BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
SPRINGFIELD, MA – The Mass Mutual Center has haunted the Hartford Wolf Pack teams the past three seasons, but the 2019-20 edition of the New York Rangers’ AHL affiliates vanquished some ghosts and ended a five-game losing streak Friday night with a 5-2 win over the Springfield Thunderbirds.
“It’s been a while since we had a win in here,” the Pack’s Matt Belesky said while beaming a grin as he exited for the team bus.
The Wolf Pack’s Danny O’Regan had a strong night notching two goals and an assist as the team’s veterans paved the way to victory.
“Danny’s been solid for us all season, power-play, five-on-five, taking faceoffs on the right side. He’s a very smart hockey player and one that coaches love to have. He is really liked by his teammates, so it’s great when you see a hard-working guy like that, have a night like this,” remarked Knoblauch.
The team’s approach Friday night was to have solid execution in all three zones and it was pretty evident that they achieved it.
“We talked before the game about four lines contributing and snapping a losing streak was one thing. Playing the first of three games in three days, we got everybody contributing and it’s a good way to start a new winning streak,” said Knoblauch while smiling.
The Wolf Pack will host the Binghamton Devils Saturday night at 7:30 PM in the back end of a hockey doubleheader that will be preceded by a UCONN-Vermont Hockey East matchup.
In the third period, the Wolf Pack scored early on a fine three-way play, leaving no doubt who was going to win this game.
Boo Nieves playing in his first game since being sent down by the Rangers earlier in the day, showed strong puck control on a play deep inside Springfield territory.
Nieves found defenseman Yegor Rykov streaking in. Rykov made a great backhanded pass to Patrick Newell in front of the net. Newell, in turn, made a gorgeous open-blade redirect for his second goal. The play came at 1:20. It was Newell’s first goal in his last nine games.
It was Rykov’s first professional point and came in his first game.
“That felt good. It’s been a while, and that was an amazing pass by Yegor,” said Newell.
Pack goalie, Igor Shesterkin, did his part to shut the door on a two-on-one shorthanded break as he stoned the Thunderbirds’ Joel Lowry, who was on the left looking to convert Owen Tippett’s pass at 8:46.
With 3:11 to go, Shesterkin calmly stopped Anthony Greco on a dash to the net off the right-wing side.
While not having a large quantity of shots, the Wolf Pack had plenty of quality shots on goal in establishing a two-goal, second-period lead.
On the powerplay, Vinni Lettieri was in his launch-pad area on the left-wing atop the faceoff circle. He took a cross-ice feed from O’Regan and Thunderbirds goalie Samuel Montembeault could do nothing more than just wave as the rocket Lettieri launched sailed past him at 10:08.
It was Lettieri’s seventh goal of the season that started with a clean faceoff win from Lias Andersson.
“I haven’t been scoring as much as I like lately. If you keep shooting the puck, you never know what happens, and it doesn’t have to always be pretty. As a goal scorer, you want to hit the back of the net.
“We felt good about the win but we’re not satisfied. There is room to improve and the power play has to get better,” Lettieri, who leads the team with 18 points after this two-point effort, said.
Shesterkin (23 saves) made a big save on Blaine Byron at 5:56 on a rush to the net trying to convert Tippett’s pass just before Lettieri made it 3-2 and the momentum never swung back the other way.
“He made some spectacular saves at key points in the game for us, and that one could have made it 3-2 Springfield. Igor makes that save, then Vinni gets a power play goal to make it 3-2 for us. Big play!” Knoblauch said.
The Wolf Pack then stretched their lead to two goals with a pair of smart plays to register their fourth goal.
Phil Di Giuseppe came behind the Springfield net and left the puck for O’Regan, who was coming around to the left side of the net. Montembeault and the Thunderbirds defense were left confused and O’Regan tallied his second goal of the night at 13:13 on a very surprised goaltender.
Riding a five-game losing streak, the Wolf Pack got off to an inauspicious start by surrendering the first goal.
Dylan MacPherson, playing his first game since his recall from the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (ECHL) rimmed the puck down the right-wing wall. Dryden Hunt battled with Lettieri and won the puck battle and slipped a short backhanded pass to Henrik Borgstrom in the lower right circle in between three Wolf Pack players. Borgstrom fired a quick snapshot over Shesterkin’s glove at 3:54 for his seventh goal in 18 games since being sent back by Florida.
The Wolf Pack answered back to tie the game at one.
Belesky was all alone on the right-wing at the top of the circle and took a cross-ice pass feed from team captain, Steven Fogarty. Belesky stepped into the pass and blasted a 35-footer past Montembeault for his fifth of the season, and third goal in four games.
“That goal was critical because we tie it up and they came back to go ahead, but we got it back at two on Vinni’s goal. Those were two big moments in the game,” remarked Knoblauch.
The Thunderbirds took advantage of the powerplay to retake the lead at 2-1.
The next shift, after a key save by Shesterkin on Joel Lowry, Montembeault then hand off the puck in the Springfield zone to Kevin Roy. He hit Anthony Greco, a noted Wolf Pack killer over the last two years, and took it in full stride at the Wolf Pack blue line catching Nick Ebert flat-footed.
Greco scooted around Ebert went straight to the net and went backhand-to-forehand and slipped his shot just past the outstretched skate of Shesterkin at the short-side post for his eighth goal of the year.
The Wolf Pack came back to tie the game at two when Lettieri got a pass and skated straight down Broadway to the net with no resistance. Lettieri slipped a shot on net that was stopped by Montembeault, but the rebound of the shot went off his pads right to O’Regan. The right-handed shot on the left-wing went to one knee and deposited his fifth goal of the season into an open net. It was his first goal and point in five games.
“I was going five-hole on him and he made the save, but fortunate for us the rebound went right to Danny,” said Lettieri.
Rykov playing in his first North American pro game for the Wolf Pack, wore number 57. He missed about three months due to a high ankle sprain suffered at the Traverse City Tournament in early September.
He didn’t look out of place, making a strong but short pass to get out of the zone on a PK situation, getting neutral zone pressure at center ice, he calmly controlled the puck retreated from the fore-checker and didn’t lose possession of the puck and his magnificent passing play on Newell’s goal.
“For a first game, when most of your teammates already have 22 to 25 games under their belt and to contribute that way was excellent. He was calm, composed; he’s a very smart hockey player. In a few instances, he didn’t give up possession of the puck and made the safe play with a good outlet pass.”
LINES:
Andersson-Fogarty-Belesky
Nieves-Meskanen-Newell
Lettieri-O’Regan-DiGiuseppe
Jones-Ronning-Dmowski
Raddysh-LoVerde
Keane-Geersten
Rykov-Ebert
SCRATCHES:
Jeff Taylor (healthy)
Shawn McBride (healthy)
Lewis Zerter-Gossage (healthy)
Gabriel Fontaine (season-ending shoulder surgery)
NOTES:
The first period saw some fireworks as the Pack’s Mason Geersten and the rookie Brady Keeper dropped the mitts at center ice and traded some haymakers with 4:51 remaining. Geersten seemed to be the victor of the battle.
It was Geersten’s third fighting major. He leads the Wolf Pack in PIM with 33. Keeper has 57 PIMs and is tied for second place in the league with an AHL best, five fighting majors.
“Mason is not a soft player. He brings an important element for this team and everybody appreciates him because he is a physical force out there,” said Knoblauch.
On Lias Andersson, Knoblauch said, “(It was) the best game he has played since he has been with us.”
Springfield acquired the last season’s Wolf Pack assistant captain, Rob O’Gara earlier in the day for future considerations. O’Gara was not available for the game. In just five games with the Rampage, O’Gara is a minus-four with six PIM.
A poor crowd of just 3,810 on a Friday night with no traffic or weather issues.
The Binghamton Devils came out on the short end of a 6-2 loss in Providence to the Bruins on Friday night. Goalie, Corey Schneider, is now 0-3 with a 5.00 GAA since he cleared through waivers and was reassigned two weeks ago.
Based on a 76 game AHL schedule his $4.93 million dollar deal is around $65K a game. That falls well short of Wade Redden’s $88K a game record he made when the Rangers assigned him to Hartford back in 2010-2012.
UCONN picked up an important Hockey East win over Vermont, 3-1 at the XL Center. They increased their overall record to 6-6-3 overall and their Hockey East conference record goes to 3-4-2.
Sophomore Jachym Kondelik broke the tie with a goal giving him a four-point game scoring streak. Russian Ruslan Iskharov, a fellow sophomore, picked up a goal and an assist in the contest.
UCONN plays its last game before exams and Christmas break Saturday afternoon at 3:30 PM against a struggling Vermont program (1-10-2 overall, 0-7-1 HEA).
