By: Jason Alwang, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT: The Hartford Wolf Pack top line of Bo Groulx, Alex Belzile, and Anton Blidh produced seven points (3G, 4A), but it wasn’t enough as the Lehigh Valley Phantoms knocked them off 5-4 in overtime in the final game of a six-game homestand at the XL Center.
“They came away with three goals on the night,” Wolf Pack Head Coach Grant Potulny said of his top line. “(It’s) a really good sign for us if that’s the line that we can play against other (teams) best players, then I feel really good about that.”
The game went back and forth until 3:22 of overtime when Samu Tuomaala scored his second goal of the game, and the game-winner, on a semi-breakaway. Pack captain Casey Fitzgerald fought to get back defensively but couldn’t get there in time as Tuomaala’s wrister beat Pack netminder Dylan Garand (29 saves) to end the game.
The scoring began when Blidh scored his first of two. Matthew Roberston released a slap shot from the point off the feed from Belzile, who had three assists. It got to Blidh’s stick for a tip-in through Cal Petersen’s (42 saves) five-hole for a 1-0 lead.
1:22 later, Tuomaala tallied his seventh of the season and first of two of the game after similar defensive mistakes from the Wolf Pack led to a breakaway wrist shot past Garand to tie the game with 13:42 remaining in the period.
At 7:37 of the middle period, the Wolf Pack’s Brandon Scanlin started the team’s go-ahead goal. His shot bounced off Petersen’s pad to his left, where Groulx was waiting to wrist home the rebound, and gave the Wolf Pack a 2-1 lead and his team-leading eighth of the season.
“We won our lion’s share of our puck races to get to pucks first. I thought we won the majority of the 50-50 battles.” Potulny said concerning the improvement over a concern in previous games.
Ben Harpur took a cross-checking penalty and gave the Phantoms a power play. The Pack killed off the penalty, but after it expired, Ethan Samson tied the game on a wrist shot from the circle, beat Garand to his right, and knotted the score at two.
Heading into the final period, the Wolf Pack regained the lead on Victor Mancini’s goal. He was returned to Hartford after being sent down after playing for the Rangers in Winnipeg on Saturday. The goal came off a double minor on the Phantoms, Hunter McDonald, for high-sticking Groulx. Mancini received a pass from Groulx, where he shot through traffic for the power play goal and the 3-2 lead at 9:23 in the final period.
Six minutes later, the Phantoms tied it when Anthony Richard skated toward a puck that was played by both Garand and Richard and deflected back out in front for Rhett Gardner to cash in the shot past Garand with less than five to play.
The Wolf Pack responded eleven seconds later off a pass from Belzile to Blidh, who wristed a shot from the high slot for his second of the game and the 4-3 lead with 4:16 remaining.
With Petersen pulled for the extra skater, multiple passes from the Phantoms caused a scramble amongst the Hartford defense. The puck got to the Wolf Pack crease in front of Garand, where Garett Wilson sent the game to extra time and would ultimately win the game and hand the Wolf Pack their third straight loss at the XL Center.
“Offensively, we might have been as good as we’ve been all year,” Potulny said. “We’re not into moral victories. If you repeat that effort for the remaining 55 games that we have left, you’re going to win 53.”
The Wolf Pack head off to a two-game Rivalry road trip. First, they’ll head up I-91 to challenge the Springfield Thunderbirds and then downstate on I-95 to the Total Mortgage Arena to face the Bridgeport Islanders, where they look for their first road victory of the season. The Wolf Pack record is 8-7-2-1.
