OVER-TIME AVERY MAKES A DIFFERENCE! 

 
VERSUS    

Wolf Pack and Ranger fans have been waiting for Sean Avery to making a
contribution since arriving from the Dallas Stars on February 10th. After nine
periods of play in a Wolf Pack jersey, which he’s been a total non-factor,
Saturday night in front of a large and vocal crowd, he finally delivered when
his overtime shot at Portland netminder Jhonas Enroth rebounded to defenseman
Michael Sauer who blasted it home giving the Pack a 2-1 win.

On the game winner, Avery, who had broken a couple of sticks in the third
period, broke broke another in the extended time and rushed back to the bench to
retrieve fresh lumber. When he got back into the play along the left boards he
took a pass from fellow exiled NHL’er Patrick Rissmiller and fired the puck on
net. “Rissmiller made a nice pass, and I just tried to get it on net quick and
Mikey jumped on the rebound and put it home. It definitely was a good way to get
a win.” Avery said.

“It was nice (to get on the score sheet). Certainly to help in any way
really, that’s ideal.” Avery added. “But you know I didn’t come down here to
necessarily worry about points. I came down just to be a good teammate and help
these guys win so if that’s what’s happening then I’m happy about that.”

Sauer game winning goal was his third goal of the season. “I saw their
forward was kind of in the slot area, so I knew I could get my gap up on him,”
Sauer said. “So when I was going in, I saw Avery was going to the net, so I
decided just to kind of creep backdoor (from his normal right point position) in
case there was just such a play. It was bang-bang, and I just got it on my stick
tapped it in and there it was. It felt good, that’s for sure.”

“You need offense from all different sources, and it’s great that someone
like (Sauer) had confidence to jump up into the play and got rewarded,” Wolf
Pack coach Ken Gernander said. “For all the great saves that Enroth made, it
came down to a simple play. And the biggest positive is we stayed with it. We
didn’t give them anything and continued to push. I’m sure it was a little
frustrating for the guys at times, but we persevered.”

The Pack came out of the gate determined to take the game to their visitors
from Maine. At 2:35, Portland’s Colin Murphy took a hooking call from referee
Andy Thiessen sending the Pack’s power play unit on the ice. 38 seconds later,
Bobby Sanguinetti’s missile off a P.A. Parenteau feed from the left point beat
Enroth (43 saves) over the glove. Enroth may not have seen the shot as Brodie
Dupont was screening in front and had drawn two defenders to him. The shot may
have deflected off of one of them as it seemed to change direction slightly
before finding it’s way into the back of the net.

At 11:12 Devin DiDiomete did his best Ryan Hollweg impression as he
completely blindsided Kenny MacAulay running the defenseman into the boards from
behind. MacAulay was on the ice for several minutes and needed to be helped to
the locker room. Reports from the Portland locker room after the game indicated
that MacAulay had received both head and knee injuries that would need further
examination before a determination could be made as to the extent of the damage.
 

DiDiomete was issued a five minute major and a game misconduct and will most
assuredly be getting a deserved and lengthy suspension from the league for the
hit.

Shorthanded for five minutes, the Pack played possibly their most effective
penalty kill of the season with Portland unable to set up or to even get a shot
on goal. It may well have turned the game. “That was key for us.” Sauer said.
“Early in the game like that and any time you can get a five minute power play
that’s something you can capitalize on and when you can hold them off that can
deflates them a little bit so we had to use that momentum to use to our
advantage and felt like we did.”

So strong was the penalty kill over the five minutes that the best scoring
opportunity came for the Pack. Artem Anisimov demonstrated outstanding puck
handling darting in and out of the defense and creating a great scoring chance
only to be denied by a great stick save by Enroth.

The intensity of the game was felt all over the ice. Portland’s Tim Kennedy
was flattened as he interfered with Rissmiller who was going for the puck but
unseen by Kennedy who’s head was down. They crashed hard in the center of the
ice with Kennedy taking the brunt of it and needing help off the ice. Kennedy
would later return to the game.

By the end of the first, the Pack had allowed their fewest shots on goal of
the season and held a 15-3 shots on goal edge and a 1-0 lead.

The second period the Pack continued to press forward and could have put the
game away as they were issued three separate five-on-three man advantages. One
was for 35, the second for 27 and the third for 49 seconds. They poured shots on
Enroth but just could not solve the Pirate netminder.

While on a 56 second four on four, Portland got a breath of life off a
Marc-Andre Gragnani goal at 10:13. On the play it seemed as if Matt Zaba (17
saves) was screened on the shot from the high slot as Jared Nightingale was
defending in front of the net and Avery stood in front of the shot.

As the period came to a close the score was knotted at one a piece but
the Pack held a commanding 30-11 shots on goal lead.

The third period saw Enroth and Zaba exchange great saves to keep the score
tied. 

Zaba made a tremendous cross the crease sliding stop on Aaron Slattengren at
4:30 only to see Enroth make an equally impressive glove stab of a wide open
Corey Potter shot from the right circle. Enroth sent the game to overtime when
he made a game saving stop on Dupont who himself slashed his way through the
Portland defense with great speed and puck handling only to be denied by the
Portland netminder.  

The post game praise for Enroth was well earned. “It was a good game for him
(Enroth), and we just had to stay persistent and believe that we could get it
done and we did.” Sauer said “He (Enroth) had a very good glove hand and he had
a great night.” Gernander said. “He was tough to beat.” Avery added that, “Their
goalie played really well. He certainly kept them in it, so it was nice that we
stuck with the game plan and kept working together as a team and squeezed out
two (points).”

Bruce Berlet is the grand master of all Hartford hockey reporting and checks
in at Hartfordwolfpack.com
while the Portland story is barely told at Portlandpirates.com

GAME
SUMMARY and OFFICIAL
SCORERS SHEET

NOTES:

* Despite a one-for ten performance on the man advantage, the feeling was
that was okay. “We were just going to keep throwing pucks at the net. We got
one (goal) earlier and that was good. We needed that.” Sauer said. “The guys
were working hard. That’s just the way it goes sometimes.” Gernander agreed. “We
got quite a few chances. It was just one of those nights.” The Head Coach said.
“There are nights where it (the power play) wins them for us and scored big
goals for us. So on nights like tonight we have to find other sources.”

* The 45 shots on goal was one shy of the team’s season high of 46 on
November 28th in a 4-1 loss at Bridgeport.

* Inside the numbers, 14-5-0-1 when leading after one, 9-5-0-0 when tied
after two, 14-7-2-3 in one goal games and 6-2 in OT with 4 going to the shoot
out where they are 1-3. When the Pack allow an opponent only one goal the team
is 13-1-0-0 with the lone loss the 1-0 defeat Wednesday night to Bridgeport.
Lastly they are 14-12-1-1 in games they outshoot their opponents.

* The one for ten night on the Power play dropped the Pack from 6th overall
to eleventh. Even with a six-for-six night, the PK remains at 15th overall.

* The Charlotte Checkers continue their red-hot play of late winning their
fourth straight taking out the ECHL’s best, the Florida Everblades 5-2 in front
of a record crowd of, are you ready 12,388. The Checkers
improved on their current streak to 6-0-2 in their last eight. Jeff Miles had
the Hat trick. Michael Busto and Peter-James Corsi added tallies as well. Jeff
Jakaitis faced 47 shots stopping 45.

By the way, a full season ticket in Charlotte starts at, are you listening
Rangers management…$396! VP/GM Derek Wilkinson, Owner Michael Kahn and VP of
Sales Shawn Lynch are to be congratulated for such an amazing job. Remember,
we’re talking ECHL now not even AHL and they got such a great attendance. If you
want to see why, visit gocheckers.com.

LINES:

Dupont – Anisimov – Parenteau @

Avery – Rissmiller – Weise

Zaborsky – Ouellette – Pyatt

DiDiomete – MOORE © – Ford

Sanguinetti – Potter @

Urquhart – Sauer

Nightingale – Fahey

Zaba

SCRATCHES:

Denisov – Suspension

Soryal – Hand – Five weeks

Sugden – Healthy

Byers – Knee – Season

Owens – Oblique strain. “I’ll be ready for Wednesday night.” The Pack forward
told Howlings.

THREE STARS:

1. HFD – 4 Michael Sauer
2. POR – 1 Jhonas Enroth
3.
HFD – 15 Greg Moore

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Andy Thiessen (47), Referee
Marty Demers (79), Linesman
Kevin Redding
(16), Linesman

SCOREBOARD WATCHING:

Providence continues to roll just like their parent club with a 4-2 win over
Worcester who played their first home game in three weeks. Springfield dumped
Bridgeport 3-2 after the skills competition. Manchester humbled Lowell 7-2. The
Pack dismantled them the night before 5-2 so they’ve been outscored 12-4 in the
last two games…Ouch!

STANDINGS:

                                        Games    W      L      OT   SOL 
PTS

SCHEDULE:

16 hours after getting bruised by the Pack, Portland is at it again. This
time taking on the Sound Tigers in Bridgeport at 1pm.  Worcester who got thumped
now takes on the unraveling Lowell Devils in Lowell in a battle for fourth place
in the Atlantic. Springfield takes to the road to visit Providence at the Dunkin
Donuts Center…save us a Mocha Cinnamon Swirl Latte…

NEXT GAME:

The Pack braved a snow storm and made it up to Manchester, New Hampshire
after last night’s victor and look to make it three in a row as they challenge
the Monarchs at the Verizon Wireless Center. At 55 points in sixth place,
Manchester is still very much in the playoff race in the micro close Atlantic
division.