A NEW ERA BEGINS 

VERSUS 

HARTFORD, Conn. – What a difference a day makes? Well that and an XL Center filled with 13,089 fans.

A better than expected, pardon the pun, “packed” house and a very exciting victory over an interstate opponent, started off Howard Baldwin’s dream for a new era in Hartford hockey history off on a good foot.

“I’m thrilled. We had a huge walk-up,” an elated Baldwin said of the team’s attendance. Only a crowd of 14,115 versus Springfield on Jan. 24, 1998 had ever surpassed it. “It was the biggest walkup I think they’ve ever had here. We’ve ever had. They’ve ever had. 3,200 for the walkup. That’s what made a really good crowd, a great crowd, was the walkup.”

They certainly got their money’s worth as Whalers Sports & Entertainment did all they could to welcome the crowd. “Brass Bonanza” played at the start of each period and after each goal. The first 3,000 fans were welcomed to free Connecticut Whale T-Shirts and former Hartford Whalers Garry Swain, (now with the team as a Sales Director) Gerry McDonald, Norm Barnes, Yvon Corriveau, Doug Roberts and captain Russ Anderson signed autographs and dropped the ceremonial first puck.

“I was thrilled that the team won,” Baldwin said. “But I wanted to have that feeling in the building the way we kind of used to have it with the “Brass Bonanza” and the (green) uniforms and the fans having a great time, the buzz in the building and now we have to keep it going. The work has just begun. This was a big, big moment. It felt electric.”

For Head Coach Ken Gernander and his players, while the excitement was palpable and helped raise the players level of play.

“It was nice to see the building full and it was a nice atmosphere.” Gernander said. “It was real encouraging. The guys really enjoyed it. It was a great atmosphere. Aside from the sheer numbers, I think the people were really into it. This was a pretty exciting game. It’s great when a guy gets a scoring chance  and there’s a big play and you can hear a roar in the building.”

But as much as the building and attendance were a big part of the story Saturday, the mission was still to come out of the game against their intra-state rival, Bridgeport Sound Tigers with two points. When Jeremy Williams buried his shootout attempt past Sound Tigers starting goaltender Nathan Lawson (28 saves, 1-4-1), it was mission accomplished.

After essentially costing the then Wolf Pack their final game when he bungled a play in the offensive zone, getting the game winner the next night for the Whale had a lot of meaning. “I had a tough time (Friday). Tonight I wanted to focus on being in the right spots and I felt like our line played really well.”

“We found a way to get our two points tonight.” Gernander said. “We’ve been trying to find a way to become more compact, especially defensively. so if we do have instances where we do lose puck possession they should have to go through layers of Whale bodies now, to get to the net.”

“All the guys played pretty good tonight. The fans were into it and it sparked the team pretty good and there’s a lot more intensity.” the game’s First Star, Brodie Dupont said. “My legs felt good. I just needed a little holiday,” He said with a laugh. “The crowd was awesome and I felt like I had a lot of adrenaline. That’s kind of set the bar there now. The points will come. I have to play like that to help the team.”

Dupont had a goal and an assist and was all over the ice throughout.

Gernander took notice. “He came back pretty strong after that time off,” He said. “A good net front tip on the goal there to get things started. A good strong forechecking game. He was one of our first guys out on penalty kill and things of that nature. He took a key defensive draw late in the game. I had him switch lines late and he got in a lane and blocked a shot. He did a lot of good things.”

After a first period that seemed eerily similar to the one played in Bridgeport the night before, the Whale had a great chance to break the game open when Oliver LaBelle and Jeremy Colliton took penalties at 11:18 and 12:03 respectively to give Connecticut a 1:16 five-on-three power play. But the team was unable to generate much offensively and the opportunity passed by without a goal, but not without incident.

Just after the LaBelle’s time in the sin bin ended, he left the penalty box to be greeted by the puck and a breakaway opportunity. Chad Johnson, who despite losing Saturday played strong between the pipes, continued his strong showing getting in the way of the right winger and was helped by the “Goalie’s best friend” as the puck ricocheted off the far post and out of trouble at 13:34.

1:26 later, the first goal in Whale history was scored when Dupont stationed himself in front of Lawson and redirected a shot from the right point by Stu Bickel who was playing in his second game after being acquired via a trade with the Anaheim Ducks for disgruntle defenseman Nigel Williams on Tuesday. Dupont’s redirect found twine getting past the Tiger netminder for his second of the season.

The second period ended with the Whale in full control in terms of the play with a 29-11 lead in shots on goal and a 1-0 lead on the scoreboard.

In the third frame, at the 6:22 mark, the Tigers were putting pressure on in the Whale zone and a Michael Haley shot from below the right side goal line hit Wade Redden’s skate and came right back out to Rhett Rakhshani who blasted it under the pads of Johnson for his seventh of the season and knotted the score at one.

With 6:55 left in regulation and the house rocking and hoping for a score, the Whale did not disappoint.

Rookie Ryan McDonagh fed Dupont at the left side point and Dupont put a shot on net that was headed wide. Newcomer Oren Eizenman, playing in his first game with the team since being traded for on Wednesday in a deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets (via the Syracuse Crunch) for future considerations, got his stick on the puck and it flipped up high over the shoulder of Lawson.

“It was off a faceoff, one that they lost, and (Williams) had a great forecheck and forced a turnover over to (McDonagh). He went down to (Dupont). I was kind of on the side of the net there driving towards the goal. (Dupont) hit me with a great pass there through the D-Man’s legs and I just kind of tipped it in over his leg or over his arm a bit. It really was a great pass by (Dupont) and a great play by (Williams).”

The crowd erupted.

“He was pretty good, “ Gernander said with a smile when speaking of Eizenman. “He got us a goal and I think he was out on the ice for the first one as well. A plus two on the night and hopped right in there and didn’t skip a beat.”

But this one had yesterday’s feel all over it.

Friday night a goal with 1:05 left sent it to overtime. This one the goal came with just 2:12 to go.

In the defensive zone, Wes O’Neill grabbed the puck and closed his fist on it and threw the puck backwards in the zone. He was forwarded the puck by his defensive partner and bolted up ice with it. Chris Blight took the puck at the top of the right circle and threw it on net. En route, the puck was redirected in front by David Ullstrom and it hit Johnson’s pad. The puck flew out into the slot Anton Klementyev beat Kris Newbury back to the puck and backhanded it in past the outstretched Johnson to tie the score.

The overtime went much the way of regulation as the Whale had strong chances, most notably from Newbury. But with just seconds left, and Newbury leading Chad Kolarik on an odd man rush up ice, Dustin Friesen hooked and then high-sticked Kolarik preventing him from getting into a position to get the puck. A penalty was called, but with only 1.2 seconds remaining it didn’t really matter other than it sent the game to the shootout.

In the shootout after Mats Zuccarello missed as did Tony Romano, Kolarik scored when he shot hard and got he puck threw Lawson’s five-hole. Chad Johnson then stood strong against Rakhshani and Kennedy missed for the Whale.

Then when Robin Figren came up to shoot his attempt he did something you don’t see too often. Figren came in fast and from about ten feet away unloaded a HARD slap shot that Johnson got his blocker on and sent harmlessly into the wall.

Dale Weise then went wide on his attempt and Brandon Svendsen also missed setting up Williams’ heroics.

Eizenman summed up the feelings of his teammates when he said, “I was just happy that we could send the fans home happy today.”

Bruce Berlet once again shines from the Press Box with his P.O.V at CTWhale.com. The Whale made the front page of the Hartford Courant. Paul Doyle has the story. Meanwhile for Bridgeport, the indomitable one, Mike Fornabaio reports at CTPost.com

Lots of images from the Hartford Courant.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORER’S SHEET

SHOOT-OUT:

VIDEO LINK:

SOUNDS OF THE GAME:

BALDWIN: 

GERNANDER: 

DUPONT: 

WILLIAMS: 

EIZENMAN: 

NOTES:

* Many of the players are sporting really bad 70’s like mustaches. According to Dupont, there’s a reason. “It’s Mo-vember. It’s actually for prostate and testicular cancer (awareness). The boys are just kind of growing them in support of it until December 1st. I know my girlfriend will be making me shave mine.”

* No helmets were worn during the pre-skate. Dupont said that was intentional. “It was the first Whale game and we wanted to look good for the crowd and put on a show. But it was also something to kind of change our mindset and make us have a little more fun and in a way to connect with the crowd.”

* Bickel had the first fight in team history when he tangled with and beat Lavelle at 10:59 of the first period.

* Other firsts… First penalty taken by a player was Kris Newbury with a Slash at 8:41 of the first.

* First chant was actually “Let’s Go Whalers” early in the first period.

* In a case like the one at the end of OT where the penalty was taken clearly to prevent a scoring chance at the end of a game, either a penalty shot or an extra shootout attacker should be granted to the opposing team to stop this kind of flagrant attempt to mess with the integrity of the game. Why shouldn’t a player do something like that when there really is no negative consequence for doing it?

LINES:

Zuccarello – Kennedy – Weise
Grachev – Newbury – J. Williams
Dupont – Eizenman – Kolarik
Soryal – Garlock – DiDiomete

McDonagh – Kundratek
Redden – Nightingale
Valentenko – Bickel

Johnson
Talbot

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Jyri Niemi – Healthy Scratch
Tyler Donati – Healthy Scratch
Lee Baldwin – Healthy Scratch
Chris McKelvie – Healthy Scratch

THREE STARS:

1. CT – B. Dupont
2. CT – C. Kolarik
3. BRI – N. Lawson

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Ghislain Hebert (49)

Linesmen:
Kevin Redding (16)
Luke Galvin (2)

NEXT GAME:

Sunday, John Paddock returns to Hartford as head coach for Adirondack and the second day of Connecticut Whale hockey.  Bob Crawford will have the pregame at 4:30 on Sunday with game time at 5pm.

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:

Bridgeport Sound Tigers 2 at Connecticut Whale 3 (SO) – Status: Final SO
Saturday, November 27, 2010 – XL Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Bridgeport 0 0 2 0 – 2
Connecticut 0 1 1 0 – 3

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Newbury Ct (slashing), 8:41; Labelle Bri (fighting), 10:59; Bickel Ct (fighting), 10:59; O’Neill Bri (slashing), 11:27; Weise Ct (boarding), 11:27; DiDiomete Ct (holding), 14:19.

2nd Period-1, Connecticut, Dupont 2 (Bickel, DiDiomete), 15:00. Penalties-Labelle Bri (hooking), 11:18; Colliton Bri (slashing), 12:03; Nightingale Ct (cross-checking), 19:03.

3rd Period-2, Bridgeport, Rakhshani 7 (Haley, Romano), 6:22. 3, Connecticut, Eizenman 1 (Dupont, McDonagh), 14:05. 4, Bridgeport, Klementyev 2 (Ullstrom, Blight), 17:48. Penalties-Dupont Ct (holding), 6:32.

OT Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Wotton Bri (roughing, high-sticking), 4:58; Kolarik Ct (roughing), 4:58.

Shootout – Bridgeport 0 (Romano NG, Rakhshani NG, Figren NG, Svendsen NG), Connecticut 2 (Zuccarello NG, Kolarik G, Kennedy NG, Weise NG, Williams G).
Shots on Goal-Bridgeport 6-5-9-1-0-21. Connecticut 12-17-13-3-1-46.
Power Play Opportunities-Bridgeport 0 / 4; Connecticut 0 / 3.
Goalies-Bridgeport, Lawson 1-4-1 (45 shots-43 saves). Connecticut, Johnson 6-10-2 (21 shots-19 saves).
A-13,089
Referees-Ghislain Hebert (49).
Linesmen-Kevin Redding (16), Luke Galvin (2).