SO MUCH FOR BUILDING BLOCKS 

  VERSUS 

Mama always said, “if you haven’t got anything nice to say, then don’t say anything.” After watching the Pack’s performance Saturday, all we can think of to say is, “Good Night”

Still here? You mean that you want to know more about this?

“You’re a braver man than I am, Gunga Din.”

Remember, you asked for it.

The Wolf Pack played their best total team game of the season Friday night against the third best team in the AHL, the Grand Rapids Griffins. On Saturday night 4,468 watched as the stakes were raised as the best team in the AHL entered the XL Center and the Pack were soundly thrashed by the visiting Hershey Bears led by a four point night by former Pack forward, Alexandre Giroux 6-2.

Giroux and his linemates, Keith Aucoin, and Graham Mink simply shredded the Pack defenders combining for nine points (Giroux 1g, 3a, Aucoin 1g 2a, Mink 2g, 0a) and 14 shots. To make matters worse, Giroux was still preparing to play for the parent Washington Capitals and was not even aware he was headed back to the AHL and to Hartford until late in the afternoon. 

The Bears came right onto the ice and started their attack, and it worked. At just 1:25 of the first period, Bobby Sanguinetti found himself along the left wing boards when the puck popped between his legs headed towards his own net. Defenseman Bryan Helmer retrieved the puck and found Giroux who headed towards the left post pulling Pack starter Miika Wiikman with him. With Wiikman (19 saves) committed to the left, Giroux made a perfect pass to the right post to Aucoin who put it to bed.

The trouble that has plagued the Pack all season long has been the taking of too many penalties against teams and then letting their power play ravage them. The Pack survived a two-minute call to Brodie Dupont for Roughing, but not long after with Hershey again attacking, Sanguinetti lost his stick and the puck found it’s way to Tyler Sloan who fed Giroux down low on the right wing. Giroux saw that Mink was as alone as George Bush at a Moveon.org fundraiser in front of Wiikman and put the puck right on the 29 year old right wing’s stick. Wiikman had no chance and watched as the Bears hugged and celebrated their 2-0 lead just 6:35 into the contest.

Once again, a lack of discipline by P.A. Parenteau hurt his team. Former Pack defenseman Dean Arsene got under the skin of Parenteau and he lost his composure as he was seen spearing and given a five minute major as well as a Game Misconduct. After a tremendous post-to-post save by Wiikman on Giroux on the ensuing power play, the Pack dug themselves a deeper hole when arguably the team’s best penalty killer, Mike Ouellette, took an interference call just 1:54 in. The penalty gave the leagues 16th ranked power play unit a full two minute five-on-three advantage.

In the midst of reporting the bad, you have to mention the good. The Pack penalty killers, 22nd overall, were simply amazing granting limited looks at Wiikman and clogging up passing lanes. With the exception of a terrific stop by Wiikman on Helmer, Hershey was kept at bay.

The period ended with the Pack being outshot 18-7 and it wasn’t that close.

The second period started for Hershey 36 seconds before the Pack realized they were playing for keeps. Hershey jumped right on them off the opening faceoff and  Steve Pinizzotto ripped a shot from the slot after getting away from Corey Potter and it beat Wiikman for the third goal. Artem Anisimov did battle with Andrew Joudrey in front of Wiikman and he was most likely screened on the shot. Regardless, it was 3-0 and the Pack were in trouble.

Less than 6 minutes later, the Bears connected again. After the Pack repeatedly failed to clear the puck out of their own end, Chris Bourque, son of legendary defenseman Ray Bourque, fired a shot from the point. The rebound practically landed in the lap of Kyle Wilson who had Brian Fahey draped all over him. Wilson gave it a good nudge and into the twine it went and out of the game went Wiikman.

Matt Zaba (13 saves) came into the game and was put to the test when once again, a lack of discipline on the part of the young Pack players put them in a bind. Pinizzotto was a bout to receive a charging penalty for taking a run at Fahey when Devan DiDiomete jumped on top of him.  Referee Jamie Koharski lowered the biggest boom of the night, sending the 5’11” Ontario native to the showers. Koharski gave Pinizzotto the two he earned for the charge, but he leveled a two minute instigating, a five minute fighting, a ten minute misconduct for Instigating and a Game Misconduct for being the Aggressor.

SO the Pack head out to try and kill off this penalty. Hershey is pushing the play in the Pack end when Fahey gets called for High Sticking at 10:06 putting the Pack in their second two-full-minutes of five-on-three shorthanded penalty killing. Once again, the Pack penalty killers rise to the occasion and give nothing to Hershey to take advantage of and ironically the best scoring chance came for Greg Moore who was stopped by a terrific save by Simeon Vartamov (32 saves). Vartamov was a teammate of Anisimov’s on the Russian National team.

The Pack seemed to be inspired by their first class penalty killing and responded with their best offensive thrust of the game.

With just .8 seconds remaining in the contest, Moore finishes from the left wing circle beating Varlamov high over the shoulder and just under the net. The goal was set up by a tremendous cross ice feed from Anisimov who was coming in along right wing. Entering the third, the Pack trailed 4-1.

The Pack had a ray of hope early in the third period when they actually got a break come their way…literally. A clearing attempt from the Bear defense hit Koharski and came like a centering pass to the vacating Patrick Rissmiller. The former San Jose Shark then lifted a backhanded high shot that beat Varlamov and the Pack were back in the game at 1:44 trailing just 4-2.

Once again, penalties killed the Pack. Brodie Dupont took a bad boarding penalty at 3:55. This time it took all of 20 seconds for Hershey to capitalize. Mink got his second of the game off a feed from behind the goal line by Giroux. Zaba had no chance and it was 5-2 just like that.

BUT, Dupont came out of the box incensed and verbally went after Koharski. BIG mistake. Dupont was tossed with a Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty giving Hershey a power play, but also received a Misconduct and a Game misconduct for Unsportsmanlike.  Fortunately for the Pack, their penalty kill was solid and kept Hershey off the board until they got their final score at 14:26.

Fahey lost the puck in the neutral zone while the Pack were changing. Pinizzotto got it and saw Giroux coming up the middle and fed him the puck for the breakaway. Giroux used the same move that he used in a similar situation in his game with NY, only this time it worked and Washington was up by a 6-2 count which was how it would end.

Bob Crawford has the summary while Bruce Berlet was under the weather (get well soon Bruce) over at Hartfordwolfpack.com and the Hershey perspective can be found at the center of a  tootsie pop…okay not there but you can find it at pennlive.com

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

NOTES:

* With the loss, the Pack fell out of third and a point behind Worcester who beat Lowell 3-2. Sunday, Hershey crushed Worcester 7-2

* With the two successful dates, Hartford raised it’s average reported attendance number to 3,689 per game… For those looking to put this in perspective, Springfield, which is in last place averages 3,794 while arch nemesis Bridgeport (NY Islanders) average 4,400 per game.

* With his 14 goals and 21 assists, Artem Anisimov is currently ranked 15th in the AHL scoring race. He trails former Pack forward Jaime Lundmark by a point. Artie is a mere two points out of the top ten. P.A. Parenteau has 15 goals and 19 assists and is ranked 17th with 34 points. To put into perspective the scoring problems this team has, the next highest scorer on the Pack is Greg Moore with 11 goals and 11 assists. The 22 points puts him 84th in scoring and after that it drops to Bobby Sanguinetti at 106th (3g 18a) and then Patrick Rissmiller with 19 points (4g, 16a). If the Pack are going to have ANY chance of making the playoffs this will need to change.

* In the net, Miika Wiikman is currently 30th overall with a 12-12-3 record and a .902% and a 2.79GAA

* Over the last eight games the Pack have gone W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L…is it us or is there a pattern brewing?

* On the cold front, Michael Sauer, no points in 12 games, conversely, Artem Anisimov is on a 6 game point streak with 3g and 6a for 9 points over the span. It’s time that Artie gets a look in NY. He’s earned it.

LINES:

Owens – Ouellette – Pyatt

Dupont – MOORE – Sugden

Soryal – Anisimov – PARENTEAU

DiDiomete – RISSMILLER – Weise

Nightingale – Potter

Sanguinetti – Fahey

Urquhart – Sauer

Wiikman

(Alternate Captains in BOLD CAPS)

SCRATCHES:

Denisov – Healthy

Stefanishion – Healthy

Byers – Knee – Season

THREE STARS:

1. HER – 12 Alexandre Giroux
2. HER – 21 Graham Mink
3. HER – 11 Keith Aucoin

ON-ICE OFFICIALS:

Jamie Koharski (84), Referee
Paul Simeon (66), Linesman
Brent Colby (7), Linesman

NEXT GAME:

Things don’t get any easier for the Rangers top farm team. The Pack take to the air and fly out west to Manitoba where they will play two games, Tuesday and Wednesday against the third best team in the West, the AHL Affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks, the Manitoba Moose. Brian Fahey, who was a member of last season’s AHL Champion Chicago Wolves played against former teammate Darren Haydar in the game with Grand Rapids and now faces another former running mate (and short term NY Ranger) in Jason Krog. Also on that team is Nolan Baumgartner. The assistant coach of that squad is a member of the 1994  NY Rangers Stanley Cup team, Jay Wells.