CANTLON: (SAT) Wolf Pack Edge Bruins 2-1
VERSUS 
BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack used strong team defense, got some timely saves and scoring which allowed them to edge the Providence Bruins 2-1 before a season-high crowd of 9,021 at the XL Center Saturday night.
The Wolf Pack penalty kill was superb and killed off a late penalty spending all 1:12 left in regulation in their own zone. Goalie Chris Nell had to make just two stops as all other Bruin attempts were either blocked or taken away.
“The game overall was comparable (to last night). The key difference was handling the pressure in the last minute half of the game,” remarked Pack head coach Keith McCambridge.
Brandon Smith and the defense corps were solid for 60 minutes.
“We talked about how we can’t let guys get behind us and we did a good job of that. Their strength is in their forwards and we knew they wanted to create their offense on those fast rushes and their skilled forwards and I think Joe (defensive coach Joe Mormina and (McCambridge) did a good job matching lines. I think it was a good game by our coaching staff and the team as a whole,” Smith said.
Smith’s play was his best and his most complete game since he was assigned to the Wolf Pack on February 9th.
“We did a lot of good things tonight. Last night there were a lot of things we could improve on and I think we did a good job with pucks all around. Making smarter plays and reads the ultimate reason for our success.”
For McCambridge, he had reason to smile about his defense.
“I like our back end as whole tonight. He and Sproul have lots of experience back there we were able to handle pucks well and get them up to the forwards in playing a fast team in Providence.”
Smith’s defense partner, Ryan Sproul, wasn’t shabby either with a game-high six shots giving the Pack chances to have scoring chances down low.
“We played together for a bit in Detroit, so we have some familiarity. He has a lot of offensive ability. I like to send him the puck. He’s pretty good with it. We worked well together and we played some good minutes,” commented Smith.
Nell (21 saves) rebounded with a solid game what he didn’t face in quantity he faced in quality.
“Chris played a good game tonight when he faced a flurry of shots especially those chances early in the third period. He controlled rebounds and helped the back end just a strong game by him,” said McCambridge.
The only puck to evade Nell was a gorgeous redirect from 25 feet out by Peter Cehlarik of a left point drive by Emil Johansson for his seventh goal at 7:38.
The Pack put up their only two goals in the second period.
Halfway thru the second Smith made a solid rush after flagging down the puck in the Bruins zone off along the left wing boards. He cut to the middle, dished off a good short pass to Lias Andersson.
Andersson sent a backhander that went past the Bruins’ Jordan Binnington’s glove and hit the post. Andersson stayed there and was able to jam home his fourth of the season to make it 1-0.
“Its hard sometimes in making those reads when to pinch and not to pinch. It’s still is a work in progress. I got lucky making a good play and Andy made a good play going to the net hard. Right now, we’re not scoring a lot of goals, so we gotta play good defense and winning for us is good defense and goaltending,” remarked Smith.
McCambridge was also pleased with the decision making Smith showed and his defense all game.
“He (Smith) did a really nice job at finding that seam in making the pass and again a good second effort on the goal.”
At 13:59, Sproul was again involved in the creation of the scoring play for the game-winning goal.
Scott Kosmachuk, who has played strong of late, got the puck to the big defenseman.
Sproul then drilled a good low hard slap shot from the left point and Boo Nieves was able to establish space on Jeremy Lauzon. He got to the rebound and put in for the 2-0 lead.
“That was a strong second effort play and getting to the puck in maintaining position.”
The Pack showed good strong game awareness all game in one instance, Steven Fogarty on a PK situation broke his stick in half on the faceoff. He stayed in the zone battling to try to get the puck out and only then went to the bench to get a new stick.
Fogarty came away from the bench and got the puck, went down the left-wing cut to the middle with a solid move, but Binnington stayed with him and made the save.
Same PK situation saw defenseman Joey Leach at the end of the kill lose his stick and as Hartford exited the defensive zone made a bee-line for the bench to execute a good line change.
The Pack certainly didn’t want to start the game as it ended last night and had a strong first period.
NOTES:
Pack Scratches:
Brandon Crawley (upper body, week-to-week)
Marek Mazanec (groin, week-to-week)
Shawn O’Donnell (facial fractures, week-to-week)
Ryan Gropp (lower body, day-to-day)
Sergei Zbrovisky (healthy)
Assistant captains: Schneider Fogarty, Graves
Line Combinations:
Chytil-Schneider-Kosmachukk
Tambellini-Andersson-DeSalvo
Nieves-Albert-Catenacci
Fogarty-Fontaine-Leedahl
Graves-Pedrie
Sproul-Smith
Labrie-Leach
Rangers put Peter Holland on waivers at Noon today with the intention of sending him to Hartford. There is a good chance he might get picked up for NHL depth or help an AHL team in a playoff hunt by Noon tomorrow.
Bruins Director of Player Development John Ferguson Jr. was part of a slew of scouts in house two days before the trade deadline kept his cards very close to the vest. “All I can say, we (Boston) will make some deals were looking at everyone. If we do deal players from this level will be more part of an overall package.”
Providence Journal Mark Divver exclusively reporting that NHL great Jarome Iginla has been practicing with the P-Bruins the past week as he is working after having hip surgery four months ago in Boston where he resides. Whether he will sign an AHL deal or not has not been determined and of course eventually.
Ex-Pack Tanner Glass was recalled by Calgary from Stockton.
Tage Thompson (Orange/UCONN) is riding the San Antonio to St. Louis shuttle was recalled again to the Blues.
Bridgeport re-assigns two players to Worcester (ECHL) in Matt Gaudreau and Kellen Jones.
Ex Sound Tiger goalie CJ Motte was loaned from Quad City (ECHL) to Stockton.
Kevin Morris, the son of ex-Nighthawk Mark Morris, was released from his PTO by Binghamton.
Hockey Heritage weekend with the alumni game before the game and the Gordie Howe Bobblehead was a roaring success.
The amount and variety of Whaler jerseys was something to see.
#1 Mike Liut (white and green), #8 Geoff Sanderson, #10 Ron Francis, #16 Pat Verbeek and #20 Ray Ferraro were expected. Here were the OMG jerseys.
Whalers # 4 Steve Dykstra, 28 Dallas Guame and two New England Whalers beauties #1 the late battlin’ Al Smith and #4 Andre Lacroix.
Then a great Wolf Pack one #39 Cory Larose
Plus a few other gems, a KHL Russian Metallurg Magnitogorsk #51 of former Pack Alexei Bereglaszov and a New Haven Nighthawks, a Hubert Labrie #3 Springfield Falcons and last, but never least #9 Tom Colley their all-time leading scorer.
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