BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack got a goal and an assist from Chris Bigras in a 4-2 win over the Providence Bruins holding off a late rally in their home and regular season opener.
The Pack got off to the quick start in building a 3-0 lead.
“Our start was excellent and our forecheck strong, created a lot of turnovers. We got on our heels a little bit with penalties especially consecutive penalties in the second period hemmed us in our zone a bit and gave back some momentum,” remarked head coach Keith McCambridge.
While on the penalty kill, the Bruins finally broke the Pack defense in the third with good forechecking.
Libor Hajak, who played well in the first half of the game, made a rookie mistake after strong pressure from Austin Fyten. While being pursued Hajak tried to make a pass. Fyten was right there and snapped a quick wrist shot over the left shoulder of goaltender Marek Mazanec at 8:19. The goal clearly gave the Bruins life.
Mark McNeill, an offseason free agent signing, then narrowed the lead to 3-2 late. Ryan Fitzgerald was at the left and spotted McNeill off the left post. He sent his pass across but it never made it as the puck went off Hajek’s skate and into the net. Mazanec had no chance.
“These plays can happen in a course of the season. Nobody likes them and these are situations you learn from,” McCambridge, a former AHL defenseman who knows how bounces can happen on a rearguard, said.
Former Rangers captain, Ryan McDonagh, had that same thing happen to him when he played in the Connecticut Capitol in his first season. He’s certainly progressed and so will Hajak.
The Pack jumped out to an early 2-0 lead scoring twice in a 56-second span, maintaining puck possession for most of the period.
Rookie Tim Gettinger planted his 6’6 frame in front of the net to score the season’s first goal.
Bigras was at the right side of the net when he launched a low wrist shot that he perfectly redirected to the far side of Zane McIntyre at 5:11.
“We had a good first period and got some good jump on them, and we got good energy from the fans,” Bigras, who had a strong camp in New York, said. Bigras was paired, as he was during the entire pre-season, with rookie Libor Hajak.
McIntyre led the AHL in shutouts last year.
“Our defense did a good job getting into the rush and getting possession at the blue line and we can do better as a group. I like the way we started. We had some good things to pull from,” a smiling McCambridge said of his defensive corps.
The second goal came just seconds into their first power play of the year. He took a short pass from behind the goal line and swept the puck at McIntyre which got past him.
“Very smart play by a good player. Really good read to make the play and it went in,” said McCambridge of his newly minted captain’s goal.
The Wolf Pack extended their lead with another special team’s shorthanded goal when Bigras picked up his second point of the period. He took a pass from Steven Fogarty and whistled a shot to the short-side that eluded McIntrye from the left wing about 35 feet out.
Fogarty was strong all night on both sides of the puck.
“Looking at Fogs, from his first season to last year, to now, (he’s) being that complete package. He always has had a great stick and a smart player reading where the next play is going, very strong game,” remarked McCambridge.
The goal surrendered was the last of the night for McIntyre as Bruins’ head coach, Jay Leach, put in his second-year pro, Dan Vladar.
Maintaining puck possession and making the Bruins chase them was a departure from last year.
“That was important for us in the first. We did well, but we did get away from things in the second. If we keep that play from the first for the full 60 we’ll do well,” said Bigras.
The Bruins came out hard in opening minutes of the second period, but Mazanec denied the Bruins attempt to negate the Pack momentum.
Mazanec made two big stops in the first 1:30.
Mazanec dove across from left-to-right, stunning Peter Cehlarik, who had his hands raised thinking he’d scored at the 21-second mark,
Then, at 1:28, defenseman Chris Breen put all of his 6’8 frame into a shot from the left point. The shot was on the net and despite traffic in front of him, Mazanec kept the puck out of the net.
The Pack had some minor penalty problems, but an effective PK kept the Bruins off the scoreboard. Hajak had two key blocks on back-to-back penalties. The first was down of the ice where he blocked a shot with the shaft of his stick. Then he dove near the left wing boards to get a puck out of the zone and harms way.
Then on a third, Mazanec was tested to make a key stop on a low hard slap shot from the right point by Jakub Zboril with 3:45 left in the period.
PACK LINES:
Peter Holland-Mikael Lundqvist-Cole Schneider
Lias Andersson-Steven Fogarty-Ryan Gropp
Gabriel Fontaine-Shawn O’Donnell-Shawn St. Amant
Tim Gettinger-Ville Meskanen-Bobby Butler
Chris Bigras-Libor Hajak
John Gilmour-Ryan Lindgren
Sean Day-Rob O’Gara
NOTES:
The Pack plays Laval on Sunday afternoon at 3 pm with Dustin Tokarski in net.
The Wolf Pack are now 7-7-1 in home openers and overall 11-10-1
The Pack and Bruins split last season series evenly 4-4-1-1. In the history of this great AHL rivalry, the Pack leads the series 90-66-8-12-8.
Bruins sent down first round pick defenseman Urho Vaakanainen early this afternoon. He was in the opening lineup.
A boisterous crowd, but the second lowest opening night crowd at 6,112
Wolf Pack jerseys of the night; #15 Greg Moore and #44 Mike Ouellette.
