BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
BRIDGEPORT, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack extended their winning streak to a season-high three games with a 5-2 win at the Webster Bank Arena over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Good Friday.
The Wolf Pack will play the final game of this recent Sound Tiger three-pack on Wednesday at 1 pm at the XL Center.
The win put the Wolf Pack at the .500 mark as their record improves to 6-6-1-0 (13 points) as they start their busiest month of the season. Bridgeport’s record drops to 3-10-0 (6 points) and remains in last place in the Atlantic Division.
Bridgeport Head Coach Brent Thompson wasn’t pleased after the game.
“I was very disappointed after the effort we had over the last several games—we (thought) we had been building with better efforts. I think we took two steps back. We had some bad habits, not the physical presence we needed, and our penalty killing has to be a lot better.”
Special teams were the “Special of the Day” as the Wolf Pack went 4-for-5. Meanwhile, the Sound Tigers went 2-for-6, which under normal circumstances would be a satisfying outcome.
SECOND PERIOD
In the second period, the Sound Tigers were on the short end of the shot total. In the first period, shots were 13-3. They used the man advantage to claw back into the game.
Defenseman Daniel Bolduc was at the top of the right-wing circle and took a diagonal pass from Mitch Vande Sompel, who in turn wired a rocket over the blocker of starting netminder Adam Huska at 2:32.
“Sammy’s got a great shot. It’s heavy. He has a great wrister. He gets it to the net. We have a lot of positives with him. He gets the power play time, and he got it to the net because we were playing to the outside there for a while and got the shot with presence (in front). It was a nice reward for him, and he brought us back into the game,” Thompson commented.
Bolduc scored his fourth of the season, all against the Wolf Pack.
At 6:44, the Sound Tigers saw Cole Bardreau on the right-wing and took a pass from Vande Sompel from behind the Pack net. He slipped the shot just under Huska’s blocker side for his sixth of the season to tie the score at two.
PP REACTION
“We had good movement on our power play, but we needed more secondary chances. We need more OZP (offensive zone pressure) time and five-on-five; we didn’t have enough time controlling in their end,” Thompson said regarding his team’s offensive output and pressure for the game.
The Wolf Pack roared back and snatched back the lead at 12:10.
Darren Raddysh launched a shot at goalie Cory Schneider who made the save. Schneider played in the second game of his conditioning stint, and on the Raddysh shot, he left a big rebound that 6’7, Austin Rueschhoff, picked up. He moved to the left-wing and lifted a backhander over the prone veteran netminder for his third goal of the year. He put the shot into the top half of the net for a power play goal and a 3-2 Wolf Pack lead.
Then the only non-power play tally of the afternoon came off the stick of red-hot forward Ty Ronning.
The speedster danced across the blue line and zipped his second of the game and seventh of the season to Schneider’s glove side for a 4-2 lead at 14:36 and gave Ronning three points in the game and eight points in his last five games.
POWER PLAY STRIKES AGAIN
The power play struck again, increasing the lead for the Wolf Pack to a three-goal margin. Morgan Barron received a pass from Patrick Newell and surgically placed a shot into a well-covered short side between the right goalie pad and the post. The goal was his team-best eighth of the season at 16:58.
“Our penalty kill has to be better, simple as that,” a frustrated Thompson said.
FIRST PERIOD
In the first period, the Wolf Pack controlled play from the opening whistle to the end of the period. They built a 2-0 lead in a contest delayed by 15 minutes from its original 1 pm start time for some unspecified reason.
The Wolf Pack power play started its torrid afternoon and strong play as of late ways scoring again on their first chance and giving the team the game’s first goal for a fourth straight game.
At 10:43, Anthony Greco sent a pass off the right-wing to Tim Gettinger below the goal line.
Gettinger banked a shot off Sound Tigers captain Seth Helgeson, who was down on the ice trying to block a pass coming across the crease. The puck went off his left leg and past Schneider at 10:43 for Gettinger’s third of the season. It was also his first goal in seven games. His relief was evident as he looked up towards the ceiling as if to say, “Finally.”
Schneider robbed Gettinger early on in the game as he was all alone and took a behind-the-back pass from Ronning. The NHL vet, who hasn’t had back-to-back games in over a year, made the sharp save.
Ronning picked up the second Wolf Pack goal with the man-advantage on the right-wing. He sent a snapshot on the right-wing side with Paul Thompson set in front of Schneider as a screen at 17:31 of the first.
LINES
Richards-Gettinger-Ronning
Newell-Barron-Greco
Sanchez- Rueschhoff-Geersten
O’Leary-Thompson-Whelan
Raddysh- Reunanen
LoVerde-Hunter Skinner
Giutarri-Sieloff
Huska
Wall
THREE STARS
Ty Ronning
Tim Gettinger
Morgan Barron
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Adam Huska
Darren Raddysh
James Sanchez
SCRATCHES
Jonny Brodzinski (3-4 weeks, upper-body)
Jeff Taylor
Will Cullye
Patrick Khordorenko
Brandon Crawley
Ryan Dmowski
Zach Bezzola
Francois Brassard
Gabriel Fontaine (upper-body, season-ending)
NOTES
Bridgeport plays on Monday in Providence. The two teams hook up at the XL Center Wednesday at 1 pm for the second of seven games with the Sound Tigers in April.
Wolf Pack rookie defenseman, Hunter Skinner, tallied his first AHL point (an assist) in his first AHL game. James Sanchez got his first pro assist.
Tyler Wall played 2:51 of the third period as Huska had to go to the locker room for a pesky skate blade repair.
For 40 seconds, Huska was waving and hollering to the refs to stop play because his skate’s blade came entirely off.
Taylor Raddysh, Darren’s brother, was sent to the Syracuse Crunch by the Tampa Bay Lightning parent club.
POWER PLAYS GALORE
The last time a Wolf Pack team had a game like this in terms of power plays was back on February 8, 2007, in Providence in a wild 7-5 victory. In the game, they went 5 for 8.
Andrew Hutchison won the Eddie Shore Award that year. (the only Wolf Pack to do) scored a hat trick on the power play during a seven-minute major. Sean Curry had jumped Dane Byers in the Bruins crease at the 20:00 mark of the first period.
Former Wolf Pack and Sound Tiger, now the current Toronto (AHL) head coach, Greg Moore, had a goal and three assists.
COREY SCHNEIDER IN BRIDGEPORT
Sound Tigers Head Coach, Brent Thompson, had no answer for how long Schneider will remain in the Park City on his conditioning loan. He was more in the mood to discuss his youngest son, Tyce, signing his first pro deal with the New Jersey Devils and was put on the Devils taxi squad earlier in the day.
Schneider last played in the AHL in 2009-10 with the Manitoba Moose.
CONNECTIONS
Ex-Sound Tiger Jamie Fraser 35, announced the end of his playing career after spending the last nine spent in Austria and was the captain for the last two seasons for ESV Villacher (Austria-IceHL). Fraser is the nephew of retired NHL referee Kerry Fraser and played three seasons in Bridgeport in the mid-2000s.
Friday, April 17, 2015, goalie CJ Motte, who the Sound Tigers scratched, played against the Wolf Pack. He was in the net for a 3-2 loss at the XL Center. The game was the next to last, and he faced 16 shots. The Wolf Pack backup goalie that night was Jeff Malcolm. He is now the Wolf Pack goalie consultant and a former assistant coach in charge of defense the last two weeks.
The starting Wolf Pack goalie was Yann Danis, also an ex-Sound Tiger.
ROCKET ROCKET TO AHL TOP SPOT
The Laval Rocket is the hottest team in the AHL. They are currently on a 10-0-0-1 streak (34 points) and lead the Canadian Division and the entire AHL with a 16-4-1-1 record.
The Rocket were back home Friday night to play the Stockton Heat (aka Calgary Heat) at the Bell Centre in a wild and heated game and registered a 3-0 shutout.
