CANTLON: (SUN) CHECKERS STIFLE WOLF PACK, 5-2 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The Charlotte Checkers extended the Hartford Wolf Pack losing streak to five games with a solid performance in a 5-2 win as both teams head into the brief AHL All-Star break.

The Checkers remain the AHL’s best team with a record of 31-11-4-0 (66 points). The Wolf Pack record drops below the .500 mark at 19-21-3-2 (43 points). The 23-point differential was aptly demonstrated by the Checkers.

For two periods, the Checkers looked like the rebirth of the Soviet Red Army teams with their puck possession and offensive zone pressure that put a stranglehold on the Wolf Pack, who were held to just eight shots on goal.

“It wasn’t a good game. We can’t come into a game and think that you’ll have a remote chance of success against the number one team in the league if our game was not where it needed to be at all.”

The Wolf Pack played some desperate hockey in the third and scored a goal to cut the lead to two. The team had chances in the third, but hockey is a 60-minute game, not 20. The Checkers owned the first 40.

“They’re number one for a reason. They have plenty of skill, size, and weight. To them, it’s the reason they are sitting in the standings where they are.”

In the third period, the Wolf Pack did manage to put 12 shots on net and earned one goal off a set play. Gabriel Fontaine won the faceoff back to John Gilmour, who fired his 14^th of the year. Nothing though could satisfy Gilmour who is on his way tomorrow to his second consecutive AHL All-Star game.

“It was great to have the turnout that we had tonight (a season-best 7,167). We came out flat. The first two periods we weren’t happy with it. We picked up a little in third it wasn’t nearly enough against the best team in the league.”

The Pack have had five divisional games in their last six and have only managed to get two points. They know the needs of obtaining those points in a very tight Atlantic Division.

“We’re in one of those divisions where its so tight, but we don’t want to fall out of the mix here.  We really got to pick it up or we’re going to be on the outside looking in at the end of the year. We know how important these points are and we have to come with an A effort. This was unacceptable.”

The Checkers continues to play keep it away not allowing the Wolf Pack a chance to get any offense to be generated.

Gabriel Fontaine had a good rush and came in, fired his shot and it went wide. Morgan Geekie retrieved for the Checkers and hit Alexei Saarela with the pass. Off he went.

Saarela, a one-time Ranger draft pick, raced down the left-wing staying wide of the Pack’s Ryan Lindgren and ripped one short side high stick side on Georgiev for their12th goal at 13:26 and a 4-1 Charlotte lead.

That was enough for head coach Keith McCambridge. He pulled Georgiev and replaced him with Marek Mazanec.

“I wasn’t happy with either of those goals (he gave up),” McCambridge said with a clear grimace of displeasure.

Across the way, Charlotte head coach Mike Vellucci was happy with, not only the puck control but with the shot selection.

“We had good transition as shown on that play. Hey, they might have pulled him, but those were really quality shots. Alexsei, Fleury and Beaner’s were all good shots.”

After the goal, next shift down in the Pack zone Ryan Lindgren and Clark Bishop got into a wrestling match with Bishop earning the extra two for crosschecking and Matt Beleskey inexplicably was given a 10-minute misconduct.

The Pack did get a powerplay and the only quality chance went wide as Vinni Lettieri was deep in the left wing corner along the goal line, not the high percentage shooting area, but the Checkers forced players as far as away, for the goalie, Alex Nedejklovic.

Yet after two periods Lettieri’s four shots were half of the Wolf Pack shot output

The Charlotte Checkers extended their lead to two goals and Haydn Fleury was able to maneuver in the offensive zone going from the center of the ice down the right wing nary a check and then rifled one short side high on Alex Georgiev at 1:11 of the second.

Rangers goalie coach Benoit Allaire was in the house likely had something to say after the game about that one.

“I was happy with our ability to get the puck back when we lost it we gave up just one chance in the first two in the second. We controlled the game for the most part till the third when we got sloppy and stop competing,” remarked Vellucci.

The Wolf pack having to play close to the vest against the league’s top team and with strong puck possession skills did well for the first five minutes till the Checkers scored the gamers first tally.

The Pack were able to get the equalizer after Steven Fogarty’s backhand pass off a rush into the Charlotte wildly missed its mark,but Lias Andersson did a strong job tracking the puck down and put it back to Libor Hajak at the left point and he let a hard shot go and Fogarty in front made  perfect redirect for his 10th goal that Alex Nedejlkovic had no chance on for at 11:22 of the first and not till the third period was there any Wolf Pack offense.

Playing the best road game a home team can play Charlotte’s was limited to few real quality shots eight minutes or so despite being able to maintain puck possession in the offensive zone.

Then after Martin Necas drive was rejected by Wolf Pack starter Alex Georgiev the Checkers found a way to go in the locker room at the intermission with the lead with 10 seconds remaining.

Jake Bean at the left point got Matt Beleskey’s clearing pass via the stick of his teammate Zach Natasiuk who knocked it down and Bean retrieved it and wired his ninth off the far post of a screened Georgiev for the 2-1 lead.

“Natasiuk not only the stick on that he set up the screen up top that helped a lot,”.

The only other happiness for Wolf Pack fans just past midway in the third was Lettieri knocking down Nedejlkovic down and starting a mini-scrum wit  Marek Mazanec going as far as his blue line with Nedejlkovic throwing catching glove shots in the pile and doing the wave.

SCRATCHES:

Shawn O’ Donnell (upper body,  expected return after the All-Star break)
Brandon Crawley (healthy)
Shawn St. Amant (healthy)

LINES:
Holland-Beleskey-Meskanen
Nieves-Lettieri-Brickley
Fogarty-Andersson-Gropp
Fontaine-Butler-Leedahl

Gilmour-Lindgren
Bigras-Hajak
O’Gara-Day

NOTES:

Last night in Binghamton, McCambridge, the Pack’s bench boss, coached his 500^th AHL game.

The AHL All-Star game in Springfield can be seen tomorrow (Skills competition) and Monday (All-Star Game) on the NHL Network and various regional sports outlets such as NESN and MSG consult your systems for channel listings and times.

Fans jersey of the night: Two German fans in Springfield for business wore the jerseys of their home team EHC Dresden (Germany DEL-2).

There was a #22 Tommy Grant CT Whale jersey sighting.