CANTLON: PACK HIT THE ROAD FOR THREE-IN-THREE 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

CROMWELL, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack have passed the halfway mark on the 2019-20 season and they do so sitting atop the Atlantic Division with a 19-8-2-5 (45 points) record.

It’s hard to imagine that back in September anyone would have picked this group to be heading into the second half of the season in first place in the Atlantic Division and among the best teams in the AHL.

One of the factors for the Pack resurgence and current position in the race to the Calder Cup is their persistence and growth as a team-unit. It cannot be overlooked.

“The biggest thing is, we have won so many one-goal games and a big factor is a mature team wins a majority of those games. We have handled leads well late (in games) and have had very strong third periods.” Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch said.

The Pack are unbeaten with the lead after two periods with a 15-0-1-2 record.

Hartford has also scored their share of miraculous goals late in games and did that twice to send it to overtime.

“The other big reason (for the turnaround) is our goaltending of Igor (Shesterkin) and Adam (Huska). They have made stop-after-stop and our defense has done such a good job with blocks like we did Tuesday (a 3-2 win over Bridgeport). Right now we’re a little fortunate,” Knoblauch stated.

Knoblauch is enthusiastic about his team, but does not want to be over-confident.

Because the Pack are in first place, Knoblauch was honored by being named one of the AHL All-Star game’s coaches. The game will be played at the end of January in Ontario, CA.

Before that though, the Wolf Pack have a lot of work to do starting Friday when they head to Providence to take on the Bruins. The game will be their seventh of the season, and they won’t see the Baby Bruins, who they’ve been trading first place with back-and-forth for the past month, until March 1st.

Shesterkin will start Friday night, making it his first three-consecutive-game-starts for the Wolf Pack as he transitions and adjusts to North American rinks.

“We’re going to enjoy Igor for as long as we have him, because he will be in the NHL at some point. Providence is a very good team, well-coached and they have very good structure. Our records are similar, but Shesterkin has been the difference in several games.  We also have capitalized in key situations against them, and that has been the difference.”

After the trip to the Dunkin Donuts Arena in Providence, the Wolf Pack travel to Utica to play the red-hot Comets who are 7-2-1-0 in their last 10. The Comets are in second place in AHL North Division percentage points behind the Rochester Americans. Each team has 44 points.

Next Wednesday, the Wolf Pack complete this road game grouping with a drive down to Hershey to face the Bears before they return home on January 10th against the Charlotte Checkers where they will seek to improve on their home record of 14-1-0-2.

NOTES:

Knoblauch would neither confirm nor deny that defenseman Libor Hajak would be making a rehabilitation assignment in Hartford. The Rangers are on a four-game Canadian road trip.

“We haven’t received any notifications or instructions at this point,” is all the head coach would say on the subject.

So far, Hajak has missed 13 games with a right knee injury he suffered on December 5th after playing the first 27 games.

When Hajak does eventually come to Hartford on his rehab assignment, as is being highly speculated among beat writers in New York, somebody will either sit in Hartford or a player will head to New York.

The Rangers have dropped three games, including last night’s 4-3 loss to Calgary to ex-Wolf Pack and Ranger goalie Cam Talbot. The team completes the Canadian trip in Vancouver on Saturday night.

The Rangers did make two transactions from the Wolf Pack. They recalled center, Ryan Dmowski (Old Lyme/Gunnery Prep) from their ECHL affiliate, the Maine Mariners.

In return, after two games, forward, Dillan Fox, was released from his PTO deal and returned to the Mariners.

Forward, Patrick Newell, will return to the lineup after a three-game absence the result of an upper-body injury he suffered against Providence.

Wolf Pack’s leading scorer, Vinni Lettieri, (11 goals and 24 points in 34 games) and defensemen Joey Keane, and Yegor Rykov, spent nearly a half-hour post-practice working on their shooting techniques.

Lettieri has one point, an assist, in his last five games.

Former Qunnipiac Bobcat, Brogan Rafferty, was named CCM/AHL Rookie of the Month with three goals and 16 points in 13 games.

Rafferty signed as a free agent by the Vancouver Canucks after his junior season. He’s third in assists with 25 and leads all defensemen in scoring with 30 points in 34 games, He’s also sporting a healthy plus-17 so far.

Forward Kieffer Bellows of Bridgeport was named the AHL Forward of the Month with 10 goals in 11 games.

Bridgeport sent defenseman, Mike Cormell, and right-wing, Ben Thomson, who’s coming off an injury suffered early in the season, to the Worcester Railers (ECHL).

Providence got defenseman Jeremy Lauzon back from his recall to the Boston Bruins.

Mason Marchment, the son of former Hartford Whaler, Bryan Marchment, was recalled from the Toronto Marlies by the Maple Leafs.

Ex-Sound Tiger, Aaron Ness, was returned to the Tucson Roadrunners by the Arizona Coyotes.

Goalie, Parker Milner, (Avon Old Farms) was sent to the South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL) by Hershey.

Dalton Smith, the nephew of former Whaler, Keith Primeau, was released by Rochester.

Ex-Wolf Pack/Ranger, Dale Weise, was recalled from the Laval Rocket by the Montreal Canadiens and got into a first period scrap against the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Patrick Maroon.

Rangers President, and one-time New Haven Nighthawk, John Davidson, was selected to enter the Alberta Sports Hall-of-Fame along with six other inductees. The ceremony will be held on July 19th in Canmore, Alberta.

The only other CT connection is former Whaler and Ranger, Mike Rogers, who was inducted last year.

The WJC semifinals are set, and the US will not be in it. Finland upset the US 1-0 despite a strong game from goalie Spencer Knight (Darien/Avon Old Farms) who made 26 saves.

The Canadians took care of business on the Slovaks winning 6-1. Sweden’s team saw Rangers prospect, Nils Lundkvist, get an assist and have the second best ice time of 19:30. He shutout and knocked out the host Czech Republic, 5-0 and then Russia upended Switzerland 3-1.

The Russians play Sweden in the first semi-final at 3:00 PM local time. The Finns play the Canadians in the other semifinal on Saturday.

Finland is coached by ex-Ranger and New Haven Nighthawk, Raimo Helminen, who was in a record-setting six Olympics. He led Finland to a silver as a player in the 1984 WJC, and was the tournament’s top scorer. He could gain gold by the end of the weekend.