CANTLON: PACK MELTS HERSHEY IN SHOOTOUT 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – Ty Ronning had the shootout winner, while Keith Kinkaid made 41 saves in regulation, and stopped three more in the shootout as well as a penalty shot to lead the Hartford Wolf Pack to a 4-3 win over the visiting Hershey Bears.

“I was coming down and wanted to change the angle a little bit. I had been chatting with our goalie coach Jeff Malcolm, as I haven’t been in a lot of shootouts and I learned a little bit from him. Just come in on that angle and see what was open. I like to go to my backhand to open him up and I was fortunate enough to score,” Ronning said.

The Wolf Pack will play a rare Monday night game against the Utica Comets, coached by legendary former Hartford Whaler Kevin Dineen. This game is a COVID-19 rescheduled game from December.

“The same story as last night,” commented Pack Head Coach Kris Knoblauch. “We came out with a good first period, an awful second period, held up well in the third period, overtime, and the shootout to win it.”

54 seconds into overtime, Kinkaid made a big save on Brett Leason. Kinkaid was run over by Brett Leason but did not get a call, and he snapped. Despite firing his helmet and his stick in the ref’s direction after the first whistle, Kinkaid was not given a penalty.

His stellar netminding all night was well appreciated by Ronning and Knoblauch.

“Many of the game’s saves were phenomenal. They had a couple backdoor plays and for him to reach back and make those saves and get in front of them. He does that on a daily basis. We have to do a better defending in front of him.”

THIRD PERIOD

In the third period, Mark Vecchione tied it at three on a pass from Leason off an intelligent play from Alexei Protas for his 13th goal at 8:57. The Wolf Pack did not fall behind because of Kinkaid’s play, preventing Hershey from getting their franchise 3,000th AHL win at his team’s expense.

“He (Kinkaid) faced some Grade-A scoring chances and made some important saves for us late in the third.”

“Little things are important, and sometimes we get away from that and that makes game management tough (for ourselves). It’s a big part and we’re coming down to the end of the season and everything is intensified,”  remarked Ronning.

SECOND PERIOD

The second period was all Hershy who held a 21-4 shot advantage over the Pack, who have been outshot 50-9 in the two games in the second period.

“We’re an even younger team now, “Knoblauch said, “We’re an inexperienced team and a fragile team right now. When things aren’t going well, they snowball for you. Guys start to question themselves and wonder aloud.”

Ronning elaborated on his coach’s thoughts.

“Time in the game of hockey is about momentum. It can sway from us and be a challenge. When we allow our opponent to shoot so much more (than us) overall, it’s a challenge to keep that momentum, keep things simple and let the play develop.”

The Wolf Pack felt pressure right off the bat in the second period. At 1:09, ex-Pack Dylan McIlrath was stopped twice by Keith Kinkaid.

STRONG BETWEEN THE PIPES

Hershey’s Mason Morelli was awarded a penalty shot at 6:40 when he was pulled down by Zach Guittari. The last penalty shot was on April 7, 2021. It was stopped by Tyler Wall.

The Pack went up 3-0 as Anthony Greco scored his team’s best 15th goal (and 42nd point) on the power play, and back came the Bears.

First Garrett Pilon got his 16th goal from Bobby Nardella. Then Morelli tallied his sixth goal at 16:26 even after Alexeev broke his stick on a point shot attempt. They smartly used the power play to their advantage as Matt Loritio clipped Cody Franson behind the net at 13:36 earning him a double-minor when Franson was bleeding on the play and that opened the door and turned the game around.

Entering the game, the two teams are separated by just a .05 winning percentage point in the AHL Atlantic Division standings for fourth place and the last playoff spot. The previous five weeks of the regular season have begun with the struggling Wolf Pack losing five of their previous six.

SCORING

The first goal came to Hartford as they went down up top to score on their first power play. Zac Jones started the play down low, controlling the puck. He got it to Lundkvist near the blue line, then advanced it over to Matt Lorito, who in turn sent a cross-ice pass to Greco on the left-wing. Greco then put a shot on the net allowing Merkley to collect his first goal as a member of the Wolf Pack. It was his 13th of the season at 12:54, just 19 seconds into the man advantage.

They went up 2-0 as Alex Whalen snared a rebound on Jarred Tinordi’s shot that went wide to the short side. Still, he had inside position on Franson, and then-rookie Cristiano DiGiacinto escaped his check and backhanded his sixth by Pheonix Copley at 14:28.

Kinkaid was sharp in the first stopping Mark Vecchione and Kody Clark with 1.4 left even after losing his stick.

LINES

Merkley-Fritz-Lorito
Ronning-Greco-Khordorenko
Richards-Rueschoff-Pajuniemi
DiGiacinto-Whalen-O’Leary

Tinordi- Guittari
Jones-Scanlin
Robertson- Lundkvist

Kinkaid
Huska

SCRATCHES

Skinner
Gettinger (upper-body. likely out until next Wednesday)
Girduckis
Reunanen
Taylor

NOTES

Hershey’s Kody Clark is the son of ex-NHL’er Wendel Clark, and his uncle Kerry was a member of the Springfield Indians and Portland Pirates. His elder cousins are former NHL players, the former Rangers/Red Wings tough customer Joe Kocur, and ESPN college hockey analyst Barry Melrose.

Hershey forward Drake Rymsha is the son of former New Haven Nighthawk Andy Rymsha. He was cut as he was caught up high by a shot by Zach Guittari late in the second period. After medical repairs, he returned as did Franson in the third.

The Wolf Pack’s Justin Richard saw his alma mater, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, get eliminated from the NCAA tournament by Denver University 2-1. The only goal scorer for UMD was Darian Gotz, the nephew of former Wolf Pack great player and head coach Ken Gernander.

Michael O’Leary’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost 1-0 to Minnesota State in their NCAA Regional game.

The Quinnipiac University Bobcats have a Sunday date with Michigan in the Allentown, PA Regional at the PPL Center, home of the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

LACK OF HONOR FOR THE 2000 CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM

The organization committed an unforced error in tonight’s promotion to honor the 2000 Wolf Pack Championship team.

It was wrong that even sound cost-efficient ideas were ignored and nothing was done.

With the pandemic now waning, it would have been a home run to celebrate Hartford’s ONLY championship team in the city’s history.

A whole generation of fans have no living memory of the 2000 Championship team, and the organization should at least honor the names of Armstrong, Smyth, Hall, Labbe, Tuzzolino, and Gernander.

The Hartford Yard Goats, the city’s Double AA Eastern League baseball team, do more than the Wolf Pack do to honor the City’s hockey history. They do a superb job every year with “Whaler Day.”

A tweet of a picture is not enough and is grossly negligent for the city’s only championship team.

How about retiring some numbers? How about honoring the all-time leading scorer #11 Brad Smyth (382 points), who was the team’s only 50-goal scorer. That should have been done three years ago with time on a Saturday night to retire the number. He then entered the AHL Hall of Fame the following Monday. Clearly not right.

#17 Derek Armstrong, the only player to crack the 100-point barrier, won a regular season and post-season MVP Awards; now his number is being worn, by a fourth-line PTO winger (Abbott Girduckis). He’s likely to be released soon because of player numbers, not performance, and who’s played just five games (scratched the last two). No disrespect is intended, but nobody should be wearing that number.

How about Jason LaBarbera’s #35? He won a regular season MVP and holds every team goaltending record and is now the Calgary Flames (NHL) goalie coach.

Just Gernander’s #12, which is highly deserved; hangs in the rafters.

In the league just 21 years, Grand Rapids is retiring TWO numbers shortly. Jeff Hoggan #10 and former Whaler draft choice Michel Picard’s #7, but the Pack in 25 have only Gernander’s number retired.

Not nearly good enough.

CONGRATULATIONS

CONGRATULATIONS are in order for the long-time ex-voice of the Wolf Pack, Bob Crawford, who has landed on his feet with the NHL Production Offices.

He spent the last year as the voice of UCONN hockey on CBS Sports OnLine and for select CW20 games that air locally in the just concluded Hockey East season after spending 24 years as the voice of the Pack.

Alex Thomas, the new voice of the Wolf Pack stated that Team Equipment Manager Craig Lewis recently did his 900th game. Congrats to Craig and his family.

HARTFORD WOLF PACK

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