By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack used two early goals in both the first and second periods and rode 29 saves by Dylan Garand to snap a two-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over the Bridgeport Islanders.
The win for the Pack came at a heavy cost as they lost Riley Nash, who was lost playing in his first game back after returning from injury, and Anton Blidh to injury as well. The losses forced Head Coach Steve Smith to play with just ten forwards for much of the game on Wednesday night at the XL Center.
The AHL is trying to make three games in three days rare, and with the Wolf Pack currently, a struggling team beset with injuries and recalls, they have a second one in a 72-hour span and are in the midst of a six-games in an eight-day stretch.
Over this part of the stretch, Bridgeport, who is dead last in the league, was on the calendar for this matchup, and have played tough against the Pack this season and beat them last Friday. The Cleveland Monsters come in for a rescheduled game that was to take place on Saturday because of a UCONN men’s hoops scheduling conflict, and they end the stretch in Springfield on Friday night at the MassMutual Center.
THIRD PERIOD
The Pack strategy for the third period was to take away time and space and play things close to the vest in a tight-checking style. They allowed the Islanders few shots as the Wolf Pack protected their lead.
Garand made several key, quality saves throughout the contest and stopped the last four shots of the game that came off the sticks of ex-Pack Julien Gauthier, Matt Maggio, Brian Pinho, and Cole Bardreau.
Garand’s performance pleased his head coach. “(He) came with key saves tonight at the right time. He didn’t have a lot of work, but he was there at key times. He handled the puck around the net really well for us. He was somebody who gave us an opportunity to win and was in control of his game.”
SECOND PERIOD
The Pack started the second period by killing an early penalty, with Garand stopping all four shots he saw.
The Pack posted their second goal when Brennan Othmann picked up the doorstep rebound of Jake Leschyshyn’s shot and put the puck upstairs on Ken Appleby at 4:16.
“It was a goal scorer’s goal,” Smith said. “I give him a lot of credit. He took a pretty vicious hit at the end of the first, and his jaw was already sore and in some pain, and was already wearing the bubble mask. He hung in there for us, going to the net, going for a rush area, and ended up with a goal.“
Leschyshyn was happy as well.
“It felt pretty good. With the schedule we’ve been facing so far, we’re grinding out some wins.”
The Islanders narrowed the lead when Matt Maggio received a lead pass and went in and went forehand to backhand to beat Garand for his tenth of the season at 12:03. Initially, Dennis Cholowski and Karson Kuhlman were in the area for the pass to spring Maggo with Cholowski getting the assist credit. Between periods, replays showed it was not Cholowski who sent the lead pass to Maggio, a team-high four shots, but Kuhlman who sent the pass that sprung him.
BRIEF TUSSLE
Matt Robertson was coming back into the zone and made a partial check on Daylen Kuefler, who went airborne. Jeff Kubiak tried to hit him because he thought it wasn’t a clean hit. All ten players squared off.
Mac Hollowell and Cole Bardreau began to wrestle, and it looked like the two might square off, but the linesman jumped in to keep them apart.
Robertson was called for tripping.
Bridgeport had an opportunity to tie off a left-wing drive by the still scoreless Tyce Thompson, the son of ex-Pack, ex-Sound Tiger head coach, and now Anaheim Ducks assistant Brent Thompson.
On the next shift, at 16:22, the Pack’s Brett Berard was stopped on a clean breakaway where he went forehand to the backhand before Appleby got his pad on it.
The Pack have gotten off to good first-period starts of late and were able to get an early five-on-five goal. Doing so ended an ugly stretch of lasting 179:58 worth of futility from last weekend of scorelessness at 5-on-5.
The Pack started with a 7-2 shot advantage, including four quality shots on their first power play, scoring with 40 seconds left on the man advantage.
“We stressed the simplicity of the game in the first. We got away from it in the second. Our puck management wasn’t good for a little bit. We got back to it in the third and defended the middle of the rink well,” commented Smith.
After four quality chances from the Pack, Leschyshyn was able to slip one past Appleby low to the glove side for his fifth goal of the season at 5:29.
LINES:
Riley Nash-Brett Berard-Tyler Pitlick
Jake Leschyshyn-Brennan Othmann-Turner Elson
Adam Sýkora-Anton Blidh-Karl Henriksson
Ryder Korczak-Tag Bertuzzi-Blade Jenkins
Matt Robertson-Mac Hollowell
Nikolas Brouillard-Brandon Scanlin
Bryan Yoon-Blake Hillman
Dylan Garand
Louie Domingue
SCRATCHES:
D Ben Harpur (upper body, indefinite)
Connor Mackey (upper body, week to week)
Bobby Trivigno (upper body, week to week)
Zach Berzolla (lower body, week to week)
Matej Pekar (lower body, week to week)
Ethan Keppen (healthy)
Chris Cameron (healthy)
NOTES:
Neither Artemi Panarin nor Jimmy Vesey skated in practice for the Rangers in New York. If callups are required, things could be very ugly for the Wolf Pack if recalls are required to cover for injured personnel.
As the Islanders bus pulled away, the Cleveland bus came in.
Smith joked with the media, “Bring your skates in tomorrow.”
The last two players on the scratched list were signed to PTOs today.
Even though his transaction was all over the ECHL, AHL websites, and Elite Prospects.com transfer page, Chris Cameron was not formally signed to a PTO deal by Hartford until this afternoon at 3 pm.
Forward Ethan Keppen signed from the Ft. Wayne Komets (ECHL) comes as a bit of a surprise. He has 54 AHL games with Abbotsford, Charlotte, and Utica, amassing just four goals and three assists. His experience at the ECHL level includes 45 games where he’s registered 12 goals and 30 points between Ft. Wayne and Maine. He played his junior career with the Flint Firebirds (OHL).
Riley Nash returned to the lineup after missing 13 games. He last played on January 19th.
The Pack are now 7-1-0 in the season series against Bridgeport.
The team had its second Pucks and Paws promotion.
The trade deadline is March 8th. Teams are prepping their rosters. Most noticeable was Boston, who put Oskar Steen on waivers. After he cleared, he was sent to the P-Bruins.
Justin Brazeau received the Bruins’ last NHL Entry Level Contract (ELC), paying $775K for the year. He made his NHL debut last night. Joining him was Mason Lohrei.
Curtis Hall (Yale University) was recalled from Maine (ECHL) again.
Montreal, who are playing with three goalies all season, moved Strauss Mann (Greenwich) to the Trois-Rivières Lions (ECHL). Laval signed an AHL deal with Kasmir Kaskisuo, ending his PTO deal and converting it to an SPC (standard player contract). He wasn’t in hockey two months ago but has played well for the Rocket.
A pair of ex-Pack goalies were on the move.
Magnus Hellberg was recalled by Pittsburgh from Wilkes Barre/Scranton, and Dustin Tokarski by Buffalo from Rochester.
Devon Levi was sensational with 52 saves for Rochester on Monday afternoon against the Toronto Marlies.
The second college player to sign and go pro is Jack Jensen from Augustana (SD) University (NCAA Independent), an Arizona State transfer who signed with the Idaho (Boise) Steelheads (ECHL).
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