BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
ROCHESTER, NY – The Hartford Wolf Pack dropped the finale of a seven-game road trip 2-1 decision to the Rochester Americans. The Pack went 1-5-1 and saw their fleeting Calder Cup playoff hopes vanish in the process.
The franchise, a league rock with 14 consecutive playoff appearances, has now gone eight straight years without making the post-season.
After being highly competitive to start the season where the Pack rose to first place, but over the final 80-plus days, the team has fallen from an assured playoff spot to their current sixth-place position and hoping to avoid the Atlantic Division cellar. Their shocking fall out of playoff contention will likely lead to a major makeover this spring and summer.
The New York Rangers’ AHL affiliates return home with a sub-.500 record at 30-31-6-2. They have a .493 points percentage, just .24 percentage points ahead of the last place Lehigh Valley Phantoms – a team given up on months ago.
Hartford will finish out the regular season next weekend with two final home games as part of a last three-in-three weekend. Friday night they will be visited by the Charlotte Checkers. Then, on Sunday, it will be the annual “Fan Appreciation Day” against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins sandwiched around a final road game in Bridgeport next Saturday.
Once again, their special teams failed them as both Rochester goals were on the power play and Nick Merkley provided the lone goal for the Wolf Pack.
NOTE
Late-breaking sad news on the death of Garrett Burnett, 46, in Vancouver. Burnett was a one-time Wolf Pack, New Haven Knights (UHL), and Danbury Trashers (UHL) enforcer.
Burnett was a true paradox. He was a gentle giant off the ice, and on the ice, he was a hellion. His sadly brief life seemed to find him, and trouble everywhere.
He is the second Wolf Pack player and third overall to pass away at an early age.
Roman Lyashenko was the first to pass away at a young age. He was said to have passed away by “suicide” in Russia under suspicious circumstances in the off-season of 2002-03.
The first head coach of the Wolf Pack, E.J. McGuire, passed away resulting from a rare form of bone cancer.
Burnett, Burnie, as he was known, played one season with the Wolf Pack and lead the team with the second-highest PIM total in team history with 346. Dale Purinton’s 415 PIMs still sit on top.
The biggest issue Burnett had in Hartford was a late-game scrap with now NHL assistant coach Rocky Thompson who poleaxed Burnett in the chest. That incident led to a wild, chaotic scene.
One season, Burnett led the AHL in PIMs with 506 while skating for the Kentucky Thoroughblades with former New England-Hartford Whaler/New York Ranger and Wolf Pack assistant coach, Nick Fotiu as Kentucky’s head coach.
He ended his playing days with St. Jean (LNAH) where he had 70 PIM in four games including two YouTube moments.
One, he threw the net at an opposing goalie. Then there was the hilarious “Rock, Paper, and Scissor” pre-faceoff routine with ex-Pack Brandon “Sugar” Sugdenc to see who would fight that shift.
RIP, Burnie
