By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack entered the third period down two goals but scored four times to win dramatically, 6-4, over the Providence Bruins at the XL Center on Wednesday night.
“It was a win-by-committee tonight,” Wolf Pack Interim Head Coach Steve Smith said after the game. “The guys were pretty resilient. We didn’t start well. I saw a hungry group, and we did a way better job getting pucks in deep and chasing them down. We talked about it before, and sometimes it goes in one ear and out the other. In the third period, a lot of guys brought into it.”
Alex Bezile scored the game-winner, his second goal of the contest and seventh of the season, on a late power play just seconds into the opportunity. Adam Edström added an empty netter to seal the win.
Belzile was in front of the net and took a pass from Mac Hallowell, showed patience with an open net, and buried it past Providence goalie Michael DiPietro, who scrambled to get back in position and, in the process knocked the net off its moorings. A review was called for while the crowd continued to celebrate.
There hasn’t been this kind of energy in the XL Center for a Pack win over the Bruins since May 2015, when Chris Mueller won a game late.
“It’s what Alex Belzile has done for us all year so far. He has been a calming influence with young players and with puck on the ice and he has been a real pro. He’s almost a coach on the ice. He’s always talking, after shifts. He showed a lot poise. If the net got (partially knocked off). I was happy for him to get one (game winner),” said Smith.
THIRD PERIOD
After the Bruins potted three goals in the second to take a 4-2 lead, the Pack came out of their locker room with fire and outshot them eight-to-zero. Their increased effort had the Bruins on their heels, and the Pack earned a critical 39-second five-on-three power play in the middle of the period. Dan Ranouf put the Bruins a player short with a tripping call at 7:16, followed by Michael Callahan joining him in the penalty box when he was called for hooking at 8:37.
The Callahan call came after Nikolas Brouillard had a solid rush up the ice and split the two defenders going forehand-to-backhand and hitting the side of the net before the ref blew the whistle and gave the Pack a two-man advantage.
Smith took a propitious timeout, and assistant coach Jamie Tardif drew up the play.
“Jamie, drew something up for us. I felt at that time Jonny’s line had just been out there. They were a little tired. I took the timeout, told Jaimie tell them to take a breath. Jamie, drew something up for them and it worked. Soon after the faceoff, we were able to capitalize on it, “Smith said.
It took just 14 seconds for Belzile to score on the two-man advantage at 8:51. He tipped in a Jonny Brodzinski’s pass in front of the net for his sixth goal of the season, cutting the Pack deficit in half.
Brodzinski, the Pack Captain, was leading his team throughout the game but really stood out in the third frame.
“Ask him to hit, he’ll do that. Ask him to score a goal he does that. He’s good on special teams. That’s why he’s our leader here,” Smith stated.
The power play, near the bottom of the league and such an issue for the team last season, has continually improved this season.
“Guys communicate well, and Jamie is doing a great job with them, and they’re buying into what he’s selling. We work on special teams every week.”
PACK TIES THE GAME
The Pack tied the game when Brodzinski received the puck from Hollowell in his zone and raced out. He saw rookie Brennan Othamann had gotten a step on the Bruins defenseman Jakub Zrobil.
Brodzinski fired the puck off the left-wing center ice boards and, like a five-ball side-pocket shot, caught Othmann in full flight.
Othmann corralled in the puck on its edge and about to slip off his stick. He settled it down and put it past DiPietro through the five-hole for his third goal of the season at 12:15.
“I had tried that (move) a couple of times. I have been unlucky of late. I was able to get a handle on it and tuck it five-hole. I was really glad that it went in. It took some weight off my shoulders. I’m really glad we came out and found a way to win,” a smiling Othman said of his first goal since opening weekend.
“I felt like I had the step on the D (defense). Jonny is a top 5 player in the American (Hockey) League. I have a lot respect for him and he make an outstanding pass. I just tried to bury it the best I could,” Othmann said.
Smith had praise for the rookie. “He’s a natural goal scorer, and it has been a bit of a dry spell for him lately, and the entire bench was pretty happy for him. Watching a smile on his face and helped put smiles on everybody else’s faces.”
Othmann reflected on the Pack’s slow start.
“We didn’t play up to our standards for as good a team that we have and the veterans that we have. Providence is a good team, but we never gave up,” commented Othmann.
SECOND PERIOD
In the second period, the Pack started fast.
The Pack got two shots just seconds apart. The first came from Anton Blidh and then Karl Henriksson.
Othmann then got the puck in deep. Bezile retrieved it before he saw Brodzinski come into the left-wing circle. He sent the puck to Brodzinski, who took the puck at the faceoff dot and rifled in his 11th of the season past DiPietro at 1:46. It gave the Pack a short-lived 2-1 lead.
A turnover in their zone led to a quick two-on-one as Reilly Walsh took the puck and found John Farinacci on the left wing to turn it into a two-on-one rush. Farinacci passed to Luke Toporowski in the right-wing circle, and he uncorked a rocket past Pack starter Dylan Garand at 3:58 to knot the game at two goals each.
The game was played evenly until the Bruins scored twice 40 seconds apart to break it open.
Callahan scored the first while in traffic in front of Garand. He fired his shot off the far post for his first goal of the season at 14:53, taking advantage of work by Trevor Kuntar and Joey Abate to set the play in motion.
The Pack struggled to get the puck out of their zone, which led to the fourth goal.
Frederic Brunett intercepted a pass and got it over to Trevor Kuntar at the right side of the net about ten feet out. Garand saved it but left a rebound for Abate to quickly put into the net for his fourth on the season.
“They’re the best .500 team we’ve seen all year so far. They’re big, tough, strong, fast, and have two of the better goaltenders in the league. We had a really difficult time scoring against them the last two or three years. We got bodies to the net,” Smith stated. “We gave them some chances early in the game and gave them less later in the game. When the game was on the line, guys shut things down.”
FIRST PERIOD
The Bruins struck first and fast in the first period.
Renouf intercepted the puck at center ice and sent it into the right-wing corner to Farinacci. He spotted an unchecked, wide-open in front, Marc MacLaughlin, who buried his second goal of the campaign past Garand just 30 seconds into the game.
Hollowell’s return to action paid big dividends as he got the puck from Adam Sýkora, danced off the right-wing point, and gave it to Henriksson on the left side. Henriksson potted his fourth of the season and gave the Pack momentum heading into the locker room as the goal came with just 2.7 seconds remaining.
The Pack return to action on Friday when they host the Belleville Senators at the XL Center.
LINES:
Karl Henriksson-Anton Blidh-Adam Sýkora
Alex Belzile-Riley Nash-Brennan Othmann
Adam Edström-Jonny Brodzinski-Brett Berard
Matt Rempe-Ryder Korczak- Bobby Trivigno
Nikolas Brouillard-Matt Cairns
Brandon Scanlin-Mac Hollowell
Zach Berzolla-Matt Robertson
Dylan Garand
Louie Domingue
SCRATCHES:
D Ben Harpur (Upper-Body, Month-to-Month)
F Jake Leschyshyn (Upper-Body, Week-to-Week)
F Turner Elson (Healthy)
D Grant Gabriele (Healthy)
D Blake Hillman (Healthy)
F Drew Worrad (Not in residence).
NOTES:
Harpur’s upper-body injury has been upgraded to month-to-month. Other media outlets are reporting that he had surgery and that his season is over. The team and organization say multiple months but have not yet thrown the white flag on the season.
The Wolf Pack executed a minor deal with ECHL implications. Tim Doherty was acquired from the Chicago Wolves and played with the Maine Mariners (ECHL). He led the Mariners in scoring (21 goals and 73 points) last season. He was assigned to the organization’s ECHL affiliates, the Cincinnati Cyclones.
Doherty, from Portsmouth, Rhode Island, played his prep-school hockey at St. George’s Prep (RIPREP) and for BC collegiately.
His cousins are the Quinn brothers, Jack and Luke in New Jersey, the youngest Hughes. Quinton is captain of the Vancouver Canucks.
Former Wolf Pack C.J. Smith, who they lost after just 21 games last season to a hip flexor/groin problem that required surgery, has signed with JYP Jyväskylä (Finland-FEL). That makes him the 104th AHL’er from last season to sign in Europe and the 17th to go to Finland. Only Sweden has more, with 37.
24 of the 30 players from last year’s Wolf Pack roster are now skating elsewhere in North America and Europe, a record. The other three are part of the organization skating in Cincinnati (ECHL), two are with the Rangers, and one is out of hockey.
The post-Kris Knoblauch bump in Edmonton is over with two straight losses. They blew a 2-0 lead in Florida against the Panthers on Monday. Don’t be surprised if a Wolf Pack player or two winds up in Edmonton at some point.
Two sons of the Hartford Whalers from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins were recalled. Alexander Nylander (Mikael Nylander was also an ex-New York Ranger) and Jansen Harkins (Todd Harkins) were recalled by the parent Pittsburgh Penguins.
Ex-CT Whale, now a P-Bruin, Jayson Megna, made a big switch in the off-season. After he thought Colorado would be his home and signed there with his parents in Boston, they can see their 2½-year-old granddaughter no more often living 50 minutes away.
Megna’s brother Jaycob, after having career minutes of playing time in San Jose, where he was playing 23 minutes a game, is now sitting in the press box.
MAXIM BARBASHEV
The unsigned Rangers’ fifth-round draft pick, Maxim Barbashev, who played in Wolf Pack pre-season games and was in Pack training camp, was traded yet again. He is Ivan’s younger brother (Vegas-NHL). He had nine points in 15 games and was traded from the Western Conference’s Shawinigan Cataractes (QMJHL), who are in sixth place, to the fourth-place Eastern conference Rimouski Oceanic. He gets traded for a right-handed shooting right winger from Czechia (Czech Republic), Jan Sprynar.
It’s Barbashev’s third QMJHL team in less than a year.
A veteran QMJHL scout opined on Barbashev.
“(He’s) a strong player – a bull in a china shop. He can make plays but is inconsistent, and (he has) some holes in his game, like any young player. He teases you with a lot of his game, and that’s where you see the inconsistency. I saw him in one game this season. He had two points in his first five shifts-then nothing the rest of the night.”
After 14 games with the Rapid City Rush (ECHL), the Tucson Roadrunners signed ex-Pack Tyson Helgesen to a PTO deal. His brother, Kenton, is on that team as well.
Mike Holland of the CT Chiefs (EHL) commits to Division III SUNY-Brockport (SUNYAC).
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