CANTLON: (SAT) THUNDERBirds Score Late Drop WOLF Pack, 5-4
VERSUS 
BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – In a hard-fought divisional game, the visiting Springfield Thunderbirds scored with just 4.9 seconds remaining in regulation to earn a 5-4 win and drop the Hartford Wolf Pack to their third straight regulation loss.
The Pack record falls to 13-15-3-3 (32 points) and remains in seventh place.
Ryan Sproul lost control of the puck behind the Pack net resulting from an untimely handoff by Anthony DeAngelo. The puck went right to the Thunderbirds’ Jayce Hawryluk on the left side of the net. Hawryluk then spotted Curtis Valk open on the right side. Valk dished off a pretty pass to Josh Brown as the d-man was charging hard off the right point. Brown wired his first goal of the season past Alexander Georgiev for the game-winner.
The win was just the third of the season for the T-Birds whose record improves to 14-19-1-1 (30 points) stranding them in 8th and last place in the Atlantic Division.
“A tough one with the amount of chances we generated on 48 shots (season high). We deserved a better fate,” said head coach Keith McCambridge. “Their goalie played outstanding, was really good and conceivably you think you would get at least a point. We really should have had two. We have to learn to play in pressure situations. It only is going to get more magnified the higher you to get to NHL.”
Captain Joe Whitney, dejected to be sure, tried to find the silver lining from the loss. “It is all apart of the learning process, to go through heartbreak like this in moving forward. That was obviously a tough one to take, but I’m proud of the guys how hard we worked. Going down the road, we’ll remember this feeling and remember to bear down a little harder in these situations. We know every one counts, and that was the lesson we learned tonight. Some are learned the hard way.”
The third period was a wild roller-coaster-like hockey game featuring three lead changes.
After being stoned by Georgiev in the second period, Springfield’s Juho Lammikko made certain he finished the third time. Catching the puck off the Pack’s Caleb Herbert near the T-Birds blue line, Lammikko took off on a breakaway on the left wing. He cut across Georgiev and backhanded his sixth of the season over the Pack netminder’s glove hand at 3:32.
Less than a minute later, the Wolf Pack struck back.
Getting down-low pressure, Whitney, who just missed in the opening minute of the third period, tallied the tying goal.
Whitney and Adam Tambellini, who has dropped to the fourth line, played a good catch and go behind the goal line. Tambellini zipped a cross-ice pass from the right wing circle to Chris Langkow, who put a shot on goal. Whitney went to the net and got a piece of a bouncing puck that went in at 4:25 making it a 3-3 game.
“It was a series of three good plays. I was just able to get a piece of it and it was going be tough to beat him. We had three good shifts before the power-play. That goal was a huge boost for the team at that point,” Whitney remarked.
On a five-on-three power-play, Springfield goalie, Samuel Montembeault (44 saves) made four amazing saves stopping Sproul, DeAngelo, Cole Schneider and Scott Kosmachuk. The Wolf Pack finally struck gold in the second half of the two-man advantage.
Gabriel Fontaine won a faceoff. John Gilmour sent a pass to Neal Pionk at the left point. Fontaine then took a pass and wired his first professional goal between Montembeault’s pads. The T-Birds goalie looked up and shook his head in disgust that he let that one get by him. The goal came at 9:39 and gave the Wolf Pack a 4-3 lead.
“It was an entertaining game and you have two teams that have played each other eight times already. You can see the rivalry is building.”
Springfield came back as Bobby Farnham scored his second of the night and sixth of the year off a cross-ice pass that went through the box. From atop the right wing circle, Farnham beat Georgiev to the short side leaving another goalie unhappy that he let one get by him. The goal tied the game at four at 14:54.
The Pack tied the game at two on the power play despite having initial problems getting organized.
After a rush didn’t produce anything, Gilmour got the puck in the Pack zone and hit Kosmachuk coming off the bench. Kosmachuk put it in fifth-gear down the left side before snapping his eighth goal of the season to Montemebeault’s far side and off the post at 7:52.
Georgiev had a strong second half of the second period when he stopped Mike Downing and Hawryluk on back-to-back chances and then Valk on a break in just after Dawson Leedahl was stopped at the other end of the ice.
The Pack got the all-important first goal on hockey basics 101.
Steven Fogarty with a dump in. Herbert tracked it down and spotted an open Eric Selleck, who wasted little time drilling a 40-footer that surprised Montembeault at 7:03.
58 seconds later the Thunderbirds tied the game up.
After making several good plays in front of him on Hawryluk on the doorstep, Maxim Manin maneuvered around the crowd in front of the net, got to a loose puck and put it past Georgiev into an open cage for his sixth goal of the season.
Just 1:11 later, Springfield grabbed a 2-1 lead.
Farnham was at the left point. Alexandre Grenier was in front with Pionk. Farnham took a Maxime Fortunas pass and had his 55-footer sail past Georgiev. It was Farnham’s fifth of the year and second in as many games against Hartford.
At this point, McCambridge took his timeout to settle down his troops.
“We got off the rails there a bit after a very good start. I loved it. We were sharp and focused, then we just gave up two goals on successive shift. I just tried to settle things down and not let things snowball and get things back on track.”
The Wolf Pack did their best to try to get the equalizer. Gilmour and Langkow had back-to-back shots turned aside by Montembeault. With 2:50 to go, Fogarty flipped a shot just wide late in the period.
The Pack’s PK did a great job on a five-on-three holding Springfield to just one shot on goal.
NOTES:
Pack newcomer Chris Langkow wore jersey #13.
Brandon Troock was among the scratches and after the game was reassigned back to Greenville.
Peter Holland’s suspension is done.
Ryan Gropp (lower body) remains day to day. Dan Catenacci is maybe a week away (upper body) and Dan DeSalvo is another week basis or so (upper body).
The Pack went with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen.
Langkow-Chapie-Whitney
Fogarty-Schneider-Kosmachuk
Fontaine-Leedahl-Kosmachuk
Tambellini-Herbert-Selleck
Crawley-Sproul
Graves-DeAngelo
Pionk-Pedrie
Gilmour-Sproul
Selleck had 2/3 of a “Gordie Howe hat trick” exacting some revenge on Ryan Horvat for his hit from behind on Dan DeSalvo last week in a second period scrap.
The Pack is now 3-4-0-1 in the season series with the Thunderbirds.
Vinni Lettieri leads all Pack scorers against Springfield with eight points on five goals and three assists. He is also the 12th on the AHL rookie scoring list.
Speaking of Lettieri, congratulations on scoring his first NHL goal in Detroit before family and friends who drove from frigid Minnesota for the game.
“It was nice to see and the pass came from Boo (Nieves). It was well deserved and when you see guys go up and have success, and that’s a big part of what we’re trying to do down here,” McCambridge remarked on two prospects who have graduated to New York.
Lettieri and the Rangers will be in action on New Years Day at the annual NHL Bridgestone Outdoor Winter Classic at Citi Field at 1 pm against Buffalo.
Valk now has eight points against the Wolf Pack and Lammikko has seven.
Springfield reassigned defenseman Tony Turgeon to Manchester (ECHL).
The Wolf Pack have the fifth best power play in the AHL scoring at 20.0% two more PPG at 31 than Tucson. Ahead of the team in order are San Diego, Manitoba, Charlotte, and Iowa.
Springfield is 22nd of 30 teams at 15.8%.
On the PK the Pack is 13th at 83.8% and Springfield is 15th at 83.2 %.
Ex-Pack Chris Bourque (Hershey) leads the AHL in scoring with 39 points in 34 games, ex-Yale Bulldog Andrew Miller (Charlotte) is 7th with 32 points in 33 games and ex-Pack Marek Hrivik is 14th with Stockton 29 points in 27 games.
Ben Smith (Avon/Westminster Prep) with the Toronto Marlies, is tied for most game-winning goals in the AHL at five with Mason Appleton of Manitoba. He is also second in plus/minus at plus-22.
Philip Samuelsson (Charlotte) son of Ulf is third at plus-21.
Rookie rearguard Brandon Crawley is 3rd in rookie PM, with 45.
Ex-Pack Dylan McIlrath with Grand Rapids is fifth in the AHL in PM at 62 and 2nd in minor penalties with 21 minutes.
Leave a Reply