By: Jason Alwang, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT: The Hartford Wolf Pack were unable to overcome a 5-0 deficit, falling 6-3 to their CT rivals, the Bridgeport Islanders, in front of 6,857 Hartford faithful, at the PeoplesBank Arena Friday night.
Hunter Drew scored a natural hat trick, with his third proving to be the game-winning goal in tonight’s contest after firing a quick shot from the slot, squeezed by Callum Tung (20 saves) off the pass from Matthew Maggio at 6:04 to give Bridgeport the 4-0 lead. The goal is Drew’s 10th of the season, and Cam Berg recorded the secondary helper on the goal.
“Very disappointed in how we started the game.” Wolf Pack Head Coach Grant Potulny on tonight’s game. “We dug ourselves a hole we couldn’t get out of.”
Julien Gauthier scores his third goal of the season, getting behind the Hartford defense and beating Callum Tung at 8:35 of the first period to give Bridgeport a 1-0 lead. Pierrick Dube gets his first point of the season in his first game of the season for the only assist on the goal.
Hunter Drew scored his first goal on a quick give-and-go, finishing it for his eighth of the season off a backhand pass from Marshall Waren, beating Tung to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead at 13:27 of the first period. Cam Thiesing recorded the secondary assist on the Drew tally.
Drew scored his second of the game, this time on the power play at 5:26 of the second period, after Casey Fitzgerald was sent to the box. Warren shot the initial shot that created the rebound for Drew to fire past Tung to give Bridgeport the 3-0 lead. Gauthier recorded the secondary assist on Drew’s second goal of the game.
Berg added on to the Bridgeport attack with his 7th goal of the season, getting a rebound after an initial shot from the high slot and giving them a 5-0 lead at 16:48 of the second period. Drew recorded the assist on the goal for his fourth point of the night, and Maggio recorded the secondary assist.
The Wolf Pack finally got on the board when Jaroslav Chmelar got a hold of the puck on the side of the net, and Henrik Tikkanen (20 saves) didn’t see it, and Chmelar punched it in the corner of the net to put the Wolf Pack on the lead at 3:13 of the third period for his 7th of the season. Anton Blidh and Justin Dowling recorded the assists on the goal.
Cooper Moore scored his first professional goal after a dominating shift from Hartford, which had the Islanders’ defense out of position, with Moore knocking it in backdoor after multiple passes to cut the Bridgeport lead to 5-2 at 7:03 of the third period. Brenden Brisson and Adam Sykora recorded the helpers on Moore’s first professional goal.
“He can skate, I think he’s getting better,” Potulny said of Moore. “I think you’re starting to see an uptick in his game.”
Daniel Walcott scored his 4th goal of the season after a rushing attempt from along the boards toward the net got through Tikkanen to cut the Bridgeport lead to 5-3 at 15:38 of the third period.
“The way we played in the third is the way we have to play every period of every game all the time if we want to be successful,” Potulny said when speaking about the games ahead.
Bridgeport sealed the deal with 54 seconds remaining in regulation, and Liam Foudy cashed in the empty net goal to give Bridgeport the 6-3 lead. Adam Beckman and Pierrick Dube recorded the assists on the empty net goal.
Blidh played in his 500th career AHL game Friday night, marking an impressive milestone.
“That’s a pretty good milestone,” Potulny said of Blidh. “He’s done a great job with the young players on a one-on-one basis.”
The Wolf Pack will visit the Springfield Thunderbirds in Massachusetts on Saturday night for another key matchup. The Wolf Pack is now 16-21-4-1 on the season.
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