PACK VANISH AFTER FIRST TWENTY, LOSE 4-1 

     VERSUS     

For the Hartford Wolf Pack, 32 games into the season, their play has been filled with a mix of peaks and valleys. Friday night they disassembled an inferior Toronto Marlies team 6-1. They then followed it up with a subpar performance against the visiting Hamilton Bull Dogs and dropped a 4-1 decision.

In a microcosm of the season, they were up and down in the same game with a variety of different efforts up and down the roster. “I think we have some of our players are playing a lot of hockey and really giving it all they got,” Head Coach Ken Gernander said. “We’ve got other guys that are content to settle into smaller roles and they need to puff out their chests, expand their roles and pitch in.” He then added, “They’re the best defensive team in the league, so if you’re going to spot them a lead you really have your work cut out for you.”

In the first period, the Pack came out with a solid effort all over the ice. They hit. They defended and put pucks on net. Between the pipes, Steve Valiquette was solid making strong saves especially on Greg Stewart’s opportunity in front of the net. Valiquette then stone walled Ryan White on a breakaway at 4:43 after he got away from Corey Potter. Later in the period (15:20) he froze White out again on a two-on-one odd man rush. Despite the great saves though, Valiquette (30 saves, 2-3-0) seemed to be battling the puck all night as he dropped the puck a couple of times in front of the net and gave up a couple of rebounds on shots that he would have ordinarily corralled.

Valiquette faced off against AHL and NHL veteran Curtis Sanford, The former Vancouver Canuck and St. Louis Blues netminder also had a big first period. While Valiquette was only called upon to snuff seven shots, all of them pretty good scoring chances, Sanford stopped all 14 shots the Pack threw at him. Sanford made particularly nice stops on the AHL’s leading scorer, Corey Locke and Derek Couture both saw excellent scoring opportunities extinguished by the Bulldog netminder.

“We had a good first period. I thought we did a lot of things well,” Gernander said. “But in the second period you make some little deviations from what we want to do, they start to mount up and we put ourselves in penalty trouble and couldn’t kill them all.”

The home team did manage to catch an early break to start the second period. Dale Weise was in the penalty box on a hooking call just :29 seconds into the period. The Bulldogs pressured the Pack penalty killers. Grant Stevenson worked himself free and found himself all alone in the front. The centerman should have scored, with Valiquette out of the play, but missed a wide open net.

Hamilton was very aggressive on their forecheck and pressured the Pack puck handlers. The pressure resulted in turnovers in the Pack’s own end, and it finally broke caught up with them. After Hamilton puck movement led to the Pack running around in their own zone, a slew of traffic gathered in front of the Pack net. The defense didn’t and couldn’t push them out, so when Mathieu Carle unloaded a hard low shot from the right point at 5:09, Valiquette couldn’t stop what he couldn’t see and the Pack trailed 1-0.

As has been the case through many of the Pack’s game this season, they battled back and took advantage of a special teams situation. After Locke took a holding call and Yannick Weber was tagged with hooking Weise, the two teams skated four-to-a-side for 1:36. Brodie Dupont and Michael Sauer got their team on the board. “Basically we wanted to put as much speed out there on the four-on-four as we could.” Dupont said. “I broke and (Sauer) made a good pass up the middle of the ice. I just head faked to the middle and caught him (White) off just a little bit and went around him and tried to get the puck on net.” Dupont drew Sanford with him across the crease and then flipped a perfect shot over Sanford’s outstretched glove on the short side.

But penalties have been the Pack’s downfall all season long. Hartford sits tenth overall in PIM in the AHL with 643 and with a PK unit ranking 24th out of 29 teams and successful just 80.4%, it hurt them in this one as well. “You’re not going to get into an offensive grove when you’re shorthanded and you’re using your best players to kill penalties and you over tax them because they’re shorthanded and they have to work twice as hard.” Gernander said.

With David Urquhart in the box on an Interference call, Valiquette came up huge with a highlight reel save smothering a hard shot by Andre Pouliot. But it just got worse when Matt Gilroy rushed his defensive zone clearing shot and put it over the glass just 48 seconds into the penalty kill at 10:29 giving Hamilton an 18 second two-man advantage. It would only take nine seconds for the Pack to trail for a second time.

After a face off win in the offensive zone, the puck found Benoit. The Bulldog defenseman fed the game’s First Star, P.K. Subban on the right side. Subban moved the puck to the game’s Second Star, David Desharnais low also on the right side. Desharnais then scored what would prove to be the game winner when he fired a puck on net that hit off a Pack defender in front of Valiquette and just like that, the Pack were down 2-1.

Another penalty, a roughing call to Jordan Owens, 1:24 later left the Pack short handed five-on-three a second time. This time for 36 seconds and they would pay for it again.

It was just one of those nights. Still down a player after working their way out of the two man disadvantage, at 12:42 Subban’s shot from the left point was initially swallowed up by Valiquette, but his struggles holding on to pucks continued as the puck found it’s way under the Pack’ netminder’s legs and crept out from under him and barely slid in over the goal line for Subban’s sixth of the season.

The period ended with Hamilton having put 20 shots on goal and the Pack just 4. But as the game progressed, Sanford just got better and better.

Hartford played slightly better than they did in the second period in the final stanza, but it wasn’t enough.

With just 4:51 remaining in the contest, White came out of the penalty box and Subban lofted a puck from the defensive zone that found the centerman’s stick. Gilroy, who had lost the puck to Subban, could not recover and White skated right by the Pack defender and came in alone on a breakaway and beat Valiquette over the glove for his fourth of the season.

The Pack are heading off to their Christmas vacation in sixth place in their division. If they are to make any kind of a run at the division title or at this point even making the playoffs, their decision making and overall team play MUST improve and become more consistent.

Brian Ring was in the press box for the Hartford perspective and writes it up at Hartfordwolfpack.com.  Hamilton is the minor league team of the Montreal Canadiens so they have no problem at all getting coverage. You’ll find stories at TSN.ca, TheSpec.com , The Globe and Mail. All three post the same story from the Canadian press.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

STANDINGS:

NOTES:

* Hartford’s attendance is currently 22nd out of 29 after 16 home dates with the team averaging only 3,428 per game. Hershey leads the league with 8,849 per. Bridgeport is 19th at 3,651.

* Corey Locke is still tops in the AHL in points with 39 (12g, 26a) in 32 games played or 1.19 per game. Ex-Pack Alex Giroux has 33 points (11g, 22a) in just 21 games or 1.57 per game. P.A. Parenteau has 22 points (10g, 12a) in 15 games for 1.47 per game.

* The Pack could only put one past Sanford. The Bulldogs top netminder, Cedrick Desjardins is 94-1 with a 1.34GAA and a .948%.

* The Power play, which had been so fruitful for the Pack and led the league for much of the season has fallen to fifth at 19.7%. In the last five games they have gone 3-31 or 9.6%.

* 6-5-0-0 is the team’s record when tied after one, 0-11-0-1 when behind after two and 7-7-0-2 when being out shot by their opponents.

LINES:

Byers © – Locke – Parenteau

Grachev – Dupont – Weise

Owens – Crowder – Couture

DiDiomete – Garlock – Hoffman

Williams – Gilroy

Potter – Nightingale

Urquhart – Sauer

Valiquette

(Assistant Captains Bold & Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Andres Ambϋhl – Healthy

Justin Soryal – Facial Injury – Indefinite

Chad Johnson – On recall with the NY Rangers

Illka Heikkinen – On recall with the NY Rangers

Bobby Sanguinetti – On recall with the NY Rangers

Mathieu Dandenault – Lower Body – Indefinite

Brent Henley – Lower Body Injury – Four to Six weeks

THREE STARS:

1. HAM – P. Subban
2. HAM – D. Desharnais
3. HAM – C. Sanford

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Geno Binda (22)

Linesmen:
Paul Simeon (66)
Brent Colby (7)

NEXT GAME:

The Pack are off now until next Saturday when they come back from their Christmas break for another GEICO Cup interstate battle with the franchise rival Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Game time is 7pm.

To watch the game live, you can purchased it for $6.99 at AHL-live.

The Pack’s next home game is not until December 30th when they will play their last game of 2009. If you can attend the game for as little as $10 a ticket, why not just go? For Ticket information call (860) 548-2000.

Or you can listen live at WTIC.com.

SCORE-SHEET:

Hamilton Bulldogs 4 At Hartford Wolf Pack 1 – Status: Final

Dec 19, 2009 – XL Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Hamilton 0 3 1 – 4

Hartford 0 1 0 – 1

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Maxwell Ham (tripping), 6:01; Benoit Ham (hooking), 7:20; Conboy Ham (roughing), 13:12; Stewart Ham (unsportsmanlike conduct), 13:12; Parenteau Hfd (roughing), 13:12.

2nd Period-1, Hamilton, Carle 5 (Henry, Desharnais), 5:09. 2, Hartford, Dupont 6 (Sauer), 8:06. 3, Hamilton, Desharnais 11 (Subban, Benoit), 10:38 (pp). 4, Hamilton, Subban 6 (Weber, Stevenson), 12:42 (pp). Penalties-Weise Hfd (hooking), 0:29; Conboy Ham (fighting), 6:43; DiDiomete Hfd (fighting), 6:43; Locke Hfd (holding), 6:58; Weber Ham (hooking), 7:22; Urquhart Hfd (interference), 8:46; Gilroy Hfd (delay of game), 10:29; Owens Hfd (roughing), 11:53; White Ham (roughing), 13:52; DiDiomete Hfd (roughing), 13:52.

3rd Period-5, Hamilton, White 4 (Subban), 15:09. Penalties-Stevenson Ham (interference), 3:17; White Ham (charging), 13:00; DiDiomete Hfd (roughing), 15:32.

Shots on Goal-Hamilton 7-20-7-34. Hartford 14-4-8-26.

Power Play Opportunities-Hamilton 2 of 6; Hartford 0 of 5.

Goalies-Hamilton, Sanford 9-5-2 (26 shots-25 saves). Hartford, Valiquette 2-3-0 (34 shots-30 saves).

A-3,370

MEANWHILE BACK IN CHARLOTTE

     VERSUS       

CHECKERS DOUBLED UP BY STINGRAYS
Charlotte Throws 35 Shots At South Carolina, Loses 4-2

CHARLOTTE, NC—The Charlotte Checkers scored two power-play goals but could not stop the league-leading South Carolina Stingrays as they were defeated 4-2 in North Charleston on Saturday night.

The Checkers have now dropped four straight to the defending champs after earning points in the first three matchups (2-0-1).

Kenny Roche scored his sixth goal in seven games and Michel Leveille returned to the lineup from injury, adding an assist.

South Carolina opened the scoring on the power play just over four minutes into the game as Keith Johnson took a shot from the left slot that beat Munce over the catcher.

The Checkers would tie it up thirteen minutes into the second period on a power-play goal by Kenny Roche. Mike Taylor fired a shot off the right pad of Stingrays goaltender Todd Ford and Roche was there to bang home the rebound.

Early in the third period, South Carolina scored two goals 30 seconds apart to take a 3-1 lead. On a turnover at the Checkers’ offensive blueline, Matt Scherer grabbed the puck, cut to the middle of the ice and beat Munce low-blocker side. Trent Campbell then broke in alone, took a shot and stuffed home his own rebound for the two-goal lead.

With less than four minutes to play, Charlotte attempted another late-game comeback as Tyler Doig beat Ford with a wrist shot on the power play. The goal came at the 15:52 mark and was assisted by Leveille and Steve Ward.

The celebration wouldn’t last long, however, as the Stingrays iced the game just 34 seconds later on a goal by Matt Fornataro.

Todd Ford stopped 33 of 35 shots for the victory and Ryan Munce turned aside 26 in a losing effort for the Checkers.

The Checkers (14-9-4-0) will once again host the Stingrays on Sunday at Time Warner Cable Arena. Game time is 2 p.m. and ticket information can be obtained by calling 704-342-4-ICE or visiting www.gocheckers.com

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL GAME SHEET