By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
SPRINGFIELD, MA – The Hartford Wolf Pack received three-point games from Ty Emberson and Tanner Fritz, two goals from Lauri Pajuniemi, 24 saves from Dylan Garand, and put forth a total sixty-minute effort in a 6-1 win in Game One over the Springfield Thunderbirds.
The Wolf Pack, who picked the right time for their best game of the season, can wrap up the series at the XL Center on Friday. Puck drop is at 7:05 PM.
In the third period, the Pack closed out Game 1 with an early tally to make it 5-0.
Will Cullye was at the left side of the net and shuffled a pass out to Ryan Carpenter, who was down on his left knee in a shooter’s position. Carpenter popped his first postseason goal this season and 12th career AHL playoff goal at 3:35. Carpenter’s exuberance at the goal prompted a strong fist pump.
Defensively, the Wolf Pack quickly extinguished any thought Springfield may have had thought of making a comeback with their foot firmly on the gas pedal.
The only Thunderbirds tally in the contest came on the power play. It ended a PK kill streak of 29 straight for the Pack. Righthanded shooting Adam Gaudette put a shot off his back foot and put it past Garand at 11:44.
BEST DEFENSE IS A STRONG OFFENSE
The Pack kept the offensive pressure on with a hat trick bid by Pajuniemi that Hofer stopped with his blocker before Adam Clendening had a drive stopped.
Garand faced spaced-out activity in the first two periods but was tested in the third with the expected pushback as Nikita Alexandrov was stopped. Then down the stretch, Garland stopped Matt Peca, Gaudette twice, and then Martin Frk.
Springfield Head Coach Drew Bannister pulled Hofer with 4:21 left. The Wolf Pack did everything incredibly well. Garand tried for the empty net goal but came up short.
The Pack finally tacked on the sixth and final goal as Emberson launched a 200-foot flip shot that found the back of the empty net at 18:38. It clinched his third point of the night for both he and Fritz and the final score.
SECOND PERIOD
The second period saw the Pack control the pace of the game.
Coming out of the penalty box, Zac Jones was wide open. He took a backhanded pass on the left wing from Will Lockwood, went to the forehand, and tucked it around Hofer’s right pad at 6:02. It gave the Pack a 2-0 lead.
The Pack penalty kill held Springfield without a shot, and the MassMutual crowd was audibly groaning and irritated with their Thunderbirds. The Pack played quality defense and were counter-attacking at will.
FIRST PERIOD
Frk was stopped early, followed at 1:20 by Anton Blidh, who fed Blake Hillman. He was stopped.
Blidh had a solid chance on a turnaround just off an offensive zone draw.
The Pack made it 3-0 as Pajuniemi registered his second goal of the night, the second time that a player had just exited the penalty box.
The whole play came off a Blidh block shot that left him prone on the ice. The puck caromed off him right to Pajuniemi.
The shot hurt Blidh, who went down the runway back to the locker room afterward. He returned 15 minutes later.
On the next shift, Springfield’s Tyler Tucker tried some rabbit punches on Pajuniemi, earning him a minor.
Springfield’s Matt Highmore was left enraged, and the crowd was confused by an odd delay of game call, but the Pack was not about to turn down the five-on-three power play, confusing as it might have been.
Carpenter went wide with a backhander.
Another strange call for hooking to Turner Elson left him bewildered and frustrated. Referees Jim Curtin and Mike Dietrich gave him four minutes for the hooking call and then tacked on unsportsmanlike conduct.
With 13:30 left, Hugh McGing was stopped by Garand, but Blake Hillman was cross-checked from behind into the net. It earned Will Bitten a penalty, and a small scrum ensued.
FIRST PERIOD
In the first period, during the first five minutes, forechecked the Thunderbirds hard. They outshot them and scored first to level an early dent in Hofer’s armor.
Pajuniemi was the recipient of a perfect tape-to-tape pass from the left-wing boards by Emberson. He moved in and from thirty-feet out, fired it over Hofer on the blocker side, ending his personal shutout streak of 206 minutes against the Wolf Pack.
The perfect road period began with strong forechecking from Bobby Trivigno and Karl Henriksson.
Eight minutes in, Trivigno went down the right wing was stopped.
A sterling opening 20 minutes for the Pack included 11 shots and they held the Thunderbirds to just two shots, equaling a season-low mark in Bridgeport in a 9-0 win.
LINES:
Cullye-Carpenter-Elson
Gettinger-Edström-Lockwood
Henriksson-Sýkora-Trivigno
Fritz-Pajuniemi-Blidh
Jones-Emberson
Hillman-Scanlin
Clendening-Kalynuk
Garand
Gahagen #35
SCRATCHES:
-Talyn Boyko #40
-Matt Rempe (upper body, day-to-day)
-Louie Roehl #4 (healthy)
-Bryce McConnell-Barker #8 (healthy)
-Brett Berard #27 (healthy)
-Cooper Zech #37 (healthy)
-Matt Robertson (upper body, out for the first round of the playoffs)
-Patrick Khordorenko (season-ending shoulder surgery).
-C.J. Smith (hip area surgery done for the season)
NOTES:
The USA U-18 Team is about to embark on the World U-18 championships in Basel and Ajoie, Switzerland, on April 20-23. Finland named their roster. The team is coached by former Yale assistant Dan Muse and one of his assistants is ex-Pack, Chad Kolarik.
Players include former Mid-Fairfield U-16 team players Sal Guzzo and Ryan Fine, who played together at Don Bosco Prep (NJPREP).
The Canadian U-18 squad coaches are ex-Springfield Falcon coach Jeff Truitt (Prince Albert-WHL), and one of his assistants is an ex-Danbury Trasher, Bruce Richardson (Blaineville-Boisbrand-QMJHL).
The XL Center had a tough day today, despite the Wolf Pack playoff appearance. On Monday, the long-time supervisor of the night cleaning crew, Pat Rudolph, passed away after a brief illness. Pat was always polite and kind.
Sadly, she joins a sad club of XL employees over 50 years of age to suffer from or pass from some form of cancer.
RIP to Pat, and may God comfort your family during this difficult and painful time.
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