BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – A.J. Greer had a sparkling effort contributing four points to lead the visiting Utica Comets to spank the Hartford Wolf Pack 7-3 at the XL Center on a rare Monday gameday.
“It was one of the better games we have played despite the score. We’re missing our #1 center (Jonny Brodzinaki) on recall, and his linemate is out injured (Tim Gettinger). All-in-all, the guys gave a good effort,” Pack Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said.
The Pack (.551 win percentage) have a paper-thin percentage point margin over the Hershey Bears (.548) for fourth place. They continue their late-season game overload as they play in central PA against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Wednesday. They will host the Belleville Senators on Friday and the Syracuse Crunch on Saturday. Next Monday, the grind continues when they play the second-place team in the Atlantic Division, the Providence Bruins.
The Penguins are tied in percentage with the hard-charging and revived Bridgeport Islanders, who many had given up for dead as far as playoffs were concerned.
The final was deceptive in that it doesn’t reflect how close the game was at times. But, the Wolf Pack were chasing the game in stretches, had untimely defensive breakdowns, and failed to capitalize on their scoring chances.
THIRD PERIOD
In the third, Utica earned themselves a second two-goal margin and continued to score when they needed to. For the second time in the hockey game, the Wolf Pack pulled within a goal as Lauri Pajueniemi made it 4-3 off a rebound of Matt Lorito’s shot for his thirteenth goal of the season at 13:33.
With that much time on the clock, there was enough time for a comeback.
Just 13 seconds later, Chase DeLeo, who had a game-high six shots, was open on the left-wing. However, Nils Lundkvist was alone on a two-on-one as Nick Jones tried to pinch in on the play and got caught. DeLeo found the puck, and with A.J. Greer in his rearview mirror, DeLeo buried his 13th goal, a dagger goal that restored the Comets’ two-goal lead.
“That was the nail in the coffin. That kinda killed us. There we were with them till the last five minutes. We were pretty even. I just don’t know,” remarked Knoblauch.
The duo then connected on the Comets’ sixth goal, with Greer finding DeLeo and Graeme Clarke at 18:39 to close out the game’s scoring. It was Clarke’s tenth on the season and came at 18:49.
SPECIAL TEAMS ARE NOT SO SPECIAL
“When we have the momentum we have to follow up by keeping the next shift simple and not give them a break. We were resilient most of the game. They scored, we’d get back to within one, and then we let them score. It kind of took the wind out of our sails,” Anthony Greco said.
The Pack’s penalty kill was of concern for Knoblauch.
“We’re doing a deep dive on that and see if the personnel we’ve been using needs to be changed, or if it’s just systems we are using. We’re missing some of our key assets. Gettinger is injured. Jonny Brodzinski is in New York. Morgan Barron has been traded away, and (Braden) Schneider is up in New York. That’s four key players we don’t have,” Knoblauch said.
Utica’s power play abilities exposed an issue for Knoblauch.
Of the first power play tally, Ryan Schmelzer had net-front presence and got his stick in the way and deflected in his 14h of the season from Fabian Zetterlund’s shot at 6:36 of the second period.
Greco answered back at 8:57 from the left-wing side, converting his rebound to make it 2-2. On the goal, hard work from Ty Ronning and Patrick Khordorenko paid dividends.
“Khordorenko, Ronning and Greco were our best line tonight,” Knoblauch stated.
AJ Greer’s goal, his 19th, came at 14:34 to regain the lead. The game seemed to be slipping away on a failure to do the small things.
REACTION
“Coaches have has been stressing to have B-plus game. Do the things that don’t take talent. Do the simple things. You do those things, keep it simple and let the game come to you, and we’re trying to do so much. We’re forcing the play too much and that’s where you see us falling down,” Greco remarked.
The Wolf Pack came out of the gate slow and were outplayed in the first five minutes, and fell behind early at 1:44.
A mishandled puck by Matt Lorito, and then out of a scramble, the puck came to Serge Laberge, who fired a blast that Pack starter Adam Huska stopped. However, the former South Kent Prep player Brian Flynn and Clarke were in front of the net, and he put in his ninth into an open net just as Huska returned to the net.
“(Confidence) is a fragile thing right now because we are such a young team, and I remember when I first came into this league. It’s a part of hockey, everybody goes thru it,” Greco said.
LINES
Merkley-Pajuniemi-Lorito
Ronning-Greco-Khordorenko
Rueschoff-Whalen-Richard
Girduckis-O’Leary-DiGiacinto
Tinordi-Lundkvist
Jones-Scanlin
Robertson-Guittari
Kinkaid
Huska
SCRATCHES
Skinner
Gettinger (out until Saturday)
Taylor
Letunov
Fritz
NOTES
Tanner Friz was a late scratch. While taking his pre-game warm-ups, he developed a lower-body injury and could not go. Justin Richards, who was initially scheduled to sit, got to start despite his struggles on the fourth line.
“It was his injury from the last game. We didn’t want to aggravate it and if it was a playoff game he would have gone. With our upcoming schedule, it was good to give him a few days rest,” Knoblauch said.
LETUNOV
At the AHL’s Trade deadline, the New York Rangers swung one deal with the Carolina Hurricanes that effects the Wolf Pack. The Hurricanes sent to Harford forward Maxim Letunov, who played three college seasons in the XL Center for UCONN. He was named to the second team All-Hockey East twice. So the Rangers become his fifth NHL organization. He was traded twice in college by the St. Louis Blues and the Arizona Coyotes and then from the San Jose Sharks to Carolina. Letunov’s KHL rights were also traded from Salavat Ufa to Traktor Chelyabinsk several years ago.
He will wear #91.
Ex-Wolf Pack Chris Bigras was loaned to the Chicago Fire from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, as was Bridgeport Islander forward Richard Pánik.
Ex-Sound Tiger Mason Jobst was moved at the deadline for the second year in a row going from the Rochester Americans to the San Jose Barracuda.
The announced crowd of 1,663 represented the team’s 51st sub-2,000 crowd in its history and the 15th worst overall. 34 have been on Wednesdays. This was OVG’s seventh game with under 2,000 in the crowd in its short history. In the ten years when MSG was running the team, they never had one.
In the only other AHL game on the schedule, Colorado shut out San Jose 4-0.
Former UCONN Husky Darion Hanson has signed with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Another Husky, Jarrod Gourley, signed with the Adirondack Thunder (ECHL).
After six years at SC Bern in Switzerland, ex-Pack Calle Anderson signs a deal to play for HC Lugano (Switzerland-LNA) next year.
