HARTFORD WOLF PACK AND SPRINGFIELD THUNDERBIRDS PREVIEW 

By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack went thru the paces Tuesday in preparation for Game 1 with the Springfield Thunderbirds at the Mass Mutual Center on Wednesday and Game 2 on Friday at the XL Center.

Dylan Garand is being handed the baton to handle the goaltending, and the Pack forwards must work on solving the Thunderbirds goalie Joel Hofer.

The Thunderbirds (38-26-3-5) were 9-2-0-1 in the season series and had points in nine of the twelve games.

The Pack defense also needs to find a way to neutralize forwards Will Bitten, the top scorer in the season series. Bitten has eight goals and 15 points after playing in all 12 games. Martin Frk led the team in the season’s scoring with 30 goals and 64 points. He, too, did well against the Pack in the regular season. The Pack must also contend with containing defenseman Mike Perunovich.

On the Wolf Pack side, they will need to get offense and score on Hofer, who was 7-1-1 with three shutouts against the Wolf Pack. He holds a .955 save percentage, and Hofer had three of the four shutouts the team endured this season. The Wolf Pack were scoreless over 120 minutes in the last two meetings.

Will Cullye led the Wolf Pack in the head-to-head matchup. He had nine points in twelve games (six goals and three assists) in the season series and fifth best among all AHL rookies. The Wolf Pack (35-26-4-7), with 81 points, enter the playoffs in fifth place in the Atlantic Division. Cullye and Lauri Pajuniemi had hat tricks against the T-Birds, the first the franchise has had in a year and a half.

The Wolf Pack’s road mark this year at 17-13-4-2 was the best since 2015-16, when they last made the playoffs with 21 road wins.

The Pack lost leading scorer Jonny Brodzinski (21 goals and 48 points) to recall by the Rangers to be among their Black Aces for the playoffs.

NOTES:

The Wolf Pack did some roster housecleaning and made depth transactions with Jacksonville.

In separate transactions, goalie Parker Gaghen, who came in as an emergency backup twice, will be available along with Talyn Boyko for backup duty behind Garand. The defense added Cooper Zech for depth. He was acquired at the trade deadline from the Chicago Wolves as part of the multi-layered Patrick Kane deal. Easton Brodzinski was returned to the Icemen.

The Rangers won Game 1 of their series against the New Jersey Devils, 5-1. One-time CT Whale Chris Kreider scored twice.

THE ISLANDERS WILL STAY IN BRIDGEPORT

The Bridgeport City Council agreed to $28 million in arena upgrades at the Total Mortgage Arena in exchange for a new ten-year lease to replace the expired 20-year lease from last year at the original $20M figure.

The late Roy Boe initially negotiated the lease in 2000 when he brought the Beast of New Haven from Carolina thirty days after they were suspended and briefly mothballed. His bid of 20 years at $20M beat out the Beast by a wide margin (11 years at $1.1 M). After making the initial payment, however, Boe never made another payment.

The lease was then negotiated with Center Plate Management, the food and beverage company of the arena that initially ran the building for the first ten years starting in 2000. However, Center Plate elected not to renew its management deal when it expired or made a bid on a new contract.

The new deal concludes four years of contentious negotiations between the city, who owns the building, and the Islanders.

The city cited legal costs over $6000K, matching the figure the city claimed the Islanders owed in back rent. In addition, the Islanders said that promised building renovations were never performed as per the original lease and never occurred under Boe or the aegis of Charles Wang either.

Boe and Charles Wang both had ownership of the AHL team at different times. Unfortunately, both men are now deceased.
The Islanders (nee Sound Tigers) also cited the new amphitheater across from the parking lot from the arena on the stadium site of the Bridgeport Bluefish, a former Atlantic League baseball team, and they felt it violated the non-compete clause in the original lease.

Boe turned over ownership after failing to pay the Islanders their required affiliation fee. They nearly had the franchise suspended by the now-retired AHL President, CEO, and AHL HOF member, Dave Andrews. The late Bill Torrey, a former NY Islanders part-owner, General Counsel, and NHL heavyweight in his day, persuaded Boe to relinquish his operating control of the franchise.

In addition to defaulting on paying their affiliation fee, Boe and his son Todd didn’t pay many local vendors and employees during their brief ownership.

The XL Center is run by OVG (Oak View Group), which also runs the Total Mortgage Arena. They are waiting for bids on the long overdue renovations at the XL Center to come back in. OVG hopes the bids come in close to the $107.2M estimates they received last month from SCI Architects and Dimeo Construction. In addition, they are handling the stalled, unfinished construction of the sports betting area at the XL Center.

Does OVG operate the arena in Bridgeport under a management fee or on profit/loss? It is unknown. Spectra, at the time, inspected the books; a source revealed at the time, ‘they ran from the building’ and never put in a bid. Unfortunately, the contents of the contract are not a matter of public record, so there’s no way to know what is in the details.

When Wang came in after 2010 to run the building, he created a company to do it after the management deal with Center Plate expired.

The company Wang created was run by the owner of The Rinks at Shelton, Howard Saffan. He was summarily dismissed several years later after his billing to the Islanders for their practice ice time in Shelton was less than honorable. He owns and operates the amphitheater with long-time concert promoter Jim Koplik.

The number of NCAA college pro signees is 226 from Divisions I and II. Hockey East leads the six collegiate conferences with 36 signees for the second straight year. The rest are NCHC-36, CCHA-31, Big Ten-28, ECACHL-23, AHA -20, NCAA Division I Independent,t-13, and Division III-28. Ten head to Europe; departing early are 37.

The transfers for both grad and in-school are even at 35. Canadian college is just one so far.

University of Dubuque (Iowa) is going NCAA D3 in both men’s and women’s hockey in the NCHA conference as they will get a shipment of players from Finlandia University (Hancock, MI) from the school that is closing entirely at the end of the school year. The team will share the Dubuque Ice Arena in the city with the USHL Dubuque Fighting Saints. One coach has stepped down, and another one has signed an extension.

After 30 years, Colgate Red Raiders (ECACHL) coach Don Vaughn has stepped down. A national search for a new bench boss has already begun.

After a strong year, Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks (NCAA Independent) Erik Largen was given a new five-year deal, as the school just missed out on an NCAA regional berth. However, they collected 20 wins for the first time in nearly two decades.

Cheshire native and former Hartford Jr. Wolf Pack, Robert “Bert” Malloy, and his fellow Australian teammates dropped the first two games at the IIHF Division II Group A tournament. They suffered an 8-1 loss to host Spain in game two. Malloy had two shots and was a plus-one in the loss.

HARTFORD WOLF PACK

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