AND THEY’RE OFF… LITERALLY 

    VERSUS   

It was one of those rare nights in hockey. Both the New York Rangers varsity and JV teams faced off against their counterparts in their respective leagues. In this case it was Ottawa for the home opener for the Broadway Blueshirts while Binghamton hosted the season opener for the Wolf Pack. The end result on the night, a split. The big clubs squared off at MSG and the home team impressively knocked off their guests from Ontario, by a 5-2 score. Meanwhile up in Broome County, New York the JV weren’t so fortunate as they could not overcome the four goals they spotted their hosts in the first half of the game and dropped the opening game of their season with a 5-3 defeat.

The Pack had no answers for Martin St. Pierre. The former Providence Bruin scored a hat trick and added a helper on a fourth goal in front of 3,927 at the Broome County Arena.

Meanwhile on the Pack side of the ledger, three time AHL All-Star (‘06, ‘08, ‘09), skating in his first game as a member of the Wolf Pack had two goals while Bobby Sanguinetti, returning for his second full season, had a pair of assists.

While the game began for Binghamton at 7:16, the Wolf Pack didn’t really start to about an hour later but by that time the Senators had put four shots behind starter Matt Zaba (29 saves).

Just 6:17 into the first period, after a shot had hit the post on the previous play in the offensive zone, newcomer Paul Crowder got stripped in his own zone by the Sens’ Ryan Keller along the left wing boards. The Pack, thinking the puck was under control, had vacated the defensive zone. With no Pack back, St. Pierre was  completely alone in the middle of the ice. Keller found the 35 NHL career game experienced center iceman and hit him with a pass right on the blade. St. Pierre came in all alone like on a penalty shot and wristed it over the stick side of the defenseless Zaba. 

Just 3:01 later, St. Pierre picked the pocket of returning veteran Patrick Rissmiller in the high slot of the Pack’s end of the ice and charged in again, this time beating Zaba over the glove and just like that it was 2-0.

The Pack did get some good scoring chances particularly on newcomer Tyler Arnason’s bid and rookie Evgeny Grachev but were both erased by netminder Mike Brodeur (25 saves).

After the first intermission, Head Coach Ken Gernander switched up his lines, but it didn’t change the results.

Arnason had an incredible breakaway opportunity nine minutes into the period, but when the puck missed the net, the Sens’ top line pushed the puck up ice and broke in three-on-one (Corey Potter). Sens’ captain Denis Hamel fed St. Pierre on the break out and the center found the wide open Keller who put it behind Zaba for a 3-0 lead.

It only took the home team 2:59 to do it again. Jeremy Yablonski, the Senators resident enforcer, took a feed from defenseman Derek Smith and led a rush up the left wing . Having seemingly run out of ice at the Pack goal line, the 6’1” 235 pounder from Meadow Lake,Saskatchewan just threw the puck backhanded in the general vicinity of the Hartford net. But like the old hockey adage goes, “any shot on goal is a good shot,” this one some how found it’s way under Zaba and into the back of the cage.

It was just around then that Gernander informed his charge that it was game time and the Pack seemed like a different team. The Senators’ Ilya Zubov took a hooking call at 14:23 and sent the Pack to their third man advantage. After having failed miserably on their two previous man-up opportunities, this time the Pack answered the bell. Ilkka Heikkinen, one of the Pack’s new players, fed Sanguinetti from the right point over to the top of the left circle. Sanguinetti, doing what he does so well, fired a blistering hard shot on net. Locke, stationed in front of Brodeur, deflected the shot which sent it through the wickets of the Senator’s netminder and the Pack were on the board with with 4:33 remaining in the period.

The Pack struck again with just 1.4 seconds left in the second frame. Michael Sauer threw a real hard shot from the top of the right wing point. Brodeur was screened by both newcomer Andres Ambuhl and Crowder who got a stick on it and put it by Brodeur for his first professional goal. Crowder played 11 games at the end of last season and then 5 in the playoffs and had three assists.

Just 22 ticks into the third period, the Pack would score their third tally in a span of 5:05 when Dane Byers made another terrific pass to P.A. Parenteau, who carried it up the slot and fired a laser beam on Brodeur. Even Brodeur’s NJ Devils namesake wouldn’t have been able to stop the missile Parenteau put on net. It appeared that Parenteau put it by Brodeur on his own, however the referee, Jaime Koharski, insisted that Locke had gotten a stick on it and awarded the center with his second of the game.

Heikkinen made an exciting and crucial defensive play in his own end after a Sanguinetti giveaway stopping a St. Pierre and Hamel odd man rush at 6:50.

But then the back breaker. Koharski blew the whistle for two phantom calls back-to-back on the Pack. The first at 8:22 on Byers for a trip that had the Pack assistant captain furious. It really looked like a dive as a result of incidental contact and if anything should have resulted in a Pack power play but instead went the other way. But just 40 seconds into the Sens’ man advantage, Koharski charged Potter with Interference and awarded the Senators a 1:20 five-on-three.

1:02 later, sloppy play by the Pack in their own end resulted in the puck in the twine for the game winner. The Pack had multiple chances to clear the puck out of their own end and failed numerous times. When it looked like they might clear it, all three penalty killers, Sauer, Jordan Owens and newly signed defenseman Nigel Williams were all at the blueline. But Derek Smith made a great keep-in and fed St.Pierre down low, again all by himself, and the center from Embrun, Ontario got the hattie beating Zaba.

The Pack had one other big chance to get back into the game when Koharski perhaps feeling some guilt over having taken the game away from the Pack, awarded them a pair of non-calls that resulted in a 1:34 of five-on-three power play time. Binghamton however rose to the occasion and shut down all passing lanes and repelled the Pack power play.

Bob Crawford shares the view from the press box at HartfordWolfPack.com. Michael Sharp has the recap from the Binghamton perspective in the news at pressconnects.com

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORER’S SHEET

NOTES:

* This meeting with the Binghamton Senators is the first meeting between the two clubs since 2005.

* Since their inception 13 years ago, the Wolf Pack have the best overall record in the AHL. They also have the longest consecutive streak of playoff appearances also over that span.

* Only three WP players were on the plus side of the plus/minus ledger for the evening. Locke, Sanguinetti and Sauer. Potter was a team worst minus-3 while Tyler Arnason and Nigel Williams were each minus-2.

* Devin DiDiomete was Bob Crawford’s guest commentator and showed a lot of promise in that capacity. However, if you’re superstitious, he inadvertently gave his teammates the kiss-of-death. With the Pack pressuring the Sens hard in their own end, DiDiomete said, “With the pressure the (Wolf Pack) is putting on I feel like they’re going to score here soon.” As fate would have it a short time later Binghamton got what would prove to be the back breaker. Overall though mega kudos to the young man from Stratford, Ontario Canada.

* Hartford has now lost four consecutive season openers after posting seven wins and a tie in its previous eight openers.

LINES:

Byers – Locke – Parenteau

Grachev – Rissmiller – Weise

Dupont – Arnason – Owens

Soryal – Crowder – Ambuhl

Heikkinen – Sanguinetti

Williams – Potter

Henley – Sauer

Zaba

SCRATCHES:

Devin DiDIomete – Broken Arm – Six Weeks

Miika Wiikman – Lower Body – Day-to-Day

David Urquhart – Healthy

THREE STARS:

1. BNG – 39 Martin St. Pierre
2. BNG – 28 Ryan Keller
3. HFD – 84 Corey Locke

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Jamie Koharski (84), Referee
John Everett (82), Linesman
Jameel Chaudry (51), Linesman

NEXT GAME:

The Pack travel a long way for coffee and munchkins as they head up to the Dunkin Donuts Center to face the Providence Bruins on Friday October 9th at 7.

(Photo courtesy of Diogenes Agcaoili, Jr at pressconnects.com)