BY: Alex Thomas, Hartford Wolf Pack
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack found themselves trialing 2-1 late in the contest Wednesday night at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Captain Jonny Brodzinski scored for the seventh straight game to tie the contest late, while Tim Gettinger played the hero role in the shootout to help push the Pack to a 3-2 victory over the Bears.
Gettinger scored his fourth shootout goal of the season in the bottom half of the third round to cement the victory for Hartford. Coming in on the far side, Gettinger cut in front of the goal and went backhand to forehand, snapping a shot by the blocker of Zach Fucale. The goal was Gettinger’s fourth shootout winner of the season and gives the club their third win in four tries against the Bears this season.
The Wolf Pack kicked off the scoring 13:53 into the game with Tanner Fritz’s seventh goal of the year. Lauri Pajuniemi blazed into the offensive zone, then pulled up just inside the blueline to maintain possession from a pursuing Bears defender. The rookie Finn walked the blueline the sent a backhand pass to Tarmo Reunanen. Reunanen stepped into a shot that was deflected home by Fritz.
BEARS RESPOND
The Bears responded just over four minutes later, tying the game at 18:00. Tobias Geisser fired a heavy shot over the arm of Keith Kinkaid for his third goal of the season, assisted by Brian Pinho and Cody Franson.
Hershey took their first lead of the hockey game 10:20 into the middle frame when Beck Malenstyn potted his third goal of the campaign. Kody Clark slid a pass across the ice on a two-on-one that Malenstyn tipped over a sprawling Kinkaid. Eddie Wittchow got the play going and collected the secondary assist on the marker.
Down late in the hockey game, the Wolf Pack never backed down. Finally, at 15:40, they clawed back to even the affair at two. Hunter Skinner chipped a puck up to center that Brodzinski was able to collect. The captain entered the zone on a two-on-one and elected to shoot. He beat Fucale over the glove for his team-leading 14th goal of the season. Brodzinski has scored in seven straight games, which is one off the franchise record for a goal-scoring streak.
Neither side converted in overtime, sending the Wolf Pack to their second shootout in three games. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby opened the shootout with a goal, but Brodzinski countered in the bottom half of the opening round.
Both Fritz and Mike Vecchione failed to score in the second round, then Kinkaid denied Pinho in the top half of the third. That set the table for Gettinger, who sniped his fourth shootout winner home to cap the festivities.
The Pack will play another back-to-back set next weekend, starting at 7:05 p.m. against the Springfield Thunderbirds at the MassMutual Center.
UPCOMING GAMES
The Pack is back at the XL Center Saturday evening with a special 5:00 p.m. puck drop. The Pack host the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on ‘Star Wars Night’ at the XL Center. The first 1,500 fans will also receive a Wolf Pack pint glass courtesy of Lewis Real Estate Services. We will also be holding a postgame skate! Tickets are still available at www.hartfordwolfpack.com.
