PACK EXORCIZE DEVILS FROM WIN COLUMN

    VERSUS   

The Wolf Pack have struggled all season to find a way to beat the New Jersey Devils AHL farm team. They entered Friday night’s contest with a 0-3-0-1 record against their Lowell, Massachusetts division rivals. Two goals from P.A. Parenteau, a goal and two assists from Artem Anisimov and stellar goaltending again from Matt Zaba and the Pack dismantled the Devils 5-2 in front of a reported attendance of 2,027 at the Paul E. Tsongas Arena.

Coming into the contest, the third place Wolf Pack were but a single point ahead of Lowell. The win put Hartford a single point behind the Portland Pirates who visit the XL Center Saturday night. It also gave the team a three point cushion over Worcester, who moved into a fourth place tie with Lowell by defeating Springfield 2-1 in overtime. Providence kept their four point lead on Hartford (28-23-2-3) by knocking off Manchester 5-2.

Despite Lowell controlling the puck and dictating the play in the first period, the Pack scored first as Parenteau, the team’s leading scorer, moved from left to right along the blue line stepped up and ripped a slap shot from the high slot that hit All-Star Jeff Frazee right in the catching glove and bounced into the net. The goal gave Parenteau 62 points on the season (25g, 37a) just three points behind former Pack forward Alexandre Giroux for second and ten behind Keith Aucoin for first overall in the AHL scoring race.

Meanwhile, Matt Zaba, making his seventh start in the last ten, was spectacular and clearly kept the Pack in the game. In the first period Zaba stonewalled former NHL veteran Barry Tallackson. Then in the first thirty seconds of the second period silenced a bid by Vladimir Zaharkov and then Rod Pelle on a bang-bang play after Brodie Dupont turned the puck over in the Pack defensive zone. Minutes later Zaba blanked Stephen Gionta on a two-on-one breakaway attempt and then crushed Pelle’s hopes on two consecutive tries.

Frazee (15 saves) was mostly ineffective in this contest but did make a superb stop at 10:06 of the second. As Anisimov left the penalty box finishing his penance on a holding call, Mike Ouellette grabbed the puck and fired it ahead hitting the Russian center right on the tape for a breakaway. Frazee smothered the shot by the AHL’s fourth leading scorer. (24g, 35a, 59pts).

Anisimov was undeterred by the setback and on his next shift put a blanket over rightwing Nicklas Bergfors as he attempted to get out of the defensive zone. Anisimov stripped him of the puck in the high slot and rushed in on Frazee beating the netminder high with a backhander that found the back of the net for the 2-0 lead at 11:50.

The Pack would add to their lead with two quick goals less than two minutes apart by the end of the period.

Patrick Rissmiller was credited with his seventh of the year as he was credited for goal that at first was awarded to defenseman Brian Fahey. The Pack defenseman rushed the puck up left wing. As he swung around the net he pushed a centering pass in front of the Devils net. The puck deflected in off a skate and got under Frazee. Looking at the replay, on first view it appeared as if the puck went in off a Devils (26-22-1-5) defender, but after re-examining the video, it looked as if it might have hit Rissmiller’s skate, hence the credit for the goal. Pack defenseman David Urquhart was given the secondary assist on the power play goal at 18:05.

Hartford continued to take advantage of Devils blunders. Coming into the game the Pack power play was ranked ninth in the league with the Devils penalty kill units ranked fifteenth. The Pack made it two-for-three with the man advantage when, with just 8.5 seconds remaining in the second period when Anisimov’s shot from the far circle hit Frazee and rebounded to the near side where Parenteau was all alone and deposited the puck into the rear twine for the 4-0 lead.

That would be the last the Pack would see of Frazee on the night.

The Devils entered the third frame with Dave Caruso in the net. Caruso (8 saves) entered the game posting a less than exemplary 1-10-0 record with a 3.18GAA and a .895% in the net.

At 4:51 of the third, Zaba would lose his shut out bid as the Pack got a little careless and it cost them. Fahey’s back-pass was picked off by Mark Fraser in the neutral zone and put a terrific outlet pass on the stick of Bergfors who led a two-on-one rush with Tallackson against Jared Nightingale. Bergfors headed to the left wing and drew Nightingale closer. He then put a cross ice pass right on Tallackson’s blade. The veteran then fired a hard high shot from the right circle that initially Zaba got a piece of the glove on but ended up in the back of the net. It was 4-1.

The Pack regained the four goal lead off a great steal by Ouellette who had a defender wrapped all over him as he entered the offensive zone. The Kamloops, British Columbia native then made a great drop pass to Tommy Pyatt on the right wing. Pyatt saw rookie and former Saginaw Spirit teammate Tomas Zaborsky streaking in alone up the left wing side and hit the Slovakian winger right on the tape. Zaborsky, playing in only his fourth AHL game of the season since being recalled from the ECHL’s Dayton Bombers, blasted a shot that Caruso had no chance on. The goal was Zaborsky’s first in the AHL and came with 6:50 remaining in the contest.

With 31 ticks of the clock left, Oliver Magnan added a tally for Lowell when his hard shot from the right circle beat Zaba after the Devils were able to take advantage of a defensive zone turnover by Nightingale.

For Bob Crawford’s recap visit Hartfordwolfpack.com and for the Devils perspective see Lowelldevilshockey.com and James Albert checks in on Sean Avery and the fact that there was a game in his hometown at lowellsun.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET for the stats freaks.

NOTES:

* The “new” Sean Avery did his best Claude Rains impression as the Pack’s Invisible Man. Avery had no shots, was –2 and took a two-minute penalty. If not for the media making such a big deal about his playing forte Wolf Pack there wouldn’t be any notable reason to pay any attention to him based upon his play. The Rangers should save their cap space and leave him here. He’s not demonstrated a single reason whatsoever that he belongs back in the NHL. Like Ryan Callahan and Nigel Dawes before him when they were sent down, they came in and immediately made an impact on the score sheet with dominant play at this level and showed to all watching that they belonged in the NHL. Avery has played in three games, doesn’t have a point, has two PIM and is minus-3. Do those sound like the kind of NHL numbers that will impact the Rangers playoff chances? Actually given the way the Rangers have played this season, it sounds exactly like NY numbers especially for a $1.9mm price tag. By the way, for those out there that think that Aver
y is such a HUGE draw for attendance, the Lowell average attendance, the lowest in the league no less, is 2,108. Friday night's contest drew 2,027.

* On the plus/minus stat sheet entering the game against Lowell, the best three on the Pack are Jordan Owens at plus-11, Jared Nightingale plus-10, and Mike Ouellette and Vladimir Denisov at plus-8.

On the negative side, Bobby Sanguinetti entered the game at minus-19, Greg Moore at minus-11, Corey Potter and Brandon Sugden at minus-10.

* The win ended a streak of four losses in the last five games and they are 5-5 in their last ten.

* When leading after one period the Pack are now 13-5-0-1, 17-1-1-1 when leading after two and 14-11-1-2 when outshot by their opponents and now 5-7-0-0 in games decided by three goals.

LINES:

Dupont – Anisimov – Parenteau

Avery – Rissmiller – Weise

DiDiomete – MOORE – Ford

Pyatt – Ouellette – Zaborsky

Sanguinetti – Potter

Urquhart – Sauer

Nightingale – Fahey

Zaba

SCRATCHES:

Owens – Oblique – Day-to-Day

Sugden – Suspended

Denisov – Suspended

Byers – knee – Season

Soryal – Hand – Five weeks

THREE STARS:

1. HFD – 42 Artem Anisimov
2. HFD – 17 Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau
3. HFD – 30 Matt Zaba

ON-ICE OFFICIALS:

Frederic L'Ecuyer (48), Referee
Hans Baker (67), Linesman
Luke Galvin (2), Linesman

SCOREBOARD WATCHING:

Portland was destroyed by Philadelphia 7-2, Providence roughed up Manchester at home 5-2 and Worcester snuck by last place Springfield 2-1 in overtime. On Saturday night Lowell visits Manchester, Springfield entertains Bridgeport and first place Providence is on the road in Worcester.

STANDINGS:

1	Providence Bruins	55	31	21	2	1	65
2	Portland Pirates	56	28	22	1	5	62
3	Hartford Wolf Pack	56	28	23	2	3	61
4	Worcester Sharks	54	28	24	0	2	58
5	Lowell Devils	54	26	22	1	5	58
6	Manchester Monarchs	55	25	25	0	5	55
7	Springfield Falcons	56	17	30	7	2	43

NEXT GAME:

The Pack look to make it two in a row and regain second place in the Atlantic when they host Kevin Dineen’s Portland Pirates at the XL Center. This is the second consecutive game when the Rangers organization's varsity and JV square off in the same night. The Rangers take on Portland’s affiliate the Buffalo Sabers. In case you’re curious the other dual match up was Wednesday night when the Rangers defeated the Islanders and the Sound Tigers beat the Pack.