By Bruce Berlet
The headlines Tuesday night at the XL Center were the Connecticut Whale’s continued penalty killing excellence backstopped by goalie Dov Grumet-Morris, the return of their two most skilled players, wings Mats Zuccarello and Chad Kolarik, and the loss of right wing Dale Weise to injury.
Zuccarello, reassigned by the parent New York Rangers on Monday, and Kolarik, who had missed 17 consecutive games and 26 of 28 with a hamstring injury, displayed their talents mostly while skating between regular-season scoring leader and alternate captain Kris Newbury. The gifted duo didn’t disappoint as each had a goal and an assist, helping the Whale control long stretches of a 3-1 victory over the Portland Pirates to tie the best-of-seven Atlantic Division semifinal at two games apiece.
And there seemed to be good news for the Whale on Wednesday when Weise said he hopes to play in Game 5 on Thursday at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine. He missed all but five minutes Tuesday night when crosschecked into the boards by AHL Rookie of the Year Luke Adam without a penalty being called. Weise immediately left the ice and was taken to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford.
“I kind of ache all over, but it’s not too bad,” said Weise, who, like many of his teammates, didn’t participate in an optional skate Wednesday before the team boarded a bus for Portland. “We’ll have to see if I can play.”
If Weise can’t play, center Francis Lemieux or Ryan Garlock will replace him. Brodie Dupont or Kelsey Tessier then would return to wing after moving to the middle Tuesday night when Lemieux and Garlock were scratched to make room for Zuccarello and Kolarik.
Nearly lost again in all the changes was the continued stellar play of veteran defenseman Wade Redden, who seemed to log more minutes than any other player (the Whale doesn’t disclose exact numbers) while playing in all situations and being especially adept at helping kill seven Pirates power plays, including two 5-on-3s for 1:23. The Whale has killed 24 consecutive shorthanded situations since allowing two goals on the Pirates’ first three power plays in Game 1. Grumet-Morris, Redden, Newbury, John Mitchell, Jared Nightingale, Stu Bickel and the shot-blocking machine, Pavel Valentenko, have been especially instrumental in that turnaround.
Redden’s $6.5 million salary on a one-way contract with the New York Rangers is more money than any player in the AHL’s 75-year history has earned, but his first minor-league go-round has proven priceless for the youngsters on the Whale defense and his overall leadership for the team. He might carry an inflated price tag as far as another NHL team claiming him off waivers in the final three years of a six-year, $39 million contract, but the Whale would have to be delighted if Redden opted to play another season on Asylum Street instead of retiring or going to Europe.
“Obviously in the playoffs, every shift is so big,” Redden said Wednesday after some off-ice training. “It’s fun being out there, and everyone is playing well together, so it’s fun to be part of that. But we’ve said all along that we have to keep getting better. (The Pirates) are going home and are going to look to come out with a big game at home. Obviously it’s a pivotal game, so we’ve got to be ready. The next game is always the biggest one, which is the way you have to approach it.”
Redden said he has especially liked the way the Whale has been killing penalties and doing a better job of forechecking and keeping the Pirates in their own end.
“Even when we had the lead the last couple nights, we were getting pucks in and really working them,” Redden said. “Even at the start of the game we got the forecheck going, and that turns the momentum our way and gets them on their heels a bit and kind of gets us excited. So we want to start off that way (Thursday night), and things will open up from there. That’s kind of the approach we want to have: Forecheck hard and plays will come off that.”
Coach Ken Gernander would like just such an approach and continued solid play from Redden.
“Everyone has been talking about how well we’ve been playing defensively and the penalty kills, and I think (Redden) has really been the backbone of a lot of those things,” Gernander said. “He has been great for us and logged a lot of minutes. It has been a super job by him so far.”
And it has been a super job by the Whale to recover and tie the series after two difficult losses in Maine, the second in overtime on a second broken play in the game.
“It’s the best of three now, I guess,” Gernander said. “Everything is pretty fickle. It doesn’t mean anything if you have a poor start in your next game. You have to stay with things and continue to pressure and play. Everyone expected it to be a good, close series. It’s living up to that.”
The Whale are 7-5-0-0 against the Pirates this season, with eight games decided by one goal, three games by two goals and one game by three goals. The Whale won three times in overtime in the regular season, but the Pirates took a 2-0 series lead Saturday night with a 3-2 overtime victory on Derek Whitmore’s second goal of the game off a 2-on-1 with Brian Roloff.
The odd-man rush was initiated when Lemieux’s shot hit the shin pad of Pirates defenseman Tim Conroy and caromed into the neutral zone. That came after Whitmore tied the game when he intercepted Tommy Grant’s clearing attempt around the boards and fired a shot that basically went into an open net with 7:40 left in regulation after Grant inadvertently ran into Grumet-Morris and knocked the goalie off-balance.
But the Whale regained their balance with two solid wins, so the home team has now held serve through four games.
“The momentum swings back and forth in a playoff series,” Pirates coach and Hartford Whalers icon Kevin Dineen said, “and in the last three days, it swung in their direction.”
Rookie wing Mark Voakes deprived Grumet-Morris of his second pro playoff shutout when he scored the Pirates’ goal with 7:37 left, only three seconds after their sixth power play ended.
“They didn’t quit. They kept coming,” said Voakes, the Pirates’ leading scorer in the series (two goals, two assists) who spent training camp with the Whale and reportedly wants to be signed by Portland in the offseason. “They were working hard, and we were maybe a little relaxed coming in after an emotional Game 2. We just weren’t able to get it going. I don’t know why, but we need to find it.
“We’ve just got to start fresh. Give them credit. They got down 2-0 (in the series), and they battled back hard in their barn. I think we’ve just got to get back to being more urgent and having a little more of a compete level.”
The Pirates also have to figure out how to dent the Whale penalty killing.
“The key to the power play is about a mind-set,” Pirates center/captain Matt Ellis said. “We can’t be afraid to shoot the puck, get the puck into dirty areas and start creating some more of those second chances.
Once we start establishing position with some shots, we’ll start to settle down and have some success.”
Ellis knew it wasn’t going to be easy, even though the Pirates cruised into the playoffs while winning the Atlantic Division title while the Whale had to go to the 78th game in an 80-game schedule to earn a 13th playoff appearance in 14 years.
“It’s playoff hockey,” Ellis said. “We knew it was going to be a tight series coming in and give them credit. They’ve played a couple good hockey games. They’ve played with a little more desperation than us. We didn’t get our game established. That’s what it comes down to at the end of the day, the smaller areas, and the details. They did a nice job. We didn’t get things done.”
While watching the first three games as a spectator, Kolarik thought the Whale could have got even more things done with a good bounce here or there.
“The guys played great,” Kolarik said. “In the first two games, they played about 100 of the 120 minutes better than Portland. We kind of match up well against them, but they’re definitely a tough team to play against. They’ve got some tough D-men like Conboy and (T.J.) Brennan, who like to stir it up bit. But we’ve been playing well and just have to keep at it.”
A key to achieving that goal will be the speedier Whale getting pucks deep on the bigger Pirates and then forechecking and cycling with authority.
“We have some great speed,” Kolarik said. “(Rookie wing) Carl Hagelin is a speedster. Zucks is fast for a little guy. If we get pucks deep, I think we can outwork them to the puck and outskate them to the puck. … We’ve been talking all series about trying not to turn it over in bad spots and trying not to force the slot if there’s not an open player, and I think we did a good job of that (Tuesday night).”
The 5-foot-7, 174-pound Zuccarello, nicknamed “The Norwegian Hobbit,”
pointed to the Whale being patient and not trying to do too much via puck possession and playmaking.
“We have a good, skilled team, so we have to do more and more of keeping the puck and making good passes,” Zuccarello said. “All four lines can dangle and play good hockey, so we have to stick with that.
And a really great job by the penalty killers of blocking shots. And Dov is our best penalty killer, which was a big part of the win.”
But Gernander reiterated the Whale must reduce their penalties because they can’t keep relying on the penalty kill against a team that scored the most goals in the regular season (280) and again might have All-AHL right wing Mark Mancari back from the parent Buffalo Sabres. And if the Sabres are eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs by the weekend, the Pirates could add four players, including No. 1 goalie Jhonas Enroth (20-17-2, 2.78 goals-against average, .912 save percentage) and Andre-Marc Gragnani (12 goals, team-high 48 assists), who won the Eddie Shore Award as the AHL’s top defenseman and is the No. 1 quarterback on the Portland power play.
Tickets for Game 6 are available at the XL Center ticket office, through TicketMaster charge-by-phone at 800-745-3000 and on-line at ctwhale.com.
AEROS ADVANCE TO SECOND ROUND
The Houston Aeros rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Peoria Rivermen on Tuesday night and a sweep of their first-round series. Drew Bagnall and Patrick O’Sullivan scored less than three minutes apart in the second period to overcome a 1-0 deficit and move the Aeros into the West Division finals for the second time in three years against Texas or Milwaukee. In 2009, the Aeros got to the conference finals before losing to the Manitoba Moose. … Colin McDonald, son of former Hartford Whalers defenseman Gerry McDonald and the AHL’s leading goal scorer in the regular season with 42, and former Wolf Pack wing Alexandre Giroux scored in the third period to back Martin Gerber’s 26-save performance in the Oklahoma City Barons’ 2-0 victory over the Hamilton Bulldogs. … Former Wolf Pack center Corey Locke, the AHL’s MVP this season with the Binghamton Senators, sure picked a bad time to sustain what is believed to be a shoulder injury that sidelined him the last three games of the regular season and the start of the playoffs. “It’s pretty painful, it’s hard to watch,” Locke said before the Senators’ 6-3 loss to the Manchester Monarchs on Tuesday night. “(The injury) happened at a bad time of the year. We play 80 games to get into the playoffs, and I played a lot this year. It’s tough watching the guys. They’re doing a great job, they’re battling. You could see in the first three games how tough this series is, and the guys are working hard.” Locke, 26, has been his team’s leading scorer the last four seasons, including 2010-11, when he led the AHL in scoring for the first time with 21 goals and 65 assists in 69 games in winning the Les Cunningham Award as the MVP and being named to the first all-star team. But that means little now, as Locke is relegated to practicing without contact. “It’s better, but it’s not ready yet,” said Locke, who won the Calder Cup with Hamilton in 2007. “I guess it’s day to day, really. I hope to be back soon, but we just have to see how it reacts after every skate.” … Whale defenseman Dylan McIlrath, the Rangers’ first-round pick (10th overall) in 2010, turned 19 on Wednesday. He’s one of seven junior/college players to sign amateur tryout contracts to make him eligible to play, which has been limited to the final two regular-season games so far.
ANOTHER MIRACLE ON MANCHESTER (IN LOS ANGELES)
Hamden native/former Avon Old Farms standout Jonathan Quick and his Los Angeles Kings teammates appeared headed to another lopsided victory over archrival San Jose on Tuesday night before the Sharks put together one of the best comebacks in Stanley Cup history.
And Devin Setoguchi, whose goal at 3:09 of overtime capped a comeback from a four-goal deficit, had a premonition that the Sharks would persevere and prevail after watching a Stanley Cup playoff commercial prior to the game.
“It’s crazy, but before the game I was looking at the TV,” Stegouchi told the media. “ ‘History will be made.’ It was about the Kings coming back from 5-0 (in the ‘Miracle on Manchester’ game against Edmonton in 1982), so it was kind of ironic that we came back from 4-0.”
Setoguchi, the trailer on a 3-on-2 rush, took a pass from Patrick Marleau and fired a wrist shot from the slot that beat Quick high to the glove side to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference quarterfinal.
So how do the Kings put one of the most painful losses in club history behind them?
“The same as if we won it OT,” said Quick, who authored a 4-0 shutout in Game 2. “It’s one game and we’ll move on.”
But that might be easier said than done after the Sharks became only the fourth team in Stanley Cup history to overcome a deficit of four or more goals, the first since Minnesota rallied to beat Chicago 5-4 on April 28, 1985.
“Patty made a great pass, right on my tape,” Setoguchi said. “I got it off as quick as I could. It’s definitely a little bit of a confidence booster for us. We can enjoy the win tonight and come to the rink ready to work tomorrow. We need to have better starts, obviously. We need to be a better hockey club to start games. You know they’re going to be hungry and they’re going to be ready to avenge this game in Game 4 (on Thursday night).”
While relieved to have escaped with the unlikely victory, Sharks coach Todd McLellan said his players can’t expect a repeat.
“We’re excited about it, but we also know that the mulligan we used tonight won’t be available to us again,” McLellan said. “It’s not going to happen again that way.”
After the Kings bolted to a 4-0 lead and sent Antti Niemi to the bench after facing only 10 shots, the Sharks scored five times in the second period, getting even when Ryan Clowe and former Worcester Sharks standout Joe Pavelski scored in the final 1:25 of the period.
“You see games like this every once in a while, when pucks are going in and for some reason you’re scoring a bunch of goals,” said Pavelski, who won the series opener in overtime.
Kings coach Terry Murray never wanted to see another game like it again.
“That’s as bad as it gets in the second period, for sure,” he said. “We did this to ourselves with our puck management and whatever you want to call it. Turnovers, not getting it in when you’re supposed to get it in deep, and trying to do way too much, we get caught out for extended shifts.
“There were guys out there in the second period for 21/2 minutes when we couldn’t get a line change, especially with our defensemen. So you’re exhausted, you’re getting rattled, you start doing things that are very odd characteristic and now (the Sharks) are playing the game they want.”
Doing the uncharacteristic or unexpected is the pressure of playoff hockey, NHL or AHL style. … The New York Post had a terrific headline on Larry Brooks’ story on the Rangers ignoring Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau’s comments about the Marc Staal and Brandon Prust allegedly head-hunting Caps defenseman Mike Greene: Bottle That Whine.
Prust, a gritty, standup guy on the ice, told the Post: “I’ve never targeted another player’s head, and as a team we’re not targeting anybody’s head. We’re not a dirty team. I’m not worried about what their coach is saying. We’re a physical team that plays hard and finishes our checks. That’s what we’re going to stay with. Our focus is on us, on our game and continuing to play with the identity we’ve had all year, nothing else.”
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