CANTLON: (FRI) PACK HOLD ON TO BEAT THUNDERBIRDS, 3-2 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack played a disciplined game that allowed them to build a 3-0 lead but hung on to escape with a 3-2 win over the Springfield Thunderbirds before a healthy-sized crowd of 5,780 at the XL Center Friday night.

The Thunderbirds converged at the front of the net with their goalie pulled for the extra attacker. A shot from the right point went off the near post next to Pack netminder, Brandon Halverson. The puck then ricocheted off of Paul Thompson’s skate and across the crease. It then went off of Halverson’s paddle just as the green light came on signifying the end of the game.

“I didn’t see the last two shots including the second goal. On that shot, I got a piece of it with my glove and heard it hit the post. I think the puck went through my legs. Guys were whacking at my pads, I just kinda stretched out and guys were tying guys up. It was crazy,” Halverson said.

After Vinni Lettieri’s deposited his 16th of the season, an empty net goal, which seemed to have wrapped it up for the Pack when they had a 3-0 lead with 2:38 left, but the Thunderbirds finally broke loose.

First Springfield’s Chris Wideman scored his third goal on his team-leading sixth shot of the game. Wideman took his shot from the top of the left wing circle to the short-side of Halverson, who along with his defense, was rock solid all game as long. The goal came at 18:27 making it 3-1.

With just 54.1 seconds left in regulation, the Thunderbirds brought themselves within a goal as Dryden Hunt took a pass from off the right wing boards off the stick of Jonathan Ang. From the right wing circle and with Halverson thoroughly screened by Ryan Lindgren, Hunt whizzed a shot past him for his 20th of the season and the final goal of the contest.

The first 58 minutes was the right medicine for what has ailed this team over the past month.

“It was the best I’ve seen us play since I’ve been here,” Halverson said. “It’s been hard to put together sixty minutes for this team. We all played well; all four lines and the defense was blocking shots.”

Pack head coach Keith McCambridge was finally able to exhale after those last two minutes.

“You know when the other team pulls a goalie and they have an extra forward, they’re going to get chances. We wound up providing the net-front traffic,“ McCambridge, with some slight sarcasm at his team’s expense, said. “The goaltender has pads for a reason, so let him make those saves, and that bounce off the post at the end, you like it to go in your favor. We have had games this season that haven’t gone our way, so will take it.”

The Wolf Pack got the second period off on the right foot scoring early to take a 2-0 lead.

John Gilmour was skating backward in the Pack zone and snapped a perfect lead pass to Ty Ronning for a breakaway. Ronning, playing his first game in three weeks, showed a great right leg kick and went to the forehand and lifted the puck over the left shoulder of Thunderbirds goalie, Chris Driedger.

It was Ronning’s second AHL goal of the season and he looked up and let a big sigh of relief coming back from an injury and contributing some offense.

“It was a beautiful finish. I was so happy for Ty. Let’s hope he can build on it offensively for this team,” McCambridge said.

The Wolf Pack nearly got a third goal when Ryan Gropp made a good pass to Steven Fogarty, who came in from the left wing side and had an open right side of the net. Driedger made a fabulous glove save to deny the goal.

The Wolf Pack kept the Thunderbirds at bay by forcing them to chase the puck. Especially effective was the line of Ville Meskanen, Ronning and Gabriel Fontaine.

This was a disciplined Wolf Pack team with a good balance of dump and chase and puck control.

“I liked our compete-level, generating shots and creating second-chance opportunities. We did a good job getting the puck out of the zone and maintaining it in our end too,” said McCambridge.

The defense did its job by blocking shots and got the necessary back pressure support from the fowards.

On one such occasion, Halverson stopped Jonathan Ang on a shorthanded bid to the short-side and Ryan Horvat at 7:10 of the third. He was also solid when the puck squeezed through and was heading for the net, but Fontaine made a smart play to sweep it away from the goal line and under Halverson.

Just after killing off an early five-on-three in the first period against the AHL’s number one powerplay the Wolf Pack struck for the game’s first goal.

From the Pack zone, Fogarty fed Lettieri and he sped up the right wing. Lettieri made a nice forehand drop pass to Sean Day. Day, a left-handed shot, was on the right wing and cruised to the faceoff dot where he zipped his second of the season, and in as many games, at 4:48.

“We did a really good job with our breakouts and keeping things in our own zone cleaned up pretty good and Halvy made some saves too.”

Halverson was up for the task with three saves on Wideman and Tomas Jurco on the power play from atop the right-wing circle. He also denied Hunt on a breakaway at 7:12.

“That’s my job to make those stops and guys were blocking shots too,” Halverson stated. “We don’t kill that (five-on-three) off early, it could have been a different game.”

Halverson has started five of the last six Wolf Pack games.

The Pack got offense from Matt Beleskey with six shots and Lettieri had ten.

NOTES:

Lettieri’s 10 shots on goal, a season-high, was off by three from the team record of 13 held by THE number 11, Brad “Shooter” Smyth, who was recently inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame.

Beleskey sought to end his 18 game goal drought.

Springfield’s Paul Thompson, who scored four goals in the last game against the Pack, was held without a shot on goal by the strong Pack team defense.

This was the 7th of ten meetings with the Thunderbirds. They have won the last three games.

Springfield leads the series between the teams at 10-16-1-1

The Thunderbirds ended a season-high, six-game losing streak on Sunday with a 5-1 win in Providence.

Springfield has the AHL’s top PP at 25.4%. The Wolf Pack are 16th at 18.1%. The Wolf Pack PK is 21st in the AHL at 80.6% and the Thunderbirds are 29th of 31 teams at 77.6%.

SCRATCHES:

Chris Bigras (ankle)
Brandon Crawley (upper body)
Rob O’Gara (lower body)
Drew Melanson (healthy)
Dawson Leedahl (healthy)
Zach Tolkinen (healthy)
Dustin Tokarski (healthy).

LINES:

Fontaine-Ronning-Meskanen
Beleskey-Butler-Gettinger
Fogarty-Lettieri-Gropp
O’Donnell-St. Amant-Zac Lynch

Gilmour-Lindgren
Day-Finn
Darren Raddysh-Hajak

Raddysh wore number 22 which is the same number as the player he was traded for, Peter Holland.  He had three shots on goal in his debut.

Ex-Springfield Falcons and NHL star, Daniel Briere saw his middle son Carson make a commitment to Arizona State (NCAA Division-1) for 2020-21. He presently plays for Johnstown (NAHL). He will join Mario Lemieux’s son Austin, a sophomore for the Sun Devils, the nation’s 15th ranked team. It is still an independent D-1 program.

Briere’s older brother, Calean, plays for University of Alabama (ACHA Division-1). His younger brother, Cameron, plays for Aston (EJEPL) and the NJ Junior Titans U-18 (AYHL).

From the “You-Can’t-Make-This-Up” department comes this.

There’s a new hockey movie in production called Odd Man Rush. The film features Trevor Gretzky, the son of the legendary Wayne Gretzky, and the female lead in the picture is, Alexa Lemieux, yes, the daughter of Mario Lemieux. The movie’s executive producer…Howard Baldwin Sr.

Tomorrow is Hartford Hockey Heritage Day with an alumni game prior to the Providence game at 4:30 pm.

Some of the alumni scheduled to participate are ex-Hartford Whaler and New York Ranger, Bob Crawford, as well as former Wolf Pack players, Stefan Cherneski, Richard Scott, and Billy Tibbetts. Also joining in is former San Jose Shark, Will Levesque, and Doug Smith from the movie Goon.

The golden voice of Tony Harrington will kick off the festivities with his always stirring rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.

Wolf Pack Fan Jersey of the Night: #26 Bryce Lampman.