PACK PHANTOMS THROUGH TWO, DROP THIRD STRAIGHT 

   VERSUS     
They say that adversity builds character. If that’s the case then the Hartford Wolf Pack are going to have more “character” than a Robert Altman film as the Pack dropped their third straight and fifth of their first seven, 3-2 to the Adirondack Phantoms at the Glens Falls Civic Center Friday night.

The Pack ceded the first two periods to their hosts and got themselves into an early hole that they weren’t able to extricate themselves from. Just 1:20 into the first period, Patrick Maroon drove to the Pack net and was followed by both David Urquhart AND Michael Sauer behind the goal line. Maroon made a perfect centering pass to the front of the crease and found David Laliberte alone and camped out in front of Pack starting netminder, Chad Johnson (24 saves, 2-3-0, 3.71GAA, .875%).  The Phantom right winger then deposited the puck over Johnson’s glove into the twine behind him.

After a very big fight between the Pack’s, Justin “Scary” Soryal and Phantom heavyweight Garrett Klotz, a pretty even battle that saw both players exchange huge shots, the Pack seemed to wake up…at least temporarily.

4:07 after the Phantoms had tallied, the Pack responded with yet another power play goal. The Power Play, much like the parent New York Rangers, has been the saving grace for the Pack to this point in the season. The Pack are third overall in the AHL at 24.4% (10 for 41).

P.A. Parenteau tallied for his fifth of the season when he took a tremendous tape-to-tape cross-ice pass through traffic from Corey Locke at the bottom of the left wing circle and demonstrated his NHL caliber shot with a laser beam into the short side of the net that Johan Backlund (26 saves, 3-2-0, 2.78GAA, .906%) had no chance on. It was tied at 1 as the horn sounded ending the first period.

But Head Coach Ken Gernander would have been better off starting the period with a “Ghostbusters Line” of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis as his troops seemed to wilt in the face of the Phantoms in the second period.

Just like the first period, the Pack gave up the ghost early in the period. At 2:36 off of what seemed like an endless parade of bad passes, turnovers and odd man rushes coming back at Johnson, the Phantoms lit the lamp a second time. Ilkka Heikkinen turned the puck over on the left side blue line and fell down. Patrick Maroon advanced the loose rubber disk up to Laliberte who quickly fed Jon Matsumoto. The Adirondack center-man knew just what to do with the puck. He came in hard and  fast on the Pack goaltender and fired a bee-bee that Johnson could do little more than wave to as it sailed right past him for a 2-1 lead.

The Pack’s major shortcoming this season, as it has been in the past few seasons, has been a sieve-like penalty kill that is currently ranked second to last (28th overall) in the AHL with a putrid 69.2% success rate, having surrendered 12 goals surrendered in 39 short handed tries. On the bright side though, the team does have the second most short handed tallies with three after leading the AHL last season with 19. Well, it failed the team yet again. After Parenteau took a tripping call at 9:34, Adirondack made the most of the opportunity. Excellent perimeter passing kept the Pack penalty killers moving. With traffic in front of the net, Oskars Bartulis fired a low, hard slap shot from the left point that made it past the screened Johnson into the cage for the two goal lead and for what would prove to be the game winner.

But, the Pack did manage to put up a fight and drew a Bartulis interference call at 13:08. It took the Pack only 6 seconds on the man-advantage to tally for their second power play goal. Dane Byers got his first of the season cleaning up the loose change in front of the net smacking past Backlund a rebound of a Locke shot. The assist was Locke’s second of the game (5g, 3a) and tied him with Parenteau (5g, 3a) and Bobby Sanguinetti (1g, 7a) for the team points lead with eight.  

The Pack managed to come out for the third period and put in probably their hardest working twenty minutes of the season. They outshot their hosts 11-5 in the period and kept pressure on the puck all period long but were not able to solve Backlund. Dale Weise seemed to be in the middle of every opportunity that the Pack generated in the frame. The Pack should have been awarded a power play late in the period when Weise made a great move splitting defenseman Sean Curry and ex-Ranger Jason Ward along the right wing. Both players practically snapped their sticks pulling hooking the Winnipeg native. However, much like Jaromir Jagr would not go down and not get calls in identical situations in New York, Weise didn’t go down and there was no call made by referee Francis Charron. Given how well the power play was clicking, officially 2-6 on the night, this could have been a huge opportunity to tie the game.

Bob Crawford recaps the visit to upstate New York at HartfordWolfPack.com. Tim McManus has the view from the Adirondack locker room at the Poststar.com.

GAME SUMMARY  and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

(Photo courtesy of Poststar.com)

NOTES:

* Lots of Rangers connections in this contest. Greg Gilbert is the head coach for the Adirondack Phantoms. Rangers fans might recall that Gilbert was a member of the 1994 Stanley Cup team. Kjell Samuelsson, who was drafted 119th overall in 1984 and played parts of two seasons in NY for a Rangers  Also, Jason Ward, was a popular player for two seasons (‘05 – ‘07) in New York and now skates for the Phantoms.

* The Pack started the season with six of their first seven on the road and lost five of them. The team now has to make up ground by excelling in the XL as they have five straight at home.

* P.A. Parenteau ended a two game scoreless drought with his first period power play goal.

* Of those on the roster who have played every game, only Justin Soryal has not recorded a point. Dave Urquhart has now played in three games and not made the scorers sheet.

* Parenteau has points in five of seven, as does rookie center Paul Crowder, as well as d-men Bobby Sanguinetti and Illka Heikkinen.

* The Pack have not started like this since 2006-2007 when they started the season 2-7-1. They ended up finishing that season in second overall in the division with a 47-29-3-1 record 12 points out of first.

* Corey Locke is third in the AHL with four PPG. Paul Crowder is 8th in scoring amongst all rookies and Bobby Sanguinetti is 4th in scoring amongst defenseman.

* CHECKERS UPDATE 

Charlotte Checkers vs Florida Everblades:

PENALTY KILLERS IN THE GLADES

The Charlotte Checkers fell behind early on a penalty kill and were not able to bounce back as they dropped their first game of the season, 5-3, to the Florida Everblades Friday night.

Charlotte forward Michel Leveille tallied two goals in a losing cause while former NHL goaltender Mike Morrison stopped 23 shots for the Florida victory.

The Everblades came flying out of the gates and controlled the play early on before opening the scoring midway through the first period. Milan Gajic let a shot go from the left that bounced off Checkers’ goaltender Matt Zaba’s pad and onto the stick of Cleve Kinley who tucked it home for his first of the season. The power-play goal came at the 9:01 mark of the opening frame.

Florida would add to their lead four minutes later when Elgin Reid took a Rob Hennigar pass in the slot and fired it low-glove on Zaba for his first of the season.

The visiting Checkers had a hard time finding momentum in the first period while trying to defend five power plays and found themselves outshot by a 13-4 margin.

The score remained 2-0 until five minutes into the third period when Charlotte got on the board. Forward Matt Ford drove to the net and took several whacks at a loose puck before Ryan Garlock banged home the rebound for his first of the season.

The goal seemed to give the Checkers some momentum as they tied the game at 2-2 just three minutes later on a goal by Michel Leveille. Leveille took a pass from Aaron Slattengren and skated in on the right wing roofing a backhand shot over the glove of Morrison.

Just over two minutes later, Florida answered back on a goal by rookie Brandon Buck. A turnover at the Checkers’ blueline allowed Buck to skate in one-on-one and lift a backhand shot over the blocker of Zaba. The goal came at the 10:37 mark of the third period and was assisted by Kevin Baker.

The Everblades would add to their lead over a minute later when Jacob Micflikier banged home a rebound for his second goal of the early season. But with 30 seconds to play and the Checkers’ goaltender pulled for an extra attacker, Michel Leveille scored on a point shot through traffic that beat Morrison to bring Charlotte within a goal.

The Everblades, however, would answer 14 second later with an empty-net goal to seal their second win of the season in front of a home-opening crowd of 6,395.

Matt Zaba stopped 30 of 34 shots in a losing effort for the Checkers while Mike Morrison earned the victory for Florida.

The two teams will meet again tomorrow at Germain Arena in Estero, Florida. Game time is at 7:30PM and can be heard live at www.gocheckers.com.

The Checkers’ home opener is set for Sunday, November 1 at 2PM against the Gwinnett Gladiators. For ticket information please call 704-342-4-ICE or visit www.gocheckers.com

CHARLOTTE GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

(Photo courtesy of gocheckers.com)

LINES:

Byers –  Crowder – Parenteau

Grachev – Locke –  Weise

Hillier – Dupont – Owens

Soryal – Arnason – Ambuhl

* Heikkinen – Potter

Henley – Sanguinetti

Urquhart – Sauer

Johnson

(Assistant Captains Italicized)

* Note: Heikkinen started but skated with Sanguinetti

SCRATCHES:

Devin DiDIomete – Broken Arm – Mid-November

Nigel Williams – Healthy

Mathieu Dandenault – Healthy

THREE STARS:

1. ADK – 11 Jon Matsumoto
2. ADK – 10 David Laliberte
3. HFD – 84 Corey Locke

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Francis Charron (46), Referee
Chris Low (88), Linesman
Rich Patry (52), Linesman

NEXT GAME:

The Pack start a five game home-stand with their first guest being Jeff Frazee and the Lowell Devils on Ross Beck 7th Birthday Night at the XL Center. Festivities begin promptly at 7pm.