BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – Sam Anas tallied twice for the second straight game and posted three points. Dakota Joseph scored a late power play goal propelling the Springfield Thunderbirds to a 3-2 win past the Hartford Wolf Pack, who dropped their fifth game in their last six.
Hartford (.553) held onto fourth place and have a minuscule point percentage lead over tomorrow night’s opponent, the Hershey Bears (.548) who were shut out 2-0 in Providence by the second-place Bruins.
Rookie Nils Lundkvist was called for the penalty and Anas began the winning play by launching the first shot. It was stopped by Huska. Veteran James Neal got a piece of the shot and Joseph was all alone in front of the net and was able to bury his fifth of the season into the back of the net at 15:09. The defensive duo of Matt Robertson and Zac Jones were both victimized just 19 seconds into the penalty.
“We had a good first period and really good in the third period. We got a good power play goal, but they got two. I don’t think we deserved five penalties.” That was as far as Head Coach Kris Knoblauch would go in his criticism of the officiating.
The Pack thought they might engineer a third-period comeback scoring a power play goal of their own at 6:36. Lauri Pajuniemi returned to the lineup and uncorked a rocket of a shot for his tenth of the season into the open right side of the net. His game has been missed and his whole game impressed Knoblauch.
“For a guy who has hardly played in three or four weeks (one game in the last five weeks) to not only score a goal but play a heckuva of a game was not easy for a guy to come into our lineup. Lauri was impressive for us.”
Springfield was granted another early power play in the second period. A power play specialist in his playing days in Hartford, Springfield Head Coach, Drew Bannister, put out five forwards and struck gold.
“Springfield has very good and dangerous players whether they have five or four forwards or not out there. There tough to defend against.”
Hugh McGing and James Neal were stopped, but three times was the charm as Anas scored his second goal in two games and collected his 18th of the season.
Adam Huska kept the score close with some key goaltending.
At 8:40 James Neal on a breakaway took away the intended right side of the net. Then just after the goal, the Thunderbirds’ Mathias Laffiere was denied and then Anthony Greco hit his third post in two games.
“Adam did a good job making it only a one-goal game after 40 minutes. He played really well for us. We gave up too many odd-man rushes.”
At 14:58, former Wolf Pack Josh Wesley, the son of former Hartford Whaler Glen Wesley, came from his own zone and sprung Will Bitten for a breakaway. Huska made the stop.
Puck management, or lack thereof, was the culprit in a less than a sterling second period where the Pack only generated five shots.
“We were atrocious. We turned the puck over way too many times at the blue line whether on the attack or defending,” Knoblauch said. “Six were a direct result of turning the puck over at the blue line. Nothing had to do with defending, it was the puck management.”
With 2:05 left, Springfield’s Hugh McGing was stopped on the doorstep as Huska lost his stick in the process. Defenseman Zac Jones was backchecking and assisted him in keeping the puck out.
The Wolf Pack grabbed the lead as rookie Brandon Scanlin sent a blast from the point. It was blocked in front and Jones found the biscuit and sent a short pass to Patrick Khordorenko who whistled his seventh goal of the season past Charlie Lindgren for a 1-0 lead at 12:37.
“Scanlin played well he played a very good game for us, kept it simple, got the puck for us played very well, has a good shot from the point. and made a nice play and it can be a bit overwhelming in playing your first game from college he played a really good game.”
The big guns of Springfield came through as Joseph was down low and found Anas and he scored his 17th goal and hit the half-century mark in points in the process. Anas was on the left-wing goal line and able to have his shot in a tight area. He had eyes and eluded Huska with 3:33 left.
Huska made several big stops early as the Thunderbirds had an advantage in shots. He stopped two back-to-back attempts by Hugh McGing. Mathias Laffiere is the rookie from the Montreal area and has had one goal in the first 40 games. He left Matt Robertson in the dust. He got around Huska who went for the poke check but lost that battle, however, Laffiere hit the side of the net.
Nick Merkley made a nice play in his second Wolf Pack game had a solid bid for his first goal on the right-wing.
He made a good move on Lindgren who reached back and just made the save and the officials reviewed and confirmed no goal.
LINES
Merkley-Fritz-Lorito
Ronning-Greco-Khordorenko
Richards-Rueschoff-Pajuniemi
Taylor-Whalen-O’Leary
Tinordi-Skinner
Jones-Scanlin
Robertson- Lundkvist
Huska
Kinkaid
SCRATCHES
Guittari
Gettinger (out until next week)
Girduckis
Reunanen
DiGiacinto (still dealing with the effects of a facial laceration, day-to-day)
NOTES
Aaron Luchuk’s release was simply a numbers game.
