BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack and the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins have had some wild games over the years and Sunday afternoon proved to be another chapter of this crazy novel between these two teams.
The Penguins’ Adam Johnson banked in his own rebound for his 15th goal of the season off the skate of Pack goalie Brandon Halverson at 1:40 of overtime giving the visiting Penguins a 5-4 win.
The overtime point allowed the Pack, who have just 22 games remaining in their season, to stay eleven points out of the fourth place and final playoff spot, currently held by the Providence Bruins.
“He made a really good play and stayed with the puck. We’re happy we got the two points, but we let it get more interesting than it needed to be,” remarked ex-Pack, Chris Summers, one of the Penguins’ three assistant captains.
The Pack nearly won it early in overtime at the 47-second mark when Sean Day won a battle behind the net, scooted out in front on the right wing side for a wraparound attempt. Everybody reacted as if it had gone in, but referee Mathieu Menniti waved it off.
After the Penguins game-winning goal, a review of Day’s play confirmed that the puck had in fact, NOT gone in but had rather hit the post and spoiled what could have been an amazing comeback.
While the referees made the right call on Day’s goal, they missed repeated crosschecks along the lower right wing half wall to Vinni Lettieri by Zach Trotman just prior to the breakout that resulted in the game-winner.
After the second period, to think the Pack would get the game to overtime wasn’t a remote possibility. The Penguins had the Wolf Pack in a 4-1 choke hold, but Hartford wrestled themselves out of that hole and made a game of it.
The Wolf Pack awoke from their two-period slumber with two goals in the first five minutes of the third period and earned themselves a point out of a game where none seemed remotely possible.
Clearly, the message in the second intermission fired up and inspired the Pack as a whole different team emerged from the locker room.
“We knew we didn’t play our best hockey in the first two periods. The coaches really told us we really needed to step it up. We came out and we got the first one and in hockey sometimes a two-goal can be the worst thing to play with,” Day, a rookie rearguard, remarked.
Pack head coach Keith McCambridge took the diplomatic route by stoically answer about the message he brought to the team in the second intermission saying, “That’s between the players and myself, no comment.”
On the first, Steven Fogarty stripped the puck from Penguins defenseman Ethan Prow and flipped a forehand shot into the net just 29 seconds into the period.
“It was good to get that first one early and got us on a roll there. We knew we had to pick it up. We didn’t do too well the first two periods,“ Fogarty said.
The fierce and determined Fogarty got a ringing endorsement from his head coach.
“Fogs plays the right way all the time. He’s on the right side of the puck and I wish I had 23 players like him,” McCambridge stated.
Fogarty’s teammates feel the same.
“He leads by example every night and plays hard. He never takes a shift off,” said Day.
On the second goal, Peter Holland got a perfect head man pass from Lettieri. Holland got behind the defense and then got goalie John Muse to go to the ice and flipped a backhander past him for his twentieth goal of the season, and shrunk the Penguins lead to a single score.
“That was kind of a makeshift line, but all three players are talented and that was a great finish by Holland,“ Fogarty stated.
The Wolf Pack now have had at least one 20 goal scorer in all 22 seasons of the franchise.
The Pack tied the game at four on the powerplay, taking just six seconds for them to capitalize on the penalty to Jimmy Hayes for hooking Lettieri.
Fogarty won the faceoff and Ryan Gropp shoveled the puck back to Day. The youngster played patiently with the puck and moved from the right point to his left waiting on a Tim Gettinger screen.
Day let it fly and recorded his first AHL goal at 9:57 which gave the crowd of 4,524 plenty to cheer about after two periods of listless hockey.
“Gets is a large frame out there and I saw nobody was rushing me. I knew I could take my time and get to the middle and just threw it at the net and good for us that it went in. I had some chances the last 10-15 games since my recall and yeah, it’s a relief for sure,” Day said.
Day’s progression as a player has been one of the few bright spots in what has been a topsy-turvy past couple of weeks in the way the team has played for McCambridge.
“I like Day’s growth. With the injuries that we have had on the back line with Bigras and O’Gara being injured, he’s getting those extra minutes and Sean Day is making the most of it, and that was a really nice shot.”
Gropp has been given more minutes of late and he is rewarding his coach’s faith in him depositing six points in his last seven games.
“He has earned (the ice time). He makes the odd mistake, but his effort and work are clearly there and he was involved in the action.”
The first two periods the Pack were not engaged and outshot 24-12. As only 12 shots indicate, there were no second and third chances.
Pack netminder, Dustin Tokarski was ineffective and the general malaise showed in their efforts.
“In the first period, we couldn’t get out own zone,” McCambridge said. “What few times we had in the offensive zone, we really didn’t generate the chances we needed. We got the first goal like we did last night, but we didn’t sustain it. We need to play with more structure. We had none in the first two periods. The third period allowed us to get a point out that game,”
The Penguins grabbed the lead early in the second period.
Johnson went down an open left wing side and ripped a shot. Tokarski made the initial save on it, but the rebound went right to the Penguins’ Sam Lafferty who won his battle with Libor Hajak and deposited his eighth of the season into the net at 5:35.
The Penguins then extended their lead to 3-1.
Off a faceoff win by Lafferty over Fogarty, Summers launched a shot from 45 feet out that appeared to hit Ryan Lindgren’s skate. Lindgren had his back to Summer’s shot attempt, and the puck went past Tokarski. It was Summers first goal of the season and came at 9:05.
“That went straight through,” Summers said with a laugh. “All I was trying to do was get it on the net. I was surprised too. It was a greasy goal, but I’ll take it.”
The Penguins maintained puck possession and pushed the Wolf Pack back further into a corner at 4-1.
Kevin Czuczman, an ex-Sound Tiger, was operating down low. He got the puck up the right wing boards to Trotman, his defensive partner, who sent a shot on the ice and Joseph Blandisi, who was standing in front of Tokarski with John Gilmour nearby, but who had one foot in the blue paint redirected his 13th goal of the season into the net at 16:45.
McCambridge had seen enough and pulled Tokarski in favor of Brandon Halverson. It was the fourth time this year McCambridge has changed goalies and the third time with Tokarski and it was the second time in a week.
When asked if he was dissatisfied with Tokarski’s or the teams play, McCambridge answered solemnly and succinctly, “Both”
The overall defensive play left a lot to be desired.
“We had too many lapses in defensive coverage, against any team that’s not gonna help you,”
Fogarty lamented the play in the first two periods.
“We get too complacent at times and against a team like Wilkes-Barre, it’s gonna hurt you.”
After being held without a shot over the first four minutes of the game, the Pack scored on their very first shot.
Day’s dump-in went around the boards up the left side. Lettieri tracked it down and reversed on Sam Miletic and headed to the net on the left wing side. Skating almost parallel to the net along the left wing goal line, Lettieri flipped a backhander that went off the right side of Penguins goalie John Muse on the open short side and into the back of the net at 4:41. It gave the Pack a 1-0 lead.
The Penguins answered back on their fifth shot.
On the lower left-wing wall, Ryan Scarfo sent the puck to Summers at the left point. He let his shot go and Tokarski couldn’t control the rebound. Another ex-Pack, Ryan Haggerty, won the one-on-one battle with Lindgren and was able to bang in his 13th of the season at 6:01.
As it so often happens against the Penguins, the goal energized them and put the Pack on their heels for most of the period. Hartford was outshot 14-5. Tokarski had to fend off shots from Haggerty in the left wing circle looking for his second goal of the game, and Matt Abt from the left point with 1:04 left in the period.
SCRATCHES:
Chris Bigras – (right ankle, at least a month)
Rob O’Gara – (lower body, week-to-week)
Ville Meskanen – (lower body, a week)
Ty Ronning – (lower body, day-to-day)
Derek Pratt – (healthy)
Brandon Crawley – (healthy)
LINES:
Fogarty-Gettinger-Gropp
Andersson-Lettieri-Fontaine
Holland-Beleskey-Butler
O’Donnell-Melanson-St. Amant
Gilmour-Lindgren
Tolkinen-Hajak
Day-Finn
NOTES:
Entering the game, Holland was eleventh in the AHL in scoring with 48 points (19 goals and 29 assists). He is also fifth in shots on goal with 152.
Lias Andersson has been on the fourth line and was double shifted a couple of times. He’s on the first powerplay unit and has just one goal and four points in his last fourteen games.
Among the Penguins scratches were former CT Whale defenseman, Tim Erixon who suffered an injury and has played in only 17 games this season. He is the son of one-time New York Ranger, Jan Erixon.
Ex-Pack Karl Klingberg has been loaned for the rest of the season to EVZ Academy (Switzerland-LNB) from EV Zug (Switzerland-LNA).
