FROM THE CREASE with Bruce Berlet
By Bruce Berlet CROMWELL, CT – The Connecticut Whale bus wouldn’t get into gear after a practice in suburban Syracuse during the team’s only venture into Canada this season to Toronto and Hamilton last week. But Johnny Davis, a bus driver for 25 years…
FROM THE CREASE with Bruce Berlet
By Bruce Berlet Talk about pressure. Forget overtime in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. Forget batting with two out in the bottom of the ninth and a run down in Game 7 of the World Series. Forget two free throws with two seconds on the clock and down…
WHALE-FEST REPORT
By Bruce Berlet EAST HARTFORD, CT – Like any sports program, the Trinity College women’s hockey team has written a history in its 13 years, though most of it wasn’t much to pass along for the first decade. Then four years ago, 11 freshmen from around the…
FROM THE CREASE with Bruce Berlet
By Bruce Berlet EAST HARTFORD, CT. – All that was missing were the strains of “The Stripper” reverberating through empty Rentschler Field. Connecticut Whale rookie defenseman Tomas Kundratek lost the team’s practice-ending shootout Tuesday, and on this…
FROM THE CREASE with Bruce Berlet
By: Bruce Berlet WHALE BOWL WILL BREAK AHL ATTENDANCE RECORD More than 22,500 tickets have been sold for Whale Bowl, the highlight of the “Harvest-Properties.com Whalers Hockey Fest 2011” at Rentschler Field, assuring the Whale will break the AHL…
FROM THE CREASE with Bruce Berlet
By Bruce Berlet EAST HARTFORD, CT. – Howard Baldwin resembled a father with a new son. It seemed so appropriate considering he and son Howard Jr., former New England Whalers center Garry Swain and Connecticut Whale mascot Pucky christened the new rink in…
FROM THE CREASE with Bruce Berlet
By Bruce Berlet No one – repeat no one – enjoyed/enjoys tough, physical, fan-pleasing hockey more than Kevin Dineen. The former Hartford Whalers star right wing/captain, now coach of the Portland Pirates, thrived on the kind of play, earning endless…
FROM THE CREASE with Bruce Berlet
By Bruce Berlet You would think learning how to focus on trying to stop flying pucks with the opposition impeding your vision or crashing the net would fill enough of your time. Not for Alexandra Garcia, the junior goaltender on the University of…
FROM THE CREASE with Bruce Berlet
By Bruce Berlet The Connecticut Whale reached the AHL All-Star break on a bummer after their most disheartening defeat of the season. But a 3-2 loss to the Portland Pirates on Derek Whitmore’s power-play goal with 7.5 seconds left before 10,872, the…
FROM THE CREASE with Bruce Berlet
By Bruce Berlet HARTFORD, CT. – As his new/old Connecticut Whale teammates worked out after practice early Wednesday afternoon, Kris Newbury played equipment man/delivery boy, helping the equipment staff bring the four bags of gear he had transported…