BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – Matt Strome and Hayden Hodgson had a goal and an assist while Pat Nagle registered 26 saves as the Lehigh Valley Phantoms shut out the Hartford Wolf Pack 4-0 on a snowy Saturday night.
The loss put the Wolf Pack back into second place, two points behind the Hershey Bears in the Atlantic Division battle. The winning percentage difference is just .10 (.618 to .608).
The first period saw the Wolf Pack face a different kind of blizzard than the one that raged most of Saturday.
“We did OK in the second and third, but we got behind 3-0. That’s hard to overcome,” remarked Wolf Pack Head Coach Kris Knoblauch.
The Phantoms built their lead on the back of Wolf Pack turnovers.
Two years ago, Hodgson was a former Wolf Pack training camp attendee. He got a piece of Logan Day’s shot and registered his ninth goal at 7:26.
Then 36 seconds later, the Phantoms struck again.
Wyatt Wylie tallied his first goal of the season from Nick Lappin by using Nick DiGiacinto as a screen of Tyler Wall, who seemed unprepared for the Phantoms counterattack.
“In two games against them, it’s the same players who have been very tough on us,” said Knoblauch.
Then another ex-Pack, Alex Kile, did the damage on the third goal.
Hodgson forced a turnover, and Strome, the younger brother of the current Ranger and ex-Sound Tiger, Ryan Strome, dove to get his second of the season past Wall at 10:34.
Halfway through the first period and the Phantoms had already registered three big goals, “I think our play, coming off a big game, and the crowd (announced at 2,631) contributed to a slow start.”
In the second period, the Phantoms made it 4-0 when Garrett Wilson, situated dead center of the ice, took a rebound and fired his tenth of the season after Linus Sandin got around Anthony Bitetto. The goal came at 3:56.
Nagle will be heading to Los Angeles to join the US Olympic team on their way to Bejing. He was solid throughout, making critical stops aided by an excellent defensive effort as Phantoms players put themselves in the way of oncoming pucks from Wolf Pack sticks.
Nagl’se best save came sliding across the crease to deny a Ty Ronning attempt at 11:57 of the third period. He also rejected Patrick Khordorenko’s golden effort to break the shutout with thirty seconds left.
NOTES:
Knoblauch hopes by Wednesday’s game in Hershey that he’ll get back his regular lineup when the NHL is idle for a week.
“I’m not sure, we’ll have to see what happens as they play Tuesday. We obviously don’t skate till Wednesday.”
Despite the AHL All-Star Classic postponement for a second straight year in Laval, the league will be off next Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. However, they’ll return next Wednesday at 3 PM, and hopefully, the taxi squads will be gone as the CBA addendum stated.
As a 37-year-old journeyman goalie going into training camp last September after not on any AHL roster and playing on an Olympic team is quite the story.
One of the other two US goalies is Greenwich’s Strauss Mann, born in Cos Cob and played his high school hockey at Brunswick Prep and his juniors with the CT Jr. Rangers (USPHL-Premier).
LINES
Greco-Ronning-Fritz
Richards-Luchuk-Rueschoff
Khordorenko-Sanche-Elmer
Whelan-O’Leary-DiGiacinto
Bitetto-Skinner
Giuttari-Robertson
Taylor-Berzolla
Kinkaid
Wall
SCRATCHES:
Goalie, François Brassard
