BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – Several former Hartford Wolf Pack players led the New York Rangers to a 6-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals of the NHL playoffs. The Rangers’ win in Carolina was the only road win for either team in the series.
Ex-Pack’s Chris Kreider, and Filip Chytil’s, scored crucial goals. At the same time, Igor Shesterkin provided a stellar 35-save performance propelling the Blueshirts to the Eastern Conference final against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning starting on Wednesday.
Carolina had seven former Rangers franchise players on their roster. Goaltender Antti Ranta (injured in the second making a split save likely popped a groin left the game), ex-Wolf Pack/Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo (who scored to break the shutout bid in the third), defenseman Brady Skjei, forward Jesper Fast, and defenseman/winger Brendan Smith season as the series ended Monday night.
Tarmo Reunanen (a member of the Carolina Black Aces and didn’t play) is the fifth, and forward Derek Stepan was injured and didn’t play in the series for the Hurricanes.
Tampa Bay has several ex-Packs in Ryan McDonagh, a few members of the Black Aces on defense in ex-Pack Darren Raddysh, and ex-Ranger Fredrik Claesson, plus they have last year’s Stanley Cup hero, who scored the Cup-clinching goal from Taft Prep, Ross Colton.
AHL PLAYOFFS
The Springfield Thunderbirds eliminated the Charlotte Checkers in four with a 5-1 on Saturday night as their winger, and former QU Bobcat Sam Anas is having a Butterfield Trophy post-season performance in the Thunderbirds’ best-of-five series win. Next, they play the Laval Rocket, who swept the Rochester Americans in their mini-series for the Eastern Conference title in a best-of-seven 2-3-2 format starting Friday in Springfield.
The Chicago Wolves (Carolina’s farm team) swept past their I-70 rival, the Milwaukee Admirals. Next, they will play the Stockton Heat, the winner of the Western Conference final. Goalie Dustin Wolf equaled an AHL record held by two other players in 84 years. He had three shutouts in the same series win over the Colorado Eagles. The Colorado team was coached by ex-Sound Tiger head coach Greg Cronin and had former CT Whale Jayson Megna on the squad. Stockton coaches included ex-Ranger/NJ Devil Joe Cirella and former New Haven Nighthawk/Hartford Whaler/Springfield Falcon Don Nachbaur.
PLAYER AND COACHING MOVEMENT
After two minor league professional hockey seasons, Félix Bibeau of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers retires.
Charlotte received one new player for the Springfield series while the Thunderbirds got four. Braden Haché of the OHL Kingston Frontenacs, when their OHL playoff run ended last week, was signed by Charlotte. Haché’s father, Conrad, is a former NHL/AHL referee and current OHL Director of Officiating.
Ex-Pack Petr Zámorský, leaves Örebro HK (Sweden-SHL) and heads home for HC Plzeň (Pilsner) (Czech Republic (Czechia) CEL).
In his tenth year of Polish pro hockey, New Britain’s Mike Cichy leaves GKS Tychy (Poland-PZIHL) and signs with Unia Oswiecim.
Ex-Pack Brodie Dupont officially retires to become the full-time head coach for the Cardiff Devils (Wales-EIHL). He is the 96th ex-Wolf Pack/CT Whale player to enter the coaching end of the game. Dupont played as a Wolf Pack and CT Whale member at different times and was weighing an offer at the minor level to return to Connecticut.
Closer to home, Ryan Doolin (Westminster Prep) leaves Sacred Heart University (AHA) and transfers after his sophomore year to D3 Colby College (ME) (NESCAC).
MORE MOVES
Ex-Pack/Ranger and former US Olympian, a Michigan native, Steven Kampfer, signs a one-year, two-way hometown deal with the Detroit Red Wings-NHL/Grand Rapids Griffins-AHL at $750K-NHL/$300K-AHL for next season. Unfortunately, he became the latest KHL casualty to leave because of the Ukraine war.
Hayden Verbeek, nephew of former Whaler/Ranger Pat Verbeek, now the assistant GM in Anaheim, leaves Grand Rapids to head to HC Spisska Nova Vas (Slovakia-SLEL). Joining him is ex-Pack Kale Kerbashian, who leaves Esbjerg of Norway.
Another trio of AHL’ers heads to Europe as Lucas Elvenes of the San Diego Gulls heads to HV 71 (Sweden-SHL). Juuso Riikola leaves the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to go to IK Oskarshamn (Sweden-SHL) and Chris Wilkie of the Belleville Senators, the son of ex-Pack David Wilkie, goes to SC Bietigheim/Bissen (Germany-DEL).
That makes nine players so far from the AHL this year to sign overseas.
EVEN MORE MOVES
Jack Marottollo (North Haven), the son of Sacred Heart University (AHA) head coach C.J. Maratollo, leaves South Shore (NCDC) and enrolls at Wesleyan University (Middletown) (NESCAC) in the fall.
Steve O’Connor is graduating from Wesleyan University (Middletown), and heads to Bollnäs IS in (Sweden Division-3).
Locally, QU lost winger and sophomore Ty Smilanic to Wisconsin (Big 10) via transfer. His NHL rights were traded from the Minnesota Wild to the Arizona Coyotes.
The Bobcats received three grad transfers in total.
Just down the road seven miles away, Yale saw a grad transfer in goalie Justin Pearson, the son of a former NHL’er Rob Pearson went to in-state UCONN (HE) for next year.
Speaking of UCONN, Cassidy Bowes has yet to declare his next destination. Still, according to several sources, he’s likely to play Canadian college hockey out in Western Canada closer to his home in either the CWUAA, ACAC, or BCIHL.
Artem Schlaine transfers to Northern Michigan (CCHA), while Carter Berger heads to Western Michigan University (NCHC).
YES, STILL GOING ON MORE MOVES
Rangers prospect defenseman Simon Kjellberg, the son of scout Patric Kjellberg, has left RPI (ECACHL) for the greener pastures of Northern Michigan.
The transfers of all types, undergraduate, grad, inter-conference, non-conference, several Division-3’s to Division-1, and even several cross-continent moves have occurred, exploding to a staggering 157.
88 grad transfers and 70 school transfers have taken place to date.
Sacred Heart (AHA) gets Julian Kislin from Northeastern (HE).
Jared DeMichiel (Harwinton) is on the move again. He was hired as the Michigan State Spartans (Big 10) associate head coach on Adam Nightingale’s staff, leaving UMASS (HE).
The Augustana University Vikings hired Colgate assistant Andy Boschetto as its first assistant coach on the newest NCAA D1 team.
IIHF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
The US dropped their bronze medal game 8-4 to the Czech Republic (Czechia) as David Pasternak had a hat trick, and the relief goaltending of ex-Springfield Falcon Marek Langhamer paid off for the Czechs who scored seven of the game’s last eight goals.
Canada played for the gold against Finland and in a defensive duel for two periods before a wild controversial third Finland goal went in, and they went on to win on an overtime power play goal.
In the third, Finland got a five-on-three man-advantage and scored on the first penalty. Mikael Granlund (Nashville) got the puck off the backboards, but Canadian goalie Chris Driedger likely popped a groin trying a move side-to-side in a butterfly split save attempt. The third-string goalie, who hadn’t played in a month, Matt Tomkins, was beaten on the other penalty, a high sticking call on Cole Sillinger, the son of former Sound Tiger Mike Sillinger.
The call came after Finnish player Miro Heiskanen’s stick came up, not Sillinger’s. The center ice Official made the call, not the one fifteen feet away. The replay was not shown in the arena or reviewed.
Canada then scored two goals 1:12 apart late to force the extra session as Max Comtois (Anaheim) scored his second of the game.
JUNIOR PLAYOFFS
The Windsor Spitfires, coached by ex-Pack Marc Savard, had Game 5 against the Flint (MI) Firebirds with the series knotted at two going into Sunday, lost 4-3.
After going up 2-0 and with a sizable 18-5 shot advantage gave up two late first-period goals in the last two minutes as Flint’s Brennan Othmann scored his ninth of the post-season on a 2-0 break-in.
The contest at the WFCU Centre saw Flint score four straight. Othmann had two assists, three points total on the night, and a plus-3 was named the third star.
CULLYE SHINES
In the fall, Will Cullye, a likely Wolf Pack, tallied a late power play bringing Windsor to within one. However, the Spitfires dominated Flint in the second half of the second period, holding them shotless.
Cullye had a big chance for a goal to tie the game but was stopped in the third as Windsor held Flint shotless until the seven-minute mark. On the last shot of the game, Cullye had the puck hop over his stick but earned the game’s second star with five shots on goal.
Game 6 is on Tuesday.
Game 4 saw the Spitfires win 4-2. Cullye scored a goal and had a game-high eight shots on goal.
The winner plays the Hamilton (ON) Bulldogs, who swept the North Bay Battalion in the Eastern Conference championship. The winner gets the OHL championship and the berth in the Memorial Cup being held in Saint John, New Brunswick.
MORE JUNIOR PLAYOFFS
The series between Windsor and Flint saw two top Rangers prospects competing against one another in the Western Conference championship in the third round of the playoffs.
Cullye had eight points in 11 games before the series, second-best on the team as they took on Othmann, last year’s Rangers first-round draft pick with a team-best 17 points on eight goals in 12 games.
Othmann had three assists (two primaries) in a Game 5 big 7-1 series clincher over Sault Ste. Marie.
Each is the respective team’s captain and met in February in a wild 7-6 overtime game as each recorded a hat trick. Cullye wears #13 and Othmann #78.
The Spitfires won seven of the eight regular season games, and they are playing for the Wayne Gretzky conference trophy.
The series started last Saturday in Windsor as Cullye had an assist and game-best eight shots on the net. Meanwhile, Othmann had no points and one shot.
WHL EASTERN CONFERENCE
The WHL Eastern Conference championship is going to a Game 7 on Tuesday as goalie Dylan Garand led Kamloops Blazers to a three-games-to-two series lead despite gaining the third star, fell to Seattle 2-1 Sunday evening. Another set of Rangers prospects played one another as Garand was up against Matt Rempe-led Seattle Thunderbirds.
The winner plays the Edmonton Oil Kings for the WHL championship starting on Friday and their Memorial Cup chance; it’s the former team of the Pack’s Matt Robertson, who have lost just once this playoff in 13 games.
Kamloops was named the Memorial Cup host city next spring over the weekend.
