PROVIDENCE BRUIN PACK STEW 

  VERSUS  

“We made some mistakes early and in tough places to make them,” Wolf Pack Assistant Coach J.J. Daigneault said after his Hartford team dropped a 5-2 decision to the visiting Providence Bruins. “ We made them and they wound up back in our net.”

This one seemed like a gift for the Rangers top farm club. They had just snapped a 13-game win-one, lose-one streak against a divisional opponent. They were playing for a possibility of taking over first place against a team that coming into the game had lost three straight and to top it off they were without a core group of players, Martin St. Pierre, Vladimir Sobotka, Byron Bitz and Matt Lashoff. They should have come out hungry and eager to make the leap to the next level in their game and at the same time have their first three game winning streak since late October. WRONG!

“Playing for a share of first against the team you’re battling against is an excellent way to evaluate your game as an individual and as a team,” Pack Head Coach Ken Gernander said to reporters after the game. “They’re an offensive team that creates chances on their own, so going in we said it’s going to be a battle and you can’t turn pucks over and give them opportunities. You have to protect the puck, and if there are no plays available you have to put it in the safe areas. You can’t put it in the middle of the ice and let them counter.”

Much like the Sofia Coppola film, something was “Lost in Translation” because that’s exactly what the Pack (21-17-2-3) did. It also didn’t help matters that, “(Boston goaltender Tuukka) Rask played one of the best games I’ve seen him play against us. He was very good.” according to Gernander. “It’s the best I’ve seen him play in the three years that I’ve been here.” Daigneault said speaking of Rask.

It was obvious from the start something wasn’t going to go right for the Pack. After opening the game strong and putting a great deal of pressure on the visitors am early shot got up in the air and behind Rask (39 saves) and looked to be in the net but was waived off by referee Chris Cozzan, who also had an awful night. More on that later.  The Pack pressure did manage to draw a penalty on Johnny Boychuk at 2:26. Who knew the damage it would do.

On the ensuing power play, Brian Fahey made a bad pass that was intercepted by Wacey Rabbit. The Bruin center then made a terrific outlet pass that got by Brodie Dupont along the right wing finding Jeremy Reich. The left wing got in between Fahey and David Urquhart and broke in alone on Pack goaltender Miika Wiikman (9 saves). A fake and a swoop to the right and Reich lifted a backhander over the glove of the Finnish netminder and the Pack trailed 1-0 on the sixth shorthanded goal they’ve allowed this season.

The Pack got back into the game less than four minutes later, when the red hot P.A. Parenteau picked off a bad Adam McQuaid pass and then bounced it off of him to create a three-on-one odd man rush with just Andrew Bodnarchuk back to defend Rask. Parenteau came up along the left wing and at the last possible moment made a sensational pass right to the tape of the streaking Artem Anisimov on the right. Anisimov, who’s been equally hot, buried the shot over the glove of Rask.

But turnovers were the special of the day and the Bruins (24-17-2-1) were ordering them like crazy. This time it was Corey Potter who turned the puck over with a bad clearing attempt that deflected off of Aaron Clarke’s skate to Zach Hamill at the top of the left circle. Hamill’s shot hit the inside of Wiikman’s glove put just kept going and fell into the net. It was a goal that Wiikman would most certainly want back as it was the easiest one he’s given up all year. It was 2-1 at 10:47.

It was now Fahey’s turn in the, “can-you-top-this” display of awful turnovers. Fahey put an ill advised clearing pass right onto the stick of Matt Marquardt who rushed in on Wiikman and beat the helpless goalie high and like that it was 3-1 and what would prove to be the game winner.

“I tried to do too much on the third goal (by Matt Marquardt).” Fahey, the sometime Assistant Captain told reporters afterwards. “They’re a good team and are going to capitalize on that. I know better, and there were some other guys who did the same thing and know better, too. It’s a mistake that can’t happen, and we let it because we were trying to do too much.”

After a slew of terrible calls by Cozzan, the Pack had a chance to get back in the game, but Rask made a nice save off an initial shot by Anisimov and then dove back to get the Russian’s rebound attempt.

30 seconds later, Cozzan made perhaps the worst call of a penalty ever. After a whistle had blown on a Parenteau shot low from the left side which was covered by Rask, Boychuk mugged Parenteau and threw him to the ice and jumped on him. Not only did he do it from behind, but Parenteau didn’t even have the chance to defend himself. In what should have been another Pack power play, Cozzan called both Boychuk AND Parenteau for roughing.

The period ended with the Pack outshooting the Baby Bruins 13-11 but trailing 3-1.

The Pack came out strong again in the second and had what looked like another goal taken away as Mike Ouellette appeared to bury a shot from the right circle. The play continued and Rask made a huge stop on a Dupont shot. The play was never reviewed, but it should have been.

At 6:01, Rabbit had the puck in the left corner and made a pass behind the net to Ned Lukacevic. The left wing came from behind Wiikman’s right and moved left. When he got to the front his wraparound shot got under Wiikman into the net and at 4-1, that was it for the Pack’s starter. In came Matt Zaba.

It was obvious from their play that the Pack had become frustrated by Rask’s outstanding play and their own carelessness with the puck.

Rask made a tremendous stop on another Anisimov bid and the rebound shot by the Pack center hit the post. Then two fights, one between Justin Soryal and Jeff May and then another moments later between Justin Nightingale and Marquardt brought the second period to a close.

The third period featured more fights with Devan DiDiomete and Jordan Knackstedt mixing it up. and then a few minutes later Reich and Matt Stefanishion taking their turn exchanging facial adjustments.

Midway through the third, Bodnarchuk took a boarding call sending the Pack to their fifth man advantage. Anisimov won the ensuing faceoff to Bobby Sanguinetti. The Pack’s All-Star representative then made a pass to Parenteau on the left point. Parenteau’s shot blazed past Rask off the post to the stick side and into the net. It would be the closest the Pack would get.

It ultimately didn’t hurt the team, other than taking away their ability to score, but Cozzan’s mystery calls continued. The worst of which was at 15:37 when his blunder sent Potter to the sin bin for interference that was simply good positioning by the Pack defenseman.

It seemed that every opportunity for the Pack to get some momentum back was squelched by a bad Cozzan call. After the game, Daigneault said, “Our guys responded well to the call (to pick up their game), but poor calls took away our momentum.”

Fahey whiffed on a pass at 18:44 and with the net empty, Reich put his second of the game into the deserted cage from center ice for the final score.

“We’ve been successful the last few games keeping it simple, doing the little things right, but we got away from that,” Fahey, a Glenview, Illinois native said. “I think we got a little overexcited by the fact we had a chance to slip into first place, and what we have to realize is that we have to keep it simple in order to get there.”

Daigneault didn’t quite see it that way in his post game comments. “In the first and second periods we didn’t win battles and weren’t good defensively. But they battled hard for the last twenty minutes. We need to do it though for sixty minutes.”

Bruce Berlet uses his mastery of language to put the color on the canvas at Hartfordwolfpack.com. Providence gets even less coverage than the Pack do, and if there’s any at all to read it’ll be in the The Providence Journal at projo.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

NOTES:

* Had the Pack won this game they would have been in first place in the Atlantic Division with Portland’s loss, but such is life. It just makes Monday afternoon’s game in Portland that much more important…Did I just say Monday afternoon? with the loss, and Worcester’s win, the Pack fall to fourth place by virtue of games played as both Portland and Worcester have games in hand on the boys from the Connecticut capitol.

* P.A. Parenteau and Artem Anisimov both had two point nights moving up in the scoring race. Parenteau moved into third in the AHL behind Alexandre Giroux. Parenteau trails the ex-Pack forward by four points but has played 9 more games. Anisimov has moved to sixth overall with 44 points. Right in front of him are Mike Iggulden of Bridgeport and another ex Pack in Jeff Taffe. He trails both by but a single point.

* Wiikman is currently ranked 31st overall. Ex Pack David LeNeveu is 28th and ex Pack Robert Gherson is 34th. Al Montoya is not in the top 43

* The Pack’s one–for-five performance with the man advantage kept them tenth overall on the power play at 18.4%. On the other side of the ledger, the PK held Providence off the scorer’s sheet going four-for-four and has been streaking now allowing only three goals in their last forty-two chances and advanced to twelfth overall at 83.4%

* Parenteau now has assists in seven straight games (3g, 9a , 12pts) over the span. He also has notched both a goal and an assist in three straight games as well.

LINES:

Rissmiller – MOORE – Owens

Dupont – Anisimov – PARENTEAU

Weise – Ouellette – Pyatt

DiDiomete / Soryal – (ROTATED) – Stefanishion

Nightingale – Fahey

Sanguinetti – POTTER

Urquhart – Sauer

Wiikman

(Assistant Captains in BOLD CAPS)

SCRATCHES:

Sugden – Healthy

Denisov – Healthy

Byers – Knee – Season

THREE STARS:

1. PRO – 30 Tuukka Rask
2. PRO – 17 Jeremy Reich
3. PRO – 20 Wacey Rabbit

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Chris Cozzan (68), Referee
Brent Colby (7), Linesman
Luke Galvin (2), Linesman

NEXT GAME:

Monday afternoon at 1pm…yes 1pm when the Portland Pirates host the Pack in a game the Pack will need to win to get back on the winning side of the ledger.