BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – Two early third period goals and two-point efforts by Blade Jenkins and Robert Carpenter plus a solid 30 save effort from Ken Appleby allowed the Sound Tigers to escape with a 4-3 win over the Hartford Wolf Pack on Saturday afternoon
Bridgeport has won three in a row and pushed their record to 6-13-1-0 for 13 points, and the Wolf Pack drop to 11-8-1-0 for 23 points and still stay behind Providence.
The two teams hook up close-out April play at the Webster Bank Arena on Tuesday. The Wolf Pack have four games left in the 2020-21 season.
The Wolf Pack, who are using the last seven games of this truncated season like a seven games series, are trailing in the fantasy Calder Cup series two games to one.
The Wolf Pack committed too many unforced errors, and the Sound Tigers stuck to their game plan and always seemed to arrive one step ahead of the pack on close plays throughout the game.
The closeness of the final score didn’t assuage how head coach Kris Knoblauch felt about the Wolf Pack play.
“The first two periods we were awful. The third period we put in a pretty good effort; it was too little, too late.”
The Sound Tigers struck in the first minute of play on the powerplay converting a penalty of Paul Thompson he receives for in receiving the extra two minutes getting into a scrap with Bridgeport’s Kyle MacLean the Sound Tigers Carter Hutton at the left point launched a shot that was blocked by Tim Gettinger but left him as a one-legged forward and the puck went to the agile Simon Holmstrom.
Holmstrom worked his way off the right-wing as he scooted past Mason Geersten drove to the net, and snapped a shot at Adam Huska, who made the save but couldn’t control the rebound, nor did any of his teammates clear it either.
The Sound Tigers Cole Coskey lost his edge because the ice was able to put his third goal past Huska.
“We didn’t execute well, and they checked well, made some pretty plays they were waiting for us to make mistakes.
Then a Wolf Pack defensive lapse, several big ones on the afternoon saw Bridgeport’s Jeff Kubiak and Thomas Kuhnhackl break-in on two on one.
Kubiak took a nice bank pass off the right-wing boards by Cole Bardreau. Then on the right-wing, Kubiak shoveled a pass across to the onrushing German forward, and he held on to the puck, avoiding the backcheck of Will Cullye, trying to catch him, and was able to lift a forehand by Huska for his third of the season at 5:05.
In five minutes, the Wolf Pack were trailing 3-1.
The team puck management left a bit to be desired for Knoblauch.
“Were always striving to be better. Tonight wasn’t so good. We had played so well against Providence (on Thursday) it wasn’t the same game for us. A lot of that had to with Bridgeport’s play. They checked us well and didn’t give us much room or make many mistakes.”
A sullen Patrick Khordorenko acknowledged the shortcomings of their game.
“We had some broken plays; they would get a rush, and somehow we broke down defensively. We gave up a couple of breakaways and took the wind out of our sails.”
Before the scoring sequence, the Pack Ty Ronning had a splendid chance in traffic, but his shot was stopped, and there was no rebound.
As would be the Wolf Pack pattern all game while they shot in bunches which is good, they were often followed by minutes of no offensive zone time.
Morgan Barron, Will Cuylle off the draw, and Darren Raddysh tested Bridgeport netminder Ken Appleby, and he was equal to the task on all three.
The ice surface left a lot to be desired for Khordorenko.
“I thought it was the same, nothing more than unusual… never been the greatest. We’ve been able to overcome it in the past. Just today, a couple of bounces didn’t go our way.”
He thinks the ice is bad now with a brand-new chiller system and sub-floor installed the last two years if he had been here seven or eight years ago with an aging, poor sub-floor and piping system plus an out-of-date chiller when the XL Center was more like the Roman Coliseum!
Maybe the most effective Wolf Pack shift of the game led to a goal and briefly narrowed the Sound Tigers lead to 3-2.
Morgan Barron won an offensive zone draw, and Vincent LoVerde effectively came down the left-wing wall to keep the puck inside the Sound Tigers’ territory.
Then Barron at the right-wing boards fed Zach Giuttari, whose first shot was blocked by Blade Jenkins off but came right back to him.
Then at the center blue line, Giutarri settled the puck down, then flipped another shot toward the net, and Barron had arrived with a screen. Giuttari’s third of the season got past Appleby at 13:13 who had surrendered just his second goal in five periods of hockey.
“We had a lot of bodies around; he did a nice job getting a shot off. It’s something we have talked about is getting the puck to our D in the middle of the (offensive) zone.
Earlier in the game, we weren’t getting those shots because they were blocking them. That last one was important as it gave us the opportunity.”
Bridgeport answered right back as Blade Jenkins, deep on right-wing boards, zipped a pass across to Kyle MacLean, who Huska stopped, but the rebound Bobo Carpenter (team-high four shots) pounced on coming from behind the net to the left side and put in his third goal at 17:06 to restore a two-goal advantage at 4-2.
“They had a game plan and stuck with it,” remarked Khordorenko, “they were able to throw it up the wall and get past us and get those odd-man rushes. We gotta play better as a five-person unit.”
With Huska pulled, Justin Richards put in the rebound Tim Gettinger’s shot with 11.4 seconds to go, but the Wolf Pack ran out of time.
The second period was a close checking period of action with chances spaced apart, but the Wolf Pack powerplay came through to tie the game late on the period.
Jonny Brodzinski, on the left-wing wall, was able to retrieved Anthony Greco’s wrap around the wall.
Brodzinski sped toward the net sent a pass to Tim Gettinger behind the net. The rangy 6’6 forward moves behind the net as a screen and hit Greco coming off the right point with a perfect pass. He wasted little time firing far side of Ken Appleby for his goal at exactly 14 minutes, and it was a 1-1 game.
“We were producing too much at that point, so that goal was huge. It gave the guys some lift and excitement, and it showed we could do this and was a very important goal,” remarked Knoblauch.
The first period saw the Sound Tigers and Wolf Pack jockey for position on the game, and the only goal came off a semi-broken play.
Anthony Greco’s entry was broken up, and the loose puck was around, and Bridgeport’s snared it and zipped a pass up to Blade Jenkins, who had slipped behind the Wolf Pack defense and zipped his second of the season far side at 7:14.
Each team had chances, but the Sound Tigers seem to have greater quality chances despite the shot total at the end of the period of 12-11 favoring the Wolf Pack.
The game couldn’t have been out of reach early if not for Huska stopping Cole Coskey on a semi-breakaway taking the puck away from Tarmo Reunanen, who had a tough day with the puck, but Jonny Brodzzinski speed in hustling back narrowed his shooting lane, and Huska was out on top of his crease to stop his shot.,
Then again, at 14:30, just eight seconds into a powerplay off the offensive zone draw, the Wolf Pack won. Thomas Kuhnhackl intercepted a Greco pass for Reunanen and went in alone, but Huska denied the Sound Tigers the lead at that point.
“The first period we weren’t good, giving up two breakaways, one partial. That’s not good hockey,” intoned Knoblauch.
-The Wolf Pack used the same lineup from Thursday. I’m pretty sure that will change on Tuesday.
LINES:
Richards-Gettinger-Ronning
Newell-Brodzinski-Barron
Rueschhoff-Thompson-Geersten
Khordorenko-Greco-Cullye
Raddysh-Reunanen
LoVerde-Skinner
Giutarri-Sieloff
Huska
Wall
THREE STARS:
Blade Jenkins Bridgeport
Robert Carpenter Bridgeport
Anthony Greco Hartford
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Tim Gettinger Hartford
Simon Holmstrom Bridgeport
Jeff Kubiak Bridgeport
SCRATCHES:
Jeff Taylor
Alex Whalen
Michael O’Leary
James Sanchez
Ryan Dmowski
Zach Berzolla
Francois Brassard
Gabriel Fontaine (upper-body, season over)
NOTES:
-Barron has a point in seven of his last eight games.
-Khordorenko, Raddysh, and Richards had three shots apiece.
