BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Bridgeport Sound Tigers goaltender, Ken Appleby, stopped all twenty shots he faced while Otto Koivula and Arnaud Durandeau each had two-point games to pace a 4-0 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack Saturday afternoon at the XL Center.
It was the season’s first shutout for the Wolf Pack and snapped their seven-game winning streak. It was their first shutout of this shortened season for the Sound Tigers and ended their seven-game losings streak.
The Wolf Pack record goes to 10-7-1-0 (21 points) and eight points behind the Providence Bruins in the Atlantic Division. The Bruins still have a game in hand.
Bridgeport’s record goes to 4-13-1-0 (9 points).
KNOBLAUCH REACTS
“Credit to Bridgeport; they played a really good game. They were the better team today,” said Wolf Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch.
The Wolf Pack will be back in action on Thursday against the Providence Bruins in Marlborough, MA, and next Saturday will be back at the XL Center.
The Wolf Pack struggles with taking penalties saw them spend more time on the PK than on their AHL best PP. The Sound Tigers made them pay in the third period scoring two goals.
They scored an early power play tally to make it 3-0.
Thomas Kuhnhackl’s pestering Vincent LoVerde from behind bumped him and freed up the puck. Mason Geersten got the loose puck and passed the puck out in front of the net. Robert “Bobo” Carpenter was right there and snatched the puck into the net for his second goal of the year past a startled Adam Huska at 1:49.
“The last few games, we had three power play goals in each game. That wasn’t the case today. We had maybe two or three power plays the whole game. They had numerous chances, especially in the third period when we’re trying to make a push (to come back), and you can’t do that when you’re in the box,” remarked Knoblauch.
THOMPSON AGREES
There was no disagreement from one of the team’s leaders over the past few games, veteran Paul Thompson.
“It’s something we try to avoid. Staying in the box too much like that takes away from our forechecking game and making our D have to work too much back there.
“It’s certainly not ideal. The PK did a pretty good job, but you’re not going to win a lot of games, spending too much time in the box.”
They closed out their scoring as the Wolf Pack could not clear the puck out of their zone. Kyle MacLean, with a one-handed swipe, kept the puck in Wolf Pack territory.
Thomas Kuhnhackl used his long stick to beat Patrick Sieloff to the loose puck. Sieloff chipped it over to Cole Bardreau. The Tigers’ forward ripped a wrist shot over Huska’s shoulder for his team-leading eighth goal. It gave the Tigers a commanding 4-0 lead at 5:14 of the third and their second power play goal of the game.
“We didn’t give up a lot of scoring chances, but the ones that we did, you don’t want to give up. I can’t fault Adam at all when we had breakdowns. They were bad,” said Knoblauch reflectively.
GETTING CUTE WITH THE PUCK COSTLY
The Wolf Pack had some quality chances but tried to make a cute or fancy play that took away quality scoring chances.
On one play, Morgan Barron had a solid counter opportunity with Ty Ronning; he elected to try a fancy spinarama back-pass that never made it to an open Ronning.
“I’ll have to look at the video to make a better assessment of that. Maybe we thought it was going to be easy, but again credit Bridgeport; they played a good hockey game.”
Sound Tigers used their second power play to score a second goal early in the second period.
Ryan Dmowski’s late first-period hooking penalty was cashed in on a well-orchestrated power play. Koivula was down low and maintained puck possession with strong work along the right-wing wall and got the puck to Durandeau.
He took the puck from Tim Gettinger and slid it over to Dmytro Timashov at the left point. He waited for Bardreau to slip in front and screen Huska and wired a low slapshot into the net to the short side at 1:02, making it 2-0.
THOMPSON TALKS
“We know we had been playing some good hockey lately, but today wasn’t our best day. We didn’t do the things that made us successful. Bridgeport played a good game. Now we have to get back to work and finish our season strong,” Thompson, who was playing his 600th AHL game, said.
DODGING A BULLET
The Sound Tigers had a glorious chance to go up 3-0. They caught the Wolf Pack napping and had a two-on-none breakaway.
Durandeau took a backhanded lead pass from Carter Hutton in the Bridgeport zone. That left LoVerde and Geersten trapped. Durandeau broke in on the right-wing with Blade Jenkins with about 6:12 left on the period.
Durandeau sent a cross-crease pass to Jenkins, who couldn’t handle it and the Sound Tigers were unable to even register a shot on goal.
It was a moment the Wolf Pack could have seized upon but let slip through their grasp.
“You can create some momentum for yourself, but we couldn’t make anything of it.”
FIRST PERIOD
It was a tight-checking first period with each team having only six shots, but just after killing off the game’s first penalty, the Sound Tigers scored.
Samuel Bolduc was in his own zone. He took Appleby’s pass from behind the net and sent a stretch pass that went off Koivula’s stick at center ice right onto Durandeau’s stick.
Durandeau sped off the right-wing with the angle on Geersten and motored to the net going backhand-to-forehand and slipped his third goal past starter Huska for the 1-0 lead.
LINES:
Richards-Gettinger-Ronning
Newell-Greco-Barron
Brodzinski-Sanchez-Dmowski
Khordorenko-Thompson-Cullye
Raddysh-Reunanen
LoVerde-Geersten
Giutarri-Sieloff
Huska
Brassard
THREE STARS:
Ken Appleby Bridgeport
Otto Koivula Bridgeport
Arnaud Durandeau Bridgeport
SCRATCHES:
Jeff Taylor
Alex Whalen
Michael O’Leary
Hunter Skinner
Austin Rueschhoff
Zach Berzola
Tyler Wall
Gabriel Fontaine (upper-body, done for the season)
AHL PLAYOFFS
Monday at 3 PM is the AHL Trading Deadline since there will be no Calder Cup playoffs again this year. Only the Pacific Division will have its own mini-divisional postseason with a Best-of-Three series in either San Diego’s temporary home rink in Irvine, CA, or potentially in Edmonton depending on the COVID situation in mid-May.
“I’d be very surprised if any team makes any trades with the season-ending about three weeks away, and with there being no playoffs, I doubt it. Not much will happen,” remarked Knoblauch.
The only caveat will be if teams need to shift players or money for cap purposes and/or the mid-summer expansion draft for the Seattle Kraken.
NEWS AND NOTES
The Providence Bruins won the last non-Atlantic Division game against the Utica Comets in Marlborough, MA, on Friday afternoon, 6-2, scoring six straight goals. Robert Lantosi, Brady Lyle, and Urho Vaakanainan each had two points.
In April, the first game in Utica was postponed for COVID reasons, with no makeup date having been announced.
The college hockey transfer bonanza rolls on as UCONN senior Brian Rigali heads up I-91 to Springfield, MA, and will play his fifth year for AIC (American International College) (AHA) who play out of the Mass Mutual Center.
Then UCONN junior goalie Tomáš Vomáčka turned pro as expected with the Nashville Predators (NHL) signing a two-year standard ELC contract that will start next season for slightly less than the average at $810K-NHL/$60K-AHL.
He will likely start with the Milwaukee Admirals (AHL), who opted not to play this season.
COLLEGE MOVEMENT
Jack DeBoer (Salisbury Prep), the son of the Las Vegas Golden Knights (NHL) head coach, Peter DeBoer, has made a school transfer going from Boston University (HE) to Niagara University (AHA) for next season.
There have been 31 school transfers and 38 grad transfers. 67 Division I players have signed North American pro contracts, and 71 players total Division I and II have signed pro deals.
Hockey East and the Big 10 each have 20, followed by the NCHC with 13, AHA with six, ECACHL with five, the WCHA with two and two Division I independent schools have just two players, both Division III to sign in Europe.
Latvian Felikss Egils Gavars, who has been through the entire level of the Selects Academy at South Kent Prep program, has made a commitment to St. Lawrence University (ECACHL) in the fall.
Ex-Pack Adam Tambellini has signed a two-year contract extension with Rogle BK (Sweden-SHL).
