MONSTERS SCMONSTERS 

  VERSUS  

Is the Avery Effect already being taking root within the Rangers’ number one farm team?  It would certainly appear so…

The Hartford Wolf Pack played Friday night like a totally different team. Even without “The Grate One” on the ice, the Pack were dominating all over the ice and played their most complete and dominate game of the season and rode Matt Zaba’s terrific goaltending and a three-point night by defenseman Corey Potter as they embarrassed the visiting Lake Erie Monsters 6-2 in front 3,815 at the XL Center.

How bad was it for the visitors? The only two goals the Monsters scored all night came off the stick of Pack players.

Potter had his best game of the season by a country mile. He was hitting, making sharp passes and was excellent on the point and down low in his defensive play. With Potter all over the ice, the Wolf Pack (27-21-2-3) were successful in trying to avert losing three in a row in regulation for the first time this season.

“The object is to play our game and take it to them, not sit back, and we did that pretty well,” Potter told the microphones of the assembled reporters after the contest and added. “We got pucks deep and did well on our forecheck. And the main thing was we got a lot of shots on net, which is something we’ve been working on. Overall, it was a pretty good effort.”

The Pack simply dominated from the outset doing something they should take note of in New York…sending players to the net and causing traffic in front of the goaltender. That persistence paid it’s first dividend at 16:36. AHL All-Star Bobby Sanguinetti rocketed a shot from the left point that hit Lake Erie goaltender Jason Bacashihua (33 saves) and rebounded into the crease. Artem Anisimov, who continues to display NHL skills, dove from the left side of the crease to the right and swatted the rebound  back high over the stick side as Brodie Dupont wrecked havoc in front of the net.

The Pack ended the first period up 1-0 and outshot the Monsters 16-8.

Zaba (22 saves) was simply brilliant throughout. Just 45 seconds into the second he made a gorgeous stop on Lake Erie (21-27-1-5) center Philippe Dupuis who had broken through the defense and came in all alone. It was the first of many great saves by the rookie netminder.

Then it was Potter who almost single-handedly ended the Monster night with what had to be the two fastest scores by a single player in a very long time, netting two just 1:13 apart.

At 4:17 Patrick Rissmiller broke into the Monster zone and saw Potter completely alone on the left point. Potter really stepped into it and launched a ferocious shot that Bacashihua never saw, and probably wouldn’t have stopped even if he had, because again, the Pack had someone in front, Tommy Pyatt, screening him. The puck also appeared to catch defenseman Aaron MacKenzie and redirected making it impossible for Bacashihua to handle.

Then with the Pack already on the power play from a Too Many Men on the ice bench minor, referee Shaun Davis raised his hand calling what appeared to be a restraining foul on the Monsters. Sanguinetti had the puck on the left point and threw it cross ice to Potter. Potter, in an effort to stop the play to take advantage of the upcoming five-on-three, just threw the puck at the net to get the stoppage. However, Bacashihua misplayed it and it snuck in through the five-hole. for the 3-0 lead at 5:30.

It wasn’t all a horror story for Bacashihua. He did manage brilliant saves on P.A. Parenteau twice in the first period and then on former 2006 fifth-round pick Tomas Zaborsky, who had signed with the Pack earlier in the day on recall from the ECHL’s Dayton Bombers. Zaborsky played in two games last season with the Pack and had one assist.  In the third, the 26-year old Michigan native made a phenomenal stop on an Ouellette breakaway at 9:05.

But despite his best efforts, Bacashihua could not stop the highly charged Pack offensive thrust. The Pack ran the score to 4-0 at 13:22 on a nice rush by DiDiomete up left wing. His shot hit Bacashihua and rebounded in front where Greg Moore, steaming up the crease, beat Per Ledin to the puck, and slammed it home.

Zaba would lose his shut out bid at 6:28. At 6:01 Vladimir Denisov took a charging call for hitting Marty Sertich which caused Matt  Hendricks to jump in and smack him around. Five seconds into the ensuing face-off for the Lake Erie power play, Ouellette’s clearing attempt wound up in the stands for a Delay of Game call putting the Pack down two men. 22 seconds later, Tom Fritsche put the puck on net from behind the goal line on the right wing side and it hit Michael Sauer’s stick and got past Zaba.

The Pack continued to control everything going on the home ice surface. Just 1:24 after Fritsche’s goal, with both teams playing a man short, with Ouellette still in the box and Josh Aspenlind in the visitors sin bin on a tripping call, the Pack extended their lead on a Rissmiller tally. Potter picked up his third point of the night when his feed from the left side was stopped by Rissmiller’s foot in the slot and then the veteran free agent rocketed a shot that beat Bacashihua over the stick on the short side. It was Rissmiller’s first goal in fourteen games and his sixth of the season.

P.A. Parenteau started a new scoring streak of his own when he’d net his 23rd of the season which ties him with Anisimov for the team lead. With just 3:13 remaining in the contest and Dupuis in the box on a hooking call, Denisov made a great cross the crease pass that found Parenteau all alone. Parenteau fired the puck back the other way past Bacashihua just inside the far post. There was initially some debate as to whether or not the puck actually went in, but after Davis conferred with his linesman and the goal judge, the goal counted.

The game’s final tally came with just 57 seconds remaining. A shot from the point by Chris Durno hit Zaba and bounced into the crease. DiDiomete apparently tried to help his netminder by sliding the puck back to him except it didn’t appear as if Zaba expected that and the puck slid into the net untouched. Zaba was visibly disturbed at his forward afterward and just shook his head and skated off.

In summing up his thoughts on the team’s play after the game, Wolf Pack head coach Ken Gernander was pleased with his team’s effort, but wasn’t totally thrilled either. “I think we had a few too many penalties, but other than that, it was a pretty decent game,” The Minnesota native told reporters. “We’ll take offense from all sources. The last few games, we haven’t managed to break 30 shots. They’ve been hard to come by, so you have to exploit all your resources.”

After the game, it was announced that Sean Avery will make his debut with the Pack Saturday night. Avery is skating in Hartford after clearing NHL waivers and being assigned by the Dallas Stars earlier this week.  The Stars, who signed Avery as a free agent this past summer to a four-year, $15.5 million contract, is with Hartford because Dallas is the only NHL team without an AHL affiliate. The team has declared Avery persona non grata and that he will not return to the team. Avery was signed by the club after playing the previous 11/2 seasons with the New
York Rangers, the parent club of the Wolf Pack.

“He feels ready and healthy,” Wolf Pack coach Ken Gernander said of Avery, who hasn’t played since Nov. 30. “There have been no issues, so we don’t feel we’re putting him at any risk for injury. So if he’s ready to go, we’re going to get him in there.”

Given the comments that got Avery in trouble with the Stars in the first place, it is more than just a little bit ironic that he will attempt to revive his career starting on, of all things, Valentines day.

For Bruce Berlet’s brilliance you can read Hartfordwolfpack.com and for the Lake Erie perspective there is a recap at Lakeeriemonsters.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORER’S SHEET.

NOTES:

* Howlings continues to hear rumors from good reliable sources that AEG wants to bail out of their contract with the XL Center and will do so at season's end. There are NO facts at this point, just rumors circulating among people that Howlings knows don't float these kinds of things just to float them. This is one story that will need to be watched after the season ends.

* The Pack’s three-for-eight night on the power play moved them up to eighth in the league at 18.7%. Holding Lake Erie to a one-for-nine night on the kill moved them up from 19th to 18th at 82.2%

* Tomas Zaborsky and Tommy Pyatt were teammates for one season with the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL for the 2006 – 2007 season.

* The Pack have not scored six goals in a game since January 6th when it was against Saturday’ opponent the Manitoba Moose. Ironically the game winner in that one, as it was in this one, was off the stick of Corey Potter.

* Potter’s two goals were his first goals in ten games and his fifth multi-point game of the season and his first three point game this year.

* Meanwhile, the Mississippi Sea Wolves came from behind in the third period to tie the game at four to force overtime, and eventually a shootout victory as Alex Parent potted the shootout winner in the sixth round as the Sea Wolves won 5-4 on home ice over the Charlotte Checkers.

* Heading into tomorrow’s showdown with Manitoba, the Pack are 17-10-0-2 at home while the Moose are 18-4-0-3 on the road.

* The numbers you love to read: The Pack are 12-5-0-1 when leading after one period, 16-1-1-1 when leading after two (BTW, Manitoba is 25-1-0-1 when leading after two) and 13-11-1-1 when outshooting their opponents.

* The Pack have only played in three games this season that were decided by four goals and in them they are 2-1-0-0.

HOT:

Denisov has points in three of his last four (1g, 3a). Moore has 2g, 1a in his last three games. Parenteau has points in 15 of his last 17 (8g, 18a 26pts) while Anisimov has 12g, 18a 30 pts as he has been on the scoring sheet in 20 of the last 23.

COLD:

Sauer has 1g, 4a in the last 30 games. Brian Fahey is off the scorebook for the past four games. While Ouellette and David Urquhart have been solid in their defensive games, Ouellette has not been on the scorer’s sheet in six games and Urquhart in his last five.

LINES:

Pyatt – Rissmiller – Wiese

Dupont – Anisimov – Parenteau

DiDiomete – MOORE – Zaborsky

Ford – Ouellette – Sugden

Denisov – Sauer

Nightingale – Fahey

Sanguinetti – Potter

Zaba

SCRATCHES:

Jordan Owens – Undisclosed – Day-To-Day

Justin Soryal – Broken Hand – Six Weeks

Dane Byers – Knee – Season

Matt Stefanishion – Healthy

David Urquhart – Healthy

THREE STARS:

1. HFD – 3 Corey Potter
2. HFD – 30 Matt Zaba
3. HFD – 18 Patrick Rissmiller

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Shaun Davis (31), Referee
Glen Cooke (6), Linesman
Kevin Redding (16), Linesman

SCOREBOARD WATCHING:

Providence was mauled by the San Antonio Rampage 5-1, Portland rode a two goal second period to knock off Worcester 2-1 and the Pack’s next opponent, the Manitoba Moose lost in a shoot out to Manchester at home 3-2 as only ex-Ranger Jason Krog was able to get one past Manchester’s netminder Daniel Taylor while three of four Monarch’s beat Cory Schneider for the win. Up in Albany, it was the River Rats knocking off the Springfield Falcons 5-4.

STANDINGS:

NEXT GAME:

Saturday night the Manitoba Moose return for a rematch after knocking off the Pack Wednesday night 4-2. It’s also Nigel Dawes Bobble-head night on Valentine’s Day. There was something else about Saturday night’s game…what was it again? Oh yeah, the media circus will be in town as Sean Avery plays his first game with the Pack. Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster. What do you think the over/under will be on the number of reporters credentialed for that one? We’re setting the number starting number at 18… Register your guess below.