking Brodie Dupont coming up the slot all alone but was stoned by his former junior’s netminder, Pogge (29 saves).

Moments later, Ouellette did tie the score at 3:21. Dale Weise took a Justin Soryal feed and broke out along right wing displaying good speed and puck control. As he crossed the goal line he fed a pass back to the crease which hit the side of the net and caromed right to Ouellette who popped it right into the net. The goal was Ouellette’s first of the season and the assists to Weise and Soryal were the first of their professional careers.

The Pack were far more disciplined in this game than in their previous efforts and played much harder in the second period than they had in quite a while. However with the team pressing to get goals and taking chances, mistakes are bound to be made; at 14:28 it happened.

Newbury took a tripping penalty at 12:17. With the Pack in the offensive zone, Corey Potter, who has been the Pack’s best player on the ice throughout the early going of the season, fanned on a shot from the right point and fell. The puck was picked up by Alex Foster who broke into the Pack’s zone chased by both Bobby Sanguinetti and Potter. Unfortunately nobody picked up Newbury who trailed the play coming out of the penalty box. Foster left a drop pass for the Marlie center who blasted a shot that Zaba had no chance on.

The wheels came off a bit for the young Pack team as they began to make mistakes that left them in difficult situations. Zaba got some help from the crossbar off the stick of Darryl Boyce’s 2-on-1 break-in and then stopped Newbury again when he came in all alone on blown coverage.

The third period was more of the same.

Smith issued a delay of game for putting the puck over the glass to Sanguinetti at 3:47. The actual culprit as replays revealed was Potter. It was only the Pack’s second shorthanded situation of the game but it cost them at 4:11 when Kronwall was left completely unchallenged as he walked in the puck down the slot and ripped an NHL quality slap shot that Zaba could do little more than fan his glove at. The power play goal was the first for the Marlies in three games.
Zaba stood strong making huge saves on Boyce and later on Jeremy Williams.

The Marlies got an empty net goal with just 12 seconds remaining when Newbury beat Potter down the ice for a loose puck. The goal will go into the books as a shorthanded goal since the Pack was on the power play at the time with Zaba pulled.

In assessing his team, Head Coach Ken Gernander has any number of things to work on with his young group. One thing that he certainly won’t have to concern himself with is the effort his troops are putting out on the ice. They are all working hard and making the most of what talents they have and quite frankly are learning to play at this level. The problem is that they just don’t have much in the way of offensive threats. The Pack are essentially a very young and inexperienced group of blueliners on the backend with a group of very hard-working grinders and checkers up front. The team’s only real offensive threat up front seems to be P.A. Parenteau.

It is still WAY too soon to be seriously concerned. This franchise has had a number of slow starts only to recover as they get deeper into the season. There is no reason given the tremendous coaching staff and the raw talent on the roster that they will not find a way to reverse their current problems.

The Marlies get very poor press coverage in Toronto. What there is appears to be the same Canadian Press story in both the Sun and Star.

The Pack story is at WP.com.

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

NOTES

* The Pack are now just 1-20 (5%, 29th-Last in the AHL) on the power play and their efficiency on the penalty kill dropped to 20 for 24 (83.3%, 14th).

* The team is tied with defending Champion Chicago for the fewest goals with just six goals in four games.

* The Pack are tied for fifth with Milwaukee for fewest goals allowed of teams that have played four games or more.

* This has nothing to do with the Pack except you can look at it as one of those, there’s always someone who has it worse. The Rochester Americans, the AHL affiliate of the Florida Panthers, are 0-5, have scored only seven goals and surrendered twenty and have 157 penalty minutes.

MEANWHILE IN CHARLOTTE

In Charlotte, the Checkers defeated the Florida Everblades 3-1. Rangers draft pick Tomas Zaborsky, had an assist in the win.

LINES

Jamtin – Owens – Jessiman
Dupont – Barnes – Parenteau
Soryal – Ouellette – Weise
BYERS – Anisimov – Moore

FAHEY – Denisov
POTTER – Sanguinetti
Graham – Murray

Zaba

Alternate Captains in CAPS

SCRATCHES

Pyatt
Dowzak
Sugden
Jamtin

THREE STARS

1. TOR – Jaime Sifers
2. TOR – Justin Pogge
3. TOR – Kris Newbury

OFFICIALS

Jeff Smith (49), Referee
John Campbell (20), Linesman
Kevin Ferguson (31), Linesman

NEXT OPPONENT

The Wolf Pack finish their road trip with a game in Worcester Wednesday night to take on the Sharks. Game time is 7:05.