VERSUS
Friday night was like a nightmare for the Hartford Wolf Pack. However the real terror came on Halloween night for the visiting Providence Bruins, as Saturday night became “Fright Night” in a 7-0 Freddy Kruger-like thrashing for the Hartford Wolf Pack, A slew of personnel changes to the New York Rangers top farm team injected Vampire-like super powers as they got four point nights from Bobby Sanguinetti (2g, 2a) and Corey Locke (1g, 3a) plus a three pointer (2g, 1a) from emerging star Dale Weise. It didn't hurt that they also had a fine performance by Chad Johnson in net who stopped all 17 shots he faced from the team's Rhode Island Rivals.
On Friday night against the Hershey Bears, the Wolf Pack played like Sleeping Beauty. But the tandem of Head Coach Ken Gernander and General Manager Jim Schoenfeld acted like Prince Charming and woke them up. Where last night they couldn’t get to the puck to pressure it, in this one they were jumping right from the first drop of the puck. That excellent pressure up front finally led to a break.
Providence defenseman Andy Wozniewski brought the puck up along the left side of the ice. Dale Weise continued his strong play and stripped the 28-year old from Buffalo Grove, Illinois and broke in all alone on netminder Matt Dalton (41 saves, 0-3-0, 4.31 GAA, .887 save percentage), and brought it home slamming through the five-hole for his second short-hander of the year.
The Pack were dominant in every aspect of their game. At one point they led in shots 10-1 and held the Bruins without a shot the next 15 minutes and finished the period with a 18-3 margin.
With just 10.5 seconds remaining in the first period, left winger Jeff DelVecchio flipped the puck out of play in his own end and sent the Pack, the AHL’s best power play unit unit to the ice to start the second period.
Bobby Sanguinetti made them pay just 39 seconds in when he took a feed from the left wing boards by the blue line from Corey Locke and blasted it from just beyond the circle. On it’s way to the net, the puck hit defenseman Adam McQuaid’s skate and redirected fooling Dalton for the 2-0 lead.
The Pack could have easily settled into a defensive mode or lightened up as they have in the past and gotten themselves into trouble. Instead the young Pack stepped up the pressure on the forecheck and pinned the Bruins in their own end. Michael Sauer, who had fought Guillaume Lefebvre late in the first period after the left winger had hurt Jordan Owens, made an excellent entry pass to Tyler Arnason. The NHL veteran got cross checked from behind and as he was falling made a terrific pass to Owens. The Toronto native walked it in a little from the right circle and from the face off dot unloaded a rising shot that beat Dalton over the glove on the short side for a 3-0 lead.
The intensity of the hitting picked up after that and at 13:10 Brett Cloutier clearly boarded Bobby Sanguinetti but was not called when his hit left the New Jersey native stunned and crumpled to the ice and stayed down and was helped up by trainer Damien Hess.
Cloutier’s hit clearly angered the Pack and just 1:12 later, Owens left his feet on a hit to Lefebvre and the two immediately dropped the gloves. Brent Henley jumped in the fight and was immediately tossed from the game with a game misconduct for third man in.
But tempers were still hot as the period ended as Soryal fought for the second time in the game when he and ex-Pack Craig Weller dropped the mitts as the second period ended. Both were tossed from the game for fighting after the period had officially ended.
After a fight between newcomer Chris Chappell and Wozniewski, Lefebvre seemed to have lost his mind and went after Brodie Dupont as he was entering the penalty box. That loss of composure sent both he and Dupont to the showers and gave the Pack a second power play.
Weise then tallied his second goal and third point of the game when his backhand shot while crossing the crease hit defenseman Drew Fata and popped into the net. On the play Locke picked up his second helper of the contest.
The onslaught continued when Bobby Sanguinetti tallied for a second time when his shot from the right point hit the stick of LoVecchio and knuckled in the air and with a crowd in front of him, flipped in over Dalton. Ryan Garlock got his first assist as a member of the Wolf Pack.
But it didn't take long for them Pack to strike again.
When Providence took back to back penalties, first a hook called by Cloutier and then Andrew Bodnarchuk took a foolish delay of game call when he put the puck out of play sending the Pack to a five-on-three advantage for 21 seconds…and they made it work.
Locke found himself in the low right side by the goal line. He went to send the pass up high to the left point. However en route the puck hit the skate of Drew Larmen and redirected with some angle on it and it totally took Dalton by surprise and wound up buried in the twine.
The Pack would tally one final time with just 2:10 left when Locke brought the puck down low to Dalton’s left and when the puck came back to Locke off Dalton’s pad, Locke sent the puck into the slot. The puck found it’s way to the high slot area where it found Ilkka Heikkinen’s stick. The Finn then blasted a massive slap shot that Dalton had no chance on for what proved to be the final score of the contest, a 7-0 victory.
The Pack have now won three of their last four and have only lost once on home ice.
Johnson (17 saves, 3-3-0, 3.04 GAA, .885 save percentage) did not have to be especially good but was steady in his first professional shutout.
The interesting question is this…which team shows up tomorrow at 3pm when they take on the red hot Manchester Monarchs who’ve won six straight games.
Bruce Berlet once again brings his world class talents to bear with the recap at Hartfordwolfpack.com. If the Providence Journal even bothers to cover this one, you'll find it at Projo.com.
GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET
NOTES:
* Only 1,754 bothered to show up for the Pack's biggest offensive outburst of the season.
* The shutout was the largest margin of victory in a shutout in the team's history.
* The Pack welcomed back forward Craig Weller, who became the Pack’s first captain after the retirement of Ken Gernander, the team’s one and only captain during the first ten years of existence.
* Good news for the Wolf Pack, but not so good news for P.A. Parenteau, the Rangers announced that Parenteau has been sent back to the Pack. However, Dane Byers remains in New York.
* The Pack are now 3-0-0 when leading after the first period and 5-0 when leading after the second. When the team is tied after 1 frame, they are 2-2-0. They haven’t been tied yet after two periods of play.
* Conversely, the team is 0-4-0 when trailing after 1 and 0-6-0 when trailing after two.
* The Wolf Pack are 3-5-0-0 when outshooting their opponents and 2-1-0-0 when being outshot themselves.
* In ONE goal games the Pack are 2-2-0-0, 0-2-0-0 in TWO goal games and in THREE goal games 1-1-0-0.
* The seven goal output gets the team over the schneid in terms of plus/minus in goals scored versus allowed. They’ve tallied 38 and surrendered 37.
* The power play will remain the AHL’s best tallying at a blistering 29.8%
* The Bruins entered the game as the leagues second best power play at 25.5% and the Pack were dreadful and second to last on the kill at 72.5%. But they stopped the power play three times and improved to 74.1% which should get them a step up over Lowell.
* The Pack lead the AHL with five short handed tallies. Rochester, Chicago, Lake Erie and Abbotsford all have four.
MEANWHILE DOWN IN CHARLOTTE:
The Checkers had the night off. The team has an amazing website… check it out at gocheckers.com
LINES:
Grachev – Locke – Weise
Chappell – Dupont – Couture
Garlock – Arnason – Owens
Soryal – Crowder – Ambuhl
Sauer – Dandenault
Sanguinetti – Heikkinen
Henley – Potter
Johnson
(Assistant Captains Italicized)
SCRATCHES:
P.A. Parenteau – Recall with NY Rangers
Dane Byers – Recall with NY Rangers
Dave Urquhart – Healthy
Nigel Williams – Healthy
Devin DiDiomete – Broken Arm – Mid-November
THREE STARS:
1. HFD – 23 Dale Weise
2. HFD – 21 Bobby Sanguinetti
3. HFD – 84 Corey Locke
ON ICE OFFICIALS:
Ian Croft (87), Referee
Brent Colby (7), Linesman
David Spannaus (8), Linesman
NEXT GAME:
The XL Center hosts a 3:00 Sunday start against Jonathan Bernier, Andrei Loktionov and the rest of the Manchester Monarchs who’ve won six straight. The Pack will complete their five game home stand after playing six of the first seven on the road.
SCORE-SHEET:
1st Period-1, Hartford, Weise 3 2:39 (sh). Penalties-Garlock Hfd (slashing), 2:10; Clouthier Pro (fighting), 5:57; Soryal Hfd (fighting), 5:57; Lefebvre Pro (fighting), 17:06; Sauer Hfd (fighting), 17:06; LoVecchio Pro (delay of game), 19:49.
2nd Period-2, Hartford, Sanguinetti 2 (Locke, Weise), 0:39 (pp). 3, Hartford, Owens 1 (Arnason, Sauer), 7:05. Penalties-Dandenault Hfd (tripping), 9:45; Lefebvre Pro (fighting), 14:22; Henley Hfd (game misconduct – third man in), 14:22; Owens Hfd (charging, fighting), 14:22; Kwiet Pro (slashing), 17:16; Weller Pro (fighting, game misconduct – fighting other than during periods of game), 20:00; Soryal Hfd (fighting, game misconduct – fighting other than during periods of game), 20:00.
3rd Period-4, Hartford, Weise 4 (Locke, Sanguinetti), 4:30 (pp). 5, Hartford, Sanguinetti 3 (Garlock, Owens), 11:01. 6, Hartford, Locke 7 (Sanguinetti, Heikkinen), 13:16 (pp). 7, Hartford, Heikkinen 2 (Locke, Grachev), 17:50. Penalties-Lefebvre Pro (roughing, misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct, game misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct), 4:11; Wozniewski Pro (fighting), 4:11; Chappell Hfd (fighting), 4:11; Dupont Hfd (misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct, game misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct), 4:11; Clouthier Pro (hooking), 11:26; Bodnarchuk Pro (delay of game), 13:06; Kwiet Pro (roughing), 14:58; Couture Hfd (roughing), 14:58.
Shots on Goal-Providence 3-10-4-17. Hartford 18-13-17-48.
Power Play Opportunities-Providence 0 of 3; Hartford 3 of 5.
Goalies-Providence, Dalton 0-3-0 (48 shots-41 saves). Hartford, Johnson 3-3-0 (17 shots-17 saves).
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