CANTLON: (SAT) SOUND TIGERS EDGE WOLF PACK IN FIRST MEETING, 5-4 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – A strong late surge by the Hartford Wolf Pack wasn’t enough to overcome a one-goal deficit and the team dropped a 5-4 decision on the back-end of a hockey doubleheader Saturday night at the XL Center to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

The loss extended the team’s current losing streak to three games.

The Wolf Pack drop below .500 at 4-5-1-0 and play Sunday afternoon against the undefeated Springfield Thunderbirds to start a five-game stretch of games on the road.

The Pack had some strong stretches throughout the game, but defensive zone breakdowns and a couple of soft goals were their undoings, but the effort was far better than Wednesday night.

“I liked our effort. We battled for loose pucks in all areas, and I liked our overall work effort. What I didn’t like is our inability to close out the game with a one-goal lead going into the third period. You have to find a way to win that game. We put ourselves in penalty problems in the second (period) and we’re fortunate to get out with a lead going in the third,” remarked Pack’s head coach Keith McCambridge

On the game-winning goal, Bridgeport’s Sebastien Aho was able to move with the puck into the Pack zone. There were four players on one side and Travis St. Denis was wide open on the right wing and easily deposited his third goal of the year at 3:41 tying the game at four.

“Overall, our D-zone coverage was good, but in that instance, we got caught running around and we had the puck and just threw it away. We have to find a way to make that play to get the puck out of the zone.“

The game-winner came from Wolf Pack nemesis Steve Bernier, who was camped out in front on the powerplay thoroughly screening goaltender, Marek Mazanec. Bernier made the perfect deflection of Mitch Vande Sompel’s shot at 6:26 and that held up the rest of the way.

With Mazanec on the bench, the Wolf Pack put great pressure on the Sound Tigers to try to tie the game. John Gilmour had two strong chances that were stopped by the netminder, Christopher Gibson as the Pack controlled the action inside the Bridgeport zone. The Sound Tigers bent but never broke.

The old hockey adage that good things happen when you shoot the puck, was epitomized by the Wolf Pack’s third goal.

Brandon Crawley was at the right point. He flicked a wrist shot toward the cage and Shawn O’Donnell was in front. He outworked Kyle Burroughs and Vande Sompel and put in his third goal in two games.

Bridgeport evened the contest at three.

Connor Jones snuck behind everybody and redirected Parker Wotherspoon’s wrist shot past a screened Mazanec at 16:30.

Before the buzzer ended the second period, the Wolf Pack regained the one goal lead on a two-on-one run by Ryan Lindgren to Gabriel Fontaine.

Fontaine went wide on the left wing and hit Ville Meskanen with a perfect pass. He quickly deposited the shot for his second goal at 19:24 and a 4-3 Wolf Pack lead.

The two Bourque’s were on the ice for the Wolf Pack to contend with. Chris Bourque would have been the difficult one, but it was former Pack captain, Ryan Bourque, who did the damage in the first period.

He tallied his first of the season by forcing Chris Bigras into a turnover and then zipped through the neutral zone unscathed. The younger Bourque motored into the Pack zone and fired a 35-foot wrist shot that Mazanec fanned on at 4:30.

“We have two veteran goalies here and we’re hoping one of them picks up the ball and runs with it,” McCambridge tersely said of his goaltending tandem.

The Wolf Pack did answer back as Steven Fogarty, one of the more consistent offensive performers early in the season, was in the red zone and tallied his fifth of the season at 6:15.

The play all started as rookie Tim Gettinger upended Bridgeport captain Kyle Burroughs and did not get penalized for it. He went to the left of the net, swung the puck in from Crawley and got a shot off on Gibson who made the save and Fogarty pounced on the puck for his team leading fifth goal.

Ryan Bourque, always a proficient tip-in artist who practiced it religiously when in Hartford, redirected a shot from the left point by Vande Sompel as he out positioned Crawley for his second of the night at 7:20 making it a 2-1 Sound Tigers lead.

The Pack tied the game at two in the final minute of the period on the power play.

Lias Andersson put a shot on Gibson who made the save, but couldn’t control the puck as it slid under his right pad. Wolf Pack rookie, Mikael Lundqvist, outworked two Sound Tigers – defenseman Seth Helbeson and Vande Sompel – and got his stick on the puck getting it over the goal line at 19:23.

WOLF PACK LINES:

Andersson-Lindqvist-Beleskey

Ronning-Schneider-Holland

Fogarty-Gettinger-Butler

Fontaine-O’Donnell-Meskanen

Bigras-Hajak

Gilmour-Lindgren

Crawley-O’Gara

NOTES:

All Pack scratches were healthy. They were Ryan Gropp, Vince Pedrie, Shawn Ouellette St. Amant, and Sean Day.

Ex-Pack, Chris Bourque, was in the opening game lineup wearing number 7. Ray Bourque, Chris and Ryan’s father, wore number seven in Boston until Phil Esposito’s retirement night and famously pulled the jersey off and handed it to Espo in one of the great generous sports moments in hockey history.

Bourque then revealing his new jersey number 77 that is now retired and hanging in the rafters of the Boston Garden.

Pack jersey of the night: Jed Ortmeyer #41 and a Greg Moore #15. Moore in his career played for Bridgeport and Springfield is now is the head coach of the Chicago Steel (USHL).