VERSUS
Talk about your roller-coaster seasons. It has been up and down all year long. Apparently the Wolf Pack are starting another up climb less than 24 hours after the team crashed and burned against one of the top teams in the AHL posting an impressive come-from-two-goals-down-come-from-behind victory against the visiting Toronto Marlies at the XL Center Sunday afternoon.
A small, and that's being polite, announced crowd of 1,830 saw the Pack regroup from a two-goal second period deficit and play perhaps their best 18 minutes of the season.
Alex Foster's goal at 2:04 gave Toronto a 3-1 lead on just their eleventh shot against starter Matt Zaba (8 saves). Foster buried a backhanded shot from the left side after defenseman Andy Schneider's shot from the right circle rebounded out to the fourth year pro. The goal chased Zaba and brought in first string netminder, Miika Wiikman.
Less than two minutes later, Mike Ouellette made a pretty pass to Vladimir Denisov deep in along the left wing half boards. Denisov then made a terrific centering pass that hit the stick of Jordan Owens who was charging down the slot. The puck deflected upwards and went in the net over the shoulder of Adam Munro which brought the Pack to within one goal at 3-2.
At 5:59 the Pack's Brandon Sugden lost his cool against Marlies' Robbie Earl. The 6'0" 195 pound Earl, a native of from Chicago, Illinois apparently did something to Sugden, a 6'4" 225 pounder from ironically Toronto, Ontario and whatever he felt that it was went uncalled. Sugden then came up from behind Earl and pulled a Jeff Hanson-like move first slashing and then cold cocking the smaller left wing. Earl laid on the ice for a moment, but got up and got into it with Sugden. After being separated by the linesman, Sugden was charged with a slash and a double minor for roughing. For his part in the festivities, Earl received two minutes of solitary confinement for Roughing. Referee Chris Brown awarded Toronto with a 4:00 power play. But four minutes was not enough as the league's 22nd rated penalty kill, coming into the game, came up huge and didn't allow a decent scoring opportunity to their Canadian guests.
Just 3:01 second after Sugden was sprung from the sin bin, Matt Stefanishion got his first AHL point and goal when, the Daysland, Alberta native was untouched as he skated right up the middle of the slot. The shot, which hit "0 to 60" before you could say, "Zero to Sixty" and rocketed past Munroe's outstretched glove. It was 3-3.
In the most recent edition of the HBO series Costas NOW, retired New York Giants defensive end, Michael Strahan said, in speaking of the Patriots reaction to wide receiver David Tyree's miracle catch in Super Bowl XLII said, "After that play, you could just look into (the Patriots' players) eyes and you knew the game was over. It was just over." In watching this game between the Pack and Marlies, you could say that between the great four minute penalty kill and with this goal, "it was just over…"
A fight between Justin Soryal and Andy Schneider didn't go well for the Toronto defenseman as he might have hoped it would. He and Soryal spun around quickly. But between the swinging motion and Soryal's one solid punch that landed square to the head of Schneider it knocked him off balance and to the ground. 31 seconds later Dale Weise and Todd Perry mixed it up with much the same results as Weise landed a couple of solid punches that scored. The Toronto edge was clearly gone.
43 seconds later, Kyle Rogers reacted poorly on a clearing attempt in his own end and put the puck into the stands sending the Pack to their fourth man advantage.
At exactly 16:00 P.A. Parenteau chased down a Greg Moore dump in along the right wing. His sharp angle shot went right to the crease. Artem Anisimov attempted to stuff it under Munro but the puck hit his pad and was by its lonesome right there in the crease. Moore beat the defense to the puck and tapped it in for his tenth of the season and a 4-3 lead.
The Marlies had one real scoring chance in the third period. Greg Moore lost the puck in neutral ice and it was picked up by Darryl Boyce. The Marlie center broke in on Wiikman but Jared Nightingale and his defensive partner Ethan Graham rushed back to put pressure on Boyce. Nightingale took a hooking call and once the Pack killed off that short handed situation and despite having nearly a full 18 minutes left to play in the third period, as Strahan said, "It was over."
The Marlies scored just 1:46 into the contest on a play that would have been ruled an error if it was baseball. Richard Petiot dumped the puck into the Pack offensive zone from just across the center redline. Defenseman David Urquhart moved across the middle of the slot and it distracted Zaba. The puck too an odd bounce and jumped over the glove of Wiikman giving the Marlies the early lead.
The Pack struck back at 7:09 as a terrific pass off the stick of Patrick Rissmiller sprung Anisimov who split the defenseman like Old John Henry split wood and raced in on Munro. As Anisimov tried to pull the puck in to launch his shot, the puck sort of slid off his stick and hit Munro in the pads and popped out in front and into the slot. Tommy Pyatt was Johnny-On-The-Spot and knocked it in for his sixth of the season.
With Rissmiller in the penalty box for a holding call, a great play was made by defenseman Anton Stralman at 19:11. The Swede stopped a golden shorthanded scoring attempt by Parenteau who capitalized on a Munro blunder. The Marlie netminder chased the puck way too far out from his crease and was not able to get it. The play put some jump into the Marlie legs. With just four seconds remaining on the power play, veteran Bates Battaglia beat Greg Moore to a puck along the right wing boards and moved in front of Zaba going untouched, beating both Pack defenseman, Jared Nightingale and Ethan Graham. Battaglia lifted the puck in front of Zaba high over his glove at 19:19 and sent the Pack back to the locker room trailing 2-1.
“It was a good character win,” Wolf Pack coach Ken Gernander said to the media afterwards. “They got a few (strange) goals, but it was early enough in the game that we could stay the course and come back. It never got out of hand score-wise, and we spread it around pretty good. Anytime you have a day off or a break, you want to finish on a high note, and this gives you a little better feeling about yourself and allows you to relax a bit more.”
The Pack are now off until they reconvene on Friday as they travel to Bridgeport to take on the second overall in the entire AHL, the Sound Tigers.
Bruce Berlet viewed the contest from his expert chair at HartfordWolfPack.com. The Pack got a second consecutive day showing up on TSN.ca…it helps when you play Canadian teams we guess.
GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET.
NOTES:
***UPDATE*** As speculated here in previous posts, and now verified by Sam Weinman who was at the Rangers practice Monday, defenseman Corey Potter, was in fact returned to the Wolf Pack by the Rangers today. Read all about it in Weinman's blog, Rangers Report. More on this later when the team makes it official.
* The Pack start a rough stretch playing the next seven on nine on the road. They play 9 games in 16 days and play 14 games in 31 days in January. Their only major bre
ak is the five days off surrounding the AHL All-Star Game. This stretch clearly will either make or break the Pack season.
* Special teams were solid for the home team. On the PP the Pack were two-for-six after running out a 1-19 streak over the last four games. Meanwhile on the PK they killed a 1:33 of five-on-three and a 4:00 shorthanded situation on their way to a one-for-eight.
* For Vladimir Denisov it was his first multi-point game as a member of the Pack and ended a six game scoreless streak.
* Stefanishion's goal was his first AHL point and goal in playing in his sixth game.
* The Pack improved their record when trailing after one to 3-5-1-1. When leading after 2 they are now 12-1-0-1 and 9-2-1-3 in one goal games.
* The game ended with both teams with 27 shots.
* Jordan Owens has now scored a goal in four of his last five games. (4g, 1a, 5pts)
* Mike Ouellette has put up an assist in five of the last six (0g, 5a, 5pts)
LINES:
Owens – Ouellette – Pyatt
RISSMILLER – MOORE – PARENTEAU
DiDiomete – Anisimov – Stefanishion
(Others just mixed with Anisimov)
Soryal - Sugden / Weise
Nightingale – Graham
Denisov – Sanguinetti
Urquhart – Sauer
Zaba
SCRATCHES:
Dupont – Head injury – Undisclosed
Fahey – Concussion – Indefinite
Byers – Knee – Season
THREE STARS:
1. HFD – 47 Tommy Pyatt
2. HFD – 46 Jordan Owens
3. HFD – 42 Artem Anisimov
ON-ICE OFFICIALS:
Chris Brown (86), Referee
Chris Low (88), Linesman
Paul Simeon (66), Linesman
NEXT GAME:
Friday night December 26th against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at 7pm
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