DROWNING RATS IN THE RIVER

     VERSUS      

With Saturday night’s battle for first place with the Providence Bruins looming and the danger of looking past a weaker opponent in front of them, the Hartford Wolf Pack overcame a slow start and an early deficit before roaring with five unanswered goals to beat the Albany River Rats 5-1 in front of 3,951 at the Times Union Center.

The games First Star, P.A. Parenteau gave the visiting Pack a three point night, his first in eleven games (1g, 2a) and got two goals apiece by Mark Bell and Artem Anisimov and a three point night from P.A. Parenteau (1g, 2a) led the Pack (41-26-3-3, 88 points) to a 5-1 victory over the Albany River Rats (31-33-3-4).

The win for the Rangers’ AHL farm club from Connecticut’s capitol was crucial in the standing race as the Providence Bruins (40-25-2-5, 87 points) took an early lead themselves and road it wire-to-wire against Manchester and beat the Monarchs 3-1 and remain a point behind the first place Wolf Pack.

Matt Zaba (19 saves) returned between the pipes with a tremendous performance after missing seven games with a a broken finger sustained in the 4-2 win in Springfield on March 7th.  The Pack netminder looked fresh and like he hadn’t missed a beat picking right where he left off before the injury with solid work in the cage.

The Pack started this one as if they were looking past the River Rats and it cost them. Just 1:45 into the contest, an outstanding forecheck by Ryan Weston stripped the usually reliable Mike Ouellette of the puck in the defensive zone. Weston in turn fed Tomas Pospisil and the 21 year old left winger blasted a rocket right under the arm of Zaba who had little to no chance to make a stop on the play.

At 11:48, Parenteau who checked hard into the far wall by a clean but hard hit by Bryan Rodney. It took several minutes before Parenteau was able to get back to his feet. But on his first shift back on to the ice, Parenteau’s retribution was the kind coaches think is the most productive…he put the puck in the net. 

With 5:31 remaining in the period, Patrick Rissmiller fed Bobby Sanguinetti and the New Jersey native demonstrated why the New York Rangers made him a first round draft pick as the AHL All Star moved through the entire defensive team with grate moves and a whole lot of athleticism and found Parenteau low on the left wing side. The Pack’s top scorer then fired a shot on Justin Peters (17 saves) and beat him in tight on the stick side. It was 1-1.

The Pack would get the back breaker with just 46 seconds remaining in the first period when Artem Anisimov took a turnover in the neutral zone and came in hard and fast down the left wing and beat defenseman Brett Carson to the net. Anisimov put on a fake to get Peters down and then lifted it over him with a backhander and put it into the empty net.

11:57 into the second period, the Pack expanded their lead and took all the jump out of the Albany steps when from high in the slot Mark Bell, who joined the Pack off of waivers from Toronto on March 4th, simply lasered a shot that hit the inside of the post and ricocheted into the net. It was 3-1 and for all intents and purposes it was over. Albany never really mounted much of a charge after that.

Bell would add his second of the game on a power play on almost an identical play to his first goal. At 9:33 of the final stanza, Sanguinetti would feed Parenteau down low on the left side. Parenteau stood with the puck and surveyed the landscape. When the Hull, QC native saw Bell as abandoned in the slot like a in-dash 8-track tape player, the forward put a brilliant pass right on his blade that Bell then rocketed past Peters.

The Pack would get heir final tally on the power play as well. Already with a 4-1 lead and in complete control of the game, Brian Fahey ripped a hard low shot that hit the pads of Peters and landed just about in the lap of Anisimov. The young Russian knew exactly what to do and just slammed it right into the twine for his 32nd of the year.

Brock McBride made his AHL debut since signing a Professional Try-Out contract earlier in the week. The young Canadian demonstrated some real talent and could be quite a find for the Pack down the stretch. Paul Crowder also looks like a promising young talent.

Bob Crawford has the Happy Recap recap at Hartfordwolfpack.com. Meanwhile for news from Albany, you’ll find coverage at the TimesUnion.com and Phil Janack has coverage at the dailygazette.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET.

NOTES:

* How can you possibly list a downer after such a good game? Well, in the previous five games where the Pack “blew-out” an opponent, the team lost the following game…and in the case of two of those losses, the most recent being the 5-3 spanking they received last Sunday, they were in Providence against the Baby Bruins.

* Zaba has now won nine of his last ten  (9-0-1-0) and fourteen of seventeen (14-2-1-0) starts and moves up to fifth overall among AHL goaltenders with a .921% and a 2.31GAA. For the season, Zaba is 20-9-0 with one shutout.

* The win against Albany gave them their 13th straight win against the River Rats. The last time they lost to the Rats was April of 2005. The win streak gives the team a franchise record for most consecutive wins against a single opponent.

* Could it possibly be more of a joke that Tomas Pospisil was the third star of the game for scoring a lone goal in a 5-1 defeat when Artem Anisimov scores twice, including the game winner? You don’t want to vote for a Russian, then how can you explain away not voting for Patrick Rissmiller or Bobby Sanguinetti who both had two assists? No, this was politics by the local media. It’s shameful

* INSIDE THE NUMBERS: 7-3-1-0 in the last eleven, 19-14-3-1 on the road, 21-6-0-1 when leading after one, 26-1-1-1 when leading after two. 21-12-1-1 when outshooting their opponents. In games decided by four games, the record is 4-1-0-0.

* It was commonly accepted that the Charlotte Checkers would start the playoffs in the third spot in the South Division of the ECHL, but after the 5-3 win at home against the Mississippi Sea Wolves, it became official…

LINES:

Bell – Rissmiller – Parenteau @

Dupont – Anisimov – Ouellette

Pyatt – Crowder – Owens

DiDiomete – McBride – Sugden

Sanguinetti – Potter @

Denisov – Fahey @

Urquhart – Nightingale

Zaba

SCRATCHES:

Sauer – On recall with the Rangers

Wiikman – Lower Body Injury – Day-to-Day

Moore – Concussion – Indefinite

Zaborsky – Shoulder – Sea
son

Soryal – Hand – Day-to-Day

Byers – Knee – Season

Weise – Broken Thumb – (Was Bob Crawford’s co-host on the broadcast)

THREE STARS:

1. HFD – 17 Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau
2. HFD – 22 Mark Bell
3. ALB – 9 Tomas Pospisil

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Ryan Fraser (14), Referee
Mike Emanatian (69), Linesman
Steve Lemay (64), Linesman

SCOREBOARD WATCHING:

Lowell visited Portland and gave the Pirates a two point gift dropping a 3-2 decision to the home team. Springfield meanwhile traveled to Worcester and also dropped a 3-2 decision and Manchester lost to Providence 3-1 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 look for some help from Worcester to give them some breathing room when they visit the Bruins. Lowell hosts Bridgeport and Portland travels to Springfield.

STANDINGS:

Rank        Team                          GP    W      L     OTL   SOL   PTS

NEXT GAME:

The second of three, and the only one of them in Hartford, versus the second place Providence Bruins in a four point contest at the XL Center Saturday night.