SPECIAL TEAMS SPECIAL AS SPECIALS LEAVE FOR SPECIAL GAME… 

  VERSUS 

The Hartford Wolf Pack came into Saturday night’s contest against a very talented Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins team having lost two-in-a-row at home and  needing a win heading into the AHL All-Star break. The Penguins came in to the game winners of three straight and six-of-ten (6-3-0-1). The Pack used solid special teams play and a three goal third period and rode that to a 4-1 win in front of 7,017 at the XL Center Saturday night.

Entering the third period the two teams were tied at one. Wilkes Barre/Scranton’s Mark Letestu scored early in the first at 3:39 and was later matched by the Pack’s David Urquhart at 9:30 of the second.

The Pack got on the board with what would prove to be the game winner just 1:37 in. Deryk Engelland took a delay of game penalty for flipping the puck into the stands from the defensive zone. On the ensuing power play the Pack controlled the puck and sent Brodie Dupont in front of the net to hassle the Penguins’ Adam Berkhoel (31 saves). Dupont drew the attention of both Wilkes-Barre / Scranton’s defensemen, Joey Momina and Ben Lovejoy. Brian Fahey took a blast from the from the left point that got on net. With the two defensemen and Berkhoel dealing with Dupont he still managed to get a stick on it for a shot and it bounced out a bit to the right doorstep where Artem Anisimov waited and snapped it into the net for his 21st of the season.

Lovejoy had a horrendous night, and took his third penalty of the game at 6:42. 1:10 later  Fahey recovered the puck in the defensive zone and made a terrific outlet pass to Tommy Pyatt. The left winger rushed up ice and found Mike Ouellette coming up the slot. A perfect pass to Ouellette’s stick blade gave the center just what he needed to rip the black out of the puck and put it past Berkhoel’s stick. An empty netter for Greg Moore off a Patrick Rissmiller feed with 57.5 seconds left capped the scoring and gave you the 4-1 final.

“It was a little more fast-paced than the Lowell game,” Brodie Dupont told reporters after the game. “It’s tough playing teams that sit back. I’d rather play a team that’s in your face. It gets me into the game, too.” The fulcrum of the Pack’s scoring line later added, “Everyone stepped up tonight and played a good team game. We did all the little things we had to and were finally able to put the nail in the coffin in the third. After the second goal, we kept building off that, and it’s real important that once you get the momentum, you keep coming.”

Dupont had two assists on the night and was constantly in Berkhoel’s face all night. Dupont was later named the game’s First Star by the media. Head Coach Ken Gernander was asked about the effect that Dupont has had on his team.  “I’ve been beating Brodie’s drum for a couple weeks because his linemates (Anisimov and P.A. Parenteau) show up with the big numbers on the score sheet all the time, but Brodie is doing a lot of the dirty work,” Gernander said of his left wing. “It’s a good line combination where everyone has his role, and they all work well together. Brodie goes unnoticed sometimes by lay people.”

“It was a big bounce-back win for us (after losing the night before to Lowell) with one of our better crowds. They were coming off a big, emotional win over Hershey, but I thought our guys really well. They have some very dangerous guys, and we did a pretty good job of containing them and creating our own offense. It’s a nice way to go into the break.”

Bruce Berlet has more at Hartfordwolfpack.com and for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton perspective try Tom Venesky at the timesleader.com and Jonathan Bombulie at scrantontimes.com.

 GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORER’S SHEET

 NOTES:

* Not to be the buzz kill after a good win against a solid opponent, but after having snapped a streak of playing win-one, lose-one for thirteen consecutive games with two wins in a row, the Pack have now picked up that pattern again over the last five.

* Anisimov’s goal was tied him with Parenteau for having earned points in eight straight games. (5g, 6a, 11 points). Parenteau’s streak, snapped against Lowell Friday night consisted of (4g, 10a 14 points).

* With the Providence win over Springfield (3-1), the Portland win over Bridgeport (2-1) and the Worcester loss to Lowell (6-4) the Pack move into a second place tie with Portland. Standings wise the Pack sit in third place because Portland holds a game in hand over the boys form Insurance City. Both teams trail Providence by a mere two points. Portland does have a game in hand on Providence as well. With Lowell continuing to pick up wins and just two points out of the playoffs, the race has really come down to five teams for four spots in the tournament. Can anyone say for sure where any of these teams are going to finish? It’s that close with no clear favorites. 34 more to go for Hartford and Providence and 35 for Portland.

* Bobby Sanguinetti lost four teeth when his mouth stopped a shot off the stick of Lowell’s Brad Mills. The dentist had his hands full to fix the damage. Sanguinetti will participate in the AHL All-Star game on Sunday and Monday. Howlings will speak with the 2006 Rangers first round pick on Tuesday. In our comments section feel free to leave questions for the New Jersey native and Rangers top pair d-man and we will try and get many of them answered.

* The Pack were two-for-four on the power play and are now eighth overall in the AHL at 19.1% and by surrendering a goal on their only short handed chance they drop from ninth to twelfth overall at 83.6%

* Inside the numbers: The Pack are now 4-8-1-1 when trailing after one period and 6-4-0-0 when tied after two and as you might imagine undefeated when leading after three, but that’s another story. Here’s a number to play. When outshooting their opponents the Pack are 11-11-1-1 and in games decided by three or more goals, they now stand at 4-5-0-0.

* Miika Wiikman has now won three of his last four games. This is the third time this season that Wiikman has had a three wins in four games streak. The first came at the end of October. The second was in mid December and now, after giving way to Matt Zaba for two games (won one and lost one), he’s done it again.

* The Charlotte Checkers, the ECHL affiliate of the Hartford Wolf Pack and of course the NY Rangers, played in front of the second biggest crowd in team
history, 11,848 at Time Warner
Cable Arena. They also managed to move within two points of second place in the South Division by beating the team they're chasing, the South Carolina Stingrays by a score of 3-2.

LINES:

Dupont – Anisimov – PARENTEAU

Pyatt – Ouellette – Ford

Owens – Rissmiller – Weise

DiDiomete – MOORE – Sugden

Denisov – POTTER

Nightingale – Fahey

Urquhart – Sauer

Wiikman

(Alternate Captains in BOLD CAPS)

SCRATCHES:

Soryal – Hand – Indefinite

Stefanishion – Healthy

Byers – Knee – Season

Sanguinetti – Mouth – Day-to-Day

THREE STARS:

1. HFD – 9 Brodie Dupont
2. HFD – 62 Miika Wiikman
3. HFD – 44 Mike Ouellette

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Zac Wiebe (89), Referee
Luke Galvin (2), Linesman
David Spannaus (8), Linesman

NEXT GAME:

The Pack reassemble after the All-Star break at home to take on in state and franchise rival Bridgeport at 7pm.