CANTLON: BEARS BURY PACK DESPITE LETTIERI HAT TRICK 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – Vinni Lettieri and Devante Smith-Pelly matched hat tricks while John Gilmour’s and Nathan Walker each had three helpers for their respective teams, but in the end, it was the Hershey Bears who pulled off a 5-3 victory over the Hartford Wolf Pack.

The loss effectively removed any chance the Wolf Pack might have had in catching the Bears, whose record improves to 33-22-2-4 (72 points). They hold an eleven point lead over the Pack with just thirteen games left to play. The loss drops the Pack record to 26-28-6-3 (61 points).

The Bears’ win ended their current, and longest, losing streak in over two months. They are 0-1-2-1 over the span.

Penalties and loose defensive zone play cost the Wolf Pack another loss, which also ended a modest three-game winning streak.

“When you’re killing penalties, your shot totals are going to be going up, and the first part we’re putting ourselves to be in a position to take those penalties. At the top of my list, we were mismanaging pucks in critical areas and we know this Hershey team set a record for consecutive wins. Anytime you give a team a free play on turnovers like that, there’s a very good chance it’s going to wind up in the back of your net,” Wolf Pack head coach Keith McCambridge said.

The Bears took a 3-2 lead as the Pack was, once again, unable to clear the puck or get to a loose puck off a rebound.

Rookie Wolf Pack goalie, Adam Huska, stopped ex-Pack Ryan Sproul’s left point drive with a pad save. The Bears Nathan Walker got to the loose biscuit after a center ice turnover by Tim Gettinger, who was going off for a line change.  Walker fed another ex-CT Whale, Jayson Megna, for a quickly developing two-on-one. Megna, a right-handed shot, was playing on the left wing. He slid the pass over to Smith-Pelly on the right wing. The NHL veteran deposited his second of the game at 1:52.

The Bears nearly got another with a Sproul shot that that was stopped, but on the net-front battle, Walker seemingly scored, but a lengthy review determined there was no goal.

The Bears kept the pressure on as the Wolf Pack took penalties allowed the Bears quality O-zone time.

At 8:53, and on the powerplay, Megna redirected Michael Sgarbossa’s perfect pass from the left point. Megna had inside position on Josh Wesley and put it past Huska giving the Bears a two-goal advantage at 4-2.

The Wolf Pack followed with 1:16 of five-on-three late but didn’t connect until six seconds after it ended. After passing it back-and-forth several times, Lettieri took a cross-ice pass from Gilmour and buried his third goal of the game past a diving Bears goalie, Vitek Vanacek at 16:45.

The goal completed Lettieri’s hat trick and some of the crowd of 4,685 followed the hockey signature rituals by throwing hats on the ice.

It was Lettieri’s 21st goal of the season, which leads the team. Lettieri was the second Pack player to record a hat trick in two weeks, but just the third hat trick in three years and sixth in the last seven years. Gilmour’s third assist of the game gave him 48 on the season to become the AHL leader for points by a defenseman passing Zach Redmond of the idle Rochester Americans.

‘Our line has been doing great,” remarked Lettieri. The team’s number one unit consists of Lettieri, Steven Fogarty, and Ryan Gropp, “When I get the puck. I always try to get it to Gropp or Fogarty and then try to get ahead of the play and they always seem to find me.”

Smith-Pelly matched Lettieri’s hat trick restore a two-goal lead as the trailer on Walker’s breakaway. Huska made the pad save, but Smith-Pelly went unchecked and was able to sweep and bury that a shot just 44 seconds after Lettieri’s goal at 17:29.

The play started when Gabriel Fontaine blew a tire at center ice. Sean Day was unable to get back to contain Walker allowing Smith-Pelly to record his seventh point in six games.

McCambridge was happy with his rookie goalie who showed flashes of his UCONN form.

“I like the way Adam played. I really can’t fault (him) on those rebounds against us, but he did give us some chances to win the game. He had to fight thru traffic to find those pucks and he did so. There are going to be rebounds, and that’s our defenseman’s job to clear those rebounds.”

The Wolf Pack came out at the start of the second as they did in the first attacking Hershey defense and gained the lead back at 2-1.

Gilmour wired a shot off the left pad of Vanacek and Lettieri was right there to easily deposit the loose change for his second of the night at 30 seconds.

Two milestones were reached on the play.

Lettieri became the second Wolf Pack to reach 20 goals. The other was the now traded, Peter Holland.

With his second assist of the night, Gilmour broke the record for assists by a defenseman passing Andrew Hutchison in the 2007-08 season.

Hershey came back at 5:53 on the powerplay. Huska made a save with the shoulder on Jusso Ikonen, but the Wolf Pack didn’t get to a loose puck, but Walker did at the left side of the net. Walker sent the puck behind the net to Juuso Ikonen. He quickly fed Garret Pilon who rifled his seventh goal of the season to the far side past Huska, evening the game at two and completing a well-executed three player sequence.

Pack grabbed the first goal of the game on the powerplay.

Gilmour fed Lettieri at the right point. Lettieri then unloaded a heavy snapshot that sailed past Vanacek who was screened by Gabriel Fontaine 12:39.

Hershey bounced back with Smith-Pelly, in his sixth game since being demoted by the Washington Capitals, when he scored his first of the game from the left wing. Smith-Pelley’s perfect redirect of ex-Sound Tiger Aaron Ness’s left point shot beat Huska to the short-side at 17:29 to tie the score at one.

SCRATCHES:

Dawson Leedahl (upper body, week-to-week)
Rob O’Gara (lower body, week-to-week)
Chris Bigras (ankle, out for the season)
Drew Melanson (healthy)
Julius Bergman (healthy)

LINES:

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

Gilmour-Lindgren
Raddysh-Day
Wesley-Crawley

NOTES:

The Pack will host the Binghamton Devils on Wednesday at 7:00 pm, the last mid-week game of the season and the last home game for the next two weeks.

Gilmour’s next goal will be his 19th and will break the Wolf Pack team record for goals by a defenseman set by Andrew Hutchison in the 2007-08 season. Hutchinson was the Wolf Pack captain and became the only Eddie Shore trophy winner for Best Defenseman in franchise history.

Matt Beleskey’s powerplay goal last night in Springfield against the Thunderbirds broke a 23-game scoreless streak that dated back to January 5th against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

With Huska now in the red, white, and blue, Chris Nell became expendable and was reassigned to the team’s ECHL affiliates, the Maine Mariners, who in turn released veteran Hannu Toivonen.

Wolf Pack Fan Jersey of the Night: Plenty to choose from #15 Greg Moore, #36 Craig Weller, #40 Steve Valiquette, #42 Jeff State, CT Whale #5 Blake Parlett, a Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL) #27 Tim Gettinger, and a special tip of the chapeau to a #27 Hershey Bears Dennis Bonvie plus two beautiful blue Maine Mariner’s road uni’s. Former team captain and head coach, Ken Gernander’s #12 jersey was sighted as well.

Speaking of Moore, he is now the head coach of the Chicago Steel (USHL). Moore was the second Wolf Pack captain following Gernander’s retirement. Their first captain was Craig Weller who is not currently active in hockey.

One of 38 players to play for both the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and the Wolf Pack, Valiquette is now an MSG-TV hockey analyst on Rangers’ broadcasts. He was part of the greatest Wolf Pack goalie tandem ever with Jason LaBarbera.

Speaking of the 6’5 Jeff State, who also played for the wildly, infamous Danbury Trashers, then Wolf Pack head coach, Ryan McGill, now an assistant with the Las Vegas Golden Knights, and who was never one for mincing words said, “He was like a human pillon out there,”

Blake Parlett is now playing in Beijing, China with Kunlun Red Star (KHL). Bonvie, the AHL’s all-time PIM leader with 4,493 in 871 games and was one of the most honest and decent players in the game, is currently scouting for the Boston Bruins. Bonvie’s fight with Richard Scott in Hartford was one of the greatest toe-to-toe bouts in XL Center history. Scott was smiling throughout the tilt.

At the time, Scott’s teammate Jeff Toms, said after the game, “If you couldn’t get juiced after watching that you need to check your pulse.”