PROVIDENCE BRUIN HEAT FOR OUTDOOR GAME

VERSUS     

When Michael Del Zotto, playing in his first game in Hartford since being sent down to the AHL by the parent New York Rangers, hit the crossbar just 4:22 into the game, that would summarize how the night went for the Connecticut Whale who despite putting two in the net over the final 2:30 of the game, dropped a 3-2 decision to the last place Providence Bruins in front of a raucous 9,118 at the XL Center Saturday night.

The Whale officially put 36 shots on goal to Providence’s 18, but unlike the NHL, the American League doesn’t keep track of shots that don’t go on goal. Had they been keeping that stat, it probably would reflect that the Whale fired off far more than twice that many. They just could not get the puck on net.

After being shut out the night before in Portland to the Pirates, the Whale’s offense, granted minus a significant number of their best offensive players to injury and call-ups, just seemed grossly out of synch.

Meanwhile, across the way, Providence also seeing many of their best out similarly and also having come off being shutout 2-0 by the Whale’s next opponent, the league’ best team in 2010-2011, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, had very few chances. The Whale hemmed their guests into their own zone for long stretched throughout the contest. But despite all the shots and time in the zone, the Whale just could not hit get one past Matt Dalton (34 saves, 3-3-0) in net for the Bruins.

“I thought we did a good job of getting our opportunities but not second chances where you get a rebound or really tire out the goalie,” the Whale’s sole AHL All-Star, Jeremy Williams said. “If you just keep shooting out wide and just have to make one save, it’s not going to tire him out so he’s going to be able to play better.

“He made some good stops, but when we did get good shots from the slot, myself and others missed the net. It’s not like guys aren’t trying to hit the net, and it’s not like we didn’t play well as a team. We held onto the puck, got in the forecheck a bit, but when you get quick breaks and don’t score, you have to get some greasy goals, and that’s by getting guys to the net.”

“It was just one of those nights where everything was kind of hitting (Dalton),” Whale starter Chad Johnson (15 saves, 13-14-3) said. “He made some good saves because he was in good position, but we have guys who can put the puck in the net. We had corners but kept just missing the net.

“I don’t think we were as sharp at the start as we were at the end,” Head Coach Ken Gernander said. “I think there seemed to be more desperation with that heightened sense of emotion. I thought we were a little crisper and more successful.”

The Whale fell behind 1-0 just 35 seconds after Del Zotto’s crossbar shot when Maxime Suave  scored the first of his two goals.

Jared Nightingale got tangled up with Lane MacDermid after a scrum along the boards in the Whale zone and both were sent off for roughing at 4:46. Nightingale was incensed with MacDermid and the chatter continued while the two were in the sin bin.

Just 11 seconds into the two teams playing 4-on-4 hockey, Stu Bickel’s defensive zone pass wasn’t on target and Tim Kennedy mishandled it and lost control of the puck only to see it go right to the stick of Maxime Suave. The P-Bruin center scored his first of two unassisted as he charged in, put a move on Johnson and slid the puck under his left pad.

As soon as Nightingale and MacDermid came out of the box, they immediately dropped the gloves. Nightingale, who was still really angry, allowed his fists to do his talking putting a pretty strong beat down on the P-Bruin left winger.

MacDermid apparently didn’t learn his fighting lesson the first time with Nightingale and after Justin Soryal had a nice scoring chance, the Whale forward, who has the nickname, “Scary” reminded MacDermid how he earned that moniker. MacDermid failed his a refresher course as Soryal put a lot of strong shots to the left wingers face at 16:35.

The Whale were outshot by the P-Bruins 10-9 in the period.

The second period was all Whale except for one key statistic, the scoreboard.

The Whale outshot the P-Bruins 13-4 but first Zach Hamill beat Bickel 1-on-1 on the right wing side and put a rebound past Johnson at 1:33 and 4:40 later Suave would tally the what would prove to be the game-winner.

With the teams again in a 4-on-4 situation with Kennedy and Sean Zimmerman in the penalty box for matching roughing calls, Suave took a puck in his own zone and beat pointman Jason Williams up the ice. With Del Zotto chasing Suave lifted a shot over Johnson’s glove for a 3-0 lead.

“We were close to getting chances,” Johnson said. “But we shouldn’t be down 3-0 to a team like that. It’s deflating to be working hard and then just make a couple of mistakes.

“And I felt I was in position on all the goals, but it seemed like when they had chances they were just sniping on me. They just found ways to score, and that’s just how it going for me now. Shots are finding holes, so it’s not going my way right now.”

The Whale seemed headed for the team’s fourth back-to-back shutout in team history, but NHL veteran Brian McGrattan woke up the sleeping giant Whale when he put one of the dirtiest hits ever laid on a Whale player on Kelsey Tessier at 15:46 of the final frame.

Kelsey Tessier was almost decapitated by the 6-foot-4, 235-pound McGrattan. The P-Bruin right winger skated across the ice after Tessier had passed a puck off a rush and raised his stick up hitting the 5-9, 177-pound Fredericton, New Brunswick native squarely in the head leveling the Whale right winger.

Soryal saw that from the bench and was incensed. As the line change was occurring, Soryal was aggravated further by what he saw in McGrattan’s reaction to Tessier being laid out on the ice.

McGrattan came out of the penalty box and was clearly barking at Soryal which just raised the intensity that much further. It looked really bad that something ugly could happen, but the linesman and referee did a great job in keeping the players separated.

McGrattan received a 5-minute major for Checking to the Head, a double game misconduct and will face an almost certain suspension for leaving the bench

For sticking up for his teammate, Soryal also received a double game misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct and for leaving the bench. It’s likely the leaving the bench game misconduct will be rescinded as Soryal was on the ice for a shift change. It remains to be seen if Soryal will receive a suspension.

Head coaches  Ken Gernander and Rob Murray had different views of the same hit.

“It was a cheap shot,” Gernander said definitively.

“Tessier didn’t miss a shift and assisted on the (Eizenman) goal,” Rob Murray said. “I’m sure he saw stars, but whatever (the Whale) want to do with it or the league does, we’ll deal with it as it comes.”

It’s Murray’s compassion that you have to respect.

“I didn’t see him coming, not at all,” Tessier said. “I passed the puck to (Ryan) Garlock and wanted to go back to the bench because it was a long shift, but, boom, he came from that (blind) side a couple of seconds late, for sure. I think he definitely deserves a suspension. It’s not for me to judge that, but it’s in (the league’s) hands, and coach (Gernander) said he’s going to send in the video. So it’s up to the league to see what they’ll give him as a suspension or not even. I’m lucky that I didn’t get anything wrong and didn’t get a concussion or didn’t get hurt.

“Those are the situations that have been going on in the NHL, the hits to the head that are a couple of seconds late like that. I know the job of a big guy like that is to hit, but when he doesn’t hit throughout the game and then he throws one of those when they’re up 3-0, I think it’s a little lack of respect. I think the league should just look at the video, and we’ll see about it. I think you just have to be smarter out there.”

The Whale applied pressure in the P-Bruin zone over the first half of their third power play in the game. With 2:30 to go, a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing exchange from Evgeny Grachev to Tessier to Oren Eizenman broke a 118:30 scoring drought for the home team.

45 seconds later Andrew Bodnarchuk took a high sticking call creating a 5-on-3 man-advantage.

With 1:10 to go in the game Johnson went to the bench for a 6-on-3 advantage. The Whale made two many passes without taking a shot until Del Zotto hit his second crossbar of the contest with 17.2 left.

On the ensuing faceoff, won by Garock to the half boards where Brodie Dupont dug it out.  Dupont brought the puck closer and fed Eizenman who advanced it quickly in the slot to Del Zotto. The Whale D-man then put the puck perfectly on Dupont’s stick and converted on the give and go with a shot over Dalton with 6.9 left.

The Whale just ran out of time.

“We had our chances, but we have to bear down,” Eizenman said afterwards. “You can’t let teams hang around in this league because they’ll make you pay. They made good plays for their goals, and we couldn’t get one until it was too little too late.

“A game like that is a little frustrating because they capitalized on their chances, and we didn’t. It’s one of those kinds that makes you want to scratch your head, but they’ll even out hopefully at some point, so you just have to keep working hard. You can’t get down over a game like that because the bounces even out in the end. It’s the team that’s willing to stick to their guns and try to get those chances and create those breaks that ends up doing well. That’s why it’s an 80-game season. In one or two games, anything can happen, but over an 80-game season, things usually even out.”

Bruce Berlet has all the news that’s fit to print…but didn’t…Hey, there’s even a internet has limits for sheer volume of info… Find Bruce’s abbreviated story at CTWhale.com. Paul Boyle also was at the game for the Hartford Courant. The Bruins coverage, if you can call it that, can be found Projo.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

VIDEO:

SOUNDS OF THE GAME:

Ken Gernander: 

Jeremy Williams: 

Kelsey Tessier: 

NOTES:

* Oren Eizenman’s goal ended a 10-game pointless streak.

*  For Dupont, his late score was the 5th goal in his last ten games and third goal in his last four. Over the last ten, he has 5g, 3a.

* Ex-Wolf Pack defenseman and member of the All-time Wolf Pack Team Corey Potter makes his first visit to the XL Center since signing with Wilkes-Barre in the off-season.

* Best line of the night from a fan screaming at referee Jamie Koharski after he missed a couple of blatant cheap shots inflicted on Whale players by the p-Bruins. “Hey Koharski how could you be sleeping with so many lights on?”

LINES:

Dupont – Kennedy – Kolarik

Grachev – Jason Williams – Jeremy Williams
DiDiomete – Garlock – Tessier
Chappell – Eizenman – Soryal

Valentenko – Kundratek
Del Zotto – Bickel
Klassen– Nightingale

Johnson
Talbot

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Wade Redden – Lower Body, Day-to-Day
Jyri Niemi – Lower Body, Day-to-Day
Todd White – Undisclosed Injury, Day-to-Day

THREE STARS:

1. PRO – M. Dalton
2. PRO – M. Sauve
3. CT – O. Eizenman

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee: Jamie Koharski (84)
Linesmen: David Spannaus (8)
Luke Galvin (2)

NEXT GAME:

It won’t get any easier for the Connecticut Whale Sunday afternoon as the AHL’s best and red hot, Wilkes Barre/ Scranton Penguins come to the XL Center. Bob Crawford has the pregame a half an hour before the puck drops at 3pm.

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

For Ticket information for all home games, 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 of all games both home and away.

SCORE-SHEET:

Providence Bruins 3 at Connecticut Whale 2 – Status: Final
Saturday, January 15, 2011 – XL Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Providence 1 0 2 – 3
Connecticut 0 0 2 – 2

1st Period-1, Providence, Sauve 8   4:57. Penalties-MacDermid Pro (roughing), 4:46; Nightingale Ct (roughing), 4:46; MacDermid Pro (fighting), 6:55; Nightingale Ct (fighting), 6:55; MacDermid Pro (fighting), 16:35; Soryal Ct (roughing, fighting), 16:35.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Hamill Pro (slashing), 6:06; Del Zotto Ct (boarding), 11:19; Bickel Ct (slashing), 15:27.

3rd Period-2, Providence, Hamill 3 (Caron), 1:33. 3, Providence, Sauve 9 (Arniel), 6:13. 4, Connecticut, Eizenman 3 (Tessier, Grachev), 17:30 (PP). 5, Connecticut, Dupont 8 (Del Zotto, Eizenman), 19:53 (PP). Penalties-MacDermid Pro (cross-checking), 1:54; Zimmerman Pro (roughing), 5:28; Kennedy Ct (roughing), 5:28; McGrattan Pro (major – checking to the head, misconduct – continuing altercation, game misconduct – checking to the head), 15:46; Soryal Ct (game misconduct – leaving the bench), 15:46; Bodnarchuk Pro (high-sticking), 18:15.

Shots on Goal-Providence 10-4-4-18. Connecticut 9-13-14-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Providence 0 / 3; Connecticut 2 / 5.
Goalies-Providence, Dalton 3-3-0 (36 shots-34 saves). Connecticut, Johnson 13-14-3 (18 shots-15 saves).
A-9,118
Referees-Jamie Koharski (84).
Linesmen-David Spannaus (8), Luke Galvin (2).