VERSUS
The Hartford Wolf Pack succeeded in what they failed to do against Bridgeport the night before
as they rallied from an early two goal deficit beating the Springfield Falcons
at the Mass Mutual Center 4-3 on a magnificent goal by Artem Anisimov in overtime.
The overtime was fast and exciting. Theo Peckham surrendered the puck to a smothering fore-check by both rookie defensemen Bobby Sanguinetti and David Urquhart. The tandem kept the Falcons pinned in their own end and eventually got them the puck. Sanguinetti then fed Anisimov the puck in the left face off circle and the Yaroslavl, Russia native did the rest.
Moving with the speed and grace of another famous Russian, Pavel Bure, Anisimov just completely undressed the entire Falcons squad skating in, around and through them all and saved his best move for goaltender Devan Dubynk. As Anisimov started to lose the handle on the puck, he drew Dubynk (29 saves) down and then pushed the puck past the right leg of the Falcon netminder at just 1:37 of the overtime period.
Anisimov was clearly the game’s
First Star. He dominated shift-after-shift all over the ice both offensively and defensively. Prior to being paired with checkers, Dale Weise and Justin Soryal eight games ago, Anisimov was on fire posting 9 goals and 4 assists in 12 games. In the eight games since, he’s put up a goal and five assists, all on the power play. In a move clearly to get the young Russian back into offensive flow, Head Coach Ken Gernander reunited the line that was working so well in Brodie Dupont and P.A. Parenteau surrounding Anisimov, and it worked.
The Pack got into trouble early.
Michael Sauer was whistled by referee Jeff Smith for interference at 6:32. Sanguinetti then foolishly cross-checked Gilbert Brule in the back and took a penalty that put the Pack down two skaters for 28 seconds, and it cost them.
21 seconds later, A terrific pass
from Rob Schremp to the front of the net gave Ryan Potulny a golden opportunity. Potulny fired in tight on Matt Zaba (18 saves) from the right side of the crease. The puck clipped off the inner thigh of Zaba’s pads and slid in through the five-hole.
It only took five minutes before
the Pack were short a deuce. Zaba had no chance as a shot from the right point by Peckham careened off the back wall and came out the left side where Carl Corazzini was waiting and simply tucked it in the empty net.
The Pack responded in the second
much as they did against Bridgeport the night before. They simply took over the game. After coming away unscathed from an aggressive Falcon fore-check, a loose puck resulted in the Pack’s top two scorer’s, Anisimov coming down the ice on left wing with Parenteau coming up the middle. Only Cody Wild stood between them as Corazzini trailed. Anisimov made a perfect pass that Parenteau lifted over Dubynk’s glove at 5:15.
Hartford’s penalty kill hasn’t
exactly overwhelmed the competition this season ranking 21st, but a four minute double minor to Jordan Owens was a turning point as the Pack shut down the Falcon power play and killed it off keeping the deficit at a single goal.
The Pack out shot the Falcons 14-6 for the period but still trailed 2-1.
Just 1:37 into the third period,
the Pack knotted it up when Sanguinetti led Parenteau on an odd man rush two-on-one against Mathieu Roy who he had taken the puck from. Sanguinetti fed Parenteau who took a shot at Dubynk. The Falcon netminder left a loose puck in front of the net as players from both squads scrambled to locate it. The one who did was Urquhart, who tapped it in under Dubynk.
The turning point of the game came at 6:21 of the third period. The Falcons were already shorthanded from a Too
Many Men bench minor call when Josef Hrabel lost his composure and slashed a Wolf Pack players stick right in front of the referee, putting the Falcons down two men for 1:58.
The Wolf Pack power play, which has been better of late and now 14th in the AHL, “If you take a look at our power play from the last five or six games, it’s been pretty good.” Head Coach Ken Gernander told Howlings after the game in Bridgeport Friday night.
Patrick Rissmiller was stationed at the left point and fed a pass down to the left goal line where Parenteau waited with the puck. Brodie Dupont backed through the low slot with his stick in a shooting position. Parenteau saw the opening and put a perfect pass through the defenders and Dupont wristed it over the glove of Dubynk. The Pack had come back from a two goal deficit and now led 3-2 at 6:53 of the third.
But then the Pack did the unexpected. Instead of maintaining their intensity level and continuing to do what had gotten them there, they let up and pulled back into a more safe game. If this were football, you’d say that they were playing “Prevent Defense.” If you know the old adage about that is that “Prevent Defense actually prevents you from winning.” It almost did here.
Instead of choking out the lanes
and pressing the attack hard, the Pack settled to try and just protect the net in their end and this allowed the Falcons to have long shifts in the offensive zone and not nearly as much time being worn down defending their own net which eventually led to trouble.
Rissmiller lost a draw to Gilbert
Brule in the right wing circle. The puck took a path behind Zaba’s net to the left wing side. Once there, Guillaume Lefebvre got it he found Ryan O’Mara free in front of the net. A quick pass and shot and O’Mara had his first AHL goal in his 25th game, beating Zaba to the stick side at 10:15.
The Pack recognized their folly and picked up their intensity the rest of the way, but this one was headed to extra
time.
Anisimov’s heroics followed after
skating through Brule, Schremp Peckham and defenseman Rob Bina.
For the Pack, Parenteau had his
eighth multi-point game of the season with a goal and two assists (it was also his third, three or more point game of the season). Sanguinetti had two helpers, Anisimov and Urquhart each had a goal and an assist.
Bob Crawford shares the view from
the Hawk’s nest at HartfordWolfPack.com.
Fran Sypek has the tale of the opposition at Masslive.com.
GAME
SUMMARY and OFFICIAL
SCORERS SHEET
NOTES:
* Corey Potter did well in his second game with the parent New York Rangers. Potter had 13:52 of ice time and the primary assist on Dmitri Kalinin’s first goal in 38 games with the Rangers in their 4-2 loss in New Jersey.
The point is the first of Potter’s career. The Michigan native is likely to be returned to the Wolf Pack either later today or more likely Monday when Michael Rozsival returns from having dealt with whatever personal matter needed attending to.
Overall Potter handled himself very well. He was one of only four Rangers who were positive on the plus/minus stat for the game (ex-Pack Lauri Korpikowski, Aaron Voros and Kalinin being the others).
* Here’s ironic for you. All four match-ups between the Falcons and Wolf Pack this season have all been decided by a 4-3 score. In those games, the Pack is 2-1-0-1.
* The Pack has now matched their highest number of games over .500 at three. 16-13-1-3. This was the Pack’s fourth win in OT.
* With just 2:23 of the first period remaining, a rumble on the ice broke out after there was a collision just inside the Falcon defensive zone that the “Bluebirds” took
exception to between Greg Moore and their Captain Tim Sestito. On the replay it
looked like Moore was trying to avoid a much bigger hit to Sestito, but the Falcons didn’t see it that way. In the ensuing melee, Dale Weise tangled with veteran Mathieu Roy and too k a pretty good beating. Weise left the game for a while to deal with some bleeding on his head.
* The Pack has now earned points in their last seven divisional games going 5-0-2-0 over that span.
* This was by a country mile, David Urquhart’s best game as a member of the Pack. He was VERY solid defensively, contributed offensively as his steal off Peckham led to the game winning goal. Howlings had him as one of the Three Stars of the Game behind Anisimov and Parenteau.
* Parenteau and Anisimov now share the team lead in points with 31 each with 13 goals and 18 assists.
* The Pack picked up only their second win of the season when trailing entering the third period. (2-13-3-1) and are 9-1-3-1 in games decided by a single goal.
LINES:
Dupont – Anisimov – PARENTEAU
DiDiomete – MOORE – Stefanishion
Owens – Ouellette – Pyatt
Soryal – RISSMILLER – Weise
Denisov – Sanguinetti
Urquhart – Sauer
Graham – Nightingale
Zaba
(Assistant Captains in BOLD CAPS)
SCRATCHES:
Fahey – Concussion – Day-to-Day
“We’re not doctors so we’re
following the protocol that the doctors tell us. I think he should be able to
start skating with us soon.” Ken Gernander told Howlings.
Sugden – Healthy
Byers – Knee – Season
THREE STARS:
1. HFD – 42 Artem Anisimov
2. SPR – 22 Ryan O’Marra
3. HFD – 17 Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau
ON-ICE OFFICIALS:
Jeff Smith (49), Referee
Frank Murphy (29), Linesman
Chris Low (88), Linesman
NEXT GAME:
On the road again (hey, could that be a song…?) as the team travels to Lowell to take on the Devils in a tilt that starts at 4pm. The Pack will look to continue their strong divisional play and return the favor of a home loss to the Devils, who came into the XL Center on November 21st and took a shootout
win, 4-3.
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