BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
BELLEVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA – The Hartford Wolf Pack ended a difficult four-game slide on the last game of their five-game road trip and two-game Canadian road excursion with a three-goal third period en route to a 5-2 win over the Belleville Senators. It’s the last game before the NHL Trade Deadline on Monday and a week before the AHL Trade Deadline next Monday.
The fourth-place Pack (28-20-5-2) has a winning percentage of .573. They created some breathing space between themselves and the Hershey Bears (.550), who lost earlier in the day in Laval to the Rocket 5-1 as Rafaël Harvey-Pinard led the way scoring in his fifth straight game.
Pack Head Coach Kris Knoblauch elected to go back to his reliable veteran goalie Keith Kinkaid who he had pulled eleven minutes into the game the previous night and had just twelve shots on net the last two periods of the game.
The third period saw the Wolf Pack go three-for-three in shots to pull away while facing eleven.
FIRST GOAL
The first goal was unassisted. After goalie Logan Flodell had lost his stick, Michael O’Leary capitalized from in the slot just twenty feet out and put his sixth goal of the season into an open net at 3:08 and put the Pack up 3-2.
They put away a shorthanded two-on-zero breakaway as Patrick Khordorenko stole an errant pass and he and Tanner Fritz took off. Khordorenko got a pass to Fritz as they broke out and he buried his sixth of the season under Flodell’s glove.
The Wolf Pack finished off the Senators as Anthony Greco took a left point miscue with the puck by Robie Jarventie zipped down the ice and put it away with 53 seconds left.
SENATORS HAD THE LEAD
The Senators had the lead on the Pack at 2-1 in the second period. At the time, they were getting outshot 7-1 after their first three shots missed the net.
Cole Reinhardt took a cross-ice pass from Scott Sabourin pulled away from Nils Lundkvist and went forehand-to-backhand and beat Kinkaid at 3:10.
Kinkaid made several stops on Jonathan Aspirot, Scott Sabourin, and Zac Leslie in keeping Belleville close.
The Pack tied the game at two after Ty Ronning came out from behind the net and found Fritz open. Fritz fired his eleventh of the season from the slot into the back of the net at 10:14.
After making a save on Mark Kastelic, the son of former Hartford Whaler Ed Kastelic, on an early power play, the Senators got the lead and the game’s first goal. Aspirot got his third of the season into a wide-open net from the left-wing side. He fired his shot with a quick release at 10:45 as Reinhardt won the one-on-one battle along the right-wing boards from Austin Rueschoff and sent a pass across the box to Aspirot.
The Wolf Pack tied it late in the second period as Rueschoff made the play so the team went to the dressing room at Yardmen Arena in a better frame of mind. Rueschoff was on the left-wing and came out of a maze of players and found Matt Lorito coming off the bench and he fired his sixth goal in 15 games at 19:36.
LINES
RICHARDS-RUESCHOFF-LORITO
FRITZ-RONNING-GRECO
BARRON-LORITO-KHORDORENKO
DIGIACINTI-O’LEARY-WHALEN
LUNDKVIST-JONES
ROBERTSON-BITETTO
REUNANEN-SKINNER
Kinkaid
Huska
SCRATCHES
Gettinger
Pajuniemi
Guitarri
Taylor
NOTES
The Wolf Pack will be getting another defenseman. Bradon Scanlin is 6’4 and weighs 215-pounds. He is a left-handed rearguard from the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks (NCHC).
Scanlin signed a two-year ELC deal at $925K-NHL/$80-K AHL deal.
