PACK OUTLAST PIRATES…

VERSUS 

The Hartford Wolf Pack battled for second place in the Atlantic division with a depleted Portland Pirate team and got two goals from their top scoring unit en route to a 3-1 victory in a Monday afternoon matinee before 3,933 at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

In the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s the New York Rangers organization had a line consisting of Rod Gilbert and Vic Hatfield on the wings and Jean Ratelle in the middle. The line was nearly unstoppable and earned the nickname, “The G-A-G line” which stood for “Goal-A-Game.” While no one is comparing these players on an individual basis or in terms of longevity, the line of Brodie Dupont, P.A. Parenteau and Artem Anisimov are almost doubling that production and carving out quite the reputation for themselves since being put together by Head Coach Ken Gernander twelve games ago. Since December 27th when they lined up against Springfield, the group has scored 21 of the team’s 35 total goals and combined for 25 assists. Parenteau has notched seven goals and had thirteen assists. Dupont has four goals and three helpers and Anisimov has lit the lamp eight times and assisted his teammates another nine times.  That’s a total of 46 points in twelve games. Now that’s production.

This afternoon this line had a huge second period with both Parenteau and Anisimov notching goals while Dupont got a helper on both. At 12:16 of the second and the Pack trailing 1-0, Dupont carried the puck up the middle into the offensive zone. As he was picked up by a Pirate back-checker he tapped the puck forward to Anisimov in the right circle. Anisimov spotted Parenteau darting up the left wing and into the circle and led him perfectly across ice and watched Parenteau laser the puck past starter Jhonas Enroth (27 saves).

Less than three minutes later Parenteau returned the favor with what would prove to be the game winner. Mark Mancari was sent to the penalty box for slashing Parenteau by referee Chris Cozzan at 14:58. On the ensuing power play, after winning yet another faceoff and getting the puck to Dupont, Anisimov drifted into the left circle in the vicinity of the slot. Parenteau, who had the puck along the left wing half boards made a quick pass back to Anisimov and sent a hard shot right through the pads of the Swedish netminder.

The Pirates (22-17-1-2) were clearly exhausted by the third period as they have been decimated recently by injuries and were only able to put sixteen healthy skaters onto the ice. In the third period, the Pack were able to take full advantage as their strong puck possession and forecheck didn’t allow their divisional rivals a shot on goal until just over seven minutes remained in the contest.

At 15:47 Matthew Ford, with the Pack after being recalled from Charlotte, got his first AHL assist when his outlet pass set up Mike Ouellette for a partial breakaway. Mike Kostka did his best to ride Ouellette away from the net. The Kamloops, British Columbia native elected to pass up the bad angle shot but instead made a sparkling pass to the center where he found linemate Tommy Pyatt streaking up the middle. Pyatt didn’t hesitate and blasted the puck into the net for the game’s final tally.

The Pack completely dominated this game in every facet. They might have only lost tops a dozen face-offs all game long. In the first period the game was played almost entirely in the Portland zone with the Pack outshooting the Pirates 14-7 despite Portland having two power plays.

The second was not much different. Portland did manage to get the games first goal.  Marc-Andre Gragnani was on the right wing point when he passed off to Mancari. The Pirate’s leading scorer then skated to the top of the left wing circle and did a spin-a-rama with Corey Potter all over him and somehow the puck got under Matt Zaba’s (21 saves) pads. The Pack goaltender might have been distracted by traffic moving right in front of him as the puck arrived on net. In either case, it was certainly a goal that Zaba would want back.

After scoring, the Pirates picked up their play considerably but the Pack withstood the rush and the short Portland bench that went for the knockout could not get it done and ran out of gas.

With the win, the Pack leap-frogged over the Pirates (47 points) and the Worcester Sharks (48 points) into second place with 49 points (22-17-2-3) and for just the second time this season are five games over the .500 mark. Hartford trails the first place Providence Bruins (24-18-2-1) by just two points, but hold a game in hand on their Rhode Island neighbors.

Bob Crawford was on hand for the call and files his report at Hartfordwolfpack.com. The Portland point of view can be found at PortlandPirates.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET for all the stats you can handle.

NOTES:

Former Boston Bruin and the first African American to ever play in the NHL, Willie ORee dropped the ceremonial first puck before the game. Assistant Captain Marek Zagrapan and former Pirate and current Pack Assistant Captain P.A. Parenteau did the honors.

* Parenteau’s had his fourth consecutive game with a goal and an assist and extended his point scoring streak it a team season high of eight games (4-10-14).

* In the battle of can you top this, Parenteau’s linemate Artem Anisimov has a point in six straight games (4-5-9) and 12 in his last 13 (9-11-20). Anisimov still holds the team goal scoring lead over his right wing 20-19 and his game winner was the fourth of the season. Parenteau has just one thus far.

* Parenteau is now third in the AHL scoring race with 48 points. He trails former Pack Alexandre Giroux by four points. Artem Anisimov has moved into a tie for fourth overall with another ex-Pack Jeff Taffe with 46 points.

* The Pack power play improved again to 18.6% with a one-for-three outing still good for tenth overall. The penalty kill was three-for-three and moved into a tie for eleventh overall with Providence at an 83.6% success rate.

* Brian Fahey and Patrick Rissmiller were benched in this one. Both were minus-3 in the last contest. Fahey had two giveaway’s that led directly to goals. Rissmiller just doesn’t seem to be as engaged as he was when he first arrived in Hartford.

* Justin Soryal may be on the shelf for a while with a hand injury sustained in his fight with Jeff May Saturday night. Jordan Owens did not play or make the trip due to a viral infection.

* The Pack are now 8-10-2-1 on the road, 5-9-1-1 when trailing after one period, 14-1-1-1 when leading after two, 10-11-1-1 when outshooting their opponents and 7-5-0-0 in two-goal margin games.

* Two notes from the â
€œYou’ve got to be kidding me…I kid you not department”

A) How Parenteau did not get one of the three stars in this game considering he had a goal and an assist and scored the game tying goal is a travesty. Giving a third star to a home goaltender who was mediocre at best in stopping just 27 of 30 ought to result in whoever was voting to have that right taken away from them. Yes, Parenteau was a former Pirate, but give me a break will you.

B) Francois St. Laurent was named today by the AHL to be the All-Star game referee. How was he chosen? It certainly wasn’t from the media, the coaches or for that matter anyone who’s ever watched him call a game. The league would have been better off pulling someone out of the stands to call the game. In addition to being a developmental league for players it’s also a developmental league for referees and we certainly understand the merits of rewarding young talent with exposure like this, but come on, there wasn’t another young referee that couldn’t have been given this opportunity? We’d be hard pressed to find even three media members or coaches that would have given this guy a thumbs up. There have also been rumors that St. Laurent could be headed to the NHL next season. That ought to be interesting.

LINES:

Dupont – Anisimov – PARENTEAU

DiDiomete – MOORE – Weise

Ford – Ouellette – Pyatt

Taylor – (Rotated) – Stefanishion/Sugden

Sanguinetti – POTTER

Urquhart – Sauer

Denisov – Nightingale

Zaba

(Alternate Captains in BOLD CAPS)

SCRATCHES:

Owens – Viral Infection (Day-to-Day)

Fahey – Healthy

Rissmiller – Healthy

Soryal – Hand – Indefinite

Byers – Knee – Season

THREE STARS:

1. HFD – 42 Artem Anisimov
2. HFD – 9 Brodie Dupont
3. POR – 1 Jhonas Enroth

ON-ICE OFFICIALS:

Chris Cozzan (68), Referee
Landon Bathe (80), Linesman
Joe Ross (92), Linesman

NEXT GAME:

The Pack are now off until Friday night when they take on the Lowell Devils at the XL Center in the first of their last two before the All-Star break.

(Willie ORee photo courtesy of portlandpirates.com)