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There was a lot riding on Friday' night’s showdown between I-91 AHL rivals Hartford and Springfield. For the Hartford Wolf Pack, the team was needing to take advantage of a weaker opponent and end a seesaw streak of win-one, lose-one that had begun over thirteen games ago. That streak came off the end of a four wins in five games rally.

The Springfield Falcons, on the other hand, arrived at the XL Center with a lot to prove. The team’s been dwelling at the bottom of the Eastern Conference for much of the season. Since November 23rd, the Falcons had only won five games over a span of 24 games (5-16-3-0). That fall included a five-game losing streak, a four-gamer, and back-to-back losses twice. Four of the five games between the two clubs to this point in the season had gone into extended time. There the Pack have won three of the four meetings and were 3-1-1 overall against their northern border opponents thus far.

Hartford managed to end their streak, while Springfield continues to scratch their collective heads, as the Pack won 3-1 on goals by P.A. Parenteau, Corey Potter and Mike Ouellette in front of 4,851 at the XL Center.

Much like their parent club’s game against Chicago, the Pack (21-16-2-3) saw this one dominated by a referee, Shaun Davis, who must have thought he was being paid by the bad call, blowing his whistle more times than would be heard at an Olympic track meet. The difference in the game turned out to be the fact that the Pack were able to capitalize on their special teams, going two for five on their man advantage situations, while holding Springfield (14-21-5-1) to a one-for six night when shorthanded.

Springfield got on the board early in the first period. Davis whistled Devin DiDiomete for a hook that apparently only he saw putting the Falcons on the power play. After the ensuing face off the Pack just could not clear the zone. Falcon Left wing Bryan Lerg moved the puck high to Mathieu Roy on the left point. Roy then skated towards Rob Schremp and put the puck on his stick. Schremp skated back to the high slot and from near the blue line let go what appeared to be a pretty weak shot that somehow got past the glove of Pack netminder Miika Wiikman (22 saves).

After the Pack survived a Wiikman delay of the game call for putting the puck in the stands, they got a bit lucky as the Falcons’ Shane Willis broke through the Pack defense and came in on Wiikman. Wiikman held his ground, but Willis’ shot got past the Finnish netminder and careened off the post keeping the score at one-nothing.

The Pack then killed off two more penalties, one to Justin Soryal for roughing the other to Matt Stefanishion for interference.

It was Springfield’s turn to give the Pack an opportunity and they did it in compelling style.

At 16:58, Bryan Young went off to the sin bin on a holding call. 28 seconds later he was joined in the box on a stupid and unnecessary crosschecking penalty taken by Theo Peckham giving the Pack 1:32 of five-on-three power play time.

The Pack power play has been steadily improving over the last month and they would click on this opportunity. Patrick Rissmiller fed Artem Anisimov from the crease. Anisimov then takes his time and moves the lower right side. Too many Pack penalty killers followed the second year Russian center away from the net. Anisimov say that and threaded a perfect pass through the crease to Parenteau who was all alone on the left doorstep. Parenteau slammed it into the vacated net. Devan Dubnyk, (22 saves) the Falcon goaltender had no chance and the period ended deadlocked at one apiece.

After an uneventful second frame, the period ended on a VERY foolish roughing penalty by Patrick Bordeleau at the twenty minute mark that would prove to be their cou-de-gras as the Pack would start the third period with two minutes of fresh ice.

The Pack power play controlled play as the third period began. As Ouellette and Parenteau do a give and go to the net, Potter snuck down from his right point position and was all alone as Parenteau’s pass was right there as the Michigan native out it home at 1:23.

“We talked between periods about sending the defenseman backdoor to possibly get a shot,” Potter told reporters after the game. “P.A. just kind of feathered one in the crease and it was just kind of sitting between (Dubnyk’s) legs. Luckily I snuck in backdoor and just tapped it in.”

With the lead, the Pack did not get complacent as they have during this streak and just sat on it. Instead they continued to put pressure on Springfield and made better decisions with the puck. They also were helped by some tremendous stops from Wiikman on another Willis breakaway, and then on Tim Sestito and Lerg in front all in a one minute span.

Hartford would put the game away at 16:09. Potter sent an outlet pass to Jordan Owens, who was simply magnificent all game long. Owens, looked more like Jesse Owens, as he sprinted with the puck up ice. His speed fooled Roy and his defensive partner Taylor Chorney as he split the two Falcon defenders. One of them tripped him up and as he fell, he still managed to get the puck on net where his partner Ouellette buried it past Dubnyk.

Falcons coach Jeff Truitt said to reporters after the game, "We got beat to the net a couple of times there in the third period. I don't think we forechecked particularly well tonight,” He said. We were late on a lot of pucks, and that took away from our offense. I know we have what we need to score, we just have to try harder and make better decisions. We passed up some shots in the slot, making bad decisions and pushing the puck back. The way we're going, we can't pass up those shots."

Meanwhile Wolf Pack Head Coach Ken Gernander saw other issues when he spoke after the game. “There were a few too many penalties early for our liking, but we did a pretty good job killing them and then were patient to get the (first) power-play goal to get us going,” He said. “They had some good chances in the third period, but Miika stood his ground, which was good.”

“The boys did a great job in front of me tonight tonight,” Wiikman told Howlings. “There weren’t a lot of shots that got through and I was able to see the ones that did.”

Potter summed it up best saying to reporters, “Our power play has been clicking pretty well lately, so it was nice to see something we talked about work out. And we’ve been striving for more consistency, so two in a row feels pretty good and hopefully we can make it third straight (tonight against Providence).”

Bruce Berlet uses his verbal brush to paint the picture of this one at Hartfordwolfpack.com.  Garry Brown reports the Springfield perspective at Masslive.com.

GAMES SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

NOTES:

* From the “Separated At Birth Department…”
  

Chris Pine, Captain Kirk in the new “Star Trek” film , ex-Pack Hugh Jessiman   or maybe Michael Sauer …

What do you think? I know he looks like another Pack player, I’m just not sure which… Suggestions? 

* With a goal against Springfield Parenteau now has extended his point streak to six games (2g, 4a) over the span. He also sits tied for third overall in scoring with ex-Pack Jeff Taffe and Bridgeport’s Mike Iggulden with 44 points each. He trails the second place leader, another ex-Pack, Alexandre Giroux who has 48 points for Hershey. Keith Aucoin of Hershey leads all scorers with 54. The streak Parenteau is on makes him among the hottest players in the AHL, and atop the current assist streak.

* Artem Anisimov is currently in 8th place with 42 points (18g, 24a)

* Springfield is the second-lowest scoring team in the AHL with 94. They are preceded by Lake Erie who has 97 and only Rochester has fewer with 88. The Pack are tied for 15th with Binghamton, Toronto, Peoria all with 118. Conversely, the Pack are 19th in goals allowed at 122. (Springfield is 25th allowing 129 lamp lighters. Only Philadelphia (130), Norfolk (148), Rochester (138) and San Antonio (137) have allowed more)

* The truly amazing thing, given the up and down nature of how this season has gone for the Pack, should they beat Providence Saturday night in the XL Center, while Portland loses to Manchester in Portland, they Pack would find themselves in first place in the Atlantic division by virtue of a game in hand against Providence. If Portland does win, and the Pack wins as well, all three teams would would have 49 points, but Portland would sit in first because they hold two games in hand on Hartford, three on Providence, with the Pack then in second place. No matter how you slice it, who would have said after watching this team play early on that they would be where they are right now? This is a true testament to the outstanding job that Ken Gernander, J.J. Daigneault and Pat Boller have done all season long.

* Another reason to be proud of the coaching staff. Fans can forget about pointing fingers at the Pack’s specialty teams as a cause for concern. They have moved to 10th overall on the power play at 18.4% and 13th on the PK at 83.1%. Both have spent significant periods of time dwelling near the bottom of the league.

* The Pack are five games over .500 for the first time all season and also are minus-4 in goal differential. (118 for 122 against)

* The Pack are 21st in attendance with a reported 81,592 total over 22 home dates for an average of 3,709. Meanwhile Bridgeport is averaging 4,390 over 19 dates with a total of 83,407 in total reported attendance.

* Here’s a little game for you to play at home. Match the plus/minus number with the players below. Three players share two numbers

-7, –6, –9, –13, +8, +5, +3, -4

Brandon Sugden, Jared Nightingale, Mike Ouellette, P.A. Parenteau, Artem Anisimov, Corey Potter, Jordan Owens, Greg Moore, Bobby Sanguinetti, Patrick Rissmiller, Brodie Dupont (Answers at the bottom of the page).

* The Pack are now 5-3-0-0 when tied after two. 9-10-1-1 when outshooting the competition and 11-5-2-3 in one-goal games.

* At the XL center their record is 14-6-0-2.

LINES:

Rissmiller – MOORE – Owens

Dupont – Anisimov – PARENTEAU

Weise – Ouellette  – Pyatt

DiDiomete / Soryal – (Rotated) – Stefanishion

Sanguinetti – POTTER

Urquhart – Sauer

Nightingale – Fahey

Wiikman

(Alternate Captains in BOLD CAPS)

SCRATCHES:

Sugden – Healthy

Denisov – Healthy

Byers – Knee – Season

THREE STARS:

1. HFD – 17 Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau
2. HFD – 3 Corey Potter
3. HFD – 46 Jordan Owens

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Shaun Davis (31), Referee
Derek Wahl (46), Linesman
Frank Murphy (29), Linesman

NEXT GAME:

The Pack are back at home Saturday night to take on the first place Providence Bruins, losers of three straight, at the XL Center. On the road, the Bruins are 7-11-2-1.

QUIZ ANSWERS:

Brandon Sugden –6, Jared Nightingale +5, Mike Ouellette +8, P.A. Parenteau -7, Artem Anisimov +3, Corey Potter -4, Jordan Owens +8, Greg Moore –9, Bobby Sanguinetti –13, Patrick Rissmiller –7, Brodie Dupont –4

(Chris Pine photo courtesy of tinyplanetblog.com while Mike Sauer and Hugh Jessiman photos courtesy of Hartfordwolfpack.com)