VERSUS 
A great start and an even better finish sent the Connecticut Whale to their 25th win of the season with a 3-2 road win against the Hamilton Bulldogs Friday night.
Devin DiDiomete got his sixth goal of the season and first career game-winner with the kind of effort that has marked his three year professional career. It wasn’t pretty but it got the job done.
The game –winner came after a rush by Andrew Conboy was broken up in the defensive zone by Tim Kennedy who stripped the left winger of the puck. The Whale forward then found running mate Chad Kolarik on the right side and he advanced it into the attack zone to the right wing circle. Kolarik returned the puck into the slot to Kennedy who put the puck on net. Meanwhile DiDiomete outworked and outhustled left-winger Dany Masse for position on the left side of the crease in front of Curtis Sanford (26 saves, 19-12-1) and had Kennedy’s shot hit his skate and slide under the Hamilton starting netminder and into the net with just 1:13 remaining.
The big question entering Friday night’s contest was how Ken Gernander’s team would respond to the team’s worst performance, not just of the season, but perhaps of all-time as they were nuked Wednesday night by the Toronto Marlies 9-2. That question was answered loud and clear at the drop of the opening puck.
Kris Newbury lost the opening draw but Brodie Dupont took the puck away from Conboy.Dupont found Dale Weise and the Whale right winger came straight up the slot and fired a perfect wrister just over the glove of Sanford just 10 seconds into the game.
The goal was the fastest to start a period this season easily eclipsing the 23 second mark on New Year’s Eve in a game against the Portland Pirates at the XL Center. Newbury started the third period of the 5-4 overtime win scoring the team’s first shorthanded goal of the season against Jonas Enroth. Weise just missed tying the team record of 9 seconds also scored against the Pirates but on Gerald Coleman in a 5-2 Hartford Wolf Pack loss on April 15, 2007.
The lead didn’t last long as 1:23 later the Bulldogs found the back of the net.
While skating with an extra attacked or a delayed penalty, Frederic St. Denis took a cross ice pass along the blue line from Brett Festerling and unloaded a bomb from the right point. Dov Grumet Morris (29 saves, 2-2-0) had traffic in front of him including Dustin Boyd screening him, and he never saw the puck go into the net. The goal was initially credited to Boyd, but was later revised to St. Denis. Aaron Palushaj was credited with the secondary assist.
The game was getting the feel that it was going to be a high-scoring affair as the Whale answered back and regained the lead just under two minutes after the Bulldog equalizer with one of their own on the power play.
Mathieu Carle was in the box after being called by referee Chris Ciamaga for slashing at 3:15. It would take only 7 seconds for the Whale to capitalize.
Newbury got on the scoreboard when his feed from the right side, where he was all alone, was perfectly passed to Dupont on the left side of the crease and the Whale left winger had the full 4X6 to shoot at and just redirected it in. Weise had the secondary assist on Dupont’s 10th of the season with an excellent cross ice feed to Newbury. The helper for Weise matched Dupont as both added their second point of the period just 3:22 into the game and a 2-1 lead.
The period would end with that score, but the Bulldogs were all over the Whale throughout outshooting the visitors 19-9 as Grumet-Morris shined to keep the Whale in the game.
Early in the second period it looked like Kelsey Tessier would get his 7th of the season and open up a two-goal lead at 2:49. Sanford mishandled a puck in his glove and dropped it in front of the crease. Tessier, with traffic in-front, knocked the puck past Sanford as players converged and the net got knocked off it’s moorings. However Ciamaga, after conferring with linesman Jesse Wilmot and Matt Traub, held to his ruling that the net was off before the puck crossed the line and negated, what looked even on the replay, like a good goal.
The game was getting very physical. In the first period at 13:43 Jyri Niemi was hurt on a hit that left him down on the ice for several minutes. He would return later. At 12:26 of the second period there was a scary moment for the Whale as Kolarik needed help from the ice to the locker room after getting a hit in the leg. Fortunately for the Whale, their roster is filled with some pretty tough hombres and have a tremendous trainer in Damien Hess who would be able to get both players back on the ice.
Grumet-Morris was challenged on one terrific scoring chance after another and kept the Whale ahead. Conboy was stoned in front of the net when he was wide-open off a Palushaj pass. Grumet-Morris recovered to deny the sure goal midway through the period.
With 2:42 to go in the second, Weise rushed the puck right down the throat of the Bulldogs past Ian Schultz and Alex Henry for a scoring chance. THe puck hits Sanford and lies in front of the crease. Newbury followed Weise into the red zone and then Jared Nightingale joined in as well all taking stabs at the puck to knock into the promised land. But then Jimmy Bonneau knocked Nightingale on top of Sanford from behind and the rough stuff boiled over as the Whale defenseman and Bulldog left winger got in each other’s faces and were both sent to cool off in the isolation tank for matching roughing calls.
When the two teams went out to skate four a-side, Kolarik returned.
With just 32.2 seconds left in the period, Palushaj put a bad hit from behind on Weise, who fortunately was not hurt on the hit, and was awarded a boarding call for his efforts.
Just 24 seconds into the third frame, Festerling gave the Whale a 5-on-3 for 1:03 when he threw the puck into the stands for a Delay of Game call. The Whale power play that looked so lethal earlier scoring in just 7 seconds, looked totally bewildered on the 5-on-3 and didn’t even generate a good scoring chance.
Hamilton used the momentum from their PK unit to take the game right back at the Whale and at 4:33 knotted the score.
Ryan Russell, who was originally a New York Rangers 7th round draft pick, 211th overall, in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft and was obtained by the Montreal Canadiens in a trade for a 2007 Draft Pick, blocked a Nightingale shot at the right point and outskated the defenseman to the puck and came in on a breakaway. The centerman went left to right across the crease and flipped a backhanded shot just over Grumet-Morris’s left pad for his eighth of the season.
The win for the former Wolf Pack, evened the road trip at one win and one loss. They have a rare Saturday night off and will play the Providence Bruins late Sunday afternoon in what is to be a preview of the outdoor game at Rentschler Field on February 19, their only other “home” game of the month. The Whale finish the four straight start of 10-of-12 on the road when they travel to Adirondack for a battle with the Phantoms Friday night.
Bob Crawford was on microphone and on the keyboard filing this story at CTWhale.com. From the Hamilton perspective there’s the CA story at Winnipeg Free Press and at the Hamilton Bulldogs own site.
GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET
STANDINGS:
NOTES:
* The Whale can take extra pride in having beaten the AHL’s second best overall goaltender. Forth in wins (19), Forth in shutouts (5), Second in save percentage (.934), Second in GAA (1.85)
* Penalty Killing is 1th (83.9%) for the Whale and Power Play is 5th at (21.3%)
* Wade Redden has had one assist in 9 games, Kelsey Tessier 1 in 11 games. Jason Williams was without a point in four games and sported an ugly minus-13 before being released from his PTO. Oren Eizenman is without a point in 8 games. Justin Soryal is without a point in 17 games.
* Brodie Dupont has 2g, 6a in the last 7 games. He has points in all but one of them. Dale Weise has points in 15 of 21 games. Devin DiDiomete’s goal ends a 7 game pointless streak.
* The Whale had not beaten Hamilton in it’s last five meetings (0-4-1) dating back to a 3-2 win in Hartford on November 16, 2007.
LINES:
Dupont – Newbury – Weise
Grachev – Kennedy – Kolarik
Soryal – Tessier – Jeremy Williams
DiDiomete – Garlock – Eizenman
Niemi – Kundratek
Redden – Nightingale
Valentenko – Bickel
Grumet-Morris
Legatt
(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)
SCRATCHES:
Todd White – Concussion – Undetermined
Chris McKelvie – Foot Surgery, Undetermined
Chad Johnson – Flu – Day-to-Day
Cam Talbot – High Ankle Sprain, Day-to-Day
THREE STARS:
1. CT – D. Weise
2. CT – B. Dupont
3. HAM – F. St. Denis
ON ICE OFFICIALS:
Referee:
Chris Ciamaga (41)
Linesmen:
Jesse Wilmot (19)
Matt Traub (88)
NEXT GAME:
After splitting two in Canada the Whale get a shot at Providence on Sunday at 4:05. After that the team is off until Friday at Adirondack at 7:30. Bob Crawford has the pregame a half an hour before the puck drops.
To watch the game live, you can purchased it for $6.99 at AHL-live.
For Ticket information for all home games, call (860) 548-2000.
Too far away or can’t make it? Listen live at WTIC.com or from your cell phone or computer visit www.twitter.com/howlingstoday for complete live in-game coverage of all games both home and away.
SCORE-SHEET:
Connecticut Whale 3 at Hamilton Bulldogs 2 – Status: Final
Friday, February 11, 2011 – Copps Coliseum
Connecticut 2 0 1 – 3
Hamilton 1 0 1 – 2
1st Period-1, Connecticut, Weise 12 (Dupont), 0:10. 2, Hamilton, St. Denis 2 (Festerling, Palushaj), 1:33. 3, Connecticut, Dupont 10 (Newbury, Weise), 3:22 (PP). Penalties-Carle Ham (slashing), 3:15; Kundratek Ct (interference), 6:45.
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Weise Ct (kneeing), 3:15; Russell Ham (hooking), 13:03; Nightingale Ct (roughing), 17:18; Bonneau Ham (roughing), 17:18; Palushaj Ham (boarding), 19:27.
3rd Period-4, Hamilton, Russell 8 4:43. 5, Connecticut, DiDiomete 6 (Kennedy, Kolarik), 18:47. Penalties-Festerling Ham (delay of game), 0:24; Wyman Ham (tripping), 9:12.
Shots on Goal-Connecticut 9-10-10-29. Hamilton 19-6-6-31.
Power Play Opportunities-Connecticut 1 / 5; Hamilton 0 / 2.
Goalies-Connecticut, Grumet-Morris 2-2-0 (31 shots-29 saves). Hamilton, Sanford 19-12-1 (29 shots-26 saves).
A-2,849
Referees-Chris Ciamaga (41).
Linesmen-Jesse Wilmot (19), Matt Traub (88).
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