BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack ended 2019 by holding off a late surge from the visiting Bridgeport Sound Tigers to edge out their in-state and division rivals 3-2 at the XL Center before a crows of 2,617.
The first place Wolf Pack’s record improves to 19-8-2-5 (45 points). They now have a two point lead over the second place Providence Bruins in the Atlantic Division. The Baby Bruins were idle.
Bridgeport’s record falls to 13-17-4-1 (31 points). The Sound Tigers are in sixth place in the Atlantic.
The Wolf Pack hit the road for a key visit to Providence on Friday and then they head to Utica to face the Comets on Saturday.
The Wolf Pack maintained their perfect mark with a lead going into the third period (15-0-1-2) and improve their home record to 14-1-0-2. Their next game at home is on January 10th against the Charlotte Checkers.
The last five minutes of the game were played almost exclusively in the Wolf Pack’s end of the ice. A brilliant combination of Wolf Pack goalie Igor Shesterkin and the team’s defense prevented the Sound Tigers from tying the game and forcing overtime.
“We were just sitting back,” said the Pack’s head coach, Kris Knoblauch. “We had played, especially in the second, just a simple game. Nothing flashy. We got a really good defensive effort, especially at the end with some big blocks for Shesty. We got away from that at the end on their push back, but we prevailed.”
The Sound Tigers crept up to within one goal after veteran Andrew Ladd made a perfect redirect while in front of the net on Sebastian Aho’s right point shot at 14:05.
After that, the sticks appeared to have gotten gripped a little tighter.
“Its always like that with Bridgeport. Nothing is happening, and next thing you know, they’re right there. We made some big blocks for Shesty. Anytime we can make a block for him we’ll get one or two back from him. It was a good way to end the year with a win,” Matt Beleskey remarked.
D-Man, Darren Raddysh, made one of those key blocks and was able get the puck off the boards out of the zone. Beleskey blocked one as well, taking one off his chest in a mad scramble in the Wolf Pack end of the ice in the final 1:31 after the Sound Tigers had pulled their goaltender, Jakub Skarek, for the extra attacker.
To start the second period, Sound Tigers head coach, Brent Thompson, sought to change their fortunes by switching goalies from starter, Jared Coreau to Skarek, a Czech rookie.
The Wolf Pack kept the Sound Tigers at bay for most of the game.
The Pack’s top defensive pairing of Raddysh and Vincent LoVerde were particularly solid against the AHL’s hottest goal scorer, Keiffer Bellows. They holding him to just one shot. Bellows is coming off a hat-trick in his last game and has scored a goal in five straight, eight of nine and 12 of his last 13.
“They have been our top defensive combination so far this season. It was our whole defense (that quieted Bellows) and the forwards coming back helped in that effort,”said Knoblauch.
Raddysh downplayed his efforts including the blocked shots, in shutting Bellows down.
“We’ve been trying to get in front of shots and trying to help Shesty out as much as possible. I was lucky enough to get in front of that one. We did a good job getting to the middle of the ice and trying to help him out in any way possible.”
The Wolf Pack built a first period lead on two goals in a 31-second span.
The first came when Beleskey was in front and was stopped by Coreau on a point blank chance, but he stayed with it and tracked down the loose puck.
Beleskey fired the puck below the goal line toward the net looking to connect with Phil Di Giuseppe, but the puck went off Bridgeport’s defenseman, Parker Wotherspoon, and into the net at 8:18. It was his ninth goal of the season.
“He was out of the net, so I knew if I just threw it in front and hoped for the best and it kinda worked out,” Beleskey said with a sly grin. “Phil made a great pass. It was bouncing around a bit, but I stayed with it and it went in for us.”
Raddysh took an errant clearing attempt that went awry off of a one-handed golf-swing at the puck by the Sound Tigers, Arnaud Durandeau.
Raddysh retrieved the puck at center ice and put it off the right wing boards past the Sound Tigers. He went and collected his own dump in off the right-wing half-wall inside the Sound Tigers end of the ice. Raddysh skated deep on the to the goal line and fired from the sharpest angle shot imaginable and incredibly beat Coreau to the far side at 8:49. It gave the Pack a 2-0 lead. It was his fourth goal of the season.
“I don’t know what I was doing. I kinda blacked out on that one,” Raddysh said with a laugh in talking about his solo effort. ”I was just lucky enough to get it back and get it in.”
For Knoblauch the play was a part of Raddysh he saw when he coached him in juniors. “I saw him doing that pretty regularly in Erie, and tonight that goal and his very strong play in his own end was the reason we got the win.”
The Wolf Pack used the power play to grab a 3-0 lead late in the first period.
All five players touched the puck on the play. Nick Ebert was on the right-wing and found Yegor Rykov at the center point. Rykov fired a solid and low shot to the front of the net. Beleskey was there in front of the goalie and deflected it. Coreau made the save, but Beleskey then found the loose puck and chipped in his second goal of the period at 18:28 for the 3-0 lead.
The Sound Tigers broke the shutout just 1:25 later.
Ex-Pack captain Ryan Bourque slipped the pick to Otto Koivula in the slot. Despite lots of traffic, Koivula put in his third of season past Shesterkin, who was screened, and placed the puck inside the left-wing post with 16.3 left on the clock.
LINES:
Nieves – Kravtsov – Di Guiseppe
O’Regan – Lettieri – Gettinger
Jones – Beleskey – Gropp
Zerter-Gossage – Fox – McBride
Raddysh – LoVerde
Keane – Geersten
Rykov – Ebert
SCRATCHES:
Patrick Newell (upper body, day-to-day)
Jeff Taylor (healthy)
Lias Andersson (suspension)
Gabriel Fontaine (shoulder surgery, season-ending)
NOTES:
The Wolf Pack close out the 2019 calendar year with attendance that continues to decline. They had a season-best number against the Providence of 5,685, and a poor showing with an early holiday game of 2,617.
Presently, the Wolf Pack average just 3,555 a game. That puts them in the 27th spot in the AHL.
Right behind them, at 3,222 is Bridgeport, followed by Binghamton, Stockton, and Belleville.
The generic TV commercials don’t appear to be making any impact. Spectra and the CRDA have to make a more substantial effort to match the team’s success this season. Recycling night, with reusable straws are not exactly a high-end, high-quality promotion.
How about bringing back the scarf night? Perhaps with a classy white one this time? How about the plaid-padded ear muffs/snow hat? A fan was spotted wearing one in October at a New York Yankees – Minnesota Twins playoff game.
Ex-Pack, Chris Mueller, was involved in an AHL trade. The Syracuse Crunch’s parent club, the Tampa Bay Lightning, sent Mueller to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Patrick Sieloff. Mueller returns for a second stint with the San Diego Gulls.
Ex-Pack, Dan De Salvo, signed a PTO with Cleveland. He was playing with the South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL).
Ex-CT Whale, Wojtek Wolski, after playing for HC Ambri-Piotta (Switzerland-LNA) in the just-concluded Spengler Cup, signs a deal to play for the rest of the season with HC Ocelari Trinec (Czech Republic-CEL). The team is near the Polish border. Wolski is a Polish native. Wolski started the season with Kunlun (China-KHL).
Team Canada won its fourth title in the last five years at the just concluded Spengler Cup for the 16th time breaking a tie for most titles with host HC Davos. In the championship final, the Canadians shutout HC Trinec 4-0 with ex-Sound Tiger, Dustin Jeffrey. scoring twice and was the tournament’s top scorer. The team was led by GM, Sean Burke, the ex-Hartford Whaler, and assistant coach was another ex-Whaler in Paul Coffey.
The runner-up, HC Ocelari Trinec, featured ex-Sound Tiger, Tomas Marcinko, and former CT Whale, Tomas Kundratek.
At today’s WJC action Sweden shutout Slovakia who is coached by ex-Whaler, Robert Petrovicky. The score was 5-0. Rangers prospect, Karl Henriksson, picked up an assist for the Swedes.
With four power play goals in the first period, five for the game, Canada knocked off the host Czech Republic squad, 7-2.
Due to an injury to their starting goalie, Lukas Parik, the Czechs used Nick Malik, 17, the youngest player in the tournament. Malik is the youngest son of former Whaler, Ranger, and Beast of New Haven defenseman, Marek Malik.
Canada’s GM is former Whaler, Mark Hunter. Their goalie coach is all-time Wolf Pack great, Jason LaBarbera.
The US squad will play Finland in the quarterfinals of the medal round Thursday at 11:30am EST (NHL Network).
UCONN will own the building Friday against Northeastern in a Hockey East meeting. The game is coming off a split at the Ledyard Classic at Dartmouth College. UCONN lost on late goal to Dartmouth 4-3 in the final game despite two goals from Carter Turnbull (Nanaimo, BC).
UCONN still has people talking about how they got to the final by tying the game in the waning micro seconds against the St. Lawrence University Saints, tying the game at two and forcing overtime.
With their goaltender pulled for an extra attacker, freshmen rearguard, Carter Berger, took a shot from dead center at the blue line. The puck hit off the chest of St. Lawrence’s Callum Cusinato and bounced.
The puck got whacked toward the net by UCONN sophomore forward, Jonny Evans, and hit the skates of forward, Jachym Kondelik. It spun on its edge and swooped into the net off the open left-wing side. The goal was credited to senior, Sasha Payusov, who registered the goal with .03 seconds left in the game.
The other major story coming out of the game was that junior goalie Bradley Stone (London, England) made his first varsity start at the last minute due to the illness to starting UCONN netminder, Tomas Vomacka.
Stone made 21 saves in regulation and overtime and then was scintillating in a nine-round shootout. He stopped eight-of-the-nine sent at him. Turnbull ended things in round nine.
