VERSUS
The Hartford Wolf Pack traveled up to Portland to challenge the third place Pirates and played their most dominant 20 minutes of the season in the second period and got a three point night (1g, 2a) from Patrick Rissmiller leading to a 3-1 road victory Friday night.
The win, combined with Providence's surprising shootout defeat to the Albany River Rats, put the Pack in first place by a point over their Rhode Island neighbors with the Bruins holding a game in hand.
This game though was decided in the second period. After playing a rather lackluster and sloppy first period, the Pack came out fast and furious and completely dominated play. Shift after shift was played in the Portland zone. When the Pack finally broke through at 5:12, after four straight shifts played entirely in the Portland zone, it was a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play that gave them the lead for good. Rissmiller stated the play with a pin-point pass from the right point across the ice to Mark Bell. The left winger drew two Pirate defenders to him and saw P.A. Parenteau al lb his lonesome in front of the goalmouth on the right side. A quick pass later Parenteau and his teammates were celebrating when the AHL’s third leading scorer, and former Pirate, tucked the puck in the back of the net for his 28th of the season.
Pirate netminder, Jhonas Enroth (32 saves) must have felt like a duck in a shooting gallery, as his defense just completely abandoned him. The Pack fired 16 shots at the Swede. Enroth came up huge right after the Parenteau goal stopping Devin DiDiomete on a point blank follow up on a Parenteau bid.
The Pack’s enforcer, Brandon Sugden and Portland’s designated fighter, Jimmy Bonneau had a heavy weight bout at 11:02 as they both dropped the gloves immediately after a face-off in what seemed to appear as one of those “pre-arranged” fights that the NHL GM’s are looking to do away with. Both combatants threw lots of punches with very few landing. The linesman had very little to do to end the fight as they both just stopped and skated away.
The intensity however did pick up again moments later. Parenteau hit Portland’s rookie sensation, Nathan Gerbe, hard along the right side half boards in the Pirate zone. Almost immediately, Mark Bell took a run at him. Gerbe saw it coming and lifted his elbow dropping the veteran forward to the ice. Referee Ian Croft allowed the hit, but when Bell attempted to get back up, Gerbe laid a vicious cross check on the Pack forward sending him back to the ice and Gerbe to the penalty box.
49 seconds into the ensuing power play, after taking a feed from the point from Michael Sauer, Rissmiller would draw two defenders to him down low in the right corner. Rissmiller spotted the open man, Brian Fahey, alone in the slot. The Pack forward sent a strong pass over to the left side high slot where Fahey received it and wristed a hard shot past the glove of Enroth, who may have been screened by the defenseman in front of him.
In the first period, after some very careless handling of the puck and a sluggish start by the Pack, Sugden got called for tripping at 11:11. The Pirates sent attackers in front to screen Miika Wiikman, making his sixth consecutive start for the Pack. Gerbe took a feed from Felix Schutz on the left point and lofted what appeared to be a somewhat harmless shot on goal. But as the old hockey adage goes, “you put the puck on net and anything can happen” Perhaps he didn’t see the puck, but the shot got by Wiikman (22 saves).
It looked at that point that it might be a long night for the Rangers top farm team. However, Parenteau took a hooking penalty at 18:03 and 41 seconds later Steve Ward canceled out the power play, the Pirates fourth of the period, by taking a kneeing call. That left the teams in a four-on-four situation for 1:19. With just 58 seconds remaining in the period, Mike Kostka had Rissmiller poke the puck from him along the walls of the right wing side of the Pack blueline. Rissmiller picked up speed along the left wing and absolutely launched a rocket of a slapshot past the stick side of Enroth who had come a good five feet outside his crease to try and make a play.
The Pirates attempted to pressure the Pack early in the third period, and drew an early penalty on Vladimir Denisov. The Pack penalty killers stood tall all game long, stopping five of six shorthanded situations, and stifled this one as well. Despite the pressure, the Pack held the to just seven shots in the third period.
For Bob Crawford’s recap, visit Hartfordwolfpack.com and for the Portland perspective there’s Paul Betit in the Portland Press Telegram.
GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET.
NOTES:
* The Pack won all four games against the Pirates in Portland this season.
* If the playoffs started today the Pack would have home ice advantage and face fourth place Manchester. The Pack, with one game more to go against the New Hampshire franchise are 5-1-1-0 . In Manchester they are 2-0-1-0 and at home they are 3-1-0-0 against the Monarchs.
Should the opponent being Portland, the Pack record is 6-1-0-1. At Portland they are 4-0-0-0 and in the XL Center they are 2-1-0-1.
* P.A. Parenteau, the former Portland Pirate, had a goal and an assist and was a key player for the Pack in this victory. Apologies to Mark Bell, but a secondary assist on the Parenteau goal, or Nathan Gerbe, who had Portland’s only goal, is not enough to warrant not putting Parenteau in the Top Three Stars of the Game. Shame on the local media who apparently snubbed Parenteau intentionally. To add insult to injury, Miika Wiikman had a very big game in net. While he didn’t see 35 shots like Jhonas Enroth did, he had a number of VERY difficult saves and should have been the games Third Star.
* Speaking of Parenteau, he’s back on the scoring sheet with a multi-point game for the twenty-third time this season.
* Recently signed Paul Crowder took Greg Moore’s place in the line up and while he did not score did a fine job centering the fourth line and Gave Head Coach Ken Gernander enough confidence to have the young player on the ice for some key defensive minutes down the stretch. Moore did make the trip to Maine, he’s from there, which is a good sign that he was well enough to travel.
* HOT & NOT:
HOT:
Patrick Rissmiller, three goals and seven assists in his last seven games.
NOT:
Bobby Sanguinetti, scoreless in nine straight.
Devin DiDiomete, without a point in the last 14 games.
Brandon Sugden, just one assist in 47 games.
Artem Anisimov, just one goal and one assist in his last nine games.
Jordan Owens, two assists in his last eleven games.
Tommy Pyatt, a goal and an assist in his last nine.
* Inside The Numbers:
The Pack power play has dropped to twelfth (17.5%) in the AHL while the penalty kill has moved up to sixteenth (82.6%). When tied after the first, the Pack are 13-9-2-1 and leading after two periods of play they are 24-1-1-1. When being outshot the team is 19-13-2-2 and in two-goal games improved to 12-7-0-0.
The Pack have won four of their last five games, and 12-2-
1-0 in their last 15.
* Miika Wiikman has started the last six straight. He might be rested tonight and Charlotte call-up Maxime Daigneault given a start against the last place Falcons team so that Wiikman can be rested and ready for Sunday’s first place showdown in Providence against the Bruins.
LINES:
Bell – Rissmiller – Parenteau @
Dupont – Anisimov – Weise
Pyatt – Ouellette – Owens
DiDiomete – Crowder – Sugden
Sanguinetti – Potter @
Denisov – Fahey @
Nightingale – Sauer
Wiikman
SCRATCHES:
Zaba – Finger – One to Two weeks
Moore – Concussion – Day-to-Day
Zaborsky – Shoulder – Season
Soryal – Hand – 2 weeks
Byers – Knee – Season
Urquhart – Healthy
THREE STARS:
1. HFD – 18 Patrick Rissmiller
2. HFD – 22 Mark Bell
3. POR – 19 Nathan Gerbe
ON ICE OFFICIALS:
Ian Croft (87), Referee
Joe Andrews (32), Linesman
Chris Libett (19), Linesman
SCOREBOARD WATCHING:
The Albany River Rats helped out the Wolf Pack Friday night by defeating the now second place Providence Bruins 1-0 in a shoot out. Former Rangers prospect Jakub Petruzalek with the River Rats last shot to keep the shootout alive for Albany. After a Martin St. Pierre miss, Harrison Reed put the game away for Albany on a controversial goal that had Providence netminder Tuuka Rask completely lose his mind over it. He threw his stick. He went after the referee and then he threw things out onto the ice. In all likelihood he will get some sort of a suspension. Hopefully it will be a lengthy one and will prevent the Bruins’ top goaltender from playing Sunday against the Pack.
Also in the Atlantic Division Friday night, fourth place Manchester got a Marty Murray goal with just 1:02 remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime on the road against the last place Falcons. But it was Ryan Potulny, who had two goals in regulation and added another in the shootout to give Springfield the 4-3 win.
Fifth place Worcester could not take advantage of the Manchester loss as they on a third period goal in Bridgeport by James Sixsmith.
The Lowell Devils helped the Sound Tigers regain first place in the East Division knocking off visiting Hershey 2-1 when Oliver Magnan scored at 3:53 of the third. Hershey has two games in hand on the Islanders top farm club.
Saturday the Pack and their fans will be watching the scoreboard and hoping that Bridgeport can help their cause by knocking off Providence. The Bruins won their only meeting with the Tigers this season at the Dunkin Donuts Center 4-1 on January 9th. Over the last five years Providence has a 7-3-0-1 record against The Park City boys… Meanwhile Hershey visits Portland, while Worcester travels to Lowell to face the Devils who are 2-7-0-1 in their last ten.
On Sunday, Bridgeport is home to the visiting Pirates, Hershey travels to Manchester, while Worcester faces the Falcons in Springfield.
STANDINGS:
Rank Team GP W L OTL SOL PTS
| 1 | Hartford Wolf Pack | 70 | 39 | 25 | 3 | 3 | 84 |
| 2 | Providence Bruins | 69 | 38 | 24 | 2 | 5 | 83 |
| 3 | Portland Pirates | 68 | 32 | 27 | 3 | 6 | 73 |
| 4 | Manchester Monarchs | 69 | 33 | 29 | 0 | 7 | 73 |
| 5 | Worcester Sharks | 68 | 34 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 71 |
| 6 | Lowell Devils | 68 | 30 | 30 | 2 | 6 | 68 |
| 7 | Springfield Falcons | 69 | 21 | 37 | 7 | 4 | 53 |
NEXT GAME:
This is the chance for the Pack to give themselves a little breathing room as they have the easier battle on Saturday night as they will take on last place Springfield. The Pack are 6-1-0-1 this season against their I-91 neighbors. In the last five seasons the Pack are 27-8-1-2 overall and 13-5-1-0 at the Mass Mutual Center. The Pack won their last meeting with the Falcons earlier this month at the XL Center 4-2.
(Sugden/Bonneau photo courtesy of pressherald.com)
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