WOLF PACK BEAT BRUINS LAST SUNDAY 

By Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

PROVIDENCE, RI—The Hartford Wolf Pack ended the Providence Bruins’ five-game winning streak. Brett Berard scored his team-high 19th goal, and Bobby Trivigno added two quality assists in a critical 5-2 road victory, solidifying the team’s fourth-place positioning.

The Pack game-winning goal came when Berard, the team’s leading goal scorer and local hero, gathered in a shot by his former collegiate teammate Mitch Callahan, who missed the net entirely. In center ice, Berard collected the loose biscuit, turned on the jets, and then left the Bruins defense in the dust, racing in on goal and firing from off the left wing past Brandon Bussi for his 19th goal of the season at 6:02.

Berard is tied for the third most goals in the AHL with former first-round pick Shane Wright of the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

In the third period, the Baby Bruins pulled within a goal at 3-2 when Anthony Richard, fresh off a nine-game recall stint to the parent team in Boston, took a pass from Alex Regula, an AHL-leading plus-33, along the right boards in the offensive zone.

Richard breezed past Nikolas Brouillard, who was caught flat-footed, went backhand to forehand, and sent his 20th goal of the campaign over Dylan Garand’s glove-hand at 5:39.

The Wolf Pack defense clamped down the rest of the way, only allowing the Bruins three shots as the Pack added two empty netters a minute apart, first by Anton Blidh, his seventh, and Turner Elson, his fifth, to secure two valuable regulation wins points.

The Pack started off the second as they did the first with an early goal.

Anthony Richard had the period’s first shot for the Bruins, but the Pack would score first.

Bryan Yoon earned his first AHL point with a goal that came from a rocket of a shot off a drop pass by Cameron Hillis at 1:58 to re-establish the lead. For Hillis, it was his first AHL point.

Trivigno made a strong play in the neutral zone to get the puck up to Hillis.

The Wolf Pack had the kind of fast start a road team wants.

They had the game’s first five shots and scored a goal in the first minute.

After missing two games, Karl Henriksson was back in the lineup. He curled in the right-wing circle, hit Bussi’s pads with a shot, and the puck trickled over the goal line. It was his ninth of the year and came at 49 seconds.

It was Henriksson’s first goal since January 31st and was the fastest Wolf Pack start to a game this season, shattering the previous mark set by Blake Hillman at 2:14.

The Pack made a line change at 30 seconds. Then, on the second shift for Brennan Othmann, they almost scored.

Othmann intercepted a pass meant for Patrick Brown and had a clean breakaway from the Pack blue line. Othmann’s shot hit the post, and the rebound came back to Bussi, who covered up the loose change.

The Bruins’ Ian Mitchell tied it at a goal apiece with his fourth of the season when Henriksson went out to block the attempt but created an upper screen in the defensive zone, blinding Garand, who was making back-to-back starts.

Bruin Jacob Zrobil, after the team won the draw, headed to the net for a rolling screen.

At 6:17, Garand was peeking around several players when a right-handed shot from the left point launched the shot he never saw.

LINES:

Jake Leschyshyn-Brett Berard-Brennan Othman
Karl Henriksson-Adam Sýkora- Anton Blidh
Cameron Hillis-Tyler Pitlick-Bobby Trivigno
Turner Elson-Blade Jenkins- Ryder Korczak

Matt Robertson-Nikolas Brouillard
Mac Hollowell-Brandon Scanlin
Bryan Yoon-Blake Hillman

Dylan Garand
Olof Lindbom

SCRATCHES:
Ben Harpur (upper body, indefinitely)
Louie Domingue (lower body, day-to-day)
Riley Nash (lower body, day-to-day)
Connor Mackey (upper body, week-to-week)
Matej Pekar (lower body, week-to-week)
Tag Bertuzzi (healthy)
Zach Berzolla (healthy)

NOTES:

Berzolla was recalled from the Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL) and arrived having scored one goal in two games.

The Interim Head Coach had a different configuration to his lineup for the eighth consecutive game.

The Pack is solidly in fourth place, one point behind third-place Wilkes Barre/Scranton, 10 behind Providence, and still three ahead of Charlotte.

With his second-period fight, Brouillard is the team’s top PIM guy (106).

The two teams will hook up next Friday in a rematch at the XL Center on P.J. Stock Bobblehead Night. Stock played for both teams in his 11-year junior, college, and pro career.

It was the Wolf Pack’s first five-goal effort in a little over a month.

The Wolf Pack swept the Three Star Awards on the road 1. Brett Berard 2. Bryan Yoon, and 3. Bobby Trivigno.

HARTFORD WOLF PACK

HOWLINGS