CANTLON: PACK KNOCK OFF DEVILS IN FINAL HOME GAME OF THE SEASON
VERSUS 
BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – Cole Schneider’s OT game-winner allowed the Hartford Wolf Pack to end their home schedule in winning fashion 2-1 over the Binghamton Devils in the first meeting of the season.
The Wolf Pack close out the entire regular season in Binghamton.
The Wolf Pack finished their home schedule with a record of 19-6-3-0. Their record sits at .500 at 33-33-6-3. With a win tomorrow, the team will finish above .500, a goal the team has worked toward for the end of this season.
“We have had it on the board to get to .500. That’s what we’re striving for,” said Schneider, the game’s hero.
The game-winner came as Schneider took a lead pass from Chris Bigras at center ice as the Wolf Pack were going for a wholesale change during the three-on-three marched down the right wing was able to stuff in his fifteenth goal of the season off a rebound of his backhander on goaltender Cam Johnson at 1:53.
30 seconds earlier, Johnson stopped Bigras on a breakaway which looked like it could have been the game-winner.
For Schneider, it capped a game perfectly where he was voted the Team’s MVP by his teammates.
“I was happy Biggie didn’t score on the breakaway so I could get out there and get the game winner,” Schneider said with a laugh.
He was humbled hearing the announcement of his winning the MVP.
“It’s very special to be respected by the guys like that. When your teammates do something like that, you really appreciate it. I look at it as so special. It will really hit me over the summer.”
The Pack’s Adam Tambellini had the first solid chance to win the game at 26 seconds of OT with a burst down the left wing that came off a pass from Vinni Lettieri that Johnson stopped.
“We had some good chances in the third and got a few early in overtime and Cole Schneider finished it off. I thought we did a solid job all night and were able to pull through for the win.”
Finishing with a winning home record was also uppermost important to the team.
“We talked about it before the game about getting back to .500 (overall) and to finish up strong at home for the fans and we were able to do that,” Schneider stated.
Lettieri had two chances in the final two minutes of regulation to win it but came up empty. As awards were announced, Lettieri was named as the Wolf Pack Fan Favorite as voted on by the Pack faithful.
“We had some chances where I had more time than I thought. We had chances. Tambo had a good effort on the backhander too against them.”
Winning The Fan Favorite Award and the support from the faithful meant a lot to Lettieri. “I was very thankful for that. We really appreciate the fans. They helped us a lot this year, whether we were winning or losing, they were there for us. I can’t credit them enough how they were there for us, especially in the second half. We saw more fans coming in and that gave us momentum. On some (nights) they got us fired up and thanks to them for that. We’re excited to give them something more to cheer about next year.”
Playing a brand new opponent in game 75 was alright with Lettieri.
“It was great. In fact, it was kind of refreshing actually to see somebody else. We play Springfield and Bridgeport, what, 50 times this year? So, it was nice to play a new team for a change.”
Binghamton nearly won it in the waning seconds of regulation.
Christian Bertschy came off the left wing wall and raced to the net. Pack goalie, Alex Georgiev, calmly poke-checked the puck off his stick.
In the third period, the Devils tied the game at one late in the period.
Nathan Bastian took a short drop pass from Mike MacLeod while Vince Pedrie and Schneider collided while trying to stop MacLeod. Bastian slipped away from Steven Fogarty and sped down the left wing untouched. He then cut across Georgiev and put his shot just under his right pad for his sixth of the season with 5:53 left in the regulation.
In the second period, the Wolf Pack held the Devils to just five shots. Part of the reason for the low shot total was strong defensive play inside the Wolf Pack zone from Ryan Lindgren, who did some fine shot blocking on an attempt by Christian Bertschy.
They were able to put eleven shots on Johnson including a right-wing drive by Fogarty that was redirected by Dawson Leedahl. Gabriel Fontaine, the winner of the team’s Seventh Player Award, was on the third line. He too had a solid opportunity denied by Johnson.
The Wolf Pack used their first power play to score the game’s first goal.
Bigras got the shot off from the right point. The puck made it through to Fogarty. He won a one-on-one battle and out-positioned and got in-between and behind Devils defenseman Brian Strait, and Tariq Hammond who had lost his stick for a shot that was stopped.
Ryan Gropp followed that up with being in a perfect support position behind Fogarty and chipped in his thirteenth of the season at 12:48.
This came just after Dan DeSalvo’s shot from the right point was nearly put in by the stick of Devils defenseman, Jagger Dirk.
WOLF PACK TEAM AWARD WINNERS:
MVP: Cole Schneider
7the Player Award: Gabriel Fontaine
Team Character Award: Steven Fogarty
Man of the Year: Chris Nell
Fan Favorite: Vinni Lettieri
WOLF PACK LINES:
Albert-Leedahl-Jaspar
Schneider-Fogarty-DeSalvo
Tambellini-Lettieri-Ronning
Fontaine-Gropp-Salvaggio
Bigras-Helgesen
Lindgren-Labrie
Pedrie-Crawley
SCRATCHES:
Scott Kosmachuk (foot injury)
Brendan Smith (broken hand)
Boo Nieves (healthy)
Dan Catenacci (veteran)
Drew Melanson (healthy)
Rangers unofficially assigned forward Lias Andersson (Sweden) and Filip Chytil (Czech Republic) to their respective World Championship teams that begin play in Denmark in two weeks on May 4.
The Wolf Pack announced the date of the home opener for 2018-19. The date will be October 5th.
Dirk is the son of former NHL defenseman Robert Dirk.
A whole host of scouts on hand for the home finale. Among them were Anaheim, Detroit, Ottawa, and Winnipeg.
Earlier in the week, defenseman Alexei Bereglazov, who played 13 games at the start of the season before returning to Russia, was put on unconditional waivers and cleared. This ends his contract with the Rangers and he will not be returning to Hartford in the fall and will remain in Russia to play in the KHL.
Wolf Pack Fan Jersey of the Night:
Old school night for sure; #7 Joe Rullier (still remember the banner from the home crowd, “Rullier is French for Loser!” He’s since retired), #14 Jack Combs (Iserlohn Germany-DEL), #15 Hugh Jessiman (retired), #18 (CT Whale) Jonathan Audy-Marchessault (Las Vegas-NHL), #20 P.J. Stock (assistant coach St. Lazare QJAAAHL), #23 Jayson Megna (Vancouver-NHL/Utica-AHL), #27 Martin Grenier (retired), #34 Dane Byers (Manchester England-EIHL), #46 Jordan Owens (Fischtown Germany-DEL) and #48 Peter Ferraro (retired).
Bonus: A pair of Ronnings were in the house, a #7 Cliff Ronning (Arizona) and Ty Ronning #14 (from last year).
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