By: Jason Alwang, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT: The Hartford Wolf Pack were defeated on back-to-back nights at the XL Center. On Saturday, they lost to their I-91 rivals, the Springfield Thunderbirds, 4-2. On Sunday, they lost to their intrastate rivals, the Bridgeport Islanders, who scored three times in the third period to win, 4-1.
“I’ll bet you that tonight every analytic would say that we should lose the game,” Wolf Pack Head Coach Grant Potulny said, assessing his team’s performance. “It was an uncharacteristic effort, and that part is disappointing.”
The game-winning goal came at 4:11 of the third period when Justin Gill’s shot created a rebound opportunity around Pack goaltender Louis Domingue (29 saves). Marc Gatcomb got to the puck first and punched in the loose change into the back of the net. His seventh goal on the season gave the Islanders the 2-1 lead.
“The part that’s frustrating is not (our lack of) skating or not forechecking. It’s professional hockey; if you don’t show up for a game, you’re not really going to have a good time.”
The scoring began in the middle period when Bo Groulx was called for a double minor for high sticking. The resulting power play produced a goal at 3:35 and turned into a 4-on-4 just over halfway through the penalty kill. Matthew Maggio was called for high-sticking himself to cause the 4-on-4; however, it resulted in a goal ten seconds later. At 5:56, Travis Mitchell scored on a breakaway to give Bridgeport the 1-0 lead on a wrister that got past Domingue for his third of the season.
Groulx would score his seventh of the season at 11:57 after a shot from Matthew Robertson made its way to the net. Groulx deflected it into the net to tie the game at one apiece. Alex Belzile initially got the pass to Robertson, which led to the shot.
With 1:44 remaining, Bridgeport’s Liam Foudy got the puck out of the defensive zone and up the ice to tally the empty net to score 3-1.
Just ten seconds after that, Brian Pinho would tally his eleventh of the season on a wrister that got by Domingue to make it 4-1 and gave the Wolf Pack their back-to-back losses at home.
Brett Berard was a late healthy scratch in the game. It was later revealed that he had been called up to the parent New York Rangers. With that, the Wolf Pack were down their top scorer, which was pretty apparent in this game.
“(I was) really happy for him. (He’s) probably been the most consistent player we’ve had here.” Potulny said of Berard’s call-up. “He works, he skates, it’s a well-earned call-up, well deserved.”
The Wolf Pack is now 8-7-1-1 on the season and will finish the final game of their six-game homestand when they host the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at the XL Center.
