By Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON, PA – The Hartford Wolf Pack faced a defensive brick wall and solid goaltending in the third period from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and were defeated 2-1 before 3,238 at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza Sunday afternoon.
Penguins’ netminder Joel Blomquist (20 saves) battled Hartford’s solid net-front presence throughout the entire third period. The Pack was only able to beat Blomquist one at 7:58. Brandon Scanlin was 55 feet away from the net when he received a Mac Hallowell pass. Scanlin then launched a seeing-eye blast that found its way through a maze of legs and sticks and snuck past Blomquist to slice the Penguin’s lead in half and would prove to be the game’s final score.
Late in the second period, the Penguins had a golden opportunity to expand their lead when the Pack took two penalties 17 seconds apart. At 13:32, Ryder Korczak was called for Interference. Then 13:49, Alex Belzile was whistled and sent into isolation for Tripping. The Pack penalty-killing unit rose to the occasion stifling the two-man Penguins advantage. The PK unit rose to the occasion again early in the third period when the Penguins could have broken the game wide-open when Jake Leschyshyn was sent off for a High-sticking call.
Offensively, the second period was begun quite slowly for the Rangers’ AHL affiliates. They posted just one shot in the first nine minutes and three in total for the entire period. The Pens defense just stifled the usually potent Hartford offense down.
What would prove to be the game winner came off a shorthanded two-on-one as the Pack’s Nikolas Brouillard was the only defender back in the defensive zone. Jon Gruden came into the attack zone with Colin White. Brouillard went to White leaving Grudent to go mano-e-mano with Pack netminder, Dylan Garand.
Gruden fired past Garand’s glove hand into the top shelf for his seventh tally of the season unassisted at 11:44. That made the score 2-0
The Penguins took the 1-0 lead on a SAm Poulin goal at 7:27 of the first period after White forced an Adam Sýkora neutral zone turnover.
White marched down the ice, toe dragged past an ineffective stick check by Matt Robertson and fired it at Garand. The puck rebounded off his pad right to Poulin, the son of ex-Hartford Whaler Patrick Poulin, who was behind the goal line. He then jammed home his fifth goal of the season.
LINES:
Alex Belzile-Jake Leschyshyn-Brett Berard
Karl Henriksson-Anton Blidh-Adam Sýkora
Artem Anisimov-Turner Elson-Bobby Trivigno
Matt Rempe-Ryder Korczak-Matej Pekar
Mac Hollowell-Brandon Scanlin
Blake Hillman-Connor Mackey
Nikolas Brouillard-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 (upper body, week to week)
D Grant Gabriele (healthy)
Cristiano DiGiacinto (healthy)
NOTES:
The Pack shuffled their D pairings by moving one player from each set.
Penguins featured several ex-Connecticut connected players. Marc Johnstone of Sacred Heat University (AHA) Poulin, St. Ivany and scratched was Alexander Nylander is the son of ex-Whaler/Ranger Michael Nylander.
The Wolf Pack are in third place, 17 points behind the Hershey Bear who won 3-2 in OT over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Providence Bruins reclaimed second place 6-3 over struggling Springfield, hurt by callups and have lost five in a row.
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