NINE AND COUNTING 

      VERSUS      

Two gift goals for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers sucked the life out of the Hartford Wolf Pack and led to their team record ninth consecutive defeat Saturday 4-1 in front of 5,046 at the Arena at Harbor Yard.

“We’re just fortunate that the puck went in for us tonight.” Sound Tigers head Coach Jack Capuano said. “The pucks’ not bouncing (Hartford’s) way right now, but eventually it will.”

“(Bridgeport) had two goals in Providence that were called back that were goals…It all averages out and hopefully that’s not going to be the determining factor all the time.”

In the first period, Wolf Pack captain Dane Byers received an extra roughing penalty when he beat the living tar out of Jean Bourbeau after the Sound Tiger left winger blatantly ran Pavel Valentenko into the boards late and hurt the rookie defenseman.

On the ensuing power play, Jon Sim scored his first of two when he whacked the puck over the line in a scrum at the net that seemed like should have been whistled dead before the goal.

“I’d like to have seen a quicker whistle,” a visibly angry Wolf Pack head coach Ken Gernander said. “They got several whacks at it when I thought (goaltender) Cam (Talbot) was holding the post.”

Talbot agreed.

“I had that right up against the post, and those guys just kept whacking away at it,” Talbot (1-1-0, 28 saves) said. “The ref (Jeff Smith) was on the other side of the net and said he could see the puck, but there wasn’t any way he could. I thought I had it covered up, and our guys were battling hard at the side of the net so I thought that should have been a whistle.”

The Wolf Pack started fast in the game but quickly faded. Had Talbot not made several strong saves in his first game back after missing kept the game close for the Wolf Pack making several strong saves throughout the period. This was Talbot’s first game since October 17th when he played the final 2/3 of the game with a pulled groin in his 3-0 shutout of the Bruins. That was also the last game that the Wolf Pack won.

One of the key reasons for the succession of losses is that the team seems to constantly be surrendering goals both early and late in periods that cost them.

Just 45 seconds into the second period, Jared Nightingale turned the puck over in the defensive zone to Travis Hamonic along the right wing boards. Hamonic fed the puck to Rob Hisey who fired a shot on goal from the left point which Sim redirected past Talbot for his fifth goal in three games since being sent down to Bridgeport by the Islanders after clearing waivers earlier in the week.

The Tigers stretched their lead to three when Tony Romano’s wraparound clearly appeared to go into the net under the left side which clearly was raised off its moorings. Smith allowed the goal despite the fact that the goal judge never turned on the light.

Gernander didn’t have any compunction about what he saw. “The net was off,” He said sternly. “I wanted (the officials) to go ask the goal judge, and nobody wanted to ask him. I couldn’t ask him, so what do you want me to go?”

Talbot was a bit taken aback by the call as well. “That’s what I thought too (the net being in the air off the moorings). “The ref was right there again and didn’t make a call originally,” He said. “It’s just another one of those fluky goals. We’re just not getting the bounces right now. Hopefully sooner or later those calls will start going our way.”

“I think those (the bad calls) are just excuses.” Redden said. “You can’t make excuses. As a team we’re not doing the things we need to do to win anyway, so you don’t get rewarded with bounces or things going your way like that. We can’t point at those (the bad calls) situations. There’s ample opportunity for us to make better plays at key times of games. When we’re not doing it, we gotta start doing it.”

Devin DiDiomete, who very well might be the hardest working player on the roster right now, scored his second of the season from the right side of the Bridgeport crease. The goal kept the Pack from being shut out for the second time on this skid (0-7-2-0). DiDiomete tucked a rebound of a shot by veteran defenseman Wade Redden that hit Sound Tiger starting netminder Kevin Poulin (3-1-0, 28 saves) into the back of the net. It was the kind of goal that has so sorely lacking all season long.

Jesse Joensuu scored an empty-netter with 23.5 left to close out the scoring.

Even for a 14 year veteran like Wade Redden a losing streak like this can be a new experience.

“(The losing streak)’s got to be one of the longest. I don’t remember going nine games without winning,” He said. “But I’ve been a part of losing streaks, and you can see the fine line, the difference between winning and losing. It’s a goal, It’s a play, not being sharp for 60 minutes, so as bad as it’s going now, it can turn around in an awful hurry. We’ve just got to realize those little things that we have to correct and do it right now.”

“It’s a matter of each guy realizing what they have to do to be ready. I’m no different.” Redden added. “I have to come and lead by example. It’s just to be a game where you’re extra focused and really bear down on every single play. That’s the only way you get out of it.”

Gernander agrees. “It’s certainly tough, but there’s no one who’s going to change this except the guys in the room,” He said. “We’ve got to get wins. There are no consolations.”

Now that he’s been unbound by column inches to contend with the mega-prolific Bruce Berlet once again paints the word picture at HartfordWolfPack.com.  The magnificent Mike Fornabaio has his version of the game story at the Connecticut Post.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

NOTES:

* After the game, NY Rangers goaltending coach Benoit Allaire was tutoring Chad Johnson in the hallways of the Arena At Harbor Yards

* Eric Boguniecki, the 2002 AHL MVP was in attendance and stopped by to sit and talk with Jack Capuano after the game.

* Despite coming out of the game limping pretty badly from a late hit that sent his knee into the boards by Jeremy Colliton, Ryan McDonagh said that he felt fine.

SOUNDS OF THE GAME:

Head Coach Ken Gernander:

Wade Redden:

Cameron Talbot:

Jack Capuano:

LINES:

Byers © – Newbury – J. Williams 
Dupont – Kennedy – Zuccarello   
DiDiomete – Garlock – Donati 
Soryal – McKelvie – N. Williams

Redden – Nightingale  
Valentenko – Baldwin    
McDonagh – Kundratek

Talbot  
Johnson

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Dale Weise – Broken Wrist – Three to Four Weeks
Jyri Niemi – Undisclosed Injury
Kelsey Tessier – Healthy Scratch
Brandon Wong – Healthy Scratch

THREE STARS:

1. BRI – J. Sim
2. BRI – K. Poulin
3. BRI – R. Hisey

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Jeff Smith (49)

Linesmen:
Glen Cooke (6)
Luke Galvin (2)

NEXT GAME:

Too much is at stake for the Wolf Pack to let this losing streak continue. They have to win the final game of this home-and-home series with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Sunday night they finish a string of three series of home and homes. Game-time Sunday is at 7pm with Bob Crawford and the pregame at 6:30pm.

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

For Ticket information call (860) 548-2000.

Too far away or can’t make it? Listen live at WTIC.com or from your cell phone or computer visit www.twitter.com/howlingstoday for complete live in-game coverage.

SCORE-SHEET:

Hartford Wolf Pack 1 at Bridgeport Sound Tigers 4 – Status: Final
Saturday, November 6, 2010 – Arena at Harbor Yard

Hartford 0 0 1 – 1
Bridgeport 1 2 1 – 4

1st Period-1, Bridgeport, Sim 4 (Rakhshani, Hisey), 11:49 (PP). Penalties-Byers Hfd (roughing, fighting), 11:35; Bourbeau Bri (fighting), 11:35; Hamonic Bri (high-sticking), 12:08.

2nd Period-2, Bridgeport, Sim 5 (Hisey, Hamonic), 0:45. 3, Bridgeport, Romano 1 (Yablonski), 4:10. Penalties-Soryal Hfd (fighting), 12:50; Bourbeau Bri (fighting), 12:50; Nightingale Hfd (fighting), 12:55; Yablonski Bri (fighting), 12:55; Kennedy Hfd (roughing), 17:45; DiBenedetto Bri (roughing, roughing), 17:45.

3rd Period-4, Hartford, DiDiomete 2 (Redden, Garlock), 6:10. 5, Bridgeport, Joensuu 3 (Romano, Colliton), 19:36 (EN). Penalties-Colliton Bri (interference), 17:19.

Shots on Goal-Hartford 8-11-10-29. Bridgeport 13-7-8-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Hartford 0 / 3; Bridgeport 1 / 2.
Goalies-Hartford, Talbot 1-1-0 (27 shots-24 saves). Bridgeport, Poulin 3-1-0 (29 shots-28 saves).
A-5,049
Referees-Jeff Smith (49).
Linesmen-Glen Cooke (6), Luke Galvin (2).