BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Olympics are into the medal round, and several former Hartford Wolf Pack players and those connected to Connecticut are doing well representing their homelands.
Men’s Team Canada knocked off the Chinese team on Tuesday, 7-2. Ex-Pack Adam Tambellini garnered five points with two goals, one coming on a penalty shot, with the other three being assists.
Ex-Pack Adam Cracknell has one helper in four games. John Gilmour, who’s on the taxi squad and has yet to play for the Canadians, has watched his team advance to the quarterfinals against Sweden.
Ex-Bridgeport Sound Tiger David Desharnais has an assist in four games. Josh Ho-Sang has three assists in four games.
Jack McBain, the son of former New Haven Senator Andrew McBain, registered a goal and an assist against China.
MORE OLYMPIC NEWS
The 7-2 loss eliminated China. Ex-Pack Ryan Sproul had two assists and goalie Jeremy Smith played in every game, going 0-3 and a 5.63 GAA. To make matters worse, he suffered a knee injury and was taken out of the game against Canada.
Aforementioned, Sweden features ex-Pack netminder Magnus Hellberg. He has a 2.46 GAA in two games, while fellow ex-Pack, Carl Klingberg, has three points in three games.
Ex-New York Ranger and Wolf Pack forward Marek Hrivik, playing for Slovakia, has a goal and two assists in the Olympics. The Slovaks face the American team on Wednesday at 11:10 PM EST. While playing in the Olympics, Hrivik had his KHL deal with Torpedo Novgorod (Russia) terminated by mutual consent. Instead, he signed a contract with his old Swedish team, Leksands IF (SHL), for the rest of the year.
Ex-Springfield Falcon Tomas Jurco has one assist in three games for the Slovaks. Another former Falcon, Marko Dano, is pointless in three games. In four games, Marton Marincin, formerly of the Springfield Thunderbirds, has one goal.
EX-PACK CAPTAIN KAMPFER
Ex-Pack and Ranger Steven Kampfer, who is playing for ex-New York Rangers’ head coach, David Quinn, behind the US bench, has three points in three games. Greenwich’s Strauss Mann, like Kampfer, is a fellow Michigan alum. He has played very well. In his only game so far in the Olympic games, he is showing to the world why he is atop the Swedish league.
Two former Yale Bulldogs, Brian O’Neill, and Kenny Agostino, have had a solid tourney. O’Neill has three points in three games, and Agostino had the game-winning goal against Canada. It’s his only point in three games.
Ex-Sound Tiger Aaron Ness has an assist in three games. Jake Sanderson, the son of former Hartford Whaler, Geoff Sanderson, has been limited to playing in only one game due to injury but has put one assist to his credit.
Switzerland reached the quarterfinals by beating hockey powerhouse the Czech Republic, 4-2. Ex-Pack Raphael Diaz had a goal and an assist and, one he’d like to forget, in his own net.
Andres Ambühl
Andres Ambühl, 38, is playing in his fifth Olympics and has scored a goal. He is the second oldest player to score. Borje Salming, 40, a tremendous Swedish defenseman who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, had potted four goals for Sweden in 1992. Ambuhl is the oldest player to record his first goal.
“Today, we played really tight defensively. Everybody came back. We blocked shots. We boxed them out. We won puck battles. [Leonardo] Genoni had a hell of a game. He always stopped the first shot, and we cleared the rebounds. I think it was a good, strong effort from the whole team,” Diaz told IIHF.com.
Ambühl acknowledged his accomplishment.
“It’s nice to score my first goal at Olympics, but it was great especially for the team,” he said to IIHF.com in a post-game interview. “We somehow didn’t manage to bury the pucks before and today they bounced our way. Nobody was happy with the preliminary round so we wanted to show that we can play hockey and win too. We wanted to show this reaction. Now we have to continue like that without getting over excited.”
MORE RESULTS
Switzerland faces off with Finland.
Latvia was eliminated by upstart Cinderella Denmark 3-2.
One Latvian defenseman is former Quinnipiac University (ECACHL) blueliner Karlis Cukste. His KHL deal with his hometown team, Dynamo Riga, dissolved by mutual consent. He signed an agreement with Lahti Pelicans (Finland-FEL) and will report there shortly.
Goalie Kristers Gudlevsk, the ex-Sound Tiger, didn’t play a game for Latvia.
Germany was eliminated by the Slovaks 4-0. Tom Kühnhack had just one goal in the tourney against the US, while former Springfield Falcon Matthia Plachta had one assist in four games.
Denmark has ex-Pack Niklas Jensen. He has an assist in four games, while ex-Sound Tiger Frans Nielsen has three assists in three games. He’s playing for the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee), where ex-Pack Artem Anisimov has yet to play.
ARIZONA
The long-running saga in the desert is reaching the end of the story.
A plan has been approved locally to have the sad-sack oft-troubled Arizona Coyotes play at the new on-campus venue at Arizona State for three years with an option for a fourth year. They’re trying to wind through a skeptical local political windmill and get a third arena built in Tempe.
A long-time trusted source was quite pointed on the subject.
“The optics look just awful. A team like Seattle, who just spent a billion dollars renovating their arena and $650 million to get into the NHL, who are doing well, have to be looking on in horror. How can a league let a team play in a sub-standard AHL building, though it will be brand new at, say the 5,000 they are saying, let alone NHL level facility which it clearly will not be, for multiple years and not get priority dates (ASU will) and only game revenue (no building or naming rights)?
“Simply put Gary Bettman does not want to ever lose a market like Arizona. I’m shocked there is not more of an uproar so far over this. This obviously has to affect the HRR (Hockey-Related-Revenue) between the players and the owners as agreed to in the CBA.”
There will be cries to move the team from many former and new cities looking to join the NHL.
RELOCATION SITES?
In Quebec City, there is a hockey palace already built waiting for an occupant. The Videotron Centre was built five years ago to NHL specs to replace the old Colisée de Québec (later known as Colisée de Pepsi at the end of its heyday). In Houston, the fifth-largest television market, there is also a ready-made already built arena. For Hartford, nothing has been done to the XL Center (nee Hartford Civic Center) in 25 years except for cosmetics to the concourse, a couple of Zambonis, and a new floor, ice, and chiller system.
This same source opined about the speculation surrounding any possible moves from Arizona.
“You can write this in stone and send it up the hill with Moses. There will NEVER be another NHL team in Quebec City again because of the currency problem, the ongoing language issue (in the province), and the Montreal Canadiens veto power over it. However, they want to extend their brand. They have an AHL team in Laval and an ECHL team in Trois-Rivieres 40 minutes away, halfway to Quebec City.
“Hartford? Ha! They can’t even get a new building in the twenty-plus years for an AHL team.
“Houston will remain in reserve for a new team and say an $800 million dollar payday. Look there have been two expansions and they’re still on the outside.”
PLAYER MOVEMENT
Austin McIlmurray (Sacred Heart University) has left his third ECHL team this year, the Iowa Heartlanders. The other two were the Toledo Walleye and Florida Everblades.
Brady Tomlak, the son of former Hartford Whaler, Mike Tomlak, was released by Toledo (ECHL).
Mike Dalhuisen (Quinnipiac University) leaves HK Poprad (Slovakia-SLEL) and signs with EC Salzburg (Austria-IceHL).
Former Sound Tiger, Greg Mauldin, who was with USNDTP U-18 (USHL) part-time as an assistant coach and playing when he could with the Kalamazoo Wings(ECHL) has signed a deal to the end of the season with his old team, the Stavanger Oilers (Norway-NEL).
