BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
BRIDGEPORT, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack funk continues as they dropped their eighth straight game, 4-3, in overtime on Thursday afternoon to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
The Wolf Pack are now 3-5-1-0 (7 pts) and got the point for a regulation tie. They’re just one point ahead of Bridgeport 3-7-0-0 (6 points) as they head into a nine-day layoff.
The game-winning goal came 29 seconds into OT on the only shot of the extra session.
Rookie referee Jordan Samuels-Thomas did not call a fairly obvious crosscheck from Otto Koivula to Anthony Bitetto, who played in his first game with the Wolf Pack.
After the hit on Bitetto, Koivula moved around the fallen defenseman and got the puck to Mitchell Vande Sompel behind the Wolf Pack net. He backhanded a pass in front of the net to Koivula, who put it in past Pack netminder Tyler Wall for his first goal of the season.
Koivula, who had a sheepish grin, knew he had gotten away with one.
“It felt good to get my first goal. We won the faceoff. I cross-checked (Bitetto). We didn’t get a call there. We got lucky. Vande Sompel found me back door. We worked hard at coming back, and we needed a win.”
THOMPSON REACTION
“I’m happy for Otto in scoring the goal and the work he has put in, and the compete, but I was very happy with his play away from the puck. The details, even in the game we lost (on Monday), he was moving, more intense, and I liked his response, and the goal tonight was cherry on top,” commented Sound Tigers Head Coach Brent Thompson.
Koivula had a chat with Thompson and the coaching staff last week. It paid off as he was rewarded with his first goal in nearly a calendar year of play.
“I had a good talk with Thommer about a week ago when I was scratched for a game. I’ve been pushing myself more, and I got the reward tonight, and that felt good,” Koivula said.
THIRD PERIOD
At 1:05 of the third period, the Sound Tigers took the lead as defenseman Daniel Bolduc struck for his third goal of the year, all coming against the Wolf Pack.
The Sound Tigers Dmytro Timashov was along the right-wing boards and caught Bolduc moving off the right point. The 6’3 rearguard moved to the middle and cranked a shot that got by Wall and gave the Sound Tigers a 3-2 lead.
At 4:50, the Wolf Pack tied the game at three on Ty Ronning’s second goal of the contest. Ronning is making a strong case to remain in the lineup with his third goal of the season.
Zach Giuttari’s shot went wide. The puck hit off the boards behind the net and came out in front. Ronning was at the hash marks and tipped a shot by Darren Raddysh and put it past goalie, Ken Appleby, playing in his first game in over a year.
Both teams had late chances to score the game-winner, but their goalies sent the game to extra time.
SECOND PERIOD
The Wolf Pack played well in the first half of the second period, but their play waned as the period progressed, as has become a pattern.
Ronning scored the Wolf Pack’s first goal. He made a solid entry into the offensive zone and dished the puck to Patrick Khordorenko. He whistled his shot that Appleby stopped, but there was a rebound that Ronning collected and put in for his second goal of the season at 3:14.
The Wolf Pack made it 2-0 as Anthony Greco, playing on the fourth line, used his speed down the left-wing and got the inside position on defenseman Carter Hutton. Greco threw the puck back out in front, and rookie Michael O’Leary jammed home his first pro goal and earned his first pro point at 6:31.
TIGERS RESPOND
Bridgeport answered back as Tanner Fritz came across the blue line and sent a sharp wrist shot that Wall blockered aside. The puck was down to Wall’s right with the Pack’s Tim Gettinger closest, Zach Giuttari on one side and Justin Richards on the other.
Prized Sound Tigers rookie, Simon Holmstrom, managed to collect the puck past all three Pack defenders and put in his third goal of the season at 7:58.
“I liked our response. We didn’t hang our heads on the bench. A lot of our older guys have been through this before and know how to turn the ship around in the right direction. They stayed the course, and we went hard to the net and got rewarded.” Thompson said of his team’s response to being down two goals.
The Sound Tigers, who have failed to tally a goal at home on the power play in 15 attempts, finally did so.
Bode Wilf was at the right point and sent a pass to the left-wing circle. Rookie Cole Coskey sent a rocket of a one-timer past Wall for his second goal of the year, both against the Wolf Pack, at 15:22, knotting the game at two.
“I’ve been happy with our puck movement. We just haven’t taken enough shots. We’ve been working on situations, and I was happy to see Cosley get rewarded from at the top of the umbrella. He hit a cannon, and we had traffic in front,” Thompson remarked.
FIRST PERIOD
The first period was evenly played as each team collected eight shots on goal. The Wolf Pack’s best chance came while killing off their second penalty with 15 seconds to go in the period.
Gettinger sent Greco on a clean breakaway, but instead of making a move, he opted to shoot from 15 feet out to be denied by Appleby.
LINES
Brodzinski-Newell-Barron
Khordorenko-Ruesschoff-Dmowski
Gettinger-Richards-Ronning
Thompson-O’Leary-Greco
Raddysh-Sieloff
Anthony Bitetto-Reunan
Giutarri-Taylor
Wall
Brassard
SCRATCHES:
Mason Geersten (two-game AHL suspension)
Gabriel Fontaine (upper-body)
Vincent LoVerde
Will Cuylle
Alex Whalen
James Sanchez
Michael Lackey
COACHES:
Pat Boller
Jeff Malcolm
Vincent LoVerde
NOTES
Since 2016-17 when he was an assistant to Ken Gernander, it was the first time for Boller that he was behind the bench in an AHL game. For Malcolm, the team’s goalie consultant, and a Yale grad, it was his first game as a coach. LoVerde became the first active Wolf Pack player to be an assistant in a game.
It will likely be at least another week that Knoblauch and his associate coach, Gord Murphy, will remain in New York with the Rangers. They will need to be there while the COVID-19 protocols are adhered to as they wait for the coaching staff to have three negative tests as per NHL COVID re-entry policy.
Until then, it will be a day-to-day situation.
One of the game referees was West Hartford native Jordan Samuels-Thomas (#90), a former Quinnipiac University Bobcats player who skated his youth hockey with the Hartford Jr. Wolf Pack for the Canterbury Prep Saints (New Milford).
After being scratched for the last seven games, Ryan Dmowski (East Lyme/Hotchkiss) played on his 24th birthday.
PLAYER MOVEMENT
Brogan Rafferty (Quinnipiac University) is loaned by the Vancouver Canucks to the Manitoba Moose, while former college teammate, Matt Peca, was reassigned to the Belleville Senators by the Ottawa Senators.
The Toronto Maple Leafs return Ken Agostino (Yale University) to the Toronto Marlies.
The Providence Bruins have signed Eduards Tralmaks from the University of Maine (HE) to an ATO deal. The 24-year-old C/RW just completed his four college career with the Black Bears after elimination in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs by the University of New Hampshire.
Tralmaks becomes the fourth member of the conference to sign a North American pro contract and the ninth player overall from Division I and III to have secured a North American or European deal.
In the Hockey East playoffs, the UCONN Huskies are still practicing after being eliminated by Providence College on Sunday in the hopes of a remote chance for an NCAA at-large bid for the regionals in either Albany or Bridgeport.
