BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
MARLBOROUGH, MA – The Hartford Wolf Pack rode Keith Kinkaid’s (25 saves) strong performance in a 4-0 shutout of the Providence Bruins Thursday afternoon at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, MA.
The Wolf Pack got two goals each from Patrick Khordorenko and Tarmo Reunanen in the win.
With back-to-back wins in their first two games, the Wolf Pack lead the Atlantic Division. The two teams will meet again on Saturday at 1 PM at the XL Center. The Wolf Pack will play at Webster Bank Arena on Wednesday at 1 PM taking on the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
It was their first regulation loss for Providence since January 30, 2020, to the Binghamton Devils when they lost on the road, 3-2. The loss snapped a 13-game Bruins winning streak. They did have one loss during the streak, an overtime loss to Bridgeport, 2-1.
STRONG SECOND AND THIRD PERIODS CLOSE OUT THE WIN
In the final 40 minutes, the Wolf Pack shut down Providence holding them to a mere 15 shots over the last two periods.
The Pack also got a timely third-period power play tally from Reunanen.
The Bruins’ Pavel Shen took a bad penalty. The resulting power play took all of four seconds for the Wolf Pack to convert on.
The face-off was in the right-wing circle in the Providence zone. Jonny Brodzinski cleanly won the draw from last season’s AHL All-Star, Jack Studnicka, who played in his first game after being sent down by the parent Boston Bruins.
The puck came back to Reunanen at the right point. He moved to his left and saw that he had a screen from Anthony Greco, playing in his first game, and rookie Morgan Barron in front. Reunanen unleashed a hard slapshot and found the back of the net at 10:20 for a 2-0 Hartford lead.
Kinkaid made several-quality saves on scoring chances from the Bruins rookie Jack Achan, Robert Lantosi, and Paul Carey to preserve the shutout in the last minute of regulation.
GOALS
The Wolf Pack got two empty-net goals, one from Paul Thompson, who earned his first point in a Wolf Pack uniform at 17:26, and then from Tim Gettinger, who had a strong afternoon at 19:38, completing the game’s scoring.
The Wolf Pack came out flying in the second period with more zip and polish and earned a real edge in shots on goal at 15-5. There was far more offensive zone time, and they got the game’s first goal.
A rush out of the Wolf Pack zone began with a former Bowen University defenseman, Zach Giuttari, who got across the center red line. Giuttari fed 18-year-old Will Cullye. He went down the right-wing and snapped a hard shot on goal. Bruins netminder, Dan Vladar, kicked it to the left-wing side. Khordorenko found the puck and snapped in his first pro goal at 8:10.
The Wolf Pack kept pressuring Providence, and that led to their second goal. Greco was in deep forechecking and staying late on his shift. Barron who hopped on for his.
Kinkaid had time to make his saves and denied Brady Lyle in the slot with 12 seconds remaining in the first period to keep Providence from tying the game up.
The first period was scoreless, with the Bruins testing Kinkaid early. Kincaid made his second start for the Wolf Pack and turned aside Joel Messner, Oskar Steen, and Lantosi, who played back home with HK Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia-SLEL) as the Bruins had a decided edge in play in the first period.
LINES:
Brodzinski-Barron-Thompson
Fontaine-Gettinger-Newell
Khordorenko-Greco-Dmowski
O’Leary-Cullye-Rueschhoff
LoVerde-Schneider
Reunanen-Raddysh
Sieloff-Giuttari
Kincaid
SCRATCHES:
Ty Ronning
Alex Whelan
Justin Richards
Jake Elmer
Brandon Crawley
Dylan Garand
Jeff Taylor
NOTES:
Mason Geersten was out serving the last of his three-game suspension assessed at the end of last season’s free-for-all brawl in Springfield that came in the next to last game played.
Salisbury School (Salisbury, CT) was well-represented on Thursday with two players from the Wolf Pack, Guattari, Michael O’Leary, and Paul Carey, for Providence.
Patrick Sieloff picked up his first fighting major of the season in his first game. He was ready to go with Jack Studnicks in the first period. He should have had a second one late in the third with Nick Wolff of the Bruins.
The scrap stopped a four-on-one Wolf Pack breakout, and he wasn’t ready for it at all. Wolff should have gotten an instigator. The gloves were off, but they got double minors for roughing instead for some reason.
