PACK CHEW UP PENGUINS 

    VERSUS    

Two shorthanded goals, a power play tally, spectacular goaltending and a Sean Avery goal sent the Pack to a 5-1 road victory over the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins Wednesday night.

Matt Zaba has continued to make a statement in goal. The rookie netminder stopped 39 shots and saved his best work for the third period. After the Pack had pulled ahead 3-1 on Greg Moore’s shorthanded tally just 1:24 into the period, Zaba came up huge denying the Penguins Tommy Goebel’s dead red shot from in the crease. Moments later Nick Johnson had a partial breakaway that was turned aside and Zaba closed up the five-hole quickly crushing Mark Letestu’s hope for a breakaway goal.

It didn’t look good early for the visitors as Wilkes Barre / Scranton got an early power play goal at 5:57 of the first. With Patrick Rissmiller in the box on a hooking call, the Penguins went to work. Former Pack forward, Jeff Taffe put a beautiful lead pass across the crease that Alex Gogligoski beat P.A. Parenteau to and beat Zaba over the stick for the team’s only lead on the night, 1-0. 

Avery was greeted by boo’s every time he touched the puck by the 6,047 in attendance at the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza. “The Grate One” silenced them however when he got his first goal since being assigned to Hartford by the Dallas Stars on February 10th. Ben Lovejoy pinned Avery to the left boards and the delight of the crowd after receiving a pass from All Star Pack Defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti. When Avery was able to escape with the puck he put all of the stress and frustration of the past four months into a rolling puck slamming a wrister that blew right past Penguins starter John Perry (20 saves) to knot the score at one with just 3:03 remaining in the first period.

Zaba made a terrific stop with less than a minute remaining on a bang-bang play in his crease stopping Luca Caputi and then Taffe. Despite being outshot 16-6 in the first, the Pack went into the first intermission with plenty of momentum.

The Pack reunited “The Triplets” line of Mike Ouellette flanked by Jordan Owens and Tommy Pyatt early in the second period and again, it paid dividends. Pyatt fed Ouellette with a pass along the left wing and as he brought the puck to the slot, the puck sort of drifted from his stick while trying to get it to his backhand. Owens, back after missing the previous eight games with an oblique injury, found the puck and rifled it into the net behind Curry giving the Pack a lead they would never look back from.

Moore’s shorthanded goal early in the third came shorthanded when Artem Anisimov and Moore recovered the puck in the defensive zone and rushed it up ice two-on-one against Jon D’Aversa. Moore used his speed to pass the Penguin defenseman and ripped a hard shot from the right circle that beat Curry over the glove. The goal was the Pack’s tenth tally shorthanded and the eighth surrendered by Wilkes Barre/Scranton on the season. The Pack weren’t done.

Owens took a slashing call at 9:53 and exactly one minute later Rissmiller was forechecking against Gogligoski and stripped the defenseman of the puck. Rissmiller put a nice move on Danny Richmond to spring himself free and bounced a shot off the post that got behind Curry. The second shorthanded goal of the game was the fourth time the Pack have had multiple shorthanded goals in a game this season and they’ve accomplished that feat sixteen times since the team’s inception a dozen years ago.

The Pack got their final tally with 6:24 left on the power play. Moore picked up his second of the contest when he deflected a hard shot from the left point by Corey Potter. What made this particular score so interesting was that Potter got so much out of a shot that he took while skating backwards and off the wrong foot.  Rissmiller also wound up with a multipoint game getting the secondary assist on the score.

Bob Crawford has the summary at Hartfordwolfpack.com and for the Wilkes Barre / Scranton perspective read Tom Venesky of the Times Leader.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

NOTES:

* In a sure sign that Miika Wiikman is feeling better, Hartford Wolf Pack general manager Jim
Schoenfeld announced today (Thursday)  that the team has returned goaltender Maxime
Daigneault on loan to its ECHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers. 
Daigneault served as the Wolf Pack’s backup in last night’s 5-1 win at
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, after being recalled from Charlotte earlier in the day.

* The eleven shorthanded goals ties the Pack for second with Philadelphia, Hamilton and Iowa, three behind Peoria for the league lead. The nine shorties that WB/Scranton have surrendered are

* The Pack are now 10-5-1 all time against the Penguins, 5-2-1 in their building.

* With the win, the Pack have now had victories in four straight for the first time this season.

* Zaba has started the Pack’s last five and allowed only seven goals over that span. Zaba has started 12 of the last sixteen and will most likely be in the net for his sixth straight start Friday night against Manchester.

* Inside the numbers: The Pack are 10-7-1-1 when tied after one, 18-1-1-1 when leading after two, 16-11-1-2 when being outshot.

* With his two goals, Moore ended a five game pointless streak.

* Parenteau was held off the scorers sheet for just the first time in the last four

* HOT / NOT

HOT: Sanguinetti, points in three straight. Pyatt has assists in three of four, Owens has five points (3g 2a) over the last five games. Rissmiller has seven points (3g, 4a) over the last seven games.

NOT: Weise, one point (goal against Manitoba) in his last ten games, Nightingale, no points in 17 games. Matt Ford, nothing over his last 11 games played in.

LINES:

Dupont – Anisimov – Parenteau @

Avery – Rissmiller – Weise

DiDiomete – MOORE © – Owens

Pyatt – Ouellette – Sugden

Sanguinetti – Potter @

Denisov – Fahey

Urquhart – Sauer

Zaba

SCRATCHES:

Nightingale – Healthy

Zaborsky – Healthy

Ford – Healthy

Wiikman – Flu

Soryal – Hand – Four weeks

Byers – Knee – Season

THREE STARS:

1. HFD – 30 Matt Zaba
2. HFD – 16 Sean Avery
3. HFD – 15 Greg Moore

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Nygel Pelletier (41), Referee
Matt McNulty (26), Linesman
Richard Leonard (2), Linesman

SCOREBOARD WATCHING:

Springfield took out Portland in OT 4-3, Worcester knocks off Lowell in OT by the same score.

On Friday, Portland visits Manchester as Portland tries to stop their 5 game winless streak, first place Providence will look to make some space between themselves and the second place Wolf Pack when they host Norfolk at the Dunkin Donuts Center, and Springfield can play spoiler as they challenge Lowell at home.

STANDINGS:

                                         GP       W       L        OT    SOL   PTS

NEXT GAME:

Manchester visits the XL Center to challenge the Wolf Pack Friday night at 7pm.