WOLF PACK BATTLE ROCHESTER; LOSE IN OT 

By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – Jiri Kulich scored the game’s last two goals, his second coming on the power play at 2:51 of overtime to give the Rochester Americans a 3-2 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack before 5,140 at the XL Center on Friday night.

The Wolf Pack had a golden opportunity to win it themselves in the extra frame at 15 seconds when Brennan Othmann received a stretch pass from Mac Hollowell to send him on a breakaway. Othmann tried to slip the puck through Rochester’s netminder Devin Cooley’s five-hole, but he closed the door. Kyle Clague was called for a slashing penalty on the play but the Pack had chances by Alex Belzile and Riley Nash denied by Cooley.

55 seconds later, Belzile was called for hooking Justin Richards.

Prior to the game-winner, the Pack’s starting goaltender, Louis Domingue, stopped Riley Stillman’s left-wing bid. Then, Kulich, who was parked in the right-wing faceoff circle just above the dot with 20 seconds left in their power play, converted on a pass from the left-wing side by Brandon Biro, wired it just under the crossbar past Domingue for his 15th of the season.

Nash was in the penalty box on a hooking call at 14:20, and the Americans were threatening. Just after the penalty expired, Kulich tied the score at 16:27 to send the game to the extra session, taking a pass from Linus Weissbach at the left point on a diagonal pass and firing a shot from the right-wing circle with a good screen in front by Isak Rosén past Domingue.

The Pack was 0/4 on their power play opportunities for the game, while Rochester won the game with the game-winner coming in the overtime, going 1-for-3.

“We had (power play) chances. We needed to capitalize on them, and they did on theirs. Both teams were pretty evenly matched,” replied Wolf Pack Interim Head Coach Steve Smith.

The Pack nearly won it late as Cooley stopped a Nash shot with ten seconds to go.

The second period saw Rochester tie the game while shorthanded at 2:21.

Ryder Korczak couldn’t handle a Connor Mackey pass at center ice and lost it to Biro.

Biro marched into the Pack zone, used a backing up Mackey as a screen, and fired his seventh goal shorthanded over Domingue’s glove hand.

Domingue kept the game tied with a good glove save on Isak Rosén. Rochester put together a strong stretch midway through the second.

The Pack broke the tie late in the period.

Brett Berard stopped on his first shot attempt, got the puck back, and put in his second attempt at 17:05 before the second intermission to give the Pack a 2-1 lead.

The first period saw the two teams engaged in a chess match as ice space came at a premium. In one of the few shifts of O zone pressure, Matt Rempe, who wore a full-face mask to protect a shiner coming from a collision in the Laval game, worked the puck up top to Matt Robertson, who was returned from his Rangers recall.

The Pack had to contend with Rochester throwing a shifting 1-2-1 and 2-2-1 forecheck at them, bottling up and restricting ice flow.

The Pack scored in the final minute of the first period with two solid plays on the goal.

Anton Blidh swiped the puck at center ice from Victor Neuchecv, then had some net presence and retrieved Nikolas Brouillard’s shot. Blidh sent it back to the right point, where Blake Hillman was barely able to keep it onside. Hillman then marched the puck down the right wing, stopped, pulled up short, and slipped it back to Karl Henriksson.

The slick center of their North Atlantic trio had a screen in front by Adam Sýkora, with the Americans’ Riley Stillman making it very difficult to see as his fourth goal of the season sailed past Cooley with 58.2 seconds left on the clock for the 1-0 lead. 

The Wolf Pack and Rochester next meet in Rochester in March.

GAME SHEET

LINES:

Karl Henriksson-Anton Blidh-Adam Sýkora
Brett Berard-Riley Nash-Brennan Othmann
Alex Belzile -Turner Elson-Bobby Trivigno-
Matt Rempe-Ryder Korczak-Matej Pekar

Mac Hollowell-Matt Robertson
Nikolas Brouillard-Blake Hillman
Brandon Scanlin- Connor Mackey

Louie Domingue
Dylan Garand

SCRATCHES:

D Ben Harpur (upper body, indefinitely)
F Jake Leschyshyn (upper body, week to week)
D Zach Berzolla (lower body, week to week )
D Grant Gabriele (healthy)
F Drew Worrad (not in residence)

NOTES:

The Toronto Marlies, another North Division opponent, are the Wolf Pack’s next opponent on Sunday for a mid-afternoon tilt at 3:00 p.m.

West Hartford Police Sargent Ed McCarthy sang a soulful national anthem on a night dedicated to the memory of fellow West Hartford Police Officer Brian Aselton, who was lost in the line of duty.

Adam Edström is an emergency recall early this afternoon. He scored his first NHL goal in the Rangers 5-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks and wore #84.

Nick Bonino (Farmington/AOF) was unable to play. Jimmy Vesey wore a full cage. The Rangers are in Boston. Edström could be back Sunday against Toronto.

As of Friday, the Pack must still make an organizational decision on Sýkora going to the Slovak WJC team.

In Rochester’s lineup are ex-Pack’s Justin Richards and goalie Dustin Tokarski (backup), ex-Sound Tiger Mason Jobst, Mike Mersch, the son of the late New Haven Nighthawk Michael Mersch and Riley Stillman, the grandson of former Nighthawk, Bud Stefanski.

Libor Hájek departs the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL) after 11 games and returns home to skate with HC Dynamo Pardubice (Czechia (Czech Republic-CEL) for the rest of the year. He is the second AHL player in the last ten days to leave for Europe.

HARTFORD WOLF PACK

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