BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – Adam Huska made 34 saves while Steven Fogarty tallied a shorthanded game-winner and Darren Raddysh added two points to pace the Hartford Wolf Pack to a 5-2 regulation win over the Providence Bruins.
For a change, there was no overtime and no shootout.
With the win, the Pack remain atop the Atlantic Division and the entire AHL with 11-0-1-5 record (26 points) and are off to their best start since 2004-05.
The Providence record drops to 9-7-0-2 (20 points).
The Wolf Pack will play their next game in their annual 11 am Edu-Skate contest against the Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday.
In the third period, the Wolf Pack built a two-goal lead.
Phil DiGiuseppe took a rising slapper that went off Providence goalie Kale Keyser’s glove and into the net at 10:09 giving the Pack a 4-2 lead.
“Phil has played very well as of late and he’s scored big goals in the last three games for us and helped us finish this one out,” Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch said.
Danny O’Regan had an empty netter with 2:46 to go to close-out the scoring for the night.
The Wolf Pack took the lead on a shorthanded tally returning the favor from the previous night when the Bruins scored a man-down.
Fogarty, along with Boo Nieves, outworked two Bruins in the left wing circle and snapped a quick, wrist shot that surprised Keyser, just 16-seconds after a cross-checking penalty call on Mason Geersten.
“It was a great effort by Boo to get down there first. I was just able to dig it out and I saw he wasn’t ready for it and had the angle on him and got it by him,” Fogarty said in an ever-so-matter-of-fact-manner of his game-winner.
It was the turning point in the game.
“We were sitting back too much, letting them take the play, and then on that situation we come out plus one. That was very important for us,” said Knoblauch.
The rest of the second period was, “The Huska Show” where the Pack netminder stopped all 17 Bruins shots earning him his fourth win and the team’s championship belt for his sterling game performance (above).
Huska did so making saves in almost every conceivable fashion.
One shift, Huska stopped the Bruins’ Scott Conway three times. Once from the left wing, off the ensuing face-off from dead center and then as Conway was exiting the ice for his shift on a long-range shot with his very active glove hand.
Huska denied Robert Lantosi from the right point, and then Peter Cehlarik from the net front on a Bruins power play.
Jack Studnicka was stopped on a late two-on-one with Huska’s glove as he scooped it and in the same motion pushed it ahead to his defenseman for a breakout.
“I saw him coming and I knew he had someone on other wing. I just stayed on him and he took the shot,” said a smiling Huska.
He was aided by good defensive work from veteran Vincent LoVerde with a PK blocked shot of a slap-shot that earned him the team’s hard hat award. (Left)
The P-Bruins jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period, but this Wolf Pack roster has shown an early penchant for not being deterred by adversity.
37 seconds in, off a neutral zone turnover by Providence, developed into a quick forming three-on-two.
Brendan Gaunce, a lefty shot who was on the right-wing, zipped a pass across the box to the hard-charging Ryan Fitzgerald, who buried his fifth goal in the open stick-side.
Then the Bruins capitalized off a scramble on the power play.
Fitzgerald fed Studnicka, who was open on the right wing side and from the face-off circle deposited his sixth goal.
“We have found a way this year to respond when we’re down. We got it back to 2-2 and in third, again we responded,” remarked Fogarty.
The Wolf Pack got back into the game with two goals of their own to tie the game at two.
Raddysh came off the right-wing boards with the Bruins Wiley Sherman (Greenwich/Hotchkiss Prep) trying to catch him. He circled the net, turned and fired a wraparound on the Bruins’ goalie. DiGuiseppe was alone at the right post, but the first shot was stopped by Keyser.
“I saw the opening, so I went and got it. I figured I would try the wraparound and was lucky it worked,” Raddysh said of his third goal of the season.
Taking the initiative at a critical point in the game, Raddysh was another crucial part in helping launch five consecutive goals by the Wolf Pack.
“The short time I’ve been in Hartford, I have seen him as a defensive defenseman. Pass first, get the puck out, not often out of position. The Darren I saw in juniors (Knoblauch coached him at Erie in the OHL) was very offensive and scoring a lot of points and saw it quite regularly. We got a bit of that tonight.”
The Wolf Pack tied things on the power play at two.
Danny O’Regan was on the right point and sent the puck to his power play defense partner, Vinni Lettieri who unloaded a rocket from fifty-feet and just below the left point, high to the short-side on the blocker side. Keyser had no chance on the Aaron Judgian velocity shot.
It was Lettieri’s sixth of the season, and the third power play goal for the team’s leading scorer (15 points).
The Wolf Pack had a glorious extended five-on-three power play to grab the lead, but couldn’t turn the red light on with Patrick Newell and Nick Ebert having the best chances.
With 1:32 left in the period, Newell feed from behind the net to Ty Ronning and O’Regan sent one from the front that didn’t connect. Then the P-Bruins Jeremy Lauzon hit iron with 50.9 seconds left before the first period intermission.
LINES:
Nieves-Meskanen-Gettinger
O’Regan-Lettieri-Newell
Fogarty-DiGuiseppe-Elmer
Ronning-Dmowski-Zerter-Gossage
LoVerde-Raddyash
Day-Ebert
Geersten-Keane
SCRATCHES:
Matt Beleskey (upper body – Should be back for Wednesday)
Gabriel Fontaine (upper body – Is not looking good. Looks like a long term injury)
Nick Jones (lower body-skate cut) is day to day
Jeff Taylor (healthy)
NOTES:
Laval shutout Bridgeport 3-0 in an afternoon AHL affair at Place Bell before the parent team, the Montreal Canadiens hosted New Jersey at the Bell Centre.
Likewise at the Coca Cola Coliseum, another matinee game in Toronto saw the Marlies win a wild high-scoring affair, 8-4, over Texas with former Yale Bulldog Kenny Agostino registering a hat trick. He now has eight goals and Jeremy Bracco with three more assists.
Ex-Pack goalie, Chris Nell, was released after three games in Greenville (ECHL) and 5.72 GAA.
Wolf Pack fan jersey of the night a plethora and variety.
Starting with #10 Garth Murray (currently Assistant Coach of the Aalborg Pirates Norway-NEL) and then a pair of 18’s Benoit Dusablon (retired) and the Patrick Rissmiller (a development coach with New Jersey). A #22 Ryan Potulny (the Assistant Coach at the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Big 10).
Then #32 goalie David LeNeveau (Co-Owner/President/Goalie coach) Nanaimo Clippers (BCHL)
#44 Mike Ouelette (retired).
The very forgettable number 96 Robin Kovacs (Lulea HF Sweden-SHL) has a big cult following there might be leaving for Orebro HK next season according to Swedish hockey reports.
Honorable mentions, a number 3 Calgary Flames Dion Phanuef, the first Kappo Kakko Rangers #45 jersey sighting and always a winner #99 Wayne Gretzky Rangers jersey.
-Ex-Pack Conor Allen switches team in the Czech Republic going from HK Hradec Kralove to HK Ceske Budejovice.
