CANTLON: (SAT) SPRINGFIELD SHUTS OUT WOLF PACK 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – For only the second time this season, and the first time at the XL Center the Hartford Wolf Pack were shutout 3-0 by the Springfield Thunderbirds on Saturday night.

The teams meet in a rematch Wednesday night at the XL Center at 7 pm.

Both goaltenders excelled in keeping the opposition from running away with the game on the scoreboard stopping a plethora of high-quality shots.

The Thunderbirds record improves to 19-14-5-4 (47 points) and sits in fourth place in the division. Chris Driedger made 40 saves in the shutout while Alexander Georgiev denied 33. Both truly earned their place as stars of the game.

In the third period, Georgiev was tested early and denied Juho Lammikko, who was just sent down by the Florida Panthers the day before, with one of his eight shots for the game by a right pad. At 2:02, Georgiev stoned the Thunderbirds Harry Zolniercyzk with a grade-A bid.

The Wolf Pack record falls to 19-18-2-2 (38 points) and leaves them in seventh place. The team did their best to counter-attack with Matt Beleskey (six shots on goal) getting stopped at the 3:00 mark. Vinni Lettieri had a powerplay opportunity from the right point that was denied. Peter Holland tried to extend a team season-high, eight-game point scoring streak which has seen him amass 16 points. He was stopped on the doorstep by Driedger with Lias Andersson looking for a rebound.

Halfway thru the period, Beleskey had a quality shot short-side that was swatted away. On another powerplay chance, John Gilmour, Holland, and Lettieri couldn’t get it past Driedger despite their best efforts to get the red light on.

At 13:36, just after a Pack powerplay ended, the Thunderbirds Jonathan Ang tested Georgiev, but he was up to the challenge with strong save.

Gabriel Fontaine and Beleskey both had chances with a net-front full of traffic. Somehow, Driedger found the puck through the mass of bodies, sticks, and skates with 4:01 left in regulation.

Lettieri (six shots on goal) had the last best Wolf Pack chance put aide by Dreidger. After taking a timeout with the faceoff in the Springfield zone, Gilmour had trouble handling the puck at the left point. He over-compensated trying to make a play and put it to the middle of the ice. Tomas Jurco, playing his third game since the Panthers sent him to Springfield, iced the game with an empty net goal from center ice at 17:55.

After a scoreless first, in the second frame, the Thunderbirds owned the first half of the period scoring two goals in a nearly five-minute span.

At 1:12, Zolniercyzk was falling down and got the puck back to Jacob MacDonald at the left point for a shot that had eyes on it making it through to his teammate, Paul Thompson, with the Pack’s Rob O’Gara in front. After the goal went in, Thompson swatted at Georgiev’s head and O’Gara quickly came to his goalies’ aid wrestling Thompson to the ice. It was MacDonald’s tenth of the season.

At 6:05, Springfield struck again.

Just after Georgiev had stopped an Ang breakaway after the Thunderbird swiped the puck from Sean Day in the neutral zone. They kept the puck in the Pack zone and Ludwig Bystrom put a drop pass to Ang whose long drive was stopped by Georgiev. Jake Horton was on the doorstep and got a piece of the puck. In the act of making the stop, Georgiev kicked the puck into the net off his right skate.

The Pack was MIA during the first ten minutes of the period and were held to just one shot. The Thunderbirds out-battled them for loose pucks and the Pack was not getting in the shooting lanes. Dryden Hunt had a solid bid that Georgiev smothered and then finally at 12:18 the Pack got a quality shot on net by Gilmour.

Two minutes later, Jurco launched one of his five shots on the night that was kept out of the net. The Pack’s Tim Gettinger had two shots on goal sandwiched around another Jurco shot and Ryan Gropp thought he had a goal with 3:12 left, but it was stopped.

NOTES:

The Wolf Pack will play the Providence Bruins on Monday afternoon at 3 pm. The game was postponed from Sunday afternoon because of the snowstorm.

The Pack’s Steven Fogarty was back in the lineup after missing three games.

The Wolf Pack signed former QU Bobcat defenseman, Zach Tolkinen to a PTO deal. He was playing for the team’s ECHL affiliate, the Maine Mariners, where in 29 games he had one goal 10 assists and was a minus-10.

Milwaukee was shutout by Grand Rapids 3-0. Cole Schneider had two shots and was a minus-two for his new teammates which include ex-Pack, Vince Pedrie, and Scott Savage, who was in Wolf Pack training camp.

WOLF PACK LINES:

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

Gilmour-Hajak
Bigras-O’Gara
Crawley-Day

SCRATCHES:

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