PACK BITTEN BY BEARS 

     VERSUS     

Superstitious people don’t like seeing blowouts the night before a big game. The thought process being the team uses up the goals they might need the next night. Well, when it comes to the Hartford Wolf Pack season that superstition has certainly been the case. The Wolf Pack have won by four or more goals five times this season. The first came Nov. 22 vs. Portland, second on Jan. 6 at Manitoba, they did it again on Feb. 13th against Lake Erie and then Mar. 14th against Bridgeport.

The fifth time came last night against the Springfield Falcons, a game which the Pack won 7-2.

What do all of these games have in common?

The Pack LOST the next night each time.

The first came on Nov. 23rd on the road to Providence, then Jan. 7th in Manitoba, and then on Feb. 14 to Manitoba a second time, and Mar. 15th they went down a fourth time at Worcester.

Sunday the Rangers top farm club came into Providence for a huge four-point game against the second place Bruins. Again they dropped a game after a big win, this time 5-3 in front of 7,327 at the Dunkin Donuts Center.

The Pack came out fast and were playing with the same intensity they demonstrated against Springfield the night before and were rewarded for it. Just 2:13 into the contest, Michael Sauer’s shot from the point handcuffed Bruins starter Tuuka Rask. The talented goaltender could not handle the puck and it dropped right into the crease where Artem Anisimov was waiting and tapped it in over the outstretched glove of Rask for his thirtieth goal of the season.

Bruins agitator Vladimir Sobotka went to the box at 6:04 putting the Pack power play unit onto the ice. 1:04 later the red hot Michael Sauer got his sixth of the season when he one-timed a pass from Brian Fahey from the left point that got through Rask’s legs for the early 2-0 lead.

There’s no way to accurately describe it, but it looked a lot like the Pack let up and stopped doing all the things that got them the blow out the night before and the early lead against the Bruins and they paid for it.

2:17 later Johnny Boychuk, the AHL’s leading scorer among defenseman, got his first of two goals when his shot from the right point with Mikko Lehtonen screening got through starter Maxime Daigneault (25 saves), starting with Matt Zaba still not 100% and Miika Wiikman sidelined with a leg injury.

It didn’t take Providence long to knot the score in the second period. At 2:43 All-Star Pack defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti could not keep the puck in the offensive zone and had to race Zach Hamill for the puck. Sanguinetti pulled up and the Bruins right wing made it look easy blasting the puck past Daigneault.

After multiple shifts spent in the Providence zone and applying lots of pressure to the Bruins defenseman, the Baby B’s finally cracked. The Bruins took a Too Many Men on the ice penalty sending the Pack to their sixth power play. It only took the Pack sixteen seconds to capitalize as Fahey blasted a rebound of a P.A. Parenteau shot down low which came out to the Pack defenseman from in the slot. The Pack had their second lead of the contest.

The turning point of the game came with just 44.5 seconds left in the period when the Bruins put heavy pressure on the puck down low and worked for a turnover. Martin St. Pierre got his stick on the puck and found Kirk MacDonald all alone on the right side of the crease and blasted the puck past a helpless Daigneault knotting the score heading into the third period.

Right off the bat in the third the Pack buried themselves taking two penalties just 40 seconds apart putting them behind the eight ball down two men for 1:20. It would cost them the game.

Boychuk got what would prove to be the game winner when St. Pierre got his second assist of the game on a pass that the defenseman one timed from the right wing circle that blew right past Daigneault.

Wacey Rabbit got an empty netter with 19 seconds remaining to cap the scoring.

For Bob Crawford’s recap, visit Hartfordwolfpack.com and for the Providence perspective, if there is any reporting it’ll be at projo.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET.

NOTES:

*  Michael Sauer has found his offensive game. In the last seven games he’s added three goals and four assists.

*  With a two-for-seven performance on the power play the Pack are back in the Top Ten in the AHL at 17.9%. Meanwhile the penalty kill remains at sixteenth with a 82.4% success rate.

* Daigneault’s start breaks a streak of seven straight starts by Miika Wiikman. The good news is that Matt Zaba was on the bench and should be able to go next Friday night.

* Both of Daigneault’s appearances for the Pack have been losses. Besides taking the loss against Providence, the St.-Jacques-le-Mineur, QC native also got the decision in Lowell on February 8th when he surrendered two goals on 21 shots in relief of Matt Zaba. The Pack’s top netminder was pulled after the first period when Zaba allowed three behind him on thirteen shots. It was not a good night in the net for Daigneault as he seemed indecisive and often could not control rebounds and fought the puck all afternoon.

* INSIDE THE NUMBERS: 20-6-0-1 when leading after one, 11-6-1-0 when tied after two, 19-14-2-2 when Out Shot by their opponents.

LINES:

Bell – Rissmiller – Parenteau @

Dupont – Anisimov – Weise

Pyatt – Ouellette – Owens

DiDiomete – Crowder – Sugden

Denisov – Fahey @

Nightingale – Sauer

Sanguinetti – Potter @

Daigneault

SCRATCHES:

Wiikman – Lower Body Injury – Day-to-Day

Moore – Concussion – Indefinite

Zaborsky – Shoulder – Season

Soryal – Hand – Day-to-Day

Byers – Knee – Season

Urquhart – Healthy

THREE STARS:

1. PRO – 3 Johnny Boychuk
2. HFD – 5 Brian Fahey
3. PRO – 39 Martin St. Pierre

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Nygel Pelletier (41), Referee
Bob Paquette (18), Linesman
Mark Messier (12), Linesman

SCOREBOARD WATCHING:

Bridgeport beat Portland 4-3. Springfield knocked the Pack’s magic number to clinch a playoff spot down to six by knocking off Worcester 2-0 and ex-Pack Alexandre Giroux got his fiftieth of the season in Hershey’s come from behind victory in a shoot out against Manchester. Keith Auco
in had the decider in that one.

Looking ahead, on Tuesday Worcester faces Bridgeport at the Arena at Harbor Yard while Lowell hosts Manchester.

In an unusual occurrence, the entire Atlantic Division is off on Wednesday.

Next Friday sees Lowell visit Portland, Springfield travel to Worcester and Manchester tries out Providence at the Dunkin Donuts Center.

Saturday’s action includes Springfield in Albany, Portland hosting Manchester, Lowell in Worcester.

Sunday the Pack will find out what happens on their game in hand on Providence as the Pack have the night off and hope for some help from Worcester when they visit the Bruins. Lowell hosts Bridgeport and Portland travels to Springfield.

STANDINGS:

Rank          Team                        GP    W      L     OTL   SOL   PTS

NEXT GAME:

Pack are off until next Friday night when they will play their last out of division game against the Albany River Rats. Then have a huge rematch with Providence at the XL Center and are off on Sunday.