CANTLON: PACK KNOCK OFF SOUND TIGERS 4-2 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

BRIDGEPORT, CT – Gabriel Fontaine’s shorthanded goal in the third-period combined with Marek Mazanec’s 22 saves and a fantastic five-on-three, late-in-the-game penalty-kill all worked together to give the Hartford Wolf Pack an important 4-2 road win over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers Saturday night at the Webster Bank Arena.

Hartford’s victory was just the second defeat at home for Bridgeport (22-12-4-2), who stay in second place in the Atlantic Division with 50 points. The Wolf Pack are now back over .500 with a record of 18-17-2-2 (40 points) but leave them still in seventh place as the Providence Bruins knocked off the Springfield Thunderbirds 4-3 at the Mass Mutual Center.

“We know this a tough building to win in and to get the two points. It was a really solid effort by everybody,” remarked head coach Keith McCambridge.

Late in the game, the Wolf Pack needed to kill off a Sound Tiger two-man advantage after two penalties that were called within three seconds of each other. The first came off a  questionable holding call to Vinni Lettieri and a delay of game on Rob O’Gara who fired the puck over the glass right off the ensuing faceoff.

“It was a lot more than we wanted at that point of the game, but the guys did a very good playing it and Maz came up with several big saves, and our defensive corps was solid all game,” McCambridge said.

Across the hall, the Sound Tigers head coach Brent Thompson was asked about the game and his answer was both blunt and direct. “We got outworked, that simple. They out-worked and out-competed us on the battles. They wanted it, and we didn’t do that. It wasn’t good enough. Our powerplay has been big for us all year and didn’t get it done tonight. Overall, a disappointing night.”

Mazanec made two extraordinary saves. The first was on a redirect by the Islanders’ prized rookie, Otto Koivula, whose shot was a redirect up top from about 15 feet out.

“The saves he made for us in the third period were important for us to get this win,” Fontaine stated.

The Sound Tigers came out early in the third-period and narrowed the Wolf Pack lead to one goal at 3-2.

Defenseman Kyle Burroughs took a pass from ex-QU Bobcat, Travis St. Denis, and came in off the right point. Burroughs put a shot toward the net through a screened by Mazanec’s own player, Brandon Crawley. The Pack netminder never had a chance. The goal came at the 58 second mark and was Burroughs’ second of the season.

Then it was the Pack special teams that helped them regain their two-goal lead, one they would not relinquish.

Fontaine snagged a loose puck in the neutral zone after a mishandle of a pass by Koivula.  Fontaine and Tim Gettinger had a two on one break in. Fontaine, a lefthanded shot, was on the right wing side. He used the 6’6 Gettinger as a decoy and whistled his sixth goal of the season past Sound Tiger goalie, Jeremy Smith at 2:43, putting the Pack back in control.

“I saw him (Gettinger) going wide on the D. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna pass or shoot. I was trying to surprise him a bit. I saw the top corner of the lefthand side open, so I tried to aim for it and it went in,” a very happy Fontaine said.

McCambridge was happy with the Fontaine’s entire line’s performance.

“The whole line of Fontaine, (Ryan) Gropp, and (Dawson) Leedahl was a good line for us all game and the goal by Gabby made a difference in the game.”

Steven Fogarty was lost in the game to an apparent concussion forcing McCambridge to do some line juggling. It included double-shifting Peter Holland who was inserted between Lettieri and Pack team captain, Cole Schneider.

Just after Chris Bourque took a shot to the short-side of Mazanec that missed, the Pack made the miss pay off for them.  Fontaine snared the loose biscuit and sent Gropp off on a breakaway. Gropp got himself behind Yannick Rathgeb and slipped his third goal of the campaign past Smith at 10:06 of the second period.

“I was little lucky on that play,“ Fontaine remarked. ”Gropper had the nice finish on that breakaway for us.”

The Sound Tigers spoiled Mazanec’s shutout bid shortly after Gropp’s goal.

Mitch Vande Sompel was at the right point and launched a shot at the net with Otto Koivula and Chris Bourque up high creating some traffic and it seemed the puck went off Koivula and hit the inside of the left pad of Mazanec and slipped through and trickled over the goal line at 11:21.

The Pack’s potent top line factored in the Wolf Pack scoring the game’s first goal.

Matt Beleskey was in the neutral zone and caught Holland on the left wing. Holland got ex-Pack Chris Bourque, turned around and zipped past him on the open left wing side. He came with speed and fired his team-leading 15^th goal past Smith to the short side at 3:35.

Holland has 12 points over his last six games. He’s cracked the AHL’s Top 10 for scoring as he’s sitting in the 9th spot with 39 points. Beleskey has seven points in his last ten games.

The Wolf Pack made it a 2-0 lead with a strong sequence inside the Sound Tigers zone.

Bobby Butler got control of the puck and sent it right to Lias Andersson’s stick blade. Andersson then made a strong move to the net and sent a short pass to Gettinger who smacked in his ninth goal at 16:58. It was Gettinger’s first goal since December 19th, but his second point in as many games.

The Wolf Pack were strong on their forecheck and just as solid in their neutral zone play. It kept the Sound Tigers off-balance as they had only one quality chance by Chris Bourque that Mazanec, making only his fourth start since November 18th, stopped with 1:48 left in the period.

What had been a rather pedestrian Wolf Pack-Sound Tigers game saw tempers flare during the last 40 seconds of the first period.

The Sound Tigers Steve Bernier nailed Fogarty in front of the Wolf Pack’s penalty box with a high hit to the head. A scrum ensued with Ryan Lindgren jumping in yet only Bernier was penalized.

Bernier was assessed a game misconduct, as well as a match penalty for contact to the head giving the Wolf Pack a major penalty power play. Fogarty was down for several minutes and clearly groggy as he went to the locker room. He did not return to the game.

However, on the Pack power play, it was the Sound Tigers who had the best scoring chance when Connor Jones came down on the right wing with Ben Holstrom on the left on a two-on-one. Jones sent the puck across to Holmstrom who gave it back. Amazingly, Mazanec made the stop on the best of the Sound Tigers five shots of the period.

PACK LINES:

Holland-Beleskey-Meskanen
Fogarty-Lettieri-Schneider
Andersson-Butler-Gettinger
Fontaine-Leedahl-Gropp

Gilmour-Lindgren
O’Gara-Bigras
Hajak-Crawley

SCRATCHES:

Dustin Tokarski (Healthy)
Shawn O’Donnell (Upper Body, Day-To-Day)
Shawn St. Amant (Healthy)
Sean Day (Healthy)

NOTES:

New York Rangers GM, Jeff Gorton, and Assistant GM, Chris Drury, were in attendance.

There was no update on Fogarty’s condition after the game. He will likely be evaluated on Monday.

The Sound Tigers saw a franchise-best streak of regulation wins without a loss at home snapped (12-0-2-1).

Holland’s cracking the AHL’s Top 10 scoring list makes him the first Wolf Pack player to do so since Chris Bourque finished the 2014-15 season with 64 points. The only others in the past nine years to achieve this accomplishment were PA Parenteau (retired), Kris Newbury (Jacksonville – ECHL) and Jonathan Marchessault (Las Vegas – NHL).

The game was chippy with several scrums, and clearly, there was animosity building between these two teams. “I hate playing that team,” Holland said while claiming his post-game meal. The comment was edited to make it family appropriate.

The Rangers won the back-end of their home-and-home series with the Islander in Brooklyn. Ex-CT Whale, Mats Zuccarrello, scored the game-winner as ex-Pack, Alexander Georgiev, picked up the win. It was the Rangers first, and only, win in seven tries since the Islanders moved to the Barclay’s Center in 2015.

The Rangers lost defenseman Frederick Claesson midway through the game after a center ice hit. It appeared like Claesson may have suffered a separated shoulder. He did not return to play.

The injury won’t affect the Wolf Pack line up. The Rangers have two extra defensemen with them in Brendan Smith and Neil Pionk, who were both scratched are available.

Former Ranger, Paul Carey (Salisbury Prep), was dealt by the Ottawa Senators to the Boston Bruins yesterday. He was assigned to Providence and proceeded to score the game-winner in Springfield with 1:01 left in regulation. Carey, is a Boston-area native having been born in Weymouth. He played his college hockey at Boston College.

Michael Doherty, a former Yale defenseman, was signed by the Binghamton Devils from the  Manchester Monarchs (ECHL).

The UCONN Huskies dropped their Hockey East game to Merrimack, 5-2. The Husky goals came from Karl El-Mir and Jachym Kondelik.

UCONN play their last non-conference game at the XL Center on Wednesday at 7 pm against RPI (ECACHL). The remainder of the regular season games are all Hockey East games.

Congratulations to the Wolf Pack anthem singer, Irene Leitao, who will be doing the Canadian National Anthem in Portland, Maine on Wednesday for the Maine Mariners, who are the Rangers ECHL affiliate. Leitao will perform the Anthem when the Newfoundland (St. John’s) Growlers come in for a visit.

Recently, Leitao did a superb, bilingual version, of the Canadian Anthem for the New England Black Wolves (NLL), a minor-league professional lacrosse team that plays out of the Mohegan Sun Arena in a game played against visiting Saskatchewan.