HARTFORD WOLF PACK DROP HOME OPENER (10/22) 

HARTFORD WOLF PACK DROP HOME OPENER IN SHOOTOUT

By Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack put up a furious comeback effort in the third period to send the game to overtime, but they fell short in the shootout and fell 4-3 to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the 2022-23 home opener before a large and loud crowd at the XL Center Saturday night.

“We’ve started the season off with some terrific teams. It’s been a tough start is an understatement right now. We had a chance to capitalize on a team that played last night and we didn’t. We played well in third and if we had a little more time, we could’ve done something (tie it up), but we didn’t, “said a reflective head coach Kris Knoblauch.

New veteran player C.J. Smith scored twice in the third to rally a Wolf Pack despite a horrendous second as they gutted out a point in a game they were outplayed for long stretches to earn that solo point in the standings.

His first tally at 3:58 on the powerplay, he zipped over Filip Lindberg’s glove to the upper part of the net.

His second marker evened the game at 17:24 and was his third of the season. It came from 35 feet out on a hard wrister from off the right-wing wall.

Smith had shown in Chicago his desire to be around the puck in pressure situations, and he was a difference-maker in this game.

“I want the puck. I wanna score. I want it as much as I can,” commented Smith.

With this new crop of Wolf Pack players, finding a team identity is their present struggle.

“We’re still trying to find (our identity) as the game went along. We found ourselves finally, and finished strong. We finally got pucks in deep and were able to work on their D better. We need a little more jam from the whole team right now. We have to find identity first, by building trust out there. They go hand in hand.”

It’s not selfish play; just we have a learning curve here with a lot of young guys. Pro hockey is hard. The AHL is hard. It’s a learning process.”

Knoblauch is enthused with his early season contributions.

“We brought him in to give our lineup a boost. He can carry the puck and create offense. He’s getting more comfortable now, and its showing. The first weekend he was just there. Tonight, you could tell right off the bat, he was tougher to check against. With his two goals tonight that’s why we exactly brought him here,” remarked Knoblauch in his post-game press conference.

The turnovers and fundamental lack of defense in the second period left goaltender Louie Domingue hung out to dry to a solid Wilkes-Barre offense. Nevertheless, they managed to jump out to a 3-0 lead. Andy Andovski got behind the Pack’s Andy Zelinski and Domingue in a position where he could do nothing, giving Andovski his first pro goal.

Then Alexnder Nylander, the son of former Hartford Whaler and New York Ranger Michael Nylander, got to a loose puck just outside the blue line. He walked on the left wing side from 35 feet out and used Zelinski as a screen for a shot that got past Domingue.

The second period saw the Penguins score quickly twice and maintain general control of the play as Wolf Pack puck management was non-existent. About 15 seconds after C.J. Smith rang one off the post, a Matt Robertson turnover to Jon Lizotte resulted in his shuffling the puck ahead to a wide-open Filip Hållander. He split the defense and scored on a breakaway from twenty feet out. Just like that, the Wolf Pack was down 3-0.

“We played a good first and third period. The first 15 minutes of the second, we were awful. In the offensive and defensive zone, our puck management wasn’t there and it hurt us. In a long season, you’ll have mistakes. I didn’t like what I saw out there. (We) won’t have a good season with those types of mistakes,” Knoblauch said.

Domingue made two of his 12 stops on Drew O’Connor on the same sequence midway through the period. The first came off the left-wing side and then from off the right to keep the score what it was.

The only piece of good Wolf Pack news came on their second goal. Julien Gauthier got his second goal of the year from 35 feet out from the slot as Robertson’s left point shot hit some legs and sticks. However, the puck was unattended, and Gauthier swooped right in on the right wing, unloaded, and put the Wolf Pack on the board. 

NOTES:

The Pack opening game night attendance was 5,001. It was a healthy number, but far short of the team record 12,934 for their first home opener in 1997 against the now defunct Portland (ME) Pirates. In addition, it was the second-worst opening night attendance behind last year’s 4,119.

Last weekend, ex-Pack Adam Cracknell of the Tucson Roadrunners, playing at the unheard-of age of 37, played in his 1,000th professional game. That includes ten years and ten teams in the AHL, ECHL, Europe, and of course, the NHL. The game was in Henderson, Neva, da at the brand-new Dollar Loam Arena, which opened late last season.

Tip of the chapeau to the Henderson Silver Knights for allowing his father to announce the Roadrunners’ opening lineup last week. A grand gesture on their opening night.

Ex-Pack Phil DiGuiseppe was sent to Abbotsford by Vancouver. It was strictly as a cap casualty to keep the Canucks in CBA compliance. They have no money left at the NHL level. It’s reminiscent of ex-Pack Jason LaBarbera, who is now Calgary’s goalie coach (another ex-Wolf Pack, Mackenzie Skapski, is their AHL goalie coach at the Calgary Wranglers) situation in 2006-07. He was in Manchester when the Kings hid and dumped his NHL salary.

A confusing late development when former UCONN forward Vladislav Firstov was reassigned from Iowa to Torpedo Novgorod (Russia-KHL) yesterday.

Confusing how?

The NHL, and by extension, the AHL, supposedly broke off all contact with the KHL over Russia’s invasion and subsequent destruction in Ukraine.

However, AHL players past and present are still signing there, and now this reassignment.

How?

Isn’t the war still going in Ukraine?

An AHL coach, who requested anonymity, said, “Sooner or later, they’ll all have to leave. It’s getting worse. It’s not getting better over there. Look at the young girl over there (WNBA forward Brittany Greiner). She got ten years. They all have targets on their back. Something bad is going to happen like Greiner. They’re hostage bait.”

Bridgeport sent Ryan MacKinnon and Jimmy Lambert to Worcester (ECHL).

Islanders prized rookie William Dufour scored the game’s first goal Friday 1:25 in and the game-winner in OT as Bridgeport downed Providence 5-4 on the road.

The Penguins sent former UCONN captain defenseman David Drake and forward Brooklyn Kamilkov, son of former Sound Tiger Konstantin, to Wheeling (ECHL).

The Penguins have Samuel Poulin, son of former Hartford Whaler Patrick Poulin, in the lineup, but he was a late call-up to Pittsburgh. Last year in their first meeting, he scored in the final minute of regulation to tie the game.

The ECHL opens this weekend, and only one of the 27 teams doesn’t have either an ex-Pack, Islander/Sound Tiger, UCONN/Yale/Quinnipiac/Sacred Heart University, or a Connecticut resident connection, and that’s the Newfoundland (St. John’s) Growlers, the Double AA affiliate of the Toronto Marlies.

The biggest surprise was former Sound Tiger Bode Wild in Atlanta.

Seven ex-Packs from last year are starting the season there.

In college hockey, #14 ranked UCONN Huskies improved to 5-1 with a 4-2 OT win at BU Friday night. Nick Capone (East Haven/Salisbury School) continued his strong start with another goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick.

The Terriers saw postgraduate former Avon Old Farms Winged Beaver Jamie Armstrong, son of Arizona GM Bill, collect a goal and an assist.

On Saturday night, the Huskies lost 4-2 to BU.

In a big season early season college match-up, the Minnesota Golden Gophers, led by captain Jonny Brodzinski’s youngest brother Bryce, had a strong 3-2 come-from-behind OT win over North Dakota in a highly entertaining game.

A little overseas note as former Nighthawk Andrei Kovalev starts his second season as a head coach with Dynamo Maladzyechna in Belarus for the Vyassha Hockey League (VHL) in which their AHL equivalent and ex-Pack Petr Skudra, also in Belarus in the National League as the head coach of Saryarka Karaganda.

HARTFORD WOLF PACK

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