“CHOPPERS” 

     VERSUS    

In the 70’s TV sitcom M*A*S*H whenever Radar O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff) sensed incoming wounded he would alert whoever was nearby that they were coming. It’s starting to feel that way around the Hartford Wolf Pack locker room. Trainer Damien Hess is quickly becoming the Benjamin Franklin ‘Hawkeye’ Pierce of this team as the trainer’s room is beginning to look like a triage unit as last night another name was potentially added to the list of the walking wounded. Bobby Sanguinetti was hurt in the third period of the Pack’s 2-1 overtime loss to the suddenly surging last place Falcons in Springfield Saturday night.

After the game, Sanguinetti was walking around gingerly. Time will tell the extent of the injury. His injury has necessitated the need for the Wolf Pack to recall another Charlotte player, defenseman Kevin Schaeffer (see release below). As Head Coach Ken Gernander stated after the game, “If for no other reason, for security.”

But the injured list is mounting.

Dale Weise was lost to the Pack Friday night in the second period. He went to make a hit on Manchester’s Bud Holloway only to injury his hand in the boards. According to Gernander, Weise will be examined by a specialist on Monday and, “he could be back as early as Wednesday.”  Both assistant captains, P.A. Parenteau and Corey Potter, are out indefinitely with concussions; Mathieu Dandenault is out with a lower body injury and Brent Henley and Mike Hoffman are both lost for the season with knee and shoulder injuries respectively.

Gernander, and assistant coaches J.J. Daigneault and Pat Boller, have done a remarkable job to keep this team highly competitive on a night in and night out basis. Technically, seven players on the roster started their season’s as part of the ECHL Charlotte Checkers: Matt Zaba, Devin DiDiomete (was coming back from injury), Schaeffer, Kenny Roche, Tyler Doig, Jared Nightingale and Ryan Garlock. Yet with all of these additions, the Pack are in a playoff spot and sit just six points out of first holding a game in hand on Manchester and two on Lowell. It is not inconceivable that that with their best players returning from the injured list, their continued excellent goaltending and a bit more consistency on the offensive side of the ice, that this team could still win their division.

This game with Springfield however, would pretty much negate any overtly optimistic statement about division crowns or even outlasting some of the teams trailing them for the final playoff position that they sit in now. 

“We played a large part of the game in our own zone because we didn’t get pucks deep.” Gernander said. “We didn’t pressure their D. We took too many penalties. Any time we did have some momentum we took and killed it or we gave them momentum on the power play.” He then added, “We were shorthanded defensively at the end of the game there and we had several guys doing way to much (penalty) killing to mount a counter-attack.”

The Pack started the game without getting a registered shot on goal in the first seven minutes of the contest. However, at 9:57 Dane Byers and Corey Locke connected on a beautiful pass-shot play that sent a deflection under the legs and through the five-hole of Falcons’ starter J.P. Levasseur (15 saves, 4-10-0). Locke took the puck out of the right corner and saw the Pack Captain charging to the crease from the left corner ahead of defenseman Alex Plante. Byers out his stick down and Locke put it right on the tape and the two hooked up for Byers’ eleventh of the season.

After that it was the Chad Johnson show as the rookie netminder was simply stellar making save after save and keeping his teammates in the contest as the Pack offense evaporated and the Falcons through scoring chance after scoring chance at the Calgary, Alberta native.

In the second period Johnson (35 saves, 14-8-2) elevated his game even more as he made sparkling saves early especially at 2:24 when he stoned Viacheslav Trukhno in front of the net negating what would have been under most circumstances, the equalizer.

The Pack were not without their own chances to score despite throwing only 16 shots, a season low and tied the franchise record for fewest shots in a game, for the entire contest.

At 5:10 of the third frame, Andres Ambϋhl had a breakaway and was taken down from behind by ex-Pack defenseman Jake Taylor. Ambϋhl then took his first North American career penalty shot and went for the forehand only to be denied by Levasseur’s pad save.

Just moments after that failed bid for what might have been the difference maker, Sanguinetti was advancing the puck along the right wing side and had dumped the puck in when he was hit clean, but hard and late by Geoff Paukovich and fell to the ice. Sanguinetti’s knee and ankle turned awkwardly behind him when he fell and he needed help getting from the bench to the locker room. For some unexplainable reason, referee Chris Cozzan didn’t call anything on the obvious late hit. Jared Nightingale immediately jumped on Paukovich and the two headed off to the sin bin. Nightingale took an extra two minutes for instigating, but it was the right team thing to do. Nobody can hit one of your star players, especially like that and not face some sort of retribution. Perhaps it’s something Dan Girardi and the parent New York Rangers might want to make note of.

After Nigel Williams took a slashing call just 32 seconds later, it gave the Falcons a 1:28 second five-on-three man advantage against the Pack’s then 21st ranked penalty killing unit. Playing with only three defenseman the Pack then put out perhaps their best penalty kill of the season and killed off the entire shorthanded time.

To paraphrase the old saying, “that’s the way the puck bounces” cost the Pack dearly. With just 5:32 remaining in regulation and the Pack trying to hold on and grind out the last minutes of the game and ride Johnson’s spectacular netminding to two points, ex-Pack Chad Wiseman dumped the puck into the left side of the Pack zone. Johnson went out of the net to get the puck for his returning defenseman when the puck hit the boards, took a weird bounce away from the Pack goaltender, hit the cage and flew out into the slot. Springfield’s representative to the 2010 AHL All-Star Game, Charles Linglet beat Ilkka Heikkinen to the puck and blasted it into the empty net for the game tying goal.

You could almost feel the wind escaping the Pack’s sails as they headed back to the bench. Springfield however was invigorated and just kept pressing the attack in the Pack zone.

The Pack were able to hang on to get themselves at least a point and head to overtime.

In the extra frame, Wiseman again was key to the Falcon’s goal.

Wiseman found the puck mid way along the left wing boards. There he was contained by Heikkinen. However Williams drifted over too far entering the high part of the faceoff circle in support of his defensive partner. Wiseman saw Chris Minard, just back from a long stay on the injured list, and fed him a backhanded pass as the left winger streaked through the slot unimpeded. The fifth year pro then fired a shot that beat Johnson between the pad and the blocker for the game winner.

The only question left to answer today, is who will the organization find that can come into Hartford and be the team’s B.J. Hunnicutt?

This was a road game, so in addition to doing his world class call of the game, Bob Crawford relays the view from the “Hawk’s Nest.” (He doesn’t call it that…we just did. For those who don’t know, Crawford’s nickname is ‘Hawk’). Read the full story at Hartfordwolfpack.com.  For Springfield’s perspective, Ron Chimelis has the story for The Republican at Masslive.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

STANDINGS

NOTES:
* After going eight games without a goal, Dane Byers now has goals in consecutive games.

* Congratulations to Matt Zaba who made his NHL debut last night for the NY Rangers agains the Montreal Canadiens. Zaba, like Johnson before him, made his debut in a mop up role when Henrik Lundqvist and the rest of the Rangers struggled. Zaba played 34 minutes, and stopped 14 of 16 shots and reports out of New York say that he fared well in what he called, “a job interview” with the parent club.

* Dave Urquhart fought Trukhno and won. It was the second year pro’s first full fight, though he did get a fighting major last season. That call though wasn’t really a fight per se, more like a roughing, but was called one at the time. Urquhart was good and clearly won his battle. Though given the circumstances at the time, he probably shouldn’t have dropped them with Sanguinetti out and Nightingale still in the box leaving the Pack with just three defenseman.

* The 5,930 in attendance was the highest crowd to take in a Falcons game since the 5,470 that saw their game on November 13th.

* Howlings congratulates ex-Pack and good friend Jake Taylor on the birth of his first child. His named his son, Jackson. Jackson looks to be a happy and beautiful baby boy.  Congratulations to Jake and his lovely wife.

LINES:

Byers © – Locke – Owens
Grachev – Dupont – Couture
Ambϋhl – Crowder – Soryal 
DiDiomete – Garlock – Doig

Heikkinen – Sauer
Williams – Sanguinetti
Urquhart – Nightingale
Johnson
Valiquette

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Matt Zaba – On recall with the NY Rangers
Kenny Roche – Healthy
Dale Weise – Hand – Day-to-Day
Corey Potter – Concussion – Indefinite
P.A. Parenteau – Concussion – Indefinite
Mathieu Dandenault – Lower Body – Indefinite
Brent Henley – Knee  – Season
Mike Hoffman – Shoulder – Season

THREE STARS:

1. SPR – C. Minard
2. SPR – C. Linglet
3. HFD – C. Johnson

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Chris Cozzan (18)

Linesmen: 
Luke Galvin (2)
Paul Simeon (66)

NEXT GAME:

The Pack take to the ice AGAIN against Manchester in a critical game for both teams with four points on the line. Game time is Sunday at 3pm.

To watch the game live, you can purchased it for $6.99 at AHL-live.
If you can attend the cost is as little as $10 a ticket, why not just go? For Ticket information call (860) 548-2000.

Too far away or can’t make it? Listen live at WTIC.com.

SCORE-SHEET:

Hartford Wolf Pack 1 At Springfield Falcons 2 (OT) – Status: Final OT

Jan 23, 2010 – MassMutual Center

Hartford 1 0 0 0 – 1

Springfield 0 0 1 1 – 2

1st Period-1, Hartford, Byers 11 (Locke), 9:57. Penalties-Soryal Hfd (fighting), 2:04; Taylor Spr (fighting), 2:04; Chorney Spr (tripping), 6:26; Grachev Hfd (holding), 19:08.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Paukovich Spr (delay of game), 3:04; DiDiomete Hfd (tripping), 5:46; DiDiomete Hfd (roughing), 14:07; Dupont Hfd (roughing), 14:07; Paukovich Spr (roughing, roughing), 14:07; Plante Spr (roughing), 14:07; Sauer Hfd (interference), 15:37; Grachev Hfd (tripping), 18:09.

3rd Period-2, Springfield, Linglet 11 (Wiseman), 14:28. Penalties-Nightingale Hfd (instigating, fighting, misconduct – instigating), 7:36; Paukovich Spr (fighting), 7:36; Williams Hfd (slashing), 8:09; Urquhart Hfd (fighting), 13:02; Trukhno Spr (fighting), 13:02.

OT Period-3, Springfield, Minard 10 (Wiseman, Linglet), 1:42. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Hartford 6-5-4-1-16. Springfield 9-13-12-3-37.

Power Play Opportunities-Hartford 0 of 3; Springfield 0 of 6.

Goalies-Hartford, Johnson 14-8-2 (37 shots-35 saves). Springfield, Levasseur 4-10-0 (16 shots-15 saves).

A-5,930

Here’s the official release:

WOLF PACK SIGN DEFENSEMAN KEVIN SCHAEFFER TO PTO

Hartford Wolf Pack general manager Jim Schoenfeld announced today that the team has signed defenseman Kevin Schaeffer to a Professional Tryout (PTO) agreement.

Schaeffer comes to the Wolf Pack from the team’s ECHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers.  In 31 games with the Checkers, the third-year pro had one goal and six assists for seven points, along with 19 penalty minutes.  Schaeffer also skated in seven AHL games earlier this year with the Lake Erie Monsters, registering two assists and two PIM.

Last season Schaeffer, who stands 6-1 and weighs 200 pounds, was scoreless in three AHL games with the Binghamton Senators and played 48 games with the Providence Bruins, in which he had three assists and 14 PIM.  The 25-year-old South Huntington, NY native also suited up for six ECHL contests with the Reading Royals (no points, six PIM).

In 89 career AHL games with Providence, Binghamton and Lake Erie, Schaeffer has one goal and six assists for seven points, along with 22 penalty minutes, and he has played 56 career games in the ECHL with Reading and Charlotte, totaling three goals and 11 assists for 14 points, plus 46 PIM.

Prior to turning pro, Schaeffer played four years at Boston University, and he was a sixth-round draft pick (193^rd overall) by the Nashville Predators in 2004.