SAVED AT/BY THE BELL 

       VERSUS       

They have found all sorts of ways to win games this season, but Wednesday night’s 4-3 victory by the Hartford Wolf Pack over the Manchester Monarchs had to rank at the top as strangest of the season. A once in a lifetime fluke goal to tie and then a shorthanded tally by Mark Bell with just 20.2 seconds remaining in the contest put the Pack within two points of clinching their first Atlantic Division crown since 2003-2004.

It was looking bleak for the team from Connecticut’s capitol entering the final minute of regulation play. The Pack had already surrendered two power play goals in the game and with one minute exactly left in the contest, newcomer, Brock McBride took an ill-advised hooking call giving the Monarchs their fifth man-advantage. But as has been the case, especially over the last several games, the Pack have become quite deadly when shorthanded. Tom Preissing, the NHL veteran demoted by the parent L.A. Kings, lost the puck to Patrick Rissmiller along the left wing boards near the blue line. Rissmiller poked the puck by Preissing  and was off to the races. Preissing made no attempt even to get back into the play of to slow Rissmiller. As a result, Rissmiller came unobstructed up the wall with fellow veteran Mark Bell to his left against only defenseman Thomas Hickey. Hickey did his best to cut off the passing lane from Rissmiller to Bell and allowed starting netminder Jonathan Bernier as good of a look at the puck as he could. But Rissmiller made a fake an d got a reaction from both Hickey and Bernier (29 saves) and put a pass perfectly on to the stick of Bell who had virtually an empty net to put it to bed in. Bernier tried to recover and put out his leg, but it was too late for the game winner.

The Pack would not have gotten that far had defenseman Joe Piskula not helped the cause as much as he did. Artem Anisimov brought the puck up ice along the right wing wall. He was taken out of the play but managed to get the puck into the Monarch zone. Piskula picked up the puck to the right of Bernier and was all alone in front. Piskula appeared to want to advance the puck out of the zone along the boards. He then tried shifting the puck and almost simultaneously tried to advance it. The end result was the puck went off the end of his stick with a bit of energy behind it. The puck then took Bernier totally by surprise and went through his five hole and tied the score at three.

But while that was certainly one of those “Wanna-get-away” moments, the play of the Pack leading up to that didn’t help as the team has developed a bad habit of scoring a goal and then either surrendering a goal right away or taking a penalty and putting themselves behind the eight-ball. This game they did exactly that not once, but twice.

At 7:56 of the first period, Rissmiller again, who’s been terrific of late, made a phenomenal move going inside and out through David Meckler and Piskula and flips a backhander over the glove and into the right corner of the net. Assists to Mark Bell and Brock McBride.

But just fifteen seconds later the Pack got themselves in trouble when Jordan Owens took a pretty unnecessary boarding call. It only took 1:09 for it to cost the Pack. Gabe Gauthier found himself all alone in the slot and took a pass from Meckler below the goal-line and fired a low hard shot that Matt Zaba (28 saves) could not get his glove to fast enough and the game was even.

The Pack fell behind for the first time after a Bobby Sanguinetti was stripped in the defensive zone on a hard forecheck by Vladimir Dravecky. Much like the first play, Dravecky put the puck in the slot from behind the goal-line to find Meckler by himself. The Monarch right winger then blasted a shot from the low left circle and ripped it past Zaba.

While the Pack outshot Manchester in the first period 13-9 they left the frame trailing 2-1.

Then instant replay.

The Pack knotted the score at 8:33 after when Mike Ouellette won an offensive zone draw which to newcomer David Stich. The young defenseman fired the puck hard on Bernier which rebounded to his partner Michael Sauer, back from missing a game with a minor injury. Sauer put the puck on net and it got loose in the crease. Ouellette then came in to clean up the loose change and banked into the vault behind Bernier for his fifteenth of the season.

Twenty-two seconds later, Stich was sitting in the sin bin after taking a hooking call…does this sound familiar?

It should.

55 seconds later, Preissing had the puck along the left wing wall. He handed off to Hickey, but the exchange was not clean and hickey lost the puck off his stick only to drop right into a perfect spot for Matt Moulson  to step into. Moulson's shock zipped into the net just over the blocker and stick of Zaba.

It wasn’t exactly pretty, but one of the signs of a truly strong team is that they find a way to win in games where they don’t play well. This was one of those games.

Bob Crawford recounts the game at Hartfordwolfpack.com. Up in New Hampshire Kevin Provencher takes veteran Tom Preissing to task for allowing Bell to score the game winner and goes to town on the game overall at the UnionLeader.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET.

NOTES:

* Thursday afternoon, Schepke was released from his ATO and sent back to Charlotte. That shouldn't be seen necessarily as a bad thing. IT means that players are likely getting healthy and ready to play.

* Artem Anisimov contains to play with a lot of fire and has elevated his game at just the right time. While his six game scoring streak was stopped in Lowell Sunday, the new Russian Rocket started up another with his game tying “goal” in the second period. Over the span, Anisimov has eight goals and four assists for twelve points.

* THE NEW KIDS IN TOWN: David Stich has two assists in the three games he’s played in since signing his ATO on April 1st. Brock McBride has played extremely well with the Pack since he signed with the team late last month. After playing in his sixth game the young forward has four assists. Matt Schepke, despite taking two penalties in the third period, had a very solid performance in his first AHL game and looked like he belonged there.

* The Wolf Pack have scored five times shorthanded in their last three games and now lead the AHL in that category with 19 on the season. Philadelphia, Peoria and Iowa all are tied for second with 15.

* The Pack are 18th overall in home attendance averaging 4,114 per game. In state rival Bridgeport (Islanders) are 16th and average 4,491. Hershey is the top draw in the league with 8,953 followed by Manitoba at 7,769 and Grand Rapids at 7,361. The leading draw in the Atlantic Division is sixth and Providence at 6,343. It’s especially interesting since the team gets virtually no coverage in their local newspa
per, the Providence Journal.

* The win improved the Pack’s record on the season against Manchester to 6-1-1-0.

* Artem Anisimov and P.A. Parenteau are now tied for points with 78 and Artie ranks fourth and P.A. sixth in the pursuit of the scoring title which will clearly be won this year by either ex-Pack Alex Giroux who is having an amazing season. Giroux has 57 goals and 37 assists in just 66 games. Or it will be won by Giroux’s teammate, Keith Aucoin, also with 94 points. 25 goals and 69 assists.

* Matt Zaba is the league leading goaltender in shoot outs having stopped 13 of 14 for a .929%.

* INSIDE THE NUMBERS: When trailing after one period the pack are now 9-12-1-1. When outshooting their opponents they are 24-12-1-1. When tied after two they are 12-6-1-0 and improve to 20-8-3-3 in one-goal games.

LINES:

Dupont – Anisimov – Owens

Bell – Rissmiller – Crowder

DiDiomete – Ouellette – McBride

Schepke – Urquhart (also rotated on defense)

Denisov – Fahey

Sanguinetti – Potter

Nightingale – Sauer

Stich

Zaba

SCRATCHES:

Pyatt – Personal

Parenteau – Undisclosed Injury – Day-to-Day

Sugden – Undisclosed Injury – Day-to-Day

Moore – Concussion – Indefinite

Weise – Thumb – Day-to-Day

Zaborsky – Shoulder – Season

Soryal – Hand – Season

Byers – Knee – Undetermined

Loverock – Healthy

THREE STARS:

1. HFD – 22 Mark Bell
2. MCH – 55 David Meckler
3. HFD – 30 Matt Zaba

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Ghislain Hebert (49), Referee
Jeremy Lovett (78), Linesman
Landon Bathe (80), Linesman

SCOREBOARD WATCHING:

It’s down to two games for all the playoff marbles. Given the Pack’s strong record in the XL Center, clinching home ice advantage through the Atlantic Division playoffs will be crucial. Therefore, the Pack will be watching whenever they have the chance to see if Portland can help them out by knocking off Providence.  Other Atlantic Division games include Springfield traveling to Bridgeport and Manchester is in Worcester.

By the time Saturday rolls along, things could be either already finished or down to the wire. Should the Pack lose and Providence win, the Pack will need to get it done against doormat Springfield. Providence travels to Worcester, Lowell is in Bridgeport and Portland is in Manchester for the last game of the regular season.

STANDINGS:

Rank        Team                           GP    W      L     OTL   SOL   PTS

NEXT GAME:

Friday night the Wolf Pack can clinch their first division title in five years (2003-2004 season) with a win on the road against Lowell. Lowell is out of the playoffs and beat the Pack in Hartford on Sunday afternoon. If Portland, desperate to clinch a playoff spot (they need just a point or Manchester to lose), can knock off Providence at home and the Wolf Pack even get to overtime , it’s mission accomplished. The Magic number for the Pack is two.

COMPARATIVE REMAINING SCHEDULE:

Hartford                                                                                         Providence

Day          Date        Opponent       Position     Record Vs.           Day      Date          Opponent         Position   Record Vs.