By: Jason Alwang, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT: After scoring the first goal of the game, the Hartford Wolf Pack faltered, allowing seven unanswered goals to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in front of a restless crowd of 6,956 at the XL Center Friday night, falling 7-1.
Avery Hayes, who scored the game-winner, came rushing down the neutral zone and walked right into the dot at 7:25 with a wrist shot for his 16th of the season to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead in the second period.
“A couple of tough breaks on some goals.” Wolf Pack Head Coach Grant Potulny on tonight’s loss. “The third was unequivocally our poorest 20 minutes of the season. That part’s disappointing.”
Nathan Sucese scored his 7th of the season after fooling Fillip Larsson (24 saves) on a wrist shot that beat him over the glove to put the Wolf Pack up 1-0 at 16:09 of the first period. Louis Domingue started the play by getting the puck out to Anton Blidh, who fed it to Sucese, cutting into the offensive zone for the shot.
Mathias Laferriere scored his 3rd of the year from the left circle, where he was all alone for the quick release to get the puck by Domingue to tie the game at one at 6:54 of the second period.
Valtteri Puustinen gets a shot from the inside on Domingue that gets underneath him, causing him to search for the puck with chaos in front. The puck went behind the goal line to give Puustinen his 11th of the season and the Penguins a 3-1 lead. This goal caused Potulny to pull Domingue (10 saves) for Dylan Garand (11 saves in relief) at 12:38 of the second period.
The Wolf Pack received a late power play in the second period, but Jake Leschyshyn could not capitalize on a one-timer chance in front, heading into the final period down by a pair.
“I don’t think we shoot enough,” Potulny said on the power play (0 for 3 tonight). “The mentality was right, it was shoot it, recover it, shoot it, that’s where it needs to start in the game, not near the end of the game.”
Vasily Ponomarev kept the offense going in the third for the Penguins, scoring his 12th on the season after some flashy passes got through to the crease for the punch-in goal to extend the lead to 4-1 at 4:44.
37 seconds later, Puustinen gets the puck to the crease on Ville Koivunens’s stick, who put the puck in behind Garand at the doorstep for a tap in goal for his 18th of the season to put the Penguins up 5-1, with the Wolf Pack completely behind a step on the defensive side.
“It was a byproduct of us not doing our jobs,” Potulny said. “This was a lot on us.”
Atley Calvert joined in on the offensive outburst in the third, putting in a shot off the feed from Laferriere that went through the crease to put the Penguins up 6-1 at 9:07.
Rutger McGroarty scored the Penguins’ seventh goal of the game at 11:56, with Hayes dishing him the pass for the tap-in goal and his 11th of the season with eight minutes remaining in regulation.
“Collectively as a group, because we’re all in it together, we all have to address this tomorrow,” Potulny said.
The Wolf Pack can throw this game away on Sunday night when they host the Belleville Senators at the XL Center. The Wolf Pack are 23-27-5-2 on the season.
