By: Jason Alwang, Howlings
HARTFORD. CT: The Hartford Wolf Pack held on in a highly contested battle against their CT rivals, the Bridgeport Islanders, in a 3-2 victory in front of 6,937 Hartford fans at the PeoplesBank Arena Friday night.
Justin Dowling nailed the game-winner on the empty-net goal at 18:23 of the third period on his backhand to seal the deal for the Wolf Pack, giving them their fourth victory in their last five games.
“The first period was really important.” Wolf Pack Head Coach Grant Potulny on tonight’s win. “Gutty effort to close it out at the end.”
Liam Foudy buried a loose puck with traffic at the crease in front of Dylan Garand (21 saves), on the power play for his 11th goal of the season, with the helpers coming from Marshall Warren and Matthew Highmore. The goal came at 6:47 of the opening period, giving Bridgeport the 1-0 lead.
Jusso Parssinen tipped in the puck after Trey Fix-Wolansky skated along the boards and towards the side of the net, and fired a shot that was tipped in by Parssinen past Henrik Tikkanen (20 saves) for his first goal of the season at 7:53 of the period. Derrick Pouliot recorded the secondary assist on the goal. This was also Parsinnen’s first game played since November 28, after being out with an upper-body injury. Parsinnen later did not come out for the third period.
“When he goes, we go,” Potulny said on Fix-Wolansky. “We knew at some point this was going to happen.”
Brenden Brisson released a wrister from the circle through Tikkanen’s five-hole for his 10th goal of the season at 10:56 off the feed from Fix-Wolansky and Garand, giving the Wolf Pack a 2-1 lead in the first.
“He’s been great, and it’s been great seeing him have success,” Garand said of Brisson. “He’s had a great year for us.”
Chris Terry scored off a pass from Ethan Bear for the one timer, beating Garand to cut the Hartford lead back to 3-2 with 25 seconds remaining in regulation. The goal is Terry’s eighth of the season, and Hunter Drew picked up the secondary assist.
“It’s huge to get wins against (Bridgeport),” Garand said on the standings race. “Huge two points for us for sure.”
The Wolf Pack will look to win five of six when they host the Toronto Marlies
Saturday night. The Wolf Pack is now 16-18-4-1 on the season.
Leave a Reply