By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
ALLENTOWN, PA – Dylan Garand’s strong effort in net and offense from Ryan Carpenter and Will Lockwood, each with a goal and an assist, paced the Hartford Wolf Pack to a 5-1 road victory over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
The third period was decisive for the Pack as their counter-attack led them to score three times and pull from the Phantoms.
They have won four in a row, gone 7-3-1-0 in their last 11 are five points ahead of idle Bridgeport, but they have two games in hand and have gotten themselves to within one point of the fifth-place Phantoms.
Lehigh Valley plays Bridgeport tomorrow afternoon.
The Wolf Pack are off until Wednesday when the Toronto Marlies, coached by Pack captain/ex-Sound Tiger/ex-Springfield Falcon Greg Moore, comes to town. They host the Islanders next Friday on Calder Cup championship celebration night at the XL Center.
The playoff sprint is on.
The Wolf Pack of late has shown a late-game resilience that’s been absent for a part of the season.
Garand started it with four solid saves on Jackson Cates, Olle Lycksell, Elliott Desnoyers, and Tyson Foerster, keeping the Phantoms from tying it.
They got the two-goal lead they sought as Tim Gettinger stripped Phantoms forward Bobby Brink of the puck, pushed the puck ahead, and Tanner Fritz motored his way down on the right wing and nailed one off the back bar in the net at 7:52 for his 11th and a 3-1 lead.
The Pack didn’t stop there as captain Jonny Brodzinski was on fire, scoring his 19th as his pass was too far for Jake Leschysyn. Brodzinski used his speed and smarts to get to the loose puck following the play. Then at the left side of the net put in his 19th, making it 4-1.
Brodzinski, clearly a Player of the Week candidate, has 19 goals and 18 assists in 26 games since being reassigned by the Rangers.
The icing on the cake came as Carpenter helped force a neutral zone turnover, then headed right to the Phantoms’ zone. Lockwood made an intelligent outlet pass off the boards at center ice that set him free and Carpenter made no mistake with a shot over Nolan Maier’s glove and under the crossbar for a hefty 5-1 lead that stayed there.
There was no third-period collapse.
In the last four periods at the PPL Center, the Wolf Pack have outscored the Phantoms 10-1, and in their previous four games have outscored their opponents 19-3.
Who is this team?
In the second period, pushback came Garand, who did his best stopping 11 of 12 shots in various ways, and just one eluded him all evening.
In the two-game total, the Pack goalies faced 70 shots, and only one went in.
Emil Andrae, a defenseman for the Phantoms, cruised in the Wolf Pack zone unchecked. Andare, a second pick by the Flyers three years ago, spent the year in Sweden, took the drop pass from Tyson Forester, and in just his third game with Phantoms, fired a perfect bar down shot for his first-ever AHL goal at 7:30 to cut the lead to just one goal.
The Pack had early offense when Will Cullye hit the post at 2:02 off a pass from the left-wing wall from Brodzinski.
Garand was sharp, stopping Ronnie Attard, Elliott Desnoyers, and Max Willam in one burst of shots at the net.
Then with 4:56 left, Brodzinski, on the right wing, tried to set up Jake Leschyshyn.
Nearly a minute later, Andrae almost tied the game on virtually the same play but hit the crossbar this time.
Then with 59 seconds remaining in the period saw ex-Pack Alex Kile got around Adam Clendening and tested Garand down low, but the door remained closed with his paddle down on the ice.
The Wolf Pack had a strong road game to start the hockey game.
The Pack struck gold first.
Anton Blidh fired a perfect outlet pass and found Lauri Pajuniemi open behind the defense. Then screaming in Nolan Maier, bear him on the breakaway for his 19th at 2:18.
The Pack kept the foot on the gas pedal depressed and took advantage of a poor icing call by the officials that infuriated Phantoms coach Ian Laperriere and Carpenter won the ensuing offensive zone faceoff and alerted Gettinger on the forecheck got there first.
His pass hit some skates and bounced to Carpenter in the left-wing circle, zipped a high shot that Lockwood deflected perfectly over Maier’s shoulder for a 2-0 lead at 5:38.
Carpenter has nine points in the last nine games in this latest Pack surge.
Then Brandon Scanlin threw an excellent hard, legal in the neutral zone on Max Willam, crushing him into the right-wing boards, and sadly, customarily, he had to battle ex-Pack Alex Kile. Still, the Pack was firing on all cylinders as he got into his second fight in as many games.
They got help in the net as Garand made nine saves, including a big save, and then Elliott Desnoyers and Garrett Wilson were denied.
The Pack got a four-minute powerplay on a high stick-on Wyatt Kalynuk by Jordie Bellerive.
Zac Jones got plenty of ice with eight minutes of the 20 were on the man advantage.
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