WHALE AUDITIONS, ROUND ONE 

VERSUS

Ken Gernander did not win the AHL equivalent of the Jack Adams award, the Louis A.R. Pieri Award. That went, deservedly so, to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Coach John Hynes, however you can’t minimize the job that Gernander did to get his Connecticut Whale into the playoffs in 2010-2011 much as you can’t minimize John Tortorella getting consideration for the Coach of the year in the NHL for the same reasons.

Both coaches had a slew of new faces, a ton of injuries to key personnel and had to deal with call-ups and bringing in new faces and not missing a beat. BOTH coaches did an extraordinary job in their respective jobs.

For the Connecticut Whale, they really had nothing to play for against a Bridgeport Sound Tiger team that they had clinched a playoff spot against the night before. So Saturday night’s last meeting of the season really was a meaningless game and the Whale more-or-less played that way in dropping a 4-3 decision against their intra-stat and franchise rival in front of 6,952 at the XL Center.

So what were the Whale playing for? The same thing they will be playing for on Sunday when the Norfolk Admirals come into town for the final game of the regular season, evaluating some of their youngsters for next season.

Among the names making their professional debuts and getting some playing time to show their wares was defenseman Dylan McIlrath, the New York Rangers’ first-round pick (10^th overall) in 2010, Andrew Yogan, a fourth-round pick (100th overall) by the parent New York Rangers in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, and forward Shayne Wiebe, an unsigned member of the Western Hockey League’s Brandon Wheat Kings.

Backup goalie Jason Missiaen, who was selected by the Montreal Canadiens in round 4 (116 overall) in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and signed to an NHL contract with the parent New York Rangers on March 24 is playing under an Amateur Tryout (ATO) agreement with the Whale, was on the bench for the first time backing up starter Cam Talbot (22 saves, 11-8-2).

Also getting a longer look was forward Kale Kerbashian, in his fourth game and Tommy Grant in his sixth.

McIlrath had an impressive start to his career throwing his body around and making a huge hit on his first shift and then getting into a scrap at 10:32 of the second period with Alex O’Neil of the Sound Tigers. O’Neil gave up 5’ in height and ten pounds to the Whale defenseman and it showed as McIlrath sent rained some bombs that connected and eventually knocked down the Sound Tiger’s left winger.

But in terms of impressions, Yogan certainly made one in his first game, scoring two goals and being named the games First Star in his debut.

So what was the head coach’s opinion of what he saw from his young players?

“Yogan made a pretty good impression, eh,” Gernander said. “Aside from the two goals, I thought he made some pretty good passes. He had pretty good speed. (The team’s young kids) size isn’t overwhelming, so they’re going to have to get in there and get body positioning and use their quickness and their agility to get to loose pucks and get body positions. And I like McIlrath’s game. He has a good package.”

“It felt good to get a couple of goals,” Yogan said. “Obviously it would have felt better if we had won the game, but it was nice to get that behind me.”

Yogan got his first goal at 1:54 of the second period when Evgeny Grachev found him from behind the net all alone on the right side of the crease. Sound Tiger starter Nathan Lawson (30 saves, 6-5-4) tried in vain to get there, but Yogan fired the puck into the net over his glove.

The exuberance of youth, backed by the fact that Yogan only played in ten games this season after suffering a shoulder injury that required surgery, was glaringly on display as he put on quite the celebration while Grachev got him the puck. “You want to get that monkey off your back and get some confidence in the league. It was a physical game, and I’m big (6’3, 203 pounds) and I like to use my body. We really wanted to win this one, and if I can’t get excited for this one, you shouldn’t be here.”

After the game, Yogan said he received “four or five” congratulatory messages from his father. The messages included the standard, “I’m happy for you and I love you; stuff like that.”

For McIlrath, he “got the jitters out pretty early, the couple of first shifts to begin with and then got into a little scrap there so it was a good first game.”

Nerves played a part in his first AHL fight. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a fight, so I definitely have to work on my technique there a little. But it went well. To get the first one out of the way, it’s nice.”

McIlrath, who’s resemblance to Rangers defenseman Michael Sauer is more than just his looks described his game in much the same way as Sauer did when he first came to Hartford. “(I’m) just a solid shutdown defender, nothing less, nothing more. Obviously I’d like to round my game out, but for what New York sees in me. What I believe in myself is a shutdown d-man first, being really physical and sticking up for teammates. That’s why they drafted me.”

The game itself was a physical one. As there would be in any rivalry game, and especially after a physical battle the night before there was going to be some carryover. There were four fights overall, but only three of them were called that way by referees Ryan Fraser and Tim Mayer. The one that wasn’t called came between Kris Newbury and Justin DiBenedetto in the second period. Newbury was called for a double minor for roughing after laying the smackdown on DiBenedetto, who’d been running around after guys the entire night before.

Newbury got into a second scrap late in the game where he practically tore the head off of Shayne Neigum.

“It was emotionally engaged,” Newbury said. “The last play was a little bit dirty. (Neigum) tried to take out my head with an elbow so I wasn’t too happy about that. That’s what happens. We’ll move on and forget about them until next year. One more game left and then focus on the playoffs.”

“We’ve accomplished one goal at the beginning of the year to make the playoffs,” Newbury said. “That was kind of the easy part. Now the hard part begins of trying to get four rounds of winning and hopefully hoisting the (Calder Cup) trophy at the end of it.

“I think we have a good all-around team with four good lines and our defense has gotten better as the season has gone on. If we just play simple hockey and use our forecheck to our advantage, we’ll be in good shape. … Portland is a good hockey team with a lot of speed up front, and their defense is really good at moving the puck and getting the first pass out of their zone. So we’ll have to be patient, have a good forecheck, and when we get through the neutral zone, just kind of wait for our chances and hopefully eliminate our turnovers. The playoffs are a different beast, so you have to put what happens on the ice behind you, just worry about the game and do whatever you can to help your team win hockey games. At the end of the day when your teammates look back at that, they’ll be a lot more thankful than getting some revenge.”

In addition to his physical efforts Newbury also put a beautiful power play goal into the net off a terrific cross ice feed from rookie defenseman Blake Parlett at 14:08 of the final frame.

The Whale pulled Talbot with 1:03 left and had a nice chance for Grachev at the end but were unable to get the equalizer.

The Sound Tigers got multi-point games from Tyler McNeeley and Jeremy Colliton who had a goal and an assist each. Rob Hisey added a first period tally and Joe Pereira scored what proved to be the game winner in the third period with a shot that beat Talbot over the blocker. Bridgeport finish out their season looking for a win to get out of the AHL cellar Sunday when they take on Albany at the Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard.

As for the New York Rangers top farm team, it’s on to a battle with the first place Portland Pirates after closing out the regular season with a home game against the Norfolk Admirals, who still have something to play for.

To advance in the playoffs, they can’t give up eight power plays as they did in this one. Discipline is going to be the name of the game. “There’s a fine line between winning and losing in playoff hockey, and you can’t be putting yourself behind the 8-ball from a penalty perspective,” Gernander said. “We haven’t been killing of late, either, so along those lines, you’re overtaxing some of your better players and taking other players out of the flow of the game. “We want to be careful, too, that we don’t take our foot off the pedal at all. Coming out of the game tomorrow (against Norfolk), we have to be ready for the playoffs.”

Bruce Berlet has his take on all things concerning the game and what surrounds the Connecticut Whale. Find his unabridged edition here at Howlings. The always awesome Mike Fornabaio has the views from the Bridgeport locker room at CTPost.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

STANDINGS:

(Standings via theahl.com)

VIDEO:

SOUNDS OF THE GAME:

Ken Gernander: (Post Game)

Ken Gernander: (On E.J. McGuire’s passing)

Adam Graves:

Dylan McIlrath:

Andrew Yogan:

Kris Newbury:

NOTES:

* The only other times that the Whale allowed only one shot on goal in a period were 12/12/98 in Springfield against the Falcons in the first period, the third period on 3/19/03 at Albany against the River Rats, 10/16/04 in the first period against Philadelphia, and the third period of a 12/28/04 game at Worcester.

* Rangers great and executive Adam Graves was in attendance and spoke to Howlings afterwards and discussed many of the young players and the Rangers getting into the playoffs.

LINES:

Kerbashian – Newbury – Weise
Grachev – Yogan – Couture
Soryal – Garlock – Tessier
Grant – Wiebe – Lemieux

Bickel – Kundratek
Parlett – Nightingale
Niemi- McIlrath

Talbot
Missiaen

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Todd White – Concussion – Season
Devin DiDiomete – Hip – Season
Chad Kolarik – Hamstring – Day-to-Day
Michael Del Zotto – Broken Finger – Day-to-Day
Wade Redden – Healthy Scratch
John Mitchell – Healthy Scratch
Dov Grumet-Morris – Healthy Scratch
Brodie Dupont – Healthy Scratch
Pavel Valentenko – Healthy Scratch
Jeremy Williams – Healthy Scratch

THREE STARS:

1. CT – A. Yogan
2. BRI – T. McNeely
3. BRI – J. Pereira

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee: Ryan Fraser (14) Tim Mayer (19)

Linesmen: Brent Colby (7) David Spannaus (8)

NEXT GAME:

It’s the last game of the regular season and this one means something for the Norfolk Admirals. If they win they pass over the Corey Locke and the Binghamton Senators and would miss out on playing the AHL’s best team, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and instead would play the Manchester Monarchs. Quite a difference in their chances, no? The puck drops in Hartford at 5pm with Bob Crawford handling the play-by-play and Mark Bailey with color commentary. Pregame a half an hour before game time.

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

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SCORE-SHEET:

Bridgeport Sound Tigers 4 at Connecticut Whale 3 – Status: Final Saturday, April 9, 2011 – XL Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Bridgeport 2 1 1 – 4

Connecticut 0 1 2 – 3

1st Period-1, Bridgeport, McNeely 4 (Donovan, Colliton), 10:58 (PP). 2, Bridgeport, Hisey 15 (Pereira), 13:00. Penalties-Couture Ct (delay of game), 1:44; Marcinko Bri (delay of game), 6:11; Parlett Ct (delay of game), 9:56; served by Ginand Bri (bench minor – too many men), 14:27.

2nd Period-3, Connecticut, Yogan 1 (Tessier, Grachev), 1:54. 4, Bridgeport, Colliton 17 (McNeely, Romano), 12:28 (PP). Penalties-Olson Bri (slashing), 4:52; Lemieux Ct (holding), 7:17; Soryal Ct (cross-checking), 8:30; O’Neil Bri (fighting), 10:32; McIlrath Ct (fighting), 10:32; Newbury Ct (tripping), 11:00; Nightingale Ct (cross-checking), 12:28; DiBenedetto Bri (roughing), 13:10; Newbury Ct (roughing, roughing), 13:10.

3rd Period-5, Bridgeport, Pereira 2 (Day, Hisey), 9:16. 6, Connecticut, Yogan 2 (Bickel), 12:25. 7, Connecticut, Newbury 17 (Parlett, Weise), 14:08 (PP). Penalties-Bidlevskii Bri (roughing), 0:53; McIlrath Ct (boarding), 3:20; Olson Bri (hooking), 5:56; McNeely Bri (hooking), 6:54; Bidlevskii Bri (cross-checking), 10:24; Olson Bri (roughing, fighting), 12:45; Soryal Ct (fighting), 12:45; Neigum Bri (fighting), 18:37; Newbury Ct (fighting), 18:37.

Shots on Goal-Bridgeport 14-11-1-26. Connecticut 10-10-13-33.

Power Play Opportunities-Bridgeport 2 / 8; Connecticut 1 / 8. Goalies-Bridgeport, Lawson 6-5-4 (33 shots-30 saves). Connecticut, Talbot 11-8-2 (26 shots-22 saves).

A-6,952

Referees-Ryan Fraser (14), Tim Mayer (19). Linesmen-Brent Colby (7), David Spannaus (8).