A NIGHT OF FIRSTS 

AND THEY’RE OFF…

The Howard Baldwin era in Hartford hockey has resumed and the infusion of new faces and new energy had a big payoff Saturday night as 7,013 were shown an exciting game and what could be a very solid Hartford Wolf Pack / Connecticut Whale team in a come from behind 4-2 victory at the XL Center.

Chad Johnson was solid between the pipes for head coach Ken Gernander, who began his fourth season behind the Hartford bench making him the longest tenured coach in team history.

The Pack dug themselves an early hole going down two-men for 57 seconds on penalties by newcomer Chris McKelvie and veteran Dale Weise 1:03 apart. Charlotte was unable to capitalize on the two man-advantage. But rookie Ryan McDonagh was a bit slow in making a shift change and that created a gap between he and Evgeny Grachev who was back defensively. The space allowed ex-Pack and last year’s ECHL Charlotte Checker, Ethan Graham to make a terrific stretch pass to Jacob Micflikier who came in on a breakaway on Johnson. Micflikier got Johnson to go down early and lifted a backhander over the fallen netminder at 5:39 giving the visitors a 1-0 lead just one second after Weise got out of the penalty box.

The goal made Micflikier the answer to the trivia question, “Who scored the first for goal for the Checkers in their debut as an AHL franchise?”

But Johnson (1-0-0, 24 saves), who was the game’s Second Star, tightened up and was outstanding the rest of the contest stopping several terrific scoring chances including a Stefan Chaput breakaway in the third period when the game was still in question.

The Wolf Pack battled back and tied the score on the first of their two power play goals at 16:55.

Defenseman Zack Fitzgerald took a roughing call at 14:38 and that was followed up by a Jon Matsumoto tripping call at 16:22 which gave the Pack a brief 5-on-3. The Checkers killed went off the Fitzgerald penalty, but veteran Wade Redden made a terrific play near the blue line to keep the puck in the offensive zone and made a pass down to the low right circle to Kris Newbury. The first line center then found Dale Weise all alone just outside the crease and threaded a needle to get him the puck. Weise then deposited it into the upper corner past the Checkers netminder, Mike Murphy (0-1-0, 19 saves) to knot the score.

In the second period, the Wolf Pack settled into what looks like the way they are going to play in 2010-2011. They ground down the Checkers with a lot of hitting, a tenacious forecheck and jumped on opportunities.

Where the Checkers tallied at 5:39 in the first, the Pack scored at 5:49 of the second.

The Pack appear to have a solid forth line this season consisting of Kelsey Tessier on the right, Ryan Garlock in the middle and Chris McKelvie on the left. The trio bore fruit as Tessier got his first AHL point when his wraparound attempt hit Murphy’s pad and bounced right to the left side of the crease. McKelvie was “Johnny-On-The-Spot” and buried his first goal of the season to give the Pack a lead they would not surrender.

After Johnson shut down a power play blast from the slot by Matsumoto, to keep the Pack ahead, newcomer veteran Jeremy Williams, scored what proved to be the game winner. Williams, who had 32 goals last season with Grand Rapids and came to the organization as a free agent over the summer, took a Redden pass just inside the Pack right circle and bolted up the right wing. With Weise coming up the middle with him, Williams blew right past Checker defenseman Casey Borer and then put one over Murphy’s stick for the 3-1 lead.  

But Johnson displayed why he is so highly thought of by the Rangers organization as he turned aside two excellent scoring chances with under two minutes to go in the period. After completing his slashing sentence, Johnson stoned Jerome Samson’s breakaway and seconds later simply robbed Jared Staal’s goal scoring attempt with a diving save. Staal is the youngest of four brothers in pro hockey. His brother Marc is a defenseman for the New York Rangers.

As the second period buzzer sounded, Michael Jordan and Justin Soryal got into a dust-up behind the Checkers net. Soryal was sent to the penalty box for roughing for his involvement in the fracas. But this year’s Pack enforcer set the message that this Wolf Pack team wasn’t going to allow any questionable hits against it’s players without answering for it.

The Pack tightened down on the Checkers attackers and didn’t give them much of anything.

Chaput had his shorthanded breakaway at 5:30 after blocking a Nigel Williams shot and getting by the Pack defenseman that Johnson erased for his teammates.

Jeremy Williams went to the penalty box on a holding call at 8:28. On the ensuing power play, after the Pack had stopped the previous six Checker man advantages, left-winger Chris Terry’s pass to the slot found Matsumoto’s stick. The fifth year pro made it a one goal game when his low shot through traffic beat Johnson on the glove side at 9:50.

The best scoring chance the rest of the way came when Murphy devoured a blistering McKelvie breakaway shot with just 1:38 left in the contest.

With 45.9 remaining and Murphy on the bench, Weise had the puck all alone in front and in what looks to be the code of conduct for this year’s team, passed over to Newbury in front of the net. He then deflected it over to captain Dane Byers who tucked it into the left side of the cage for the final score.

As the game ended, Soryal and Nicholas Blanchard gave the fans what they seemed to be craving all game long, a serious fight. Soryal put a pretty solid beating on the 6-3, 205 pounder and he and the team celebrated the win to a rousing response from the fans.

Checkers coach Jeff Daniels summed up his team’s performance after the game saying, “Turnovers cost us the game, especially in the second period. We did some good things late in the third period, but it was too little, too late. And we didn’t capitalize on the 5-on-3 in the first period when we could have left with a 2-0 or 2-1 lead.”

Bruce Berlet, the master of the keyboard, observes and reports at Hartfordwolfpack.com and CTWhale.com. Gerry Cantelon writes at eurohockey.net. Jeff Jacobs took in the game for the Hartford Courant as did Mike Anthony. Could this be an era now where the Courant actually covers the team properly? One can only hope. For the Checkers, you’ll find their perspective at gocheckers.com. Bruce Berlet also wrote The Charlotte Observer  story.

Want some video highlights?

SOUNDS AFTER THE GAME:

KEN GERNANDER:

Summarizing the game: 

On Chad Johnson’s performance:

On Wade Redden’s preformance: 

On Special Teams play:

On Dropping the Ceremonial Puck:

On the energy in the building:

HOWARD BALDWIN:

Meets the press:

BRODIE DUPONT:

Speaks to Howlings:

DALE WEISE

On game one:

WADE REDDEN:

Talks to the Press:

CHAD JOHNSON:

Thoughts on Game One:

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

NOTES: