BIG SHORTIES ARE SPECIAL 

 
VERSUS

Special teams were the difference Wednesday night as power play goal from rookie David Urquhart and two shorthanded goals, one from Patrick Rissmiller, and the second was also the game winner of the season from Greg Moore powered the Wolf Pack to a 3-2 win over the first place Providence Bruins at the XL Center Wednesday night.

After an rather unremarkable first period that saw little to no chances and even less energy, the two teams came out swinging in the second period as both looked to establish their own "alpha-dog" presence. I took a whopping 13 seconds before a fight broke out between Hartford rookie Devin DiDiomete and second year defenseman Adam McQuaid. The fight had about as much intensity as an argument between Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul as the two basically just grabbed each other and danced. What it did do was raise the Pack's intensity. At 2:34 Dale Weise went to the box for boarding. On the ensuing penalty kill, Brodie Dupont knocked the puck loose from Providence defenseman Jeff Penner along the boards. Patrick Rissmiller picked up the loose puck and skated in along the right wing. Tuukka Rask (18 saves) had a tough time handling the puck after Rissmiller put it on net. The Pack assistant captain took the puck away and skated around the net and tucked it in to the empty net before Rask could react. It was just the Pack's second short handed goal of the season. Only four other teams in the AHL had that few or less; Quad City, Syracuse and Springfield each also only had one while the leagues worst PK, Binghamton, has no shorthanded goals. It was Rissmiller's third tally in 14 games since being sent to Hartford from the parent NY Rangers.

At 7:02 Bruins right wing, Mikko Lehtonen took a holding call sending the Pack out for their third power play opportunity. With the Pack pressing in the offensive zone, Artem Anisimov made a terrific play along the half boards freeing the puck and making a heads up pass to Rissmiller on the left side. Rissmiller moved in on Rask and found Urquhart all by himself in front of the net on the opposite side and made a perfect pass that the rookie merely tapped in and just 17 seconds into the man-advantage the Pack doubled their lead to 2-0.

DiDiomete got into his second fight of the period at 12:58 this time fighting Andrew Bodnarchuk. The Pack's Matt Stefanishion took a roughing call. When Bodnarchuk went after Stefanishion, DiDiomete intervened and probably won their fight by decision. The only problem was that referee Terry Koharski tacked on an additional roughing minor granting Providence a full two minute five-on-three man advantage. The Pack battled hard to keep it out of the net, but the Bruins moved the puck aggressively and quickly along the perimeter and after Martins Karsums advanced the puck to Martin St. Pierre, the Bruin center-man saw Penner free in the left face off circle and quickly hit him with a pass right on the tape. Penner unloaded a canon on Miika Wiikman (26 saves) and beat the Swedish netminder high to the stick side and cut the Pack lead in half.

The intermission didn't distract Wiikman who was again solid in net. His first challenge came just 10 seconds into the third period when the Pack goaltender extinguished a great scoring chance. Off the opening faceoff, the Bruins' Byron Bitz beat Vladimir Denisov to a puck in the Pack end and centered it to Jeremy Reich blazing through the slot untouched. Wiikman swallowed it up preserving the lead. But at 10:14 a momentary breakdown tied the score.

At 9:18 Ethan Graham was caught being lazy and reached out with his stick and took a bad tripping penalty. On the resulting power play opportunity,  St. Pierre passed up high to the top of the slot and found Bodnarchuk. The Drumheller, Alberta native (bares an uncanny resemblance to ex-Pack and current Ranger Lauri Korpikoski) took a shot high in the slot on Wiikman. The puck rebounded into the crease. The defensive pair of Denisov and Nightingale didn't pick up Peter Schaefer in front and the Bruin left wing knocked it in under Wiikman 
and like that the score was tied.

But the Pack kept pushing and working hard and out-hustled their first place opponents. Denisov, who had just a terrible game, got called for a lazy tripping call remaining giving the Bruins their eighth man advantage of the contest with just 5:31 remaining in the contest. On the right point, Johnny Boychuk broke his stick on a shot attempt. Brodie Dupont then picked up the loose puck and broke out two-on-one with Moore against Penner. With Dupont skating up the left wing and Moore along the right the Pack left wing held the puck as long as he could and then hit Moore with a perfect pass that the Lisbon, Maine native stepped hard into and blasted past Rask high to the glove side for the game winner and the Pack's second shorthander of the night effectively tripling the teams shorthanded output for the season in one night.

“Brodie gave me a good early pass, and as I looked up, I saw Rask cheating on the right post so there was lot of room on the left,” Moore told reporters after the game. “It was nice to get a goal like that. I felt like I had been working hard and getting some chances, so it felt good to have one pay off.”

The bottom line is that special teams were just that for the Pack in the game and gave the team a much needed boost of confidence. “Special teams were big for us,” Moore added. “We gave up two power-play goals tonight, but I think our team is pretty happy with the way our special teams are moving. We’ve been working really hard on having our special teams tighten up and help us win games." This time it did.

Since winding up at the bottom of the division, the Pack have picked up their play and it has not gone unnoticed by Head Coach Ken Gernander.  "I think we’ve made marked strides since the start of the season,” Gernander told reporters. “We’re coming, but it’s a process where hopefully we’re building toward something at the end of the season.”

If they play as they have in these past couple of games, they will.

Bruce Berlet shares his expert "coach-like" point-of-view" at Hartfordwolfpack.com, the AHL.com website has a small story in their League News Section and there is a quick report on the action in the Providence Journal.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET have all the stats.

NOTES:

* Justin Soryal is looking more and more like he has an NHL enforcer career in his future. The 6'2" 210 pound rookie from Newmarket, Ontario Canada heavily pounded and bloodied the 6'4" 200 pound Ryan Stokes. If Soryal can bring up the other areas of his game that are in need of work up to NHL levels, the 21 year old has a bright NHL future ahead of him.

* Based upon the dreadful way this team played this game earlier this season, you never thought that you'd be saying this statement. With the win, the Pack have moved into a tie with the Worcester Sharks for third place and trail second place Portland by just a single point and, hold on to your hats, are just two points out of first place. If by some miracle this team does win the division, the Ken Gernander should be the unanimous choice for the Louis A.R. Piere Memorial Award which is given each year for the AHL Coach of the Year.

* The Pack are 5-3-1-1 in their last ten and are on a 3-0-0-1 run.

* Strange but true, the Pack are three games over .500 and yet are -4 in their goals for to goals against with a 78-82 mark as of tonight.

* With a ridiculous showing of just 2,066 at the XL Center, that brings the year's attendance to 58,938 and a ludicrous average of just 3,683 per game. Bridgeport, the Islanders AHL affiliate in Bridgeport is drawing 4,264. Remember that you heard it here first. I'm not basing this on a single shred of of conversation or fact…it's strictly my opinion. I think if the team winds up this bad, they could move again next season to a place where they can draw fans. Remember this is a business and at this point they have got to go from losing to making money.

* Bobby Sanguinetti is 6th overall among defensemen in scoring with 3 goals and 14 assists in 29 games played.

* The Pack remain 14th overall on the power play after going one-for-five tonight maintaining their 17.4% on the PP. The PK was two-for-eight and dropped the efficiency to 82.1% dropping them back to 19th

* When leading after the second, the Pack are now 11-1-0-1, when outshot they are 8-5-1-2, 8-3-1-3 in one goal games and their record at home improves to 10-4-0-2.

* The Checkers ended a long six game road trip and knocked off the Elmira Jackals 4-2. Full report can be found at gocheckers.com

LINES:

DiDiomete – MOORE – Stefanishion

Dupont – RISSMILLER – PARENTEAU

Soryal – Anisimov – Weise

Owens – Ouellette – Pyatt

Denisov – Nightingale

Graham – Sanguinetti

Urquhart – Sauer

Wiikman

SCRATCHES: 

Fahey – Concussion – Indefinite

Sugden – Flu – Day-to-Day

Byers – Knee – Season

THREE STARS:

1. HFD – 18 Patrick Rissmiller
2. HFD – 15 Greg Moore
3. HFD – 9 Brodie Dupont

ON-ICE OFFICIALS:

Terry Koharski (10), Referee
Derek Wahl (46), Linesman
Brent Colby (7), Linesman

NEXT GAME:

7pm puck drop Saturday night at the XL center against the Hamilton Bulldogs (Montreal Canadiens affiliate) for their only battle with the Pack all season. Saturday is also Teddy Toss Night, so bring your best friend Teddy and toss him on the ice. Okay, not quite. We're teasing. It's actually Teddy BEAR toss night. The team is looking for you to bring teddy bears and plush toys to toss on the ice after the Pack score their first goal to benefit children without toys this holiday season. It's a nice thing to do.

Sunday is also a special event night with a post game skate with the players on the XL Center ice after they take on the Toronto Marlies (Toronto Maple Leafs…you were surprised weren't you?)

(Andrew Bodnarchuk and Lauri Korpikoski photos courtesy of theahl.com)