By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack dug an early hole. Despite a furious Pack rally, the Bridgeport Islanders got a last-second save from Ken Appleby to earn his team their first regulation win of the season and sent the Wolf Pack to their fourth straight defeat before 5,587 at the XL Center on Friday night.
The Pack trailed throughout the entire contest but never quit, and looked like they were going to tally the equalizer in the last moments of regulation.
Anton Blidh was behind the Islanders’ net and out the puck in front of the net. It hit either the Pack’s Adam Edström or an Islanders’ defenseman’s skate, putting a bouncing biscuit right there loose in the blue paint.
Brett Berard was there on the left side of the cage and tried to elevate the puck over Appleby, but he extended his right leg and was able to deny his bid with 3.8 seconds left in regulation.
All that remained was a last-second faceoff, which saw the Pack’s Riley Nash win it from Brian Pinho over to Brennan Othmann, who tried to feed Mac Hollowell for a shot, but Karson Kuhlman warded him off to end the game.
Nash was injured on the play and hobbled to the dressing room.
The Pack got themselves in trouble early for the fourth straight game.
Connor Mackey went to the penalty box on a cross-checking call at 2:06. At 3:16, William Dufour, just off the Injured List, was on the left wing escaped the defender, and zinged his fourth goal of the season off the post to make it 1-0.
It only took 6:29 for the Islanders to double The Pack deficit and do it on the power play again.
Matt Rempe was in the penalty box for Tripping at 8:37, and just under a minute later at 9:35, Ruslan Ishkarov was able to get a rebound past Pack starting netminder, Louie Domingue from the left-wing side. While the puck was under his pads, as he stood up, it was over the goal line. There was a lengthy review, and it was determined that Ishkarov had earned his eighth goal of the season, and it was 2-0.
A Pack turnover led directly to the Islanders’ third goal at 12:20.
Pinho retrieved the puck after a Mackey miscue in the left-wing corner. He wheeled around and fired it over to Dufour, who was wide open. He then slipped his fifth goal of the season and second goal of the night past Domingue. It was 3-0.
The Islanders were not done yet as they would add a fourth goal just 1:18 into the second period when Robin Salo fired one just inside the blue line. Otto Koivula was in front of the net with the inside position on the Pack’s Matt Robertson and tipped in his fifth goal of the season past Domingue.
Things looked bleak for the New York Rangers’ top development team, but in a span of 1:32, they would score two goals and start to claw their way back into the game.
At 5:54, Brandon Scanlin was on the back door coming off the left point and accepted a short pass from Robertson after Ryder Korczak, who’d come off the right point, fired a surgical cross-ice pass to his regular defensive partner.
The Pack made it 4-2 when Robertson, who was at the middle of the blue line, registered his first goal of the year, taking advantage of a double screen in front of the net. Korczak won the faceoff and got it back to him for the helper.
Korczak, who’s now on the third line, continues to improve and has become a more integral part of the offense and contributing on the defensive side of the ice as well.
Korczak’s biggest defensive contribution in this game came with 3:32 left in the second period. Ex-Pack, Tanner Fritz, was open on the right side. He took Kyle MacLean’s feed and dished to Salo, who was stopped by Domingue off the inside of his left wing, but the Pack netminder lost his stick in the process. Korczak, coming back defensively, cleared the Fritz shot out of the blue paint area just before it was on the goal line to keep it a two-goal game.
“(Korczak) is getting better and better all the time,” Wolf Pack Interim Head Coach Steve Smith said. “He’s skating very well. Defensively, he’s playing very well right now. He has a good stick right now and it’s good to see that he got a couple of assists tonight.“
With 52 seconds left in the second period, Dufour was called for Boarding. That led to a fight between Dufour and Turner Elson. Eetu Liukas would serve the boarding penalty, and the Pack would start the third period on the man advantage.
It would be the break they would need.
The Pack would score on the power play, draw them even closer, and set a franchise record as they scored just six seconds into the third period to make it 4-3.
Othmann got ahead of Salo off the opening faceoff. So did Alex Belzile. They outskated a diving Islanders’ captain Seth Helgeson. Othmann fed Belzile with a perfect lead pass and he beat Appleby to draw the Pack within a goal.
The Pack went on the attack and had numerous chances to get the equalizer.
Edström had a great chance that was stopped by Appleby at 35 seconds.
Blidh had his chance midway through the third on the power play. Korczak and Mackey had their chances too.
But then Jeff Kubiak’s shot found Cole Bardeau at 12:42 to make it 5-3 after the rebound hit Brandon Scanlin’s skate.
Belzile nabbed his second of the night and 11th of the season to return it to a one-goal game from the left side of the net with 3:31 left.
“We took foolish penalties, weren’t mentally prepared early on, and gave them several power plays they shouldn’t have had and it ends up in the back of the net. We were soft, but we recovered well,” Smith said.
LINES:
Karl Henriksson – Brett Berard – Adam Edström
Alex Belzile – Riley Nash – Brennan Othmann
Ryder Korczak – Turner Elson – Anton Blidh
Matt Rempe – Matej Pekar – Bobby Trivigno
Mac Hollowell – Connor Mackey
Nikolas Brouillard – Blake Hillman
Brandon Scanlin – Matt Robertson
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:
Elson was back in the lineup with Adam Sýkora’s absence. He came to Robertson’s aid at center ice after Dufour’s blind side hit.
Hershey leads the Atlantic Division and the second-place Wolf Pack by nine points and incredibly 29 points over Bridgeport, and the defending Calder Cup champs have lost just six games so far.
Ex-Pack Alex Whalen was recalled from the Atlanta Gladiators (ECHL) by the Cleveland Monsters (AHL).
As Howlings reported three weeks ago, the Pack’s Adam Sýkora was loaned to the Slovak WJC team, was named captain, and they will kick off the Christmas time tournament against their neighbor and traditional Czechia (Czech Republic) on December 26th at 6 AM EST on the NHL Network.
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