ANISIMOV POWERS WOLF PACK TO WIN IN RETURN 

By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

BRIDGEPORT, CT – Artem Anisimov returned to the Hartford Wolf Pack after a 16-year absence and scored from a near impossible angle early in the third period with what proved to be the game-winner in a 3-2 road victory over the Bridgeport Islanders Thursday evening in the only game on the AHL schedule.

With the win, The Pack reclaimed second place in the Atlantic Division from the Providence Bruins and will next face the league-leading Hershey Bears on the road on Saturday. They then travel on Sunday to take on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

GAME SHEET

In the third period, Nikolas Brouillard sent an outlet pass to Alex Belzile. He advanced the puck to Anton Blidh, who put it deep into Islander territory and retrieved it before wrapping it around the boards to Anisimov, deep in the left-wing corner just above the goal line.

Anisimov fired a shot from the goal line, almost entirely parallel to the net, a nearly impossible angle, and it somehow evaded Islanders netminder Henrik Tikkanen and went into the twine for the returning veteran’s first goal of the season at 1:13.

The goal was Anisimov’s first as a member of the Wolf Pack since April 11, 2009, in a 5-3 win over the then-Springfield Falcons.

Bridgeport made a furious effort to tie the game with Karson Kuhlman, Tyce Thompson, and Travis Mitchell, all with excellent opportunities that were stopped by Pack starting netminder Dylan Garand.

At the end of regulation, former UCONN star Ruslan Iskharov had Bridgeport’s only serious scoring chance after Bridgeport pulled Tikkanen for an extra attacker during the game’s last two minutes.

The Pack scored the game’s first goal at 2:28 of the first period. Matej Pekar got a second chance after being stopped on the right wing. He went wide on the left-wing side and fired a cross-ice pass over to Matt Rempe, who deflected the puck into the net for his fifth goal of the season and gave the Pack the 1-0 lead.

Bridgeport answered back to even the score on its second power play at 11:28.

With Belzile in the penalty box on a hooking call at 10:07, Otto Koivula overtook and won a one-on-one battle with Anton Blidh. He then wheeled and marched into the slot and fired it past Garand for his seventh of the year. Brian Pinho, who would be named the game’s third star, picked up the first of his two assists of the contest on the goal. Iskharov got the secondary helper.

In the second period, Bridgeport’s Aidan Fulp had a good start as the rookie broke up a Bobby Trivigno play. Trivigno drew a penalty on him that would prove costly for the home Islanders, as Brett Berard would score at 4:29.

Berard took Brouillard’s pass from the left wing in the right-wing circle and beat Tikkanen low to the stick-side with his ninth goal of the season.

A costly mistake by the Pack gave the Islanders the equalizer to knot the game at two.

Pekar tried to get the puck out of the Pack end on a line change. However, it hit a skate on the way out and returned to the Islanders’ Kurtis MacLean. He kept it in, and Pinho got a shot off. Cole Bardreau cruised into the slot, took the rebound, and blasted it by Garand for his fifth-season tally at 17:52.

LINES:

Alex Belzile – Jake Leschyshyn – Brett Berard
Karl Henriksson – Anton Blidh – Bobby Trivigno
Artem Anisimov – Turner Elson – Cristiano DiGiacinto
Matt Rempe – Ryder Korczak – Matej Pekar

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

Dylan Garand
Louie Domingue

SCRATCHES:

D Ben Harpur (upper body, indefinitely)
F Riley Nash (lower body, week to week)
D Zach Berzolla (lower body, week to week)
Adam Edström (lower body, week to week)
D Grant Gabriele (healthy)
Adam Sýkora (healthy)

NOTES:

Anisimov had just two practices with the Pack before taking the ice with the team. He wore #42, which was his original number with the team. His game got stronger as it went along. In addition to the game-winner, he had two other strong chances in the third. One came halfway through the period, and another came at 16:34.

A day before his 21st birthday, Brennan Othman made his NHL debut with a former Wolf Pack linemate, Jonny Brodzinski, centering his line along with Nick Bonino (Farmington/AOF), his pre-season linemate. His first shot was off the mask of Jerome Mrazek, and he had five shots total (second most in team history. Ex-New Haven Nighthawk Mario Marois has the record at seven in his first game), three hits, had several good setups, no penalties in his first game encompassing 12 and half minutes.

Ex-Pack Igor Shesterkin was named as one of the first 16 players selected to play for the Eastern squad for the NHL All-Star Game.

Tyce Thompson’s (Orange/Salisbury School) older brother Tage (Milford/UCONN) had two goals in a 6-1 romp by Buffalo over Montreal.

Chris Harpur, younger brother of injured Wolf Pack Ben, is recalled by Syracuse from Orlando.

After losing Grant Hutton early in the contest, Bridgeport played most of the game with just five defensemen. They also nearly lost Dennis Cholowski later in the game, but he returned.

HARTFORD WOLF PACK

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