CANTLON: (SUN) WOLF PACK END PRESEASON IN BRIDGEPORT WITH A LOSS 

By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

BRIDGEPORT, CT – Two goals in a 13-second span in the third period by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers upended the Hartford Wolf Pack by a score of 4-2 on Saturday afternoon to end the pre-season sadly in all too familiar fashion for Hartford that has been seen over the last two years.

The first goal came via the stick of Oliver Wahlstrom, who snapped home a wrist shot from the slot off a Kyle Burroughs pass at 14:01. This came 31 seconds after a Sound Tigers’ Ben Thomson major, had expired. Then before they could even announce the goal, the red light was on again.

On the second goal, David Quenneville took a feed from Kyle Maclean (two assists) and sent a knuckler that floated over Huska’s glove hand at 14:14.

Cole Bardeau sealed it for the Sound Tigers with a shorthanded, empty-net tally at 18:54

“We were flat in the first. In our first two exhibition games we had good first periods. We didn’t generate much. Our second period was our best. Our special teams were our best. We got two goals, but not much five-on-five.

“It was good that we scored early on the five minute major, then we had guys who were playing a lot…well, we just fell asleep,” remarked Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch.

The Wolf Pack scored and took the lead at 2-1 and it looked like it would sustain the Pack the rest of the way. On the powerplay, off an odd five minute major chance after a scrum between the two teams.

Strong corner work on the left-wing side, first by Phil DiGiuseppe pushed the puck to Danny O’Regan who in turn sent it to Nick Jones. He turned and fired the puck and beat Jared Coreau to the short-side at 9:23 for his third goal in two games.

The powerplay came as result of inexperienced officiating. The Sound Tigers’ Tanner Pond knocked Mason Geertsen down from behind. He got to engage him and all ten players converged at the scene that became a rugby scrum just inside the Hartford blue line.

Thomson, who scrapped with Gertseen on Friday, immediately jumped into the fray. He was tagged with five for fighting and game misconduct for being the third man in.  How Thomson could be picked out of a ten-player scrum is curious at best.

The double-minor roughing penalties went to Pond and Geertsen. That would have been sufficient, but the Wolf Pack took advantage of the gift but frittered it away the five-minute major.

The second period was devoid of any notable action until the Wolf Pack’s second powerplay of the game and tied the game at one.

Patrick Newell picked up his third assist in two games. He was along the right-wing goalline and hit Darren Raddysh with a pass who caught a hard-charging Tim Gettinger with a tape-to-tape pass and he went forehand-to-backhand and slipped his first pre-season tally by Gibson at 9:22.

The Wolf Pack were able to hold the Sound Tigers without a shot until 12:30 of the period. John Stevens, Jr. was on a left-wing rush and put one on the net. The next shift, on the powerplay, Wahlstrom was 15-feet out on Adam Huska, who repelled with the puck and pushed it to the corner.

The first period was a pedestrian affair with just 14 shots between the two teams.

The lone goal came off a faceoff as Kyle MacLean beat Steven Fogarty. The puck went right to Nic Pierog (Canterbury Prep) who fired it past Huska.

Fogarty did try to make amends late with a chance at the right side of the net that was repelled by Christopher Gibson.

The two quality chances of the Sound Tigers seven shots came from Pierog (four shots for the period) at the left side of the net just before his goal.

The game was not open to the public as to ensure control of the crowd for the evening’s NHL exhibition game.

NOTES:

Incredibly, there were promo timeouts with no crowd!

Phil DiGuiseppe had five shots on goal, but only four of them in the second period. Tim Gettinger had four shots while Newell and Jones had three apiece.

Gabriel Fontaine, Brandon Crawley, Gettinger, Darren Raddysh, Ryan Gropp, and Brandon Crawley all finished minus-two.

On Monday, a major AHL announcement will be made in Palm Springs, CA regarding the soon to be 32nd AHL franchise in Palm Springs, CA. The team is slated to be the farm team of the 32nd NHL franchise, the still-unnamed Seattle franchise.

The press conference is slated for 1 pm Eastern time (10 am Pacific) with an announcement of either full or conditional franchise approval is expected to be made. No team name will be announced as the parent Seattle franchise has pushed off the announcement of their team name until early 2020.

How’s this name for the Palm Springs team, Conquistadors. For the Seattle team, the Sea Lions.

Continuing on with the Seattle franchise theme, their GM, former Whaler great, Ron Francis, announced his first scouting staff members. Of course his close friend, and Whalers teammate, Ulf Samuelsson, and Stu Barnes, who played more than a 1,000 games in the NHL.

The other scouts are not to be glossed over. Samuelsson will be based in San Diego, where ironically, his son, Henri,k is in camp with the San Diego Gulls. Barnes will be based in Dallas.

Francis broke historical ground naming, the Queen of American women’s hockey, Cammi Granato, as the first full-time female pro scout in the NHL history. There is a Whaler connection too. She is married to former Whaler, Ray Ferraro, a fixture of hockey coverage on TSN in Canada. They reside in Vancouver. Granato is the sister for former Ranger, Tony Granato.

Francis named former New Haven Nighthawk, John Goodwin, who was among his first junior teammates from his hometown team, the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds (OHL) and will be based out of Toronto.

Former NHL’er and the eldest of the Hunter brothers, Dave Hunter, will be operating from Boston. His brother Mark Hunter is an ex-Whaler, and along with Dale Hunter, they operate London (OHL). They have been a highly successful GM and head coach respectively tandem.

Milford native, and former Fairfield Prep Jesuit, and who also played Salisbury Prep, and Yale University (ECACHL), Mark Arcobello, has re-signed with SC Bern in Switzerland-LNA and has seven points in his first five games.

Ryan McGuire (New Canaan), the son of NHL NBC announcer, and former Whalers head coach, Pierre McGuire, announced his commitment to Colgate University (ECACHL) in 2021-22. He is playing with Madison (USHL) this season.