VERSUS 
For Connecticut Whale Ken Gernander this could not have been a fun last couple of weeks. First the parent New York Rangers took the heart and soul out of his surging team when they recalled six of his best players and then the Hamilton Bulldogs came into Hartford and gutted the rest on the ice crushing the remaining roster 7-3 in front of 6,018 at the XL Center Saturday night.
Over the past couple of weeks, the Whale have said a good-bye to Mats Zuccarello, Dale Weise, Ryan McDonagh, Brodie Dupont, Kris Newbury and Chad Kolarik as all were recalled by the parent club to cover the slew of injuries their team has had to endure. Gernander is too much of a team first, no-excuse and proud man to use the call-ups as an alibi, but clearly, this team has a MAJOR talent shortage right now. Even with Wade Redden returning after missing the past seven games and Jyri Niemi the past three, it’s just not enough when you lose so much firepower up front.
Gernander was having none of that. “We’re not asking guys to reinvent themselves or create a new game for themselves overnight,” The coach said. “For the most part, everybody has been here, everybody knows the system, so I think they should just be able to adhere to what we’re asking them to do, play within themselves the best they can, win your one-on-one battles, make sound decisions with the puck. They might sound rather trivial, but that’s all that was asked of them.”
But the team didn’t do the things that Gernander was asking of them and they paid dearly for it allowing three goals, two of them on the the Bulldogs first two shots, over the first 6:02 of the game.
“I’m a lot disappointed in our start. On the three goals, there were a lot of mistakes, and there were quite a few guys who weren’t ready right from the get-go,” Gernander said. “When out margin for error is pretty slim right now, you can’t afford that.
“I’m not going to single anybody out, but I was definitely upset with some of the goals and some of our guys’ play. I’m not happy with our team game and obviously our team defense when you give up seven. We’re a better defending team than that, and if there’s any person who’s going to be singled out, I think it was pretty poor from start to finish.”
Chad Johnson, who’s had a very up-and-down season all year, was definitely on a down in this one allowing three goals on six shots. He hit the showers after the third goal at 6:02.
Enter Pier-Oliver Pelletier.
The latest Whale goaltender was signed to a PTO just this past Wednesday by the team after regular backup netminder Cam Talbot suffered a minor high ankle sprain when someone fell on him during Sunday’s 6-3 win over the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins. Talbot only expects to miss the weekend’s games.
Pelletier (18 saves, 0-1-0) owns an underwhelming 6-9-4 record and a leaky 3.33 GAA and a .895% in his 21 games with the Laredo Bucks of the Central Hockey League. He was a 2nd round pick by Don Maloney’s New York Rangers West Coast edition…excuse me, Phoenix Coyotes, #59 overall in the 2005 NHL draft. Prior to this game, the highest level of play for Pelletier was 3 games with the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL last season where he went 1-0-0 with a 3.65GAA and a .869%.
Gernander was understandably disappointed not only with his team, but with his goaltending. “I didn’t like the first two goals, and the third was a 5-on-3. It was a pretty tough game for Pelletier. I thought he did all right for a bit, and then their chances started to come at the end. I’m not going to be as judgmental or critical of his game as Chad because he’s been around all season with us.”
Johnson surrendered the first goal of the game on the first shot at 1:50.
Hunter Bishop scored his first of the season when the Bulldog left winger took a Gabriel Dumont feed at the Whale blueline and put a shot on goal. Apparently Johnson couldn’t see it as Pavel Valentenko was in the neighborhood of Johnson’s sight line and the puck beat the Whale netminder high to the stick side.
Jared Nightingale then took an interference call 22 seconds later sending the Bulldogs to their first of six power plays on the night.
53 seconds later, on the second shot of the game, the Whale were down two when Michael Del Zotto, who clearly had his worst game since being sent down to Hartford last month was beaten wife by Aaron Palushaj allowing him a clear shot at Johnson. Palushaj nailed his seventh of the season when he flipped a backhand shot across Johnson’s body while skating past him, over the pad and under the glove. Brandon Nash got his second assist of the game just 3:05 in.
The game was getting VERY physical. Hamilton was taking a lot of liberties hitting guys from behind and a number of shots that probably should have been called for penalties weren’t as referee Mark Lemelin did his best Mr. Magoo impression and apparently didn’t see the plays that were going on in front of them when it was the team in red doing them.
However, Lemelin did get his eyesight restored long enough to call Stu Bickel for a boarding call at 4:33 and then while the Bulldogs were still on the power play called Nightingale for his second penalty on a highly questionable cross-checking infraction putting the Whale down two men for 52 seconds.
It cost the them!
21 seconds in, Dustin Boyd sent a cross ice pass over to Nash who was completely alone in the left circle. Nash had time to pick his shot and did, putting it high over Johnson’s pad at 6:02.
Johnson was through for the night.
Pelletier to his credit, calmed the waters in his first career AHL appearance…at first anyway.
The Whale got in control of their game and 49 seconds after surrendering the 5-on-3 power play goal answered with a goal of their own.
In net for Hamilton was 11-year pro Curtis Sanford. The Owen Sound, Ontario native is having a career year. He entered the game carrying two straight shutouts, a 1.67GAA and a .940%. Goals were not going to be easy to come by.
Sort of…
At 6:51 of the period, Ryan Garlock, on just the Whale’s third shot, rushed the puck up the right wing side and backhanded the puck from an almost impossible angle near the goal line. The puck hit Sanford and somehow got into the back of the net between his arm and the post for Garlock’s first goal in 34 games. The score ended a streak of 128.31 of scoreless hockey for the AHL All-Star and leader in both save percentage and GAA.
After the goal, the physical play was elevated and with Lemelin deciding to actually start calling some of the cheap shots being taken by Bulldog players, opportunity for the Whale to get back into the contest arose.
At 11:16, Frederic St. Denis was called for a hook on Tim Kennedy. Then at 13:25, Mathieu Carle was whistled for a High Stick to Tessier’s face. That was followed quickly by a Kyle Klubertanz cross-check again on Kennedy that put the Whale up two men for 1:15.
18 seconds into the two-man advantage, Brett Festerling plastered Kennedy AGAIN in a blatant and what should be a suspendable hit from behind. The hit left Kennedy down on one knee and clearly in pain for about 20 seconds as play continued. Magoo Lemelin called nothing on the hit.
Kennedy eventually got himself off his knee and still bent over, received a pass from Del Zotto down low on the right side. Kennedy saw Evgeny Grachev open in front and fed him the puck and the Russian winger put it past Sanford for the power play goal at 14:48.
Gernander was NOT happy.
“For that penalty not be called is beyond me,” He said. “I thought it was a pretty dangerous hit.”
After several strong stops by Sanford, most notably on Jason Williams and Garlock, at 16:31 Dany Masse had a breakaway that was stoned by Pelletier. Tomas Kundratek pursuing on the play got his stick up on Masse, but didn’t impede the play at all. Lemelin saw it differently and awarded a penalty shot citing rule 55.5 (Hooking) as justification for the call.
To his credit, Pelletier stood tall and on the penalty shot stoned the on-rushing left winger.
“I didn’t think that was worthy of a penalty shot,” Gernander said. “Pelletier’s stop was a rallying point for a window of time, but it didn’t sustain us through the course of the game.”
27 seconds after Pelletier’s strong stop on the penalty shot, the liberties were taken again.
Devin DiDiomete had his back to the Dumont digging a puck out of the corner. Dumont smashed the Whale agitator hard from behind. DiDiomete smashed his shoulder and neck into the boards and laid motionless on the ice for what seemed like a long time.
“It really hurt,” DiDiomete said afterwards. “I never saw him coming, but I’ll be fine.”
Chris McKelvie, in his first game back since being recalled from the Greenville Road Warriors, the Whale’s ECHL affiliate, immediately jumped Dumont and really put a big beating on him.
Dumont was given a 5-minute major boarding call and a game misconduct. He could and should receive a suspension for the hit.
The wild first period ended with the Whale outshooting the Bulldogs 14-9.
The Whale tied up the game just 34 seconds into the second on the extended power play from Dumont’s hit, when Jason Williams took a pass on the right side of the slot. Sanford went down and Williams went high with his shot for his third of the season over Sanford’s blocker. Wade Redden and Jeremy Williams got the helpers.
The Whale seemed to be in control of the game at that point and continued to put shots on net. At 6:32 Jeremy Williams hit the post hard but the puck stayed out of the net.
Pelletier was solid in stopping Alexander Avtsin on the left doorstep at 15:56.
At 16:51, there was difficulty with some broken panes of glass and the officials decided to send the team to their respective locker rooms early. to allow them to be fixed.
When the teams reconvened 1:11 in, at 18:02 the Bulldogs would get what would prove to be the game winner when Avtsin’s pass from the left corner found J.T. Wyman wide open after he got behind Jason Williams off the rush and he beat Pelletier over the glove into the far corner.
Then the floodgates opened in the third.
Where the first period saw three goals for the Bulldogs in 6:02, the third opened with three goals in 7:01.
At 1:03, building off their goal just a couple of minutes earlier in the would-be second period, Masse added to the Bulldog lead with a deflection of a Alex Henry shot from the left point to make it 5-3.
Ryan Garlock took a poorly timed tripping call at 3:46, in the offensive zone. When the puck was being moved up, and for some reason the Whale were lackadaisical in their play and making a line change the puck hit a Whale player which led to another call for a Too Many Men call giving Hamilton a full two minute 5-on-3.
With two extra men on the ice for Hamilton it didn’t take long for them to find a good shot. Maxwell added his first of two third period goals this from the right side firing it top shelf off the crossbar and in for the game’s sixth tally at 5:20.
Maxwell would find the back of the net1:41 later when he was left wide open on the left side and knocked in a Palushaj pass by Pelletier at 7:01.
Like his coach, Garlock is not accepting excuses. “We had a real good week of practice,” he said. “Maybe there were guys playing in positions they’re not used to, but everybody has to look at it as an opportunity, and we’re all going to have the same opportunity (Saturday) night. It’s an opportunity that guys might wait for all year, myself included. I’m loving all these minutes I’ve been getting, and I know a lot of guys who are feeling the same way.
“We still have a lot of good players in the locker room who are more than capable of winning a lot of games. They’re a team that we don’t see often. We know they’re a real good team, and we just had a few lapses that ended up costing us.”
The Whale will have to dal with these, “lapses” and start getting good goaltending pretty quickly if they hope to ride out all the call-ups and stay in the playoff race. The team cannot afford a losing streak.
The Whale are currently in third in the Atlantic Division. First place Manchester, who lost 5-2 to fifth place Providence, lead the Whale by eight points.
Portland, who knocked off Worcester 5-3 and who have two-games in-hand on the Whale lead them by six.
Fourth place Worcester has a game in-hand and trails the Whale by two points.
Meanwhile Providence, who is 6-3-1 in their last 10, is now just 7 points back and have three-games in-hand.
Ken Gernander received a lot of public praise from Rangers head coach John Tortorella this past week for the way the call-ups have performed and the way the Whale have been able to play even with so many of his key personnel with the parent club. Now it’s up to Gernander to steer the ship back into this bad loss behind them
Bruce Berlet’s unabridged story can be found here on Howlings. Our good pal Paul Doyle was there for the Courant.
Garry McKay has the Hamilton perspective at TheSpec.com
GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET
VIDEO:
SOUNDS OF THE GAME:
Ken Gernander:
Dave Urquhart:
NOTES:
* Jared Nightingale was made alternate captain with Kris Newbury on recall in New York. The honor is WELL-earned.
* Interestingly, one of Pelletier’s teammates on the Laredo Bucks is Aaron Boogaard. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Aaron is the younger brother of NY Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard. The two brothers, both enforcers on their respective teams own a Hockey Fighting camp that they do in the summers to teach would be enforcers how in Manotick, Ontario. The elder Boogaard is likely done for the season after taking a beating on December 9th from Ottawa Senator, Matt Carkner.
* Pelletier’s stop of Masse broke a streak of three straight allowed by Whale netminders. Johnson allowed all three. The first to Paul Byron on 12/31/10 against Portland. The second against Wes O’Neill against Bridgeport on 11/26/10 and to Tyler Haskins, also from Bridgeport on 3/27/10. Johnson’s last penalty shot stop came on 3/12/10 when he denied the Falcon’s Liam Reddox in Springfield.
* Brodie Dupont will get his first NHL game tonight in Atlanta skating on the fourth line with Kris Newbury and Chris Drury. Dale Weise will sit.
* For some reason that has yet to be explained, when the Bulldogs scored their 5-on-3 power play goal in the third period, both sin-bin residents were released from the penalty box when really only one should have been.
* Don’t forget to check out the live streaming of construction for the outdoor rink at Rentscheler Field. Follow the link to watch the broadcast which starts up again on Monday right here at Howlings.
LINES:
Grachev – Kennedy – Tessier
Soryal – Jason Williams – Jeremy Williams
DiDiomete – Garlock – Eizenman
Chappell – McKelvie
Redden – Nightingale
Del Zotto – Bickel
Valentenko – Kundratek
Niemi
Johnson
Pelletier
(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)
SCRATCHES:
Cam Talbot – Ankle Sprain, Day-to-Day
Todd White – Undisclosed Injury, Day-to-Day
THREE STARS:
1. HAM – B. Nash
2. HAM – B. Maxwell
3. HAM – K. Klubertanz
ON ICE OFFICIALS:
Referee:
Mark Lemelin (84)
Linesmen:
Kevin Redding (16)
Derek Wahl (46)
NEXT GAME:
After the BIG Tip-A-Player event on Sunday the Whale next take to the ice on four game homestand. They then have a game Sunday at the XL and then aren’t back to the XL Center until March second. Seven road games and the Whalefest. Bob Crawford has the pregame a half an hour before the puck drops at 7:30pm.
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:
Hamilton Bulldogs 7 at Connecticut Whale 3 – Status: Final
Fri., Jan. 21, 2011 – XL Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Hamilton 3 1 3 – 7
Connecticut 2 1 0 – 3
1st Period-1, Hamilton, Bishop 1 (Dumont, Nash), 1:50. 2, Hamilton, Palushaj 7 (Nash, Sanford), 3:05 (PP). 3, Hamilton, Nash 3 (Maxwell, Klubertanz), 6:02 (PP). 4, Connecticut, Garlock 2 (Del Zotto), 6:51 (SH). 5, Connecticut, Grachev 9 (Kennedy, Del Zotto), 14:48 (PP). Penalties-Nightingale Ct (interference), 2:12; Bickel Ct (boarding), 4:33; Nightingale Ct (cross-checking), 5:41; St. Denis Ham (hooking), 11:16; Carle Ham (high-sticking), 13:25; Klubertanz Ham (cross-checking), 14:10; Dumont Ham (major – boarding, fighting, game misconduct – boarding), 16:58; McKelvie Ct (roughing, fighting), 16:58.
2nd Period-6, Connecticut, Williams 3 (Redden, Williams), 0:31 (PP). 7, Hamilton, Wyman 12 (Avtsin), 18:02. Penalties-Urquhart Ham (tripping), 5:22; Henry Ham (high-sticking), 12:37; Kundratek Ct (boarding), 14:47.
3rd Period-8, Hamilton, Masse 1 (Henry, Klubertanz), 1:03. 9, Hamilton, Maxwell 7 (Nash, Klubertanz), 5:20 (PP). 10, Hamilton, Maxwell 8 (Palushaj, Festerling), 7:01. Penalties-served by Chappell Ct (bench minor – too many men), 3:46; Garlock Ct (tripping), 3:46; Palushaj Ham (holding), 10:19; Bishop Ham (high-sticking), 13:27.
Shots on Goal-Hamilton 9-7-12-28. Connecticut 14-8-9-31.
Power Play Opportunities-Hamilton 3 / 6; Connecticut 2 / 9.
Goalies-Hamilton, Sanford 17-7-1 (31 shots-28 saves). Connecticut, Johnson 13-14-3 (6 shots-3 saves); Pelletier 0-1-0 (22 shots-18 saves).
A-6,018
Referees-Mark Lemelin (84).
Linesmen-Kevin Redding (16), Derek Wahl (46).
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