IT WASN’T PRETTY, BUT AT LEAST THEY WON… 

  VERSUS 

They all count, right? Two points is two points no matter how you get them, right?

The Hartford Wolf Pack continued their trend of up-and-down play with a 1-0 victory over the hapless Springfield Falcons on an overtime goal at 3:05 by Artem Anisimov in front of 4,146 at the MassMutual Center Friday night.

Besides the win, the Pack (19-15-2-3) can take pride in a marvelous play in net from Matt Zaba (40 saves). His best save being in overtime when Derek Bekar put a pass right on the tape of right wing Carl Corazzini, who was all alone in front of the net and stopped in his tracks by a “goal-line stand” by Zaba.

Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers, (29 saves) who graduated to the NHL this season, but is back in Springfield on a conditioning assignment from parent club, the Edmonton Oilers was also magnificent in net.  His finest save of the game came late in the third period when Greg Moore and P.A. Parenteau came in two-on-one against Rob Schremp. Moore got Schremp to go down and drew Drouin-Deslauriers to him along the right wing side. He flipped the puck to Parenteau and Drouin-Deslauriers stayed with him through a fake and covered the net as Parenteau went to the backhanded shot as he crossed in front of the net.

Anisimov’s game winner, and his team leading seventeenth of the season, came as a Parenteau pass inside the offensive zone was chipped back to the trailing Russian Center at the blue line. Anisimov stick handled and got himself free from the defense just inside the slot, near the right circle, and put a bee-bee past the glove of Drouin-Deslauriers.

The other story line during the contest was the insane refereeing by Ryan Fraser, son of NHL all-timer Kerry Fraser. In all, Fraser called sixteen power plays, eight for each team. Of a game that lasted 63:05, 52 of it was on special teams. Fraser’s calls completed stripped the game of any flow or rhythm.

The best chance to score during regulation came when Fraser called a mystery diving infraction against Parenteau and then in the resulting scrum called a high stick against Brodie Dupont but nothing against the Falcons resulting in a full two-minute five-on-three advantage for the home team. Zaba truly earned his First Star status during the two-man advantage stopping several solid Falcon (13-19-5-1) scoring chances.

The Pack did get the advantage of one call. At 12:34 of the third period, with Jared Nightingale in the penalty box for a Delay of Game call, the Falcons’ defenseman Taylor Chorney blasted a shot from the left point that hit just under the crossbar. The goal judge did not turn on the light, but Fraser claimed that it went in. After vehement protest from Pack players on the ice, Fraser spoke to his linesman and they overturned his call. The replays seemed to strongly indicate that the puck did NOT go in but hit just under the crossbar and came out before being swept out by the Pack defense.

Zaba picked up his first career shutout.

For coverage, see Bob Crawford’s summary at Hartfordwolfpack.com and for the Springfield perspective Garry Brown has the story at Masslive.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

NOTES:

* The Pack will face the Sound Tigers without Bobby Sanguinetti who’s been recalled by the Rangers as a precaution as there seems to be a problem with Michael Rozsival.

* This game makes eleven straight now where the Pack have won-one then lost the next and then won and so on. If the trend continues, watch out for Bridgeport Saturday night.

* This was the first game in the last four against Springfield that the team did not face Devan Dubnyk

* Anisimov’s goal was his second consecutive overtime winner against Springfield. In fact of the five games the Pack have battled Springfield, four have gone to overtime. The Pack are 3-1-0-1 in them.

This game shouldn’t have been as close as it was. Springfield entered the game having scored just seven goals in their last five including being shut-out.

* The win marks the first time the Pack have been four games over .500 all season and puts them in a second place tie with Portland at 43 points. The Pirates remain ahead of the Pack however since they have two games in hand. The Pack next play Portland up in Maine on January 19th for an afternoon tilt that will start at 1pm.

* Anisimov now has and pointed in nine of his last eleven games, 6g, 7a, 13 pts

* In one goal games, the Pack’s record is now 11-4-2-3, and 10-6-1-2 when being outshot.

* The Pack are now 11th on the Power Play going 0-8 at 18.0% and improved on the PK to 13th with an 8-0 performance to 83.1%

 LINES:

Rissmiller – MOORE – Soryal

Dupont – Anisimov – Parenteau

Owens – Ouellette – Pyatt

DiDiomete – (Rotated) – Sugden / Weise

Nightingale – FAHEY

Sanguinetti – POTTER

Urquhart – Sauer

Zaba

(Alternate Captains in BOLD CAPS)

SCRATCHES:

Stefanishion – Healthy

Denisov – Flu – Day-to-Day

Byers – Knee – Season

THREE STARS:

1. HFD – 30 Matt Zaba
2. SPR – 38 Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers
3. HFD – 42 Artem Anisimov

ON-ICE OFFICIALS:

Ryan Fraser (14), Referee
Marty Demers (79), Linesman
Jim Briggs (83), Linesman

NEXT GAME:

The Pack look to avenge their 3-1 loss at Bridgeport from December 26th. They have a 2-2-0-0 record with their intra-state and franchise rivals as both chase after winning the Geico Cup awarded to the team with the best record between them during the regular season. The Pack have won it every year since it’s inception. Game time is 7pm.