ONE DOWN… 

VERSUS

You would think that having a teammate honored by being named to the AHL All Star Classic would motivate the Hartford Wolf Pack. You would think that having the opportunity to play for a share of first place in the Atlantic Conference, for the second time no less, would fire up the young Rangers prospects. You would think having a key player go down after having taken a puck in the mouth would inspire the team on to a better performance. You would think those things, right? Well, if you did; you’d be wrong.

With first place on the line; Artem Anisimov an All-Star, and Bobby Sanguinetti missing the third period after taking a puck in the mouth, and the fifth place Lowell Devils (21-19-1-3) in the XL Center, the Pack sleep-walked though Friday night’s meeting dropping a 3-2 decision before 3,634.

“They (Lowell) like to play it close to the vest and keep it low scoring, and we didn’t do a very good job of forcing the issue in terms of dictating play, forechecking, putting pucks on the net, driving wide and paying the price,” Said Wolf Pack coach Ken Gernander to reporters after the contest. “Too often we had one guy going and everyone else in a wait-and-see mode. We were content on watching the first guy do the work and hope.”

Wing Tommy Pyatt said “They’re a tough team to play against because they do a great job of getting sticks on the puck when you’re shooting,” he said. “It was a big game for us with first place at stake. It was right there in front of us, but we need a 60-minute game to get in that spot.”

The Pack (22-18-2-3) continue to try and find the consistency that they are going to need in the second half of the season if they are going to even make it into the play offs. The top six teams in the division are separated by only ten points meaning two teams will have a similar record and get to spend the summer asking themselves where it all went wrong. One of those teams could easily be the Pack.

While they have managed to derail the win-one, lose-one roller coaster they were on for 13 games, winning three of their last four, they just had no fire in their bellies and did not compete.

The Pack jumped out to a lead at 13:49 of the first period when Michael Sauer put a shot on goal from the right point. The puck then hit Devils d-man Matthew Spiller, battling Mike Ouellette in the crease. The puck deflected off Spiller’s skate and redirected by goaltender Jeff Frazee (28 saves), for the 1-0 lead.

That lead lasted all of 56 seconds.

Nicklas Bergfors outworked the Pack’s Devin DiDiomete and Corey Potter behind the left side of the net. The puck squirted out from the scrum to the right side where Ryan Murphy took it away from Mike Taylor. Murphy hesitated on his move for just a second causing Matt Zaba (31 saves) to flinch long enough for the Van Nuys, California native to come in on the wraparound and stuff it under the Pack’s netminder knotting the score at one each.

Apart from a couple of terribly boring fights involving Brad Mills and DiDiomete and another four seconds later between Brandon Sugden and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond were the story of the early part of a pretty uneventful second period. That was until with three minutes remaining in the second period, former first round pick, defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti lost a couple of teeth when he was hit in the mouth by Mills’ deflected shot. Sanguinetti fell to the ice in a heap and looked to be in considerable pain. He did manage to get off on his own power and skated off the ice and did not return. The team reports that Sanguinetti will visit the dentist on Saturday and his participation in the All Star game is now in doubt. It’s safe to say that in all likelihood Sanguinetti will miss tomorrow night’s contest against Wilkes-Barre / Scranton meaning Vladimir Denisov will be on the ice for the Wolf Pack.

The Pack further hurt their chances when with just 26 seconds remaining in the period. Referee Nygel Pelletier didn’t see Potter take a dirty hit but did see his retaliation and sent him to the penalty box for interference. Ordinarily, a penalty, while a lack of discipline, is not the end of the world. This time though it was. Right after the hit, the Pelletier’s hand went up signaling the penalty just prior to David Urquhart’s shot from the left wing point which beat Frazee cleanly negating what would have been the go-ahead goal.

After an offensive zone face off win, Mark Fraser put a shot on goal from the left wing point that got through and past Zaba. In Zaba’s defense, he easily could have been distracted or didn’t see it as Letourneau-Leblond and Davis were in front of him. It was 2-1.

Tommy Pyatt, who had an exceptional game and was named Third Star, tied the game for the Pack at 12:03. Anisimov got an assist for his seventh consecutive game with at least one point, as he drew two defenders to him on the power play and made a tremendous pass to the front where Mike Ouellette fired it in on goal. The puck rebounded in front and Pyatt was there to put it into the twine to knot the score.

The Devils put the game away with 5:12 remaining. Alexander Vasyunov, an old teammate of Anisimov’s from Russia, took a shot from the left side that hit Zaba right in the glove. The Pack netminder failed to hold on to it and it fell to the ice where it was knocked past him by long time NHL veteran Barry Tallackson. This was a goal that Zaba would certainly want back as this was a save he clearly should have made.

Special teams will always win or lose you games and in this case it was the failure of the power play to produce against an inferior team that was the difference. While the Pack’s own penalty killers stopped the 19th ranked Lowell power play cold, keeping them off the ledger for all five of their attempts, the Pack’s tenth ranked power play had a one for seven night against the 19th ranked Lowell penalty kill. The Pack did manage to score at the tail end of a five-on-three on Pyatt’s goal, the two-man advantage was for 1:38 and the Pack never generated any good chances on the front end as over passing and poor shot selection permeated their play. In fact it permeated the entire game.

Pyatt explains it himself. “We might have been pressing a bit, but I think we have to play a bit simpler. We were making a lot of difficult passes, and while (Devils goalie Jeff Frazee) was giving up some rebounds, we didn’t shoot the puck enough. Getting pucks on goal and driving the net usually seems to work pretty good, but now we have to come back (tonight at home against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton).”

Bruce Berlet works the verbal magic at Hartfordwolfpack.com while for the Lowell perspective, try the Lowellsun.com.

For the stat junkies, there’s the GAME SUMMARY and of course the OFFICIAL SCORER’S SHEET.

NOTES:

* The Pack are now 0-2-0-1 versus the Devils in 2008-09, including dropping two at h
ome.

* It was not a good night for the Pack’s top line or their top players. Corey Potter was on the ice for all three Lowell goals and was a team worst minus-3. P.A. Parenteau and Brodie Dupont each recorded a minus-2 and Anisimov was a minus –1. Only Michael Sauer, Ouellette, Pyatt and Matthew Ford were a plus on the night all with a plus –1.

* Anisimov, as you may have read on Howlings leads the Wolf Pack with twenty goals and is second on the team in overall points with 47. The Yaroslavl, Russia native is just one behind Parenteau. Talk about another injustice, Parenteau is not on the All-Star roster despite his third overall standing in the league in scoring. Speaking of Parenteau, his eight-game point and assist streaks ended, along with his streak of a goal and assist each in the last four.

* The Pack are now 5-4-0-0 when tied after two periods, 11-7-1-2 when being outshot and 11-6-2-3 in one goal games.

* Want to know how anemic the scoring is for the Pack. Parenteau and Anisimov are a point apart at 48 and 47 respectively. The next closest pair to them are Sanguinetti and Moore. Sanguinetti has 25 points (3g, 22a) and Moore has 24 points (12g, 12a).

* Of the thirty players that have taken the ice for the Wolf Pack this season, only 11 (8 on the active roster) are in plus column of the plus/minus stat led by Ouellette at plus-9. Of players on the active roster, only Jordan Owens is is close at plus-6. Vladimir Denisov is plus-4 and Jared Nightingale is plus-5. The other pluses are Anisimov, Soryal, and Sauer all at plus-1, with Matt Ford at plus-2.

Conversely, on the negative side, Sanguinetti is minus-15, Moore is minus-11, Rissmiller is minus-10, Parenteau is minus-9, Potter is minus-8, Dupont and Sugden are minus-7, Fahey and DiDiomete are both minus-4 with Urquhart and Stefanishion both at minus-2.

Dale Weise is even on the season.

HOT / COLD:

Parenteau since ending a three game drought December 20th, the Pack’s leading scorer has posted 8g and 14a for 22 points in his last 16 games. Anisimov has only been off the score sheet in ten games out of 45 on the season. Ouellette has points in three of his last four (1g, 3a). Pyatt has three points in his last two games (2g, 1a).

Potter, pointless in four straight. Greg Moore, pointless in his last five and only three points (2g, 1a) in his last fourteen. Patrick Rissmiller, who the Rangers signed as a free agent to bring his scoring touch with him, has either lost interest or lost his touch and posted a measly two assists in his last seven games and just two additional goals over the previous eight making it four points (2g, 2a) in his last fifteen games. Dale Weise has two assists in his last 27 games and nothing over his last eight. Sugden has but a single assist on the season (27 games). Devin DiDiomete has nothing in 17 games. Stefanishion, a goose egg for the last seven, Nightingale shooting bagels for the last four.

LINES:

Rissmiller – MOORE – Weise

Dupont – Anisimov – PARENTEAU

Ford – Ouellette – Pyatt

DiDiomete – Taylor – Sugden

Sanguinetti – POTTER

Nightingale – Fahey

Urquhart – Sauer

Zaba

(Assistant Captains in BOLD CAPS)

SCRATCHES:

Denisov – Healthy

Byers – Knee – Season

Stefanishion – Healthy

Soryal – Hand – Indefinite

Owens – Viral Infection – Day-to-Day

THREE STARS:

1. LOW – 24 Barry Tallackson
2. LOW – 31 Jeff Frazee
3. HFD – 47 Tommy Pyatt

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Nygel Pelletier (41), Referee
Paul Simeon (66), Linesman
Kevin Redding (16), Linesman

NEXT GAME:

Ex-Pack Jeff Taffe leads the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins into the XL Center. Taffe is tied with Parenteau for third overall in the scoring race and leads Artem Anisimov by a single point. Game time is 7:00.