VERSUS     

If the Connecticut Whale are going to make a serious run at a Calder Cup championship they are going to have to learn how to play with a lead and that it takes a full sixty minutes to win. Friday night in Binghamton, New York the Whale took on the Ottawa Senators top farm team and surrendered goals to forwards Andre Peterrsson and Pat Carrone in exactly sixty seconds and ex-Hartford Wolf Pack center Corey Locke would add an empty net goal in the final minute and the Whale lost for the eighth time in their last thirteen games (5-6-1-1) and saw their record when leading after the first period to 5-4-1-3 as they dropped a 3-1 decision in front of 3,684 at the Brome County Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

“I thought in the third period, when we pushed harder, we got more consistent offensive output,” Whale head coach Ken Gernander told the team’s Brian Ring afterwards. “In the first two periods, we tried forcing plays, we turned down shots, we didn’t put pucks deep and consequently we didn’t generate much offense. I think that was the difference between the third period and the first two.”

Tentative would best describe how the New York Rangers AHL affiliate  started this game. As Gernander stated, they passed up shots and did a lot of dumping the puck in the Senators zone but didn’t chase them down. The last place Senators however did and pushed the Whale around on the ice. When Senators defenseman Mark Borowiecki crushed the Whale’s Chris McKelvie hard into the boards by the center red line, Jordan Owens had seen enough and jumped in to fight for his teammate at 11:11.

Despite taking the harder shots in the fight, Owens woke his teammates out of their malaise and 1:33 later would take the lead.

Kelsey Tessier cleanly won a faceoff with Stephane Da Costa in the left circle in the offensive zone. The puck went back to Francois Bouchard who immediately fired a wrister past the games First Star, veteran netminder Mark McKenna (10-9-0,  38 saves).

In the twenty games since arriving in a trade with the Hershey Bears for defenseman Tomas Kundratek back in mid-November, Bouchard has only contributed four points (2g, 2a). Bouchard,  now has a three game game points streak, potting a goal and five helpers for six points.

The Whale had another great scoring opportunity with 31 seconds left in the first when Andre Deveaux across the crease feed to Kelsey Tessier on the right gave the Whale center a great opportunity to deposit the puck in the back of the net, but Tessier could not lift the puck and McKenna got back in a near miraculous way to get the puck under him.

Sean Avery, playing in his second game since being sent back to the Whale last week made an impact early in the second period. It was his retaliation to being faked out of his skates in the neutral zone that led to a slashing call putting the Whale on their second PK at 6:29.

On that resulting power-play, Petersson took a pass from Locke, the game’s Second Star, in the middle of the slot and snapped a shot that eluded the blocker of Chad Johnson (10-6-3, 37 saves) and went to the back of the net. The goal was Petersson’s ninth of the season. The secondary assist went another one-time Hartford Wolf-Pack, forward Mike Hoffman.

Sixty seconds later, after the Whale just could not get the puck out of their own end, defenseman Tim Conboy made a strong play along the right side to keep the puck in the Whale zone and fired a shot form the right point that Pat Cannone deflected past an otherwise solid Johnson who was rightfully awarded the game’s Third Star.

The Whale narrowly avoided going down 3-1 later in the second period. At 11:49,  Avery took another foolish penalty, an obvious and blatant crosscheck right in front of referee Chris Brown. On that power play Petersson smashed the puck off the crossbar from almost the exact spot that he’s scored from earlier.

Had Johnson not been particularly strong throughout, it could have been FAR worse as the Whale ended the second period trailing in shots 34-17.

However, as Gernander noted, the Whale woke up in the third period and exploded for their highest shot total since an October 15th game against Bridgeport when in the second frame they put 22 shots on net by doing the same in Binghamton in the third. But despite the rubber flying from everywhere, the Whale could not slip one past McKenna.

The Whale will have a chance to end their two-game slump when the Springfield Falcons return to the XL Center on Saturday night and start a back-to-back home-and-home pair with the Whale.

Joy Lindsay takes you inside the Binghamton Senators locker room at PressConnects.com part of the Press & Sun Bulletin in upstate New York.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

STANDINGS:

(Standings provided by TheAHL.com)

NOTES:

* Kris Newbury went scoreless ending his eight game points streak

* Tim Erixon had flu-like symptoms and did not make the trip with the team, but Mats Zuccarello, who, between his starting the season in New York and recovering from this leg injury, has been out for all but 18 games this season. He is skating skating hard in practice and could return soon. He travelled with the team.

* The 4th ranked CTWhale PP went 0-2 against a team who entered the game 29th of 30 in PK. Meanwhile their 10th ranked PK was 2/3 against the 16th ranked PP of the Senators

* Avery photos courtesy of Rebecca Catlett at Pressconnects.com

LINES:

Audy-Marchessault – Newbury – Deveaux
Voros – Avery – Bourque
Bouchard – Tessier – Thuresson
Grant – Owens – McKelvie

Valentenko – Parlett
Bell – Klassen
Baldwin – Nightingale

Johnson
Talbot

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Wade Redden – Lower Body – Indefinite
Mats Zuccarello – Lower Body – 2-3 Weeks
Tim Erixon – Ill – Day-to-Day
Scott Tanski – Healthy Scratch

THREE STARS:

1. BNG – M. McKenna
2. BNG – C. Locke
3. CT – C. Johnson

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Chris Brown (86)

Linesmen:
Jim Harper (59)
John Everett (82)

NEXT GAME:

Back to the building so big they call it the XL Center as the Whale return home Saturday to start a home-and-home with the Springfield Falcons. Bob Crawford will be on the air with the pre-game show at 6:50pm on WCCC.com.

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 WCCC.com or from your cell phone or computer you can get all the live action via our Twitter page: @HowlingsToday for all games both home and away.

SCORE-SHEET:

Connecticut Whale 1 at Binghamton Senators 3 – Status: Final
Friday, January 6, 2012 – Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena

Connecticut 1 0 0 – 1
Binghamton 0 2 1 – 3

1st Period-1, Connecticut, Bouchard 3 (Tessier), 12:44. Penalties-Owens Ct (fighting), 11:11; Borowiecki Bng (fighting), 11:11; Bell Ct (cross-checking), 16:45.

2nd Period-2, Binghamton, Petersson 9 (Locke, Hoffman), 7:35 (PP). 3, Binghamton, Cannone 9 (Conboy, Dziurzynski), 8:35. Penalties-Avery Ct (slashing), 6:29; Hoffman Bng (slashing), 9:11; Avery Ct (cross-checking), 11:49.

3rd Period-4, Binghamton, Locke 3 (Petersson, Klinkhammer), 19:26 (EN). Penalties-Conboy Bng (delay of game), 5:42.

Shots on Goal-Connecticut 10-7-22-39. Binghamton 16-18-6-40.
Power Play Opportunities-Connecticut 0 / 2; Binghamton 1 / 3.
Goalies-Connecticut, Johnson 10-6-3 (39 shots-37 saves). Binghamton, McKenna 10-9-0 (39 shots-38 saves).
A-3,684
Referees-Chris Brown (86).
Linesmen-Jim Harper (59), John Everett (82)

The post WHALE OBJECTION OVERRULED first appeared on Howlings.

BY: Bruce Berlet

Tommy Grant arrived in Hartford in late March unheralded but hardly bashful in his demeanor.

Grant had a bit of an edge from the get-go. Nothing cocky, mind you, just an air of confidence that he belonged in the AHL with the Connecticut Whale after his best of four seasons at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Befitting the tenure of his attitude often accompanied by a wry smile, Grant had two assists in his pro debut, a 4-2 loss at the Providence Bruins on March 27 after signing an amateur tryout contract 24 hours earlier and 10 days after completing his senior year at UAA. The Whale brass thought so much of Grant so quickly that they signed him to a free-agent contract two days later.

Grant finished with three assists in seven regular-season games and then scored his first professional goal and added an assist as the Whale was eliminated from the playoffs by the Atlantic Division champion Portland Pirates in six hard-fought games.

During the postseason, Grant was caught in the often strange doings of “the hockey gods,” which he uttered with a laugh. In Game 2, the Pirates’ Derek Whitmore picked off Grant’s clearing attempt at the left point and took a shot that went into a virtually open net with 7:40 left after Grant inadvertently ran into Dov Grumet-Morris and spun around the Whale goalie. Whitmore then scored the winner at 12:04 of overtime off another broken play, converting a 2-on-1 with Brian Roloff after Whale center Francis Lemieux’s shot hit defenseman Tim Conboy’s shin pad and ricocheted into the neutral zone.

“It obviously was kind of like a brain cramp,” Grant said of his play on the tying goal. “I tossed the puck up the wall thinking I had a guy there and there wasn’t. Then I just turned around to see that their guy had the puck and didn’t see where Dov was and knocked into him. It was an unfortunate thing, but the guys were really good in the (dressing) room about it. And Dov just picked me up right away and said it’s hockey and to just to keep playing.

“It definitely helps having guys like that around. It shows we had good leadership. It was clearly my mistake, and for a guy like that to say that that’s hockey and things like that happen … He’s been around for awhile and was a great leader in our room, so it goes a long way, especially with the young guys.”

While “the hockey gods” can taketh, they also can giveth. In the next game, Grant was in the right place at the right time when Ryan Garlock raced into the right circle and flipped a backhand centering pass that glanced off Grant’s skate and past Pirates goalie David Leggio 3:03 into the game for his first pro goal.

“Garsy made a great play to drive the guy wide and beat him,” Grant said. “The play never happens if he doesn’t do that. He kind of threw one towards me, and it was just one of those plays where it hits your skate and goes in. Right place, right time.”

The officials conferred to make sure Grant hadn’t kicked the puck in, and when they agreed he hadn’t, the Whale had a 1-0 lead on the way to a 3-1 victory.

“I was stopping and didn’t make any kind of kicking motion,” Grant said.

Grant also appreciated that he got to play again after the unfortunate incident in Game 2.

“It would have been easy just to bury me at the end of the bench after a play like that,” Grant said. “It showed a lot of trust in the coach (Ken Gernander) to put me right back out there. It definitely helped my confidence going into Game 3 as well, to know that they believed in me, that it was just a mental error and to learn from it and just be better.”

Rangers management saw Grant’s time with the Whale as quite beneficial.

“It was about adjusting the pace of his game to the pro game, and that’s why it was important to get him into Connecticut,” Rangers director of player personnel Gordie Clark said. “He got to see the size and strength of the players at that level, and he knew what he had to do over the summer to be ready to come back for his first year of pro.”

Little wonder that the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Grant said joining the Whale for nearly a month was “a great decision.”

“I got a chance to play with older players, better players, more skilled players who are so much smarter,” Grant said. “When you make a jump to any level, it’s obviously going to be different, but I kind of learned the smaller parts of the game are things I had to work on, like being stronger over the puck and in the corners and in front of the net. That’s probably going to be the most important part for me, winning my one-on-one battles in the corners and getting the puck out of our zone that hopefully the offense will come from there.”

Offense also can come from being positioned correctly, which is also more prevalent in the pros than in the college or junior ranks.

“Everybody is in the right position, which at times makes it a bit easier because guys aren’t running around,” Grant said. “You have to be mentally focused every shift to stay in the right position so guys can find you. In college there’s a lot of run-and-gun, so it’s a lot different when you get to the AHL level. That’s also something I had to work on and adapt to my game because you don’t want to get caught in the wrong position.”

After the Whale was eliminated and Grant had his exit interview with team management, he returned to his home in Kelowna, British Columbia, not far from his favorite team while growing up in North Vancouver. His favorite now is the Rangers, but it still wasn’t easy seeing the Canucks lose Game 7 at home to the Boston Bruins.

“The city was crazy,” Grant said. “My parents still live in Vancouver, and it was wild down there, especially what happened afterwards, which was unfortunate. A couple of bad fans ruined it for a great city like Vancouver, but all in all, it was a tough pill to swallow for them, especially after 1994.”

That was the last time the Canucks made the Stanley Cup finals and also lost in Game 7 to the Rangers, who ended a 54-year championship drought as Cheshire native and future Hall of Fame defenseman Brian Leetch won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.

“The ’94 finals was a really tough pill for me to swallow,” Grant said. “But looking back on it now, I’ve got kind of a different view. Now I’m happy.”

Grant then beamed and chuckled about the ironic turn of events. He didn’t get to any games in Vancouver this year as he was preparing for the prospects camp at the Rangers training facility in Greenburgh, N.Y., and learning from viewing on television.

“I just kind of watched the games more as a studying deal than as a fan,” Grant said.

Grant, 24, was signed by the Rangers off his fourth season with UAA of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association in which he led the Seawolves with career highs in goals (16), points (32), game-winning goals (five) and shots on goals (114) and ranked second in assists (16) and penalty minutes (57) in 37 games. He helped the Seawolves to a WCHA first-round upset of 17^th-ranked Minnesota, getting one goal and one assist in the two-game series March 11-12. He also had one goal and one assist in the Alaska Airlines Governor’s Cup two-game series Feb. 25-26.

Grant finished his UAA career with 45 goals, 45 assists and 179 penalty minutes in 134 games. Before joining the Seawolves, he had 53 goals, 57 assists and 230 penalty minutes in 157 games with the Victoria Salsa and Westside Warriors in the British Columbia Hockey League. In 2006-07, he led Westside and set BCHL career highs in goals (36), assists (39) and points (75).

Two seasons later, Grant skated on a line with center Paul Crowder, who signed with the Rangers in the spring of 2009 and then played the 2009-10 season with the Wolf Pack, notching 12 goals and 14 assists in 79 games as they missed the playoffs for the only time in their 14-year history. The Rangers were also interested in defenseman Lee Baldwin, who signed his first NHL contract on March 22, 2010 after completing his freshman year at UAA.

After Crowder was released and before Baldwin split last season between the Wolf Pack/Whale and Greenville of the ECHL, Grant attended his first prospects camp with the Rangers after tryouts with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Chicago Blackhawks.

“There were other teams talking to me as a free agent after college, but after the (Rangers) development camp last year, it left a good taste in my mouth,” Grant said. “When the season was over, I told my agent that New York was where I wanted to go, and if he could get a deal done that would be my favorite place to go.”

Grant got his wish, and after scoring two goals in three scrimmages in his second go-round with the Rangers’ top prospects, Grant set out to get stronger and faster during offseason workouts and continue what he started with the Whale as he prepared for a second prospects tournament Sept. 10-14 in Traverse City, Mich.

Others named to the 24-man Rangers prospects team on Monday were goalies Jason Missiaen and Scott Stajcer, forwards Ryan Bourque, Carl Hagelin, Kale Kerbashian, Andrew Yogan, Christian Thomas, Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, Jordan Hickmott, Tayler Jordan, Shane McGolgan, Randy McNaught, Michael St. Croix, Jason Wilson and 2011 first-round pick J.T. Miller, defensemen Blake Parlett, Jyri Niemi, Lee Baldwin, Collin Bowman, Peter Ceresnak, Samuel Noreau, 2010 first-round pick Dylan McIlrath and Tim Erixon, the Calgary Flames’ first-round pick in 2010 who was acquired for two second-rounders and Roman Horak on June 1.

Missiaen, Hagelin, Kerbashian, Yogan, Parlett, Niemi and Baldwin were with the Hartford Wolf Pack/Whale for at least part of last season. Miller, the 15^th pick on June 24, completed a weeklong stay at the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., on Saturday, getting one goal in four games against Sweden and Finland. The 29 players, including former Yale standout Kenny Agostino, will be cut down more in December.

The Rangers prospects play Sept. 10 against the St. Louis Blues at 7 p.m., Sept. 11 against the Dallas Stars at 6 p.m. and Sept. 13 against the Carolina Hurricanes at 3:30 p.m. Placement in the round robin will determine whom each team faces in the championship round Sept. 14 at a time to be determined. For the first time, MSG Network will telecast the Rangers games, and players then report to training camp Sept. 15 at the MSG training center.

FORMER WOLF PACK TOUGH GUY STILL ON LIFE SUPPORT

Former Wolf Pack left wing Garrett Burnett was best known as an enforcer, but his reputation didn’t protect him during a bar room brawl that put him on life support.

Now the British Columbia government is suing more than 30 people, including the police chief in Delta, B.C., to recover what it spent on Burnett’s lengthy hospitalization and recovery. The B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit, filed Aug. 9, said Burnett, nicknamed “Rocky,” was smashed over the head with a bar stool, injuring his brain and putting him in a coma and on life support.

Delta Police Chief Jim Cressford was named as the person responsible for the two investigating officers, Paul Uppal and Lorne Pike, who the lawsuit said failed to safeguard exhibits such as video surveillance.

The fight occurred on Boxing Day, 2006 at the Cheers Nightclub inside the North Delta Inn. The lawsuit alleges the bar owner and its dozen employees failed to make sure Burnett would be safe, didn’t properly alert emergency responders after the assault and didn’t have a proper system for watching alcohol consumption. Ten unknown patrons were additional defendants.

The lawsuit outlines a long list of injuries that Burnett sustained on top of his brain injury, including broken facial bones, chipped teeth, loss of speech and coordination, double vision and memory loss. The allegations have not been proven in court, and the lawsuit doesn’t specify a dollar amount for the health costs.

The 6-foot-3, 235-pound Burnett had one goal, two assists, 22 fights and 184 penalty minutes in 39 NHL games with the Anaheim Ducks in 2003-04. The 16 teams in his checkered minor-league career included the Wolf Pack (six goals, one assist and 346 penalty minutes in 62 games in 2002-03) and the New Haven Knights and Danbury Trashers of the United Hockey League. … Former Wolf Pack goalie David LeNeveu has signed an AHL contract with the Oklahoma City Barons. LeNeveu has played most of his career in the AHL, posting a 103-137-23 record with a 2.84 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage in 273 games with Springfield, Utah, San Antonio and the Wolf Pack. He has also played in 22 NHL games with the Phoenix Coyotes and Columbus Blue Jackets. An AHL All-Star as a rookie in 2004, LeNeveu had his most successful season in 2007-08, when he split time between San Antonio and Hartford, compiling a 17-10-5 record, 2.32 GAA and .916 save percentage. LeNeveu, a 6-foot-1, 187-pounder from Fernie, B.C., was a second-round pick of Phoenix Coyotes in 2002. Before being drafted by the Coyotes, LeNeveu was a standout at Cornell University.

FORMER QUINNIPIAC STAR RE-SIGNS WITH ROAD WARRIORS

The ECHL’s Greenville Road Warriors signed returning forwards Connor Shields and former Quinnipiac University standout Brandon Wong and added newcomer Brett Robinson.

Wong, 24, started last season with the Wolf Pack and was scoreless in six games before being loaned to Greenville, where he scored the first hat trick in Road Warriors history on Jan. 14 against the Gwinnett Gladiators as part of a rookie season in which he had 21 goals and 25 assists in 64 games. The 21 goals for the 5-foot-10, 185-pound wing were sixth among ECHL rookies in the regular season, then he had two goals and two assists in 10 playoff games.

Shields, 27, a Dartmouth College grad, returns to Greenville for a third pro season after getting 16 goals and 31 assists in 55 games before being called up to the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals for the final five weeks of the season. He was an ECHL All-Star as a rookie in 2009-10, leading the Johnstown Chiefs with 28 goals and 34 assists in 70 games.

Robinson, 26, joins the Road Warriors after two seasons with the Cincinnati Cyclones. He scored nine goals in 23 playoffs game in 2010, the last being the winner as the Cyclones captured their second Kelly Cup in three years. Last season, the former Mercyhurst College standout had six goals and 10 assists in 23 games before an injury in December ended his season.

The post FROM THE CREASE with BRUCE BERLET first appeared on Howlings.

VERSUS   

The Connecticut Whale lost Game Two of their first round playoff series at the Cumberland County Civic Center to the Portland Pirates 3-2 in overtime before 5,029 Saturday night.

But more than the loss that put the Whale down two games to none, is the tremendous similarities between the parent New York Rangers and their AHL affiliate, the Connecticut Whale. The similarities are almost too eerie. After playing a near carbon copy season, the playoffs are proving out to be even more similar.

It starts in how both teams got into the playoffs to being with.

The Rangers needed help from the Tampa Bay Lightning to knock off the Carolina Hurricanes, who were formerly known as the Hartford Whalers. They got that help in a 6-2 Lightning rout and the Rangers were in the playoffs as the eight seed to face the top seeded Washington Capitals.

Meanwhile the Whale needed the Hurricane’s AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, last season’s Hartford Wolf Pack ECHL affiliate before moving up to the AHL this season, to knock off the Worcester Sharks to punch the ticket for the Whale in order to chase Calder Cup silver. The Checkers came through and the Whale were in as the eight seed that is sent to play the number one seeded Portland Pirates.

That’s just the starting point.

Once they got in, the parent club Rangers lose the first game when a late fluky goal in regulation sends the game to overtime where a busted play leads to the game winner past a helpless goaltender.  They then end up losing the second game to the Capitals when the team can’t generate any sort of offense, get shut out 2-0 and find themselves down two games to none and heading home for a must-win game.

For the Connecticut Whale, they lost Game One due to 2:53 of complete brain lock where they allowed three goals and couldn’t recover and went on to lose 3-2.

It looked like the Whale might be headed in a different direction after a strong first period, but in true “Like Parent-Like Affiliate” thing they allowed a late third period goal to send it to overtime and then lost off a busted play that left their goaltender helpless and lost 3-2 (again) and now head home for a must-win Sunday battle with the Pirates.

The true story of this game was the Whale’s total disappearing act offensively.

After putting sixteen shots on goal in the first period and scoring twice, the Whale put just nine shots on goal the rest of the game including a season low for a period two-shot effort in the third and an equally inept three-shot second.

How bad was it?

To put it into proper perspective, the Whale actually took more penalties in the two periods, (6), than they did shots (5).

Head Coach Ken Gernander, who has stressed player discipline all season long could not be happy about that. He also likely wasn’t happy with the fact that referees Terry Koharski and Mark Lemelin somehow swallowed their whistles and lost site of the fact that they called the Whale seven times and only four for the home Pirates.

“It was an entertaining, back-and-forth game,” Pirates Head Coach told reporters after the game. “At the end of the day, we got the extra break, and that was the difference. And that’s what you need, to really take care of home ice.”

Derek Whitmore scored twice, including both the tying and game winning goals for the Pirates. The game winner came at 12:04 of overtime after Francis Lemieux’s shot from the Pirate blueline was blocked by Tim Conboy which led to a 2-on-1 against.

“I was kind of tired at the end of a shift, but (Conboy) made a great play at the blueline and forced the turnover,” Whitmore said to reporters. “(Brian Roloff) grabbed it, and we smelled blood with the 2-on-1 in overtime and wanted to take advantage of it. He made a great pass over to me, and I had a wide open net.

“It was a huge goal for us because it’s a lot better to be up 2-0 instead of tied 1-1, especially with the way we won coming from behind. It’s a real big boost for us.”

Dov Grumet-Morris (33 saves, 0-2-0), kept the Whale in the game while the offense was M.I.A., “(Whitmore) just got it over me,” said Grumet-Morris, who played with Whitmore earlier this season. “It was a good bury. He’s a good player who made a good play. It was an unfortunate series of events for us, but that’s overtime hockey.”

Whitmore’s first goal, which tied the game with just 7:40 to go in regulation was a fluke goal as rookie Tommy Grant, playing in just his ninth game as a pro, bumped into his own goaltender and the inadvertent contact knocked Grumet-Morris out of the play leaving Whitmore to shoot into practically an empty net.

Grumet-Morris, as he is want to do, protected his young teammate and took responsibility for the boondoggle. “It was unfortunate, but I’ll take the blame before I blame anyone else,” He said. “It happens in hockey…It was a mistake, everyone makes mistakes, I make mistakes all the time.”

Grumet-Morris’ first mistake came when he allowed Matt Ellis goal at 5:02 of the first period. Corey Tropp found the Pirate captain in the lower right corner and then Ellis caught Grumet-Morris anticipating a pass and before he could recover shot the puck and put it between Grumet-Morris and the short side post.

The Whale managed to recover and went on to score two of their own to close the period.

First, Francis Lemieux took a terrific feed from defenseman Tomas Kundratek for a breakaway at 15:26 to get the then game equalizer and then John Mitchell’s pass from the right corner into the crease got deflected into the net off a Pirate defender’s stick.

The goal gave the Whale their first lead of the playoffs with just 3:19 left in the first. But after the second goal, the offense took the rest of the night off managing just six shots through the remaining 2 1/2 periods and now face a huge uphill battle if they are to move on in the playoff race.

“Unfortunately we came out on the wrong side of the game and we have to come back and try to win the next game at home,” Grumet-Morris said. “Quick turnaround, we have the game (Sunday) at home, that’s it.”

Brian Ring was brought in for the Whale perspective. You’ll find that story at CTWhale.com.  Paul Betit could not attend the game due to an upper body injury so off the bench comes our own Bruce Berlet to the rescue. You can read the Master of the Keyboard’s take right here at Howlings. 

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

NOTES:

*  Whalers Sports and Entertainment president and CEO, Howard Baldwin made the trip up to Portland and took in the game with his wife Karen and his parents who live in Kennebunkport.

* Highly touted New York prospect Carl Hagelin made his AHL debut Saturday night and in true Rangers/Whale fashion, took a hooking penalty on his very first shift.

* The Whale PK units, which surrendered two goals on five tries in Game One, were seven-for-seven in this one.

* Connecticut had four power-play opportunities in Game One and were scoreless. They had four Saturday as well and put one in the net. They are now one-for-eight (12.5%) after going 5-for-32 (15.6%) against the Pirates in the regular season.

* Francis Lemieux’s breakaway goal was his first as a member of the Whale.

LINES:

Grachev – Mitchell – Williams
Dupont – Newbury – Weise
Grant – Lemieux – Couture
Hagelin – Garlock – Tessier

Redden – Nightingale
Valentenko – Parlett
Bickel – Kundratek

Grumet-Morris
Talbot

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Todd White – Concussion – Season
Devin DiDiomete – Hip – Season
Chad Kolarik – Hamstring – Day-to-Day
Michael Del Zotto – Broken Finger – Day-to-Day
Justin Soryal – Healthy Scratch
Dylan McIlrath – Healthy Scratch
Jason Missiaen – Healthy Scratch
Kale Kerbashian – Healthy Scratch
Andrew Yogan – Healthy Scratch
Shayne Wiebe – Healthy Scratch
Jyri Niemi – Healthy Scratch

THREE STARS:

1. POR – D. Whitmore
2. POR – M. Ellis
3. CT – D. Grumet-Morris

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Terry Koharski (10)
Mark Lemelin (84)

Linesmen:
Landon Bathe (80)
Joe Andrews (32)

NEXT GAME:

As much as Rangers head coach John Tortorella doesn’t like to admit that his team has their backs against the wall, both his and Ken Gernander’s teams are in exactly that position. If the Whale fall to the Pirates after Sunday’s 6pm starting tilt, let’s face it, then this series is all but over. On the other hand, if the Whale can hold serve over the next two games, this is a whole ‘nother thing.  The puck drops at 6pm with Bob Crawford handling the play-by-play and Mark Bailey on the color commentary. Pregame starts at 5:30.

To watch the game live, you can purchased it for $9.99 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 2 at Portland Pirates 3 (OT) – Status: Final OT
Saturday, April 16, 2011 – Cumberland County Civic Center

Connecticut 2 0 0 0 – 2
Portland 1 0 1 1 – 3

1st Period-1, Portland, Ellis 1 (Tropp, Whitmore), 5:02. 2, Connecticut, Lemieux 1 (Kundratek, Bickel), 15:26. 3, Connecticut, Mitchell 1 16:42 (PP). Penalties-Hagelin Ct (hooking), 2:54; Brennan Por (high-sticking), 6:18; Gongalsky Por (slashing), 8:43; Stuart Por (roughing), 16:33.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Lemieux Ct (slashing), 2:21; Valentenko Ct (cross-checking), 7:12; Fienhage Por (interference), 9:53; Grant Ct (roughing), 15:45; Parlett Ct (high-sticking), 19:33.

3rd Period-4, Portland, Whitmore 1 12:20. Penalties-Grumet-Morris Ct (tripping), 3:24; Lemieux Ct (tripping), 8:32.

OT Period-5, Portland, Whitmore 2 (Roloff), 12:04. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Connecticut 16-3-2-4-25. Portland 8-7-16-5-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Connecticut 1 / 4; Portland 0 / 7.
Goalies-Connecticut, Grumet-Morris 0-2-0 (36 shots-33 saves). Portland, Leggio 2-0-0 (25 shots-23 saves).
A-5,029
Referees-Terry Koharski (10), Mark Lemelin (84).
Linesmen-Landon Bathe (80), Joe Andrews (32).

The post 1ST RD: GAME TWO – LIKE PARENT – LIKE AFFILIATE first appeared on Howlings.

VERSUS   

If a movie producer was pitching a film to a studio about this past weekend’s Connecticut Whale games they’d likely say that it was equally part “Slap Shot,” part “Night of the Living Dead and a measure of “Sybil” or “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

Knowing Whale head coach Ken Gernander, he  is probably more interested in seeing the, “Coming Attractions.” But for the Whale players, they completed their blockbuster three-games in three-days weekend to good reviews for their performance in their Sunday afternoon matinee, a 4-2 win over the Atlantic Division leading Portland Pirates at the XL Center in front of 4,321.

Dale Weise rebounded from a “Lost Weekend” pair of performances in Providence and Springfield with a two-goal game, that included what proved to be the game winner.

The Whale also benefitted from strong supporting performances from Mats Zuccarello, who added a pair of helpers, outstanding two-way play from Kris Newbury and yet another strong game from Dov Grumet-Morris (20 saves, 12-5-1) between the pipes.

Puck possession was key for the Whale in this game. “That was something we addressed (Sunday).” Weise, the game’s first star said. “There was just too many odd man rushes; guys cheating as a third man in; that’s lazy, myself included. I got caught a couple of times. We made a note before the game we gotta have a good third man (high). I think that’s what hemmed them in so much.

“For 60 minutes tonight we played a complete game,” Weise said of his teammates effort. “I can’t point out to a performance (Sunday) that wasn’t a guy’s best game. I think everyone kind of raised their level up, our top guys were our top guys and that’s what we need to win.”

“Obviously we had a good first period and we just built on it and finished a full sixty.” Brodie Dupont said. “We kind of knew what we had to do. Everyone’s aware of the playoff standings. We were fortunate to get a little help (Worcester lost to Providence, 4-1) in the standings (Saturday) with our loss. We gotta kind of take care on our end of things and we’ll be alright.”

“I thought they played a real strong game. It was right to the wire though, but when all is said and done we got our two points and that’s the most important thing right now.” Gernander said.

Connecticut was focused right from the first shift of the game and they never looked back. The Whale came out to make a statement that the poor play was over and they weren’t about to get pushed around as they had over their four-game losing streak.

Just 30 seconds into the game, defenseman Jared Nightingale dropped the gloves with Pirate left-winger Dennis McCauley behind the Whale net. Both players landed some bombs on the other before the linesman pulled them apart. Whale players banged their sticks for their teammate along the bench wall and on the ice. Message sent loud and clear.

Three minutes and one second later, Zuccarello found Jeremy Williams in the right circle and the Whale’s leading goal scorer wristed a hard shot over the glove shoulder of Pirates starting netminder David Leggio (43 saves, 22-10-0).

The Whale doubled the lead 22 seconds later when defenseman Nick Crawford attempted to clear the puck out of the Pirates’ zone only to have it picked off by Weise. Weise raced forward with the puck, got around Crawford and fired a shot that went 5-hole. Leggio appeared to stop the shot but didn’t squeeze it and it squirted through and trickled over the goal line for Weise’s 17th of the year.

After cheap shots by players from both sides, a second fight of the period broke out between heavyweights Justin Soryal and Jeff Dimmen. The Whale enforcer simply dominated pummeled the Pirate defenseman at 5:36.

Newbury seemed to be under the skin of the entire Pirate team and many of them were taking runs at him or trying to goad him into something stupid. To his credit, Newbury was focused on the team and not on his own needs. At 8:27, John Scrymgeour was headed to the penalty box for a holding call and the Pirates’ enforcer, Tim Conboy skated over to Newbury and punched him twice in the face with his glove on looking to get the Whale center to drop the gloves. Newbury wasn’t biting and with Conboy jawing and trying to goad him into taking a penalty, the Whale assistant captain waved bye-bye to him as he headed to the penalty box.

Meanwhile with all the games going on between Conboy and Newbury, Stu Bickel dropped the gloves with Igor Gongalsky. That was a fairly even, but long fight. Both received ten-minute misconducts for a secondary fight.

While on their power play, disaster nearly struck for the home team.

Jeremy Williams was skating across between the points in the offensive zone when his skate boot literally broke. Williams went down to the ice and lost the puck. Rookie Luke Adam picked up the puck and raced to the Whale net. Williams did what he could to get back, but Grumet-Morris came up huge for the Whale and got Adam to put the puck right where he wanted it and the threat was neutralized at 9:13.

“I’m sure he had something in mind,” Grumet-Morris said of the stop. “I do try to take away as much as I can and then rely on my athleticism to help me make the save if they go one side or the other.”

The Whale kept attacking the Pirate’s net. Evgeny Grachev hit a crossbar at 10:17 and then 31 seconds later Zuccarello ringed one solidly off the inside of the crossbar that left the “Norwegian Hobbit” staring at the XL Center ceiling.

Ryan Garlock and Jacob Legace dropped the gloves and fought to a draw for  the fourth fight of the period.

“We’re a team that needs to play that way,” Weise stated in speaking about the physical nature of the game. “We don’t have any agendas out for any guys on their team. It’s just that this is a potential first round match-up and we’d like to send a message that we’re a team that we like to get in your face and we play hard. When we’re playing our best games, a couple of fisticuffs and guys are banging and everybody kind of builds on that. First shift goes out there a guy goes out there and throws a big hit and gets in a fight and everyone on the bench is just rolling and I think that’s what we need to do.”

With just 1:19 left in the first frame, Zuccarello was all alone on the right side of the net and took a cross-ice pass from Newbury. Zuccarello had the entire 4×6 to shoot at and rang it off the far post. Again, the diminutive forward stopped and stared up at the ceiling in disgust.

The Whale finished the period with 23 shots on goal, the most for a period this season and the most allowed in a period by Portland.

In the second frame, the Whale had a 1:38 5-on-3 man-advantage that they could do nothing with and just could not seem to get traction on the power play. That was until Gongalsky took a tripping penalty on 16:06 giving the Whale their seventh power play.

There was only 38 seconds left in the power play when Zuccarello, deep behind the goal line in the left corner, found Derek Couture right in front of Leggio and put the puck directly on his stick. Couture’s shot initially hit Leggio’s pad but came right back to him and on the second try the right winger buried his sixth of the season and made it a three goal Connecticut lead at 17:28.

The Whale played just magnificently dominating in shots 37-13 through two periods and other than the breakaway hadn’t given up a decent scoring chance.

In the third period Pavel Valentenko started things by taking a Cross-Checking call just 1:15 in. While on the penalty kill, Weise got the puck from Wade Redden on a delayed penalty call and rushed up ice. When he got into the right circle he blew right by Crawford and beat Leggio with a low to the ice shot that caught the inside of the post on the far side of the net for his second of the game.

“We obviously know we didn’t have a good performance (in Springfield Saturday) and none of us felt good about leaving (Cam Talbot) out to dry there,” Weise said. “I took it upon myself and stood up before the game and told the boys that I was going to be better. I thought that (Saturday) was probably my worst game as a pro. It’s just not acceptable and that’s what I thought and (Sunday) I knew I had to step up.”

Portland isn’t a team in first place because they fold up shop no matter what the score is and in this one they didn’t back down.

At 12:46 they got a Colin Stuart goal off a scramble in front of the net that Whale players initially thought was not in the net, but the referees, linesman and goal judge conferred and it stood as a goal.

With 3:32 left in the contest, veteran Mark Parrish redirected a Alex Biega point shot past Grumet-Morris for what would prove to be the game’s final tally.

“Today we just had a flow from the get-go and just dominated the game.” Zuccarello said.

“This is as close to a must win as we’ve had this year. Our work is not done, tonight was a step in the right direction and definitely a great way to rebound from (Saturday’s) disappointing loss and also a great way to put us forward into the last week of the season.” Grumet-Morris said.

Brian Ring provides the coverage of today’s contest with the Pirates in for Bruce Berlet who returns for the home stretch starting next Friday. You can read Brian’s take at CTWhale.com. The Portland perspective comes from the eyes and ears of Mike Scandura at PressHerald.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

STANDINGS:

(Standings via theahl.com)

VIDEO:

SOUNDS OF THE GAME:

Ken Gernander: 

Dov Grumet-Morris: 

Dale Weise: 

Mats Zuccarello: 

Brodie Dupont: 

NOTES:

*  The Pirates did not leave for Portland immediately following the game as most teams do. As a group they headed to Trumbull Kitchen for a post game meal.

* Don’t expect John Mitchell bank anytime soon. He was wearing a boot on his foot.

* Forgot to mention Saturday night ran into former Wolf Pack goaltender Matt Zaba in Springfield as he took in a game of his former team. Told Howlings that he had a very good season and was glad to be back in the States.

* Whale have a record of 5-2-0-1 against the Sharks this season. On Sunday night, should the two teams be tied in points, the Whale who advance because of their greater number of wins minus shootout victories as well as their record head-to-head.

LINES:

Zuccarello – Grachev – Williams
Dupont – Newbury – Weise
Grant – Tessier – Couture
Niemi –Garlock – Soryal

Nightingale (Niemi started the game) – Parlett
Redden – Valentenko
Bickel – Kundratek

Grumet-Morris
Talbot

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Devin DiDiomete – Lower Body – Day-to-Day

Francis Lemieux – Undisclosed – Day-to-Day

John Mitchell – Lower Body – Day-to-Day
Chad Kolarik – Hamstring – Day-to-Day
Kale Kerbashian– Healthy Scratch
Michael Del Zotto – Broken Finger, 2-3 weeks
Todd White – Concussion – Indefinite
Chris McKelvie – Foot Surgery, Season

THREE STARS:

1. CT – D. Weise
2. CT – M. Zuccarello
3. CT – K. Newbury

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Chris Cozzan (18)
Ryan Fraser (14)

Linesmen:
David Spannaus (8)
Paul Simeon (66)

NEXT GAME:

The Whale have the week off to prepare for the three most important games of the season. First, they have a home-and-home against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers starting Friday night. The Sound Tigers put a hurting on the Whale that started the slide that Sunday’s victory ended. The Whale are 5-2-0-1 this season against their intra-state rivals. Then Sunday they have one of their toughest games, and hopefully by then it won’t mean anything, against the Norfolk Admirals to close out the regular season.  The puck drops in Bridgeport at 7pm with Bob Crawford handling the play-by-play and Mark Bailey with color commentary. Pregame a half an hour before game time.

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:

Portland Pirates 2 at Connecticut Whale 4 – Status: Final
Sunday, April 3, 2011 – XL Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Portland 0 0 2 – 2
Connecticut 2 1 1 – 4

1st Period-1, Connecticut, Williams 31 (Zuccarello, Redden), 3:31. 2, Connecticut, Weise 17 3:53. Penalties-McCauley Por (fighting), 0:30; Nightingale Ct (fighting), 0:30; Dimmen Por (fighting), 5:36; Soryal Ct (cross-checking, fighting), 5:36; Conboy Por (roughing, roughing), 8:27; Gongalsky Por (fighting), 8:27; Scrymgeour Por (holding), 8:27; Bickel Ct (roughing, fighting, misconduct – continuing altercation), 8:27; Lagace Por (fighting), 13:25; Garlock Ct (fighting), 13:25; Couture Ct (holding), 15:54; Adam Por (slashing), 16:51.

2nd Period-3, Connecticut, Couture 6 (Zuccarello, Newbury), 17:28 (PP). Penalties-Voakes Por (hooking), 1:57; Niemi Ct (hooking), 2:10; Couture Ct (high-sticking), 5:28; Conboy Por (interference), 9:10; Biega Por (hooking), 9:33; Gongalsky Por (tripping), 16:06.

3rd Period-4, Connecticut, Weise 18 (Redden, Grachev), 2:25 (SH). 5, Portland, Stuart 15 (Ostrow, Crawford), 12:46. 6, Portland, Parrish 16 (Biega, Adam), 17:28 (PP). Penalties-Valentenko Ct (cross-checking), 1:15; Parlett Ct (hooking), 3:19; Conboy Por (misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct), 13:19; Newbury Ct (misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct), 13:19; Williams Ct (hooking), 16:34; Redden Ct (hooking), 19:21.

Shots on Goal-Portland 7-6-9-22. Connecticut 23-14-10-47.
Power Play Opportunities-Portland 1 / 8; Connecticut 1 / 7.
Goalies-Portland, Leggio 22-9-0 (47 shots-43 saves). Connecticut, Grumet-Morris 11-5-1 (22 shots-20 saves).
A-4,321
Referees-Chris Cozzan (18), Ryan Fraser (14).
Linesmen-David Spannaus (8), Paul Simeon (66).

The post GROOVIN ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON first appeared on Howlings.

VERSUS 

“It was just an ugly goal, just a bad goal,” Connecticut Whale goaltender Chad Johnson said after TJ Breenan’s bad angle shot with just 3:12 remaining was the difference in a 3-2 win for the visiting Portland Pirates Sunday afternoon at the XL Center.

The game winner came after Marc-Andre Gragnani intercepted a give-and-go pass along the right wing boards in his own zone between Kris Newbury and Brodie Dupont. Gragnani sent the puck around the back end boards over to Corey Tropp on the right side. Tropp Advanced the puck out of his zone and fed Colin Stuart rushing through the neutral zone. When Stuart entered the Whale zone he fed Brennan on his left side. Brennan got behind Newbury and Stu Bickel.

“(Brennan) just came down the wing, hit the post and the puck kind of went on my right pad. I really didn’t get a good look at it, but it was just kind of sitting on my leg. I tried kind of leaning forward because I could feel it kind of rolling down the side of my leg. I didn’t know if it was over the line or not. I heard the whistle, and then I saw the ref coming into the picture and he’s pointing goal, goal, goal.”

Brennan recounts his view of the game winner. “As I was skating in, I saw two guys (Colin Stuart and Corey Tropp) crashing the net, so I just wanted to get the puck on the net, and that’s what I did,” The Pirate defenseman said. “When I skated around (the net), I saw the puck was over the goal line because (Johnson) never had control of it. Thank God it counted.”

“It’s a tough goal. There are (three) minutes left in the game, and it was one I probably have to play a lot differently.” Johnson said. “I felt I was in good position it just somehow got by me and hit the post. I didn’t really give him anything to shoot at except the post, and it got by me. Then it was a play down by feet, so I just tried to cover up all the holes that I could wherever I thought the puck was, and when I looked behind me, the puck was sitting right over the line a little bit.”

It was no surprise to anyone that the game came down to a single goal. The two teams had played five times this season prior to Sunday’s Atlantic Division contest with four of them finishing as one-goal games, including the Whale’s 4-3 win the previous night in Portland.

“All these games (with the Pirates) seem to come down to the last five minutes, when teams obviously pick it up because it’s kind of like an overtime atmosphere. It’s tough because we had our chances and played good in a back-and-forth game, but it just comes down to a bad goal. I’ve got to have those. This time of year it cost the team getting a point, so it’s just disappointing.”

The competitive balance between the two squads was of particular note to Whale head coach Ken Gernander. “You have two pretty equally matched teams, and your start isn’t up to par and the last shot on goal is one I’m sure Chad would like to have back. I guess that can be the difference, can’t it?

“They had a late power play (Saturday) night and (Dov) Grumet-Morris scrambled and made some big saves and kept the lead for us, and I guess tonight the opposite was true.”

Portland Pirate head coach Kevin Dineen was a bit more philosophical in his assessment. “It wasn’t a masterpiece, but you never critique the two points,” the one-time Hartford Whaler captain said. “We were in a game where we got so badly outplayed in one period (the second), but I liked our response in the third. I’m just so respectful of the talent over there that you’re trying to weather the storm sometimes. Some of the play over there, specifically (former Pirates center) Tim Kennedy, who’s NHL-worthy, playing fabulous hockey and making a pretty good career against us, is a credit to their team.

“But we didn’t play a great game, didn’t respond to the amount of effort and pressure they were putting on us. We looked like the team that played three games in three days, but I liked our last seven or eight minutes. There was a lot of emotion that went into that game, and I think we responded well. Their best players were the best players and hardest-working guys this weekend, and I can’t say the same thing about my group. But that’s the nature of the beast. Sometimes your identity comes from your worker-bees, and they certainly got it done for us this weekend.”

Tim Kennedy, who played under Dineen in Portland during the 2008-2009 where he made it to the AHL All-Rookie Team, felt that this one hurt. “It’s really tough when you feel after those first two goals that you really took control of the game,” He said. “It’s just one of those kind of fluke goals that can beat you and leaves a sour taste in your mouth. We didn’t have the best start, but after that, they had their chance here or there, but I thought we really carried the play.

“It’s just a tough loss because we’re trying to catch those guys, and that’s two points that I think we should have…We’ve had some pretty good games against them, but it still hurts not to win.”

Johnson, who has struggled in his first full season as the recognized number one goaltender, was sharp at the outset of the contest. He had to be. Just 15 seconds into the game, Brian Roloff got free in the slot for a wide open chance. Johnson rejected the bid, but Jared Nightingale was sent off for slashing and the Whale were on the penalty kill from the outset.

Johnson (29 saves, 15-18-2) made a strong save on the PK to deny Luke Adam on a golden opportunity in front. But you could tell that Johnson was fighting the puck when at 5:56 a relatively harmless shot into the five hole slipped between his pads and almost went into the net.

It was looking like it was going to be a long afternoon for the Whale players a referees Francis Charron and Geno Binda weren’t going to let the game interfere with their rush to go watch the Super Bowl and were letting liberties get taken without blowing the whistle. When Chad Kolarik was decisively held up right in front of Charron and nothing was called, Kolarik lost his temper and yelled at the referee. For his troubles he wound up in the penalty box for the next 12 minutes with an unsportsmanlike minor and a ten minute misconduct for the same offense.

The Whale penalty killers were solid, but at 13:47, a porous defense allowed Justin Bowers to tally his fourth of the season.

After a defensive zone faceoff win by Bowers over Ryan Garlock, Tim Conboy advanced the puck to Igor Gongalsky at the defensive blueline. Gongalsky fed Gragnani who brought it to the center blueline and fed Dennis McCauley just outside the Whale zone on the left side. McCauley made a nice feed to the right side that hit Devin DiDiomete’s stick and went right over to Gongalsky. Bowers split up the middle of the gap between the two defenders, Jyri Niemi and Garlock. Gongalsky saw Tomas Kundratek coming at him on one knee and from the dot in the right faceoff circle got the puck on net. The puck must have hit Kundratek’s stick as it redirected up into the air. Bowers knocked it out of the air while streaking through the front of the net and it went past Johnson.

Portland doubled their lead 3:31 later when NHL veteran Mark Parrish took a drop pass from Adam on the right side of the slot and wristed one towards the net. Johnson was squared to the shooter, but the puck hit Newbury’s stick as he was passing by the area and redirected in over the glove of Johnson at 16:18.

The Whale fought back though at with 2:56 left in the first period, Kennedy connected from almost the same spot that he had to win two other games over the Pirates earlier this season.

Niemi made up for not covering Bowers earlier when his pass form the left point was right on the tape of Kennedy. As David Leggio (33 saves, 14-4-0) went down, Kennedy went top shelf over the shoulder of his blocker and into the corner of the net.

“It was a nice pass from Jyri, but this time the goalie took away the glove side so I had to go stick side and caught him cheating a little bit,” Kennedy said afterwards.

The Whale ended the first down a goal and three shots (15-12).

The Whale got their chances in the second.

Leggio stood tall to keep his team ahead against Kolarik who he denied in front of the net at 7:09.

Newbury came up short when he missed the net off a 2-on-1 odd man rush with Brodie Dupont and just Gongalsky back at 8:35.

Tessier had an even better opportunity when he was put in the clear for a breakaway off a Kolarik feed at 9:13, but he whiffed on his shot.

Kolarik, who has been struggled with breakaways of late, got a chance to build some confidence when he broke in on a 2-on-1 of his own with Grachev on his left wing and only Conboy back to defend.  Kolarik ripped the black out of the puck with a missile from the right circle that beat Leggio high over the blocker for his 20th of the season at 10:04.

Johnson continued to get the big saves when he needed to. He stopped McCauley cold from the right porch step as the big left winger made a bid for a score with just 3:31 left in the second.

There was some controversy as the second period ended as Conboy threw a shot at the net from the right side and it beat Johnson into the net. The referees decided that the goal had come after the horn had sounded.

The Whale entered the third just as they did the night before tied, this time at 2-2.

Tessier got the first of several good chances for the home team in the third period. at 7:12, form behind the net, Tessier threw it in front and the puck pin-balled around the feet of the defense and nearly went in.

At 11:35, Justin Soryal had two whacks at it in front of Leggio but could not finish.

Johnson denied the AHL’s leading goal scorer, Mark Mancari at 12:11 with a save off his shoulder and then got a little luck when Brennan had a wide open net but whiffed on his shot at 16:06.

Jared Nightingale had a chance with 1:32 to go when Leggio gloved his shot. With the Whale net empty, Jason Williams was stopped by Leggio with his bid from the left wing circle with just 1:02 remaining.

Bruce Berlet pulled double duty Sunday afternoon. His unabridged story can be found here on Howlings.  Bruce’s take on the Portland point of view can be found at PressHerald.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

VIDEO:

POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE:

SOUNDS OF THE GAME:

Ken Gernander: 

Kevin Dineen: 

Tim Kennedy: 

Chad Johnson: 

NOTES:

* We want to start by thanking Ken Gernander for allowing us to video the post game press conferences. We thought this would add a nice dimension to Howlings readers. He didn’t need to allow us to do it and we do greatly appreciate it.

* For those who argue against having two referees on the ice, this game was one you could certainly look at to make your case. How is it that with two refs on the ice in a physical game that there are only two penalties and both against the Whale?

* When asked by Howlings about Dineen’s comments and phrased as “making a good living” rather than making a good career” off his former club, Kennedy responded saying, “I think they (the parent Buffalo Sabres) are still paying me.”

LINES:

Dupont – Tessier – Jason Williams
Grachev – Kennedy – Kolarik
DiDiomete – Newbury – Jeremy Williams
Soryal – Garlock – Eizenman

Redden – Nightingale
Niemi – Bickel
Valentenko – Kundratek

Johnson
Grumet-Morris

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

After the first shift, Dupont and DiDiomete switched places as did Bickel and Kundratek

SCRATCHES:

Dale Weise – Undisclosed Upper Body Injury, Day-to-Day
Cam Talbot – High Ankle Sprain, Day-to-Day
Chris McKelvie – Foot Surgery, Undetermined
Todd White – Concussion – Undetermined

THREE STARS:

1. POR – T. Brennan
2. POR – D. Leggio
3. POR – C. Tropp

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Francis Charron (46)
Geno Binda (22)

Linesmen:
Paul Simeon (66)
Derek Wahl (46)

NEXT GAME:

The Whale go on the road for four in a row. It’s two up in Canada, Tuesday in Toronto at 11am and Hamilton on Friday at 7pm. The nit’s off to Providence on Sunday at 4:05 and then 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:

Portland Pirates 3 at Connecticut Whale 2 – Status: Final
Sunday, February 6, 2011 – XL Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Portland 2 0 1 – 3
Connecticut 1 1 0 – 2

1st Period-1, Portland, Bowers 4 (Gongalsky, McCauley), 13:47. 2, Portland, Parrish 8 (Adam, Tropp), 16:18. 3, Connecticut, Kennedy 10 (Niemi), 17:04. Penalties-Nightingale Ct (slashing), 0:15; Kolarik Ct (unsportsmanlike conduct, misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct), 7:11.

2nd Period-4, Connecticut, Kolarik 20 (Johnson), 10:04. Penalties-No Penalties

3rd Period-5, Portland, Brennan 6 (Stuart, Tropp), 16:48. Penalties-DiDiomete Ct (misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct), 20:00.

Shots on Goal-Portland 15-9-8-32. Connecticut 12-10-13-35.
Power Play Opportunities-Portland 0 / 2; Connecticut 0 / 0.
Goalies-Portland, Leggio 14-4-0 (35 shots-33 saves). Connecticut, Johnson 15-18-3 (32 shots-29 saves).
A-3,458
Referees-Francis Charron (46), Geno Binda (22).
Linesmen-Paul Simeon (66), Derek Wahl (46).

The post “UGLY” first appeared on Howlings.

VERSUS    

There’s a popular old saying that goes, “Better Late Than Never.” However if you asked the Connecticut Whale players what they thought about that saying and how it played a part in their Saturday night demise, a stunning 3-2 loss on a goal with just 7.5 seconds remaining, they’d likely vote to unanimously change it to, “Better Never Than Late.”

With the always popular Boy Scout Sleep-Over Night in the house, the XL Center was rocking as the Whale saw 10, 872, their second largest crowd of the season pass through the turnstiles. Those attending were rewarded with a solid 60 minutes performance against ex-Whaler Captain and now current head coach, Kevin Dineen and his very hot Portland Pirate squad.

But, as has been the case all season long with this team, it’s penalties that snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Whale’s 1,103 PIM lead the AHL.  Saturday against Portland, the Whale played more under disciplined hockey and only took three penalties. Ordinarily that stat would have Head Coach Ken Gernander smiling, except on this particular Saturday night, two out of the three cost them two points.

The game winning goal came as a result of a poor decision by Dale Weise with time running out and the Whale on the attack. Weise had intercepted a pass at the blue line and toward the front of the net. As he got closer, Weise tangled with T.J. Brennan, but the Whale forward was out of control and recklessly backed into goaltender David Leggio (36 saves, 13-4-0) and was sent to the box with just 1:38 left to go.

That penalty led to the backbreaker.

“I came off the bench and tried to find the seam,” Derek Whitmore said after the game to reporters. “(Defenseman) Nick Crawford was working the puck down low. (Left Wing Corey) Tropp made a good play to the slot. I knew there wasn’t much time, and I tried to shoot it past the guy coming out at me (Chad Kolarik) and was able to find the back of the net.”

On the play, Crawford headed to the right corner and was pursued by Michael Del Zotto and Chad Kolarik. As the bumped him, Crawford actually lost the puck. Kolarik peeled off, but Del Zotto was there and had a chance to get the puck, but he missed it. The puck squirted behind the net to Crawford behind the goal on the left side. Tropp saw Whitmore all by himself just above the inside corner of the right circle. Whitmore moved to his left into the slot as Kolarik came right at him. Johnson started to go to his knees as Whitmore sent a hard wrister over his glove and into the top right corner of the net with just 7.5 seconds remaining in the game.

Gernander was none too happy afterwards and pulled Weise into his office for a private conversation…and you can bet your mortgage it wasn’t to tell him he was being called up to New York.

“It was a great game and hugely disappointing,” Gernander stated bluntly. “Their goalie (Leggio) played good, but we had a lot of guys who really worked hard, paid the price and did extra duty when we shortened the bench, and to have someone (Weise) take it upon himself to be undisciplined is disappointing. A lot of guys played a strong game, but it doesn’t matter at the end of the day if you end up losing because of (lack of) discipline.”

Weise was distracted by what he thought should have been a tripping call earlier in the same shift, but stood up and took full responsibility for his blunder.

“Obviously not a smart play by me,” He said. “I’m an emotional player, and sometimes I cross the line. I crossed the line tonight, and it cost us the game. I don’t feel good about it, but it’s a mistake, and I’ll learn from it.”

Chad Johnson (21 saves, 14-17-3) has had a rough few nights in a row. He’s lost three straight now and is 2-6-0 in his last eight starts. He wasn’t happy after the game when he met with reporters.

“The guy made kind of a good shot past Kolarik, and I just kind of caught it at the last second and just didn’t have enough time to react to it,” Johnson said. “It’s really disappointing because it was a big moment in the game. I talked to Kolarik, and he doesn’t know how it got by him. He was in good position, it’s just (Whitmore) found some way to get it by him and then I picked it up late and it beat me. It’s tough. When they score a late goal like that, you can’t do much with seven seconds left.”

Given the nature of the penalty and that it cost the team two points, it would not be beyond the realm of possibility for Gernander to put Weise in street clothes when the Whale return to action next Friday night as the Bridgeport Sound Tigers come to Hartford to finish off the Whale’s current four-game homestand. Just to reinforce that possibility, the Whale have recalled Tyler Donati, also a right winger, from Elmira of the ECHL.

A second late penalty cost the Whale also in this game. The difference was that this call that cost them, probably shouldn’t have been called in the first place.

Brodie Dupont dumped the puck into the Pirate zone from the Whale side of the red line.  Kris Newbury pursued Kyle Bushee into the left side behind the net to get the puck; Newbury hoping to negate the icing. Newbury reached to get the puck but in the process hit Bushee from behind and knocked him into the boards. Referee Chris Brown immediately raised his hand calling for a Boarding penalty on Newbury.

The replay showed that it was the right call.

What wasn’t right however is that after the players gathered, the Pirates’ Tim Conboy skated over to Newbury and with his glove on punched Newbury in the face twice even knocking his helmet off in the process right in front of Brown and that was not called.

What should have gone for a 4-on-4 instead became a Pirate power play with just 27 seconds left in the period.

When the third stated, the Pirates were on the power play and cashed in when Luke Adam advanced the puck behind the net from the right side past Del Zotto to Tropp. The Pirate right winger moved out the left side behind the goal-line and Jared Nightingale abandoned his post protecting that side to chase Tropp into the corner. When Nightingale pulled off, Tropp fed the puck right through the vacated spot to Matt Ellis just below the left circle. Ellis then ripped the shot over the glove of Johnson into the far corner of the net for his 9th of the season and gave the Pirates a 2-1 lead.

Johnson stopped another bid for the back of the net by Ellis at 6:12.

After a Kelsey Tessier shot rebounded off of Leggio’s pad, Jeremy Williams went to stuff in the rebound. In trying to get position in front, his elbow went high and caught Conboy and he knocked Williams to the ice. Chris Brown caught it and his arm went up. However after the whistle, Williams got up and shoved Conboy. who retaliated by throwing a punch at the Whale winger.  Brown levied a double minor for roughing to Conboy and detained the Whale’s lone AHL All-Star in the sin bin as well on the original Elbowing call giving the home team a power play at 10:52.

Wade Redden took a loose puck at the right point and settled it down and fed Weise along the right half boards. Weise quickly advanced the puck down low to Newbury in the right corner. Newbury then slid the puck past Alex Biega in front of the net to Dupont. Crawford failed to tie up Dupont and the Whale left winger knocked it past Leggio for the equalizer and his 9th of the season at 12:04.

The Whale dug an early hole for themselves in this contest. Just 3:02 into the game.

Mark Parrish’s shot from the left side went wide and was recovered by Dennis McCauley who moved it into the right corner where Justin Bowers took it and was tied up by Ryan Garlock and Pavel Valentenko. Parrish came back, took the puck and saw Crawford all alone just outside the left circle. Justin Soryal attempted to get back, but Crawford took a stride into the circle and unloaded a hard shot through McCauley screening Johnson for his 4th goal of the year.

The Whale responded just 2:23 later with a goal of their own.

Jeremy Williams took the puck behind his own net and fed it up the right side to Jason Williams. Jason Williams then carried the puck across with blue line and through the neutral zone with Kelsey Tessier in the center. Williams slid the puck to Tessier who took off into the Pirate zone to the left side with Dennis Persson hanging all over him. Tessier backhanded the puck over to a streaking Jeremy Williams, who had beaten Maxime Legault, and deflected it high into the net past Leggio for his 22nd of the campaign.

Despite losing two players to undisclosed injuries in the game, T.J. Brennan and right wing Maxime Legault, Pirate head coach Kevin Dineen was in good spirits when he talked to reporters. “Except for the one game, all the games against (The Whale) have been extremely tight,” He said. “There’s a heck of a lot of talent on the ice with good goaltending at both ends in a game with a real, real physical tone to it. We were fortunate to go two-for-three on the power play, which is a huge night for us. We talked before the game that we had to have some power-play production in order to have some long-range success. I don’t think there was much designed play. There was a lot of effort more than anything else.”

The loss dropped the Whale 1 point out of third place as they’ve been overtaken and fall into forth behind Worcester. The Sharks got two goals from Jamie McGinn in a 3-2 win over Providence. The Whale trail first place Manchester by 13, second place Portland by 12 and hold just a three point differential over Providence with the Bruins holding two games in hand.

The Whale have lost three straight after getting themselves out of the cellar and into a playoff position. It’s now going to be up to Gernander and his staff to refocus his troops and get them ready over the next several days.

Bruce Berlet is pulling double duty tonight. His Hartford perspective, the unabridged version is here on Howlings.  His view from inside the Portland locker room can be found at the Portland Press Herald.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORER’S SHEET

STANDINGS:

Standing provided by www.theahl.com

NOTES:

* The Whale have recalled right wing Tyler Donati from Elmira of the ECHL.

* The Whale  are one of the four AHL teams with more than 1,000 PIM.  Their 1,103 PIM, are 28 more than number 2 Peoria. The Rivermen (1075) are followed by the Albany Devils (1,049) and the Norfolk Admirals (1,032). Conversely, Texas (6th in the West) with the fewest PIM at 554 and the Milwaukee Admirals (1st overall in the Western Conference) have amassed just just 599.

* Evgeny Grachev’s four consecutive game goal scoring streak and five games with at least a point also comes to a close. Over the span, Grachev tallied 7 goals, 1 assist , for 8 points.

* Dale Weise has a three game point streak going with 3g, 1a.

* Tim Kennedy’s five game streak also ended with 1g and 6a for 7 points.

* Kelsey Tessier ended a 5 game pointless streak with his first period helper.

* After going 6-1 over seven starts including two- three game win streaks, in the last 8 games he’s started, Chad Johnson is just 2-6. Over the last two games, all six of the last seven goals that were non empty-netters have gone high over the glove…the other…high over the blocker.

* High marks to the Baldwins, the senior management and especially Dave Romeiko and the sales team, for the magnificent job they’re doing. The average attendance is now 11th in the AHL at 5,263 per game. They haven’t averaged 5,000+ since 2005-2006 when they were 15th overall and haven’t been in the Top 11 since 2003-2004 when they averaged 5,514. So much for the theory from those opposed to the change that it wouldn’t make a difference. This also includes the slow attendance at the beginning of the season. It’s a safe bet that by the time next season finishes up, that the team record of 7,221 in average attendance in 1998-1999 has a good chance of falling.

LINES:

Kolarik – Kennedy – Grachev
Dupont – Newbury – Weise
Jeremy Williams – Tessier – Jason Williams
DiDiomete – Garlock – Soryal

Valentenko – Kundratek
Redden – Nightingale
Del Zotto – Bickel

Johnson
Pelletier

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Todd White – Possible Concussion, Undetermined
Chris McKelvie – Foot Surgery, Undetermined
Cam Talbot – High Ankle Sprain, Day-to-Day
Oren Eizenman – Healthy Scratch
Jyri Niemi – Healthy Scratch

THREE STARS:

Three Stars:
1. POR – D. Whitmore
2. POR – D. Leggio
3. CT – B. Dupont

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Chris Brown (86)

Linesmen:
Kevin Redding (16)
Brent Colby (7)

NEXT GAME:

The Whale will take a much needed break to regroup and to allow the coaching staff to educate the players on getting themselves right. Next Friday they will do it again as the Bridgeport Sound Tigers will come a-callin’. The Tigers always seem to get the best out of the Whale. Bob Crawford has the pregame a half an hour before the puck drops at 7pm.

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:

Portland Pirates 3 at Connecticut Whale 2 – Status: Final
Saturday, January 29, 2011 – XL Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Portland 1 0 2 – 3
Connecticut 1 0 1 – 2

1st Period-1, Portland, Crawford 4 (Parrish, Bowers), 3:02. 2, Connecticut, Williams 22 (Tessier, Williams), 5:25. Penalties-Byron Por (cross-checking), 6:46; McCauley Por (fighting), 9:18; Soryal Ct (fighting), 9:18; Brennan Por (delay of game), 11:28; Gongalsky Por (fighting), 14:20; DiDiomete Ct (fighting), 14:20; Weise Ct (roughing), 17:55.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Newbury Ct (boarding), 19:33.

3rd Period-3, Portland, Ellis 9 (Tropp, Adam), 0:59 (PP). 4, Connecticut, Dupont 9 (Newbury, Weise), 12:04 (PP). 5, Portland, Whitmore 19 (Tropp, Crawford), 19:52 (PP). Penalties-Conboy Por (roughing, roughing), 10:52; Williams Ct (elbowing), 10:52; Weise Ct (interference), 18:22.

Shots on Goal-Portland 7-5-12-24. Connecticut 12-13-13-38.
Power Play Opportunities-Portland 2 / 3; Connecticut 1 / 3.
Goalies-Portland, Leggio 13-4-0 (38 shots-36 saves). Connecticut, Johnson 14-17-3 (24 shots-21 saves).
A-10,872
Referees-Chris Brown (86).
Linesmen-Kevin Redding (16), Brent Colby (7).

The post PIRATES HARPOON THE GREAT WHALE first appeared on Howlings.

VERSUS    

(We apologize for the late posting…busy day in the office)

The Connecticut Whale have become more than the blue whale with a hockey stick like their logo suggests and become more like Moby Dick and are just trampling over their competition.

Wednesday night Tim Kennedy’s shot from the right circle just 36 seconds into overtime gave the Whale a 2-1 win over the visiting Portland Pirates. Kennedy’s game-winner came with the Whale on a 4-on-3 power play. The win raised the Whale’s record to 9-1-2 since making the switch from the Hartford Wolf Pack to their present incarnation as the Connecticut Whale on November 27th.

“I’m kind of a pass-first, shoot-second guy,” The one-time Portland Pirate said. “First I looked for (Wade Redden), then I looked for (Jeremy Williams), then I looked for (Kris Newbury) and they were all covered, so I kind of just slipped that I was going to pass  and just shot high glove.

“There wasn’t too much (room to shoot at) with (Portland starting goaltender) Jhonas (Enroth). But I mean that’s what you get when you practice with a guy for a whole year, you kind of know where to shoot on him. I’m not saying he’s weak there, that’s just where I can go. He has a great glove hand.

“I don’t think he thought that I was going to shoot because he knows that I look to pass the puck first. I don’t think he was quite expecting the shot either.”

Kennedy started his career with the Pirates under head Coach Kevin Dineen. who didn’t need a reminder on the skill set the Whale center. “I’ve seen that shot before,” Dineen said.

Kennedy had a sparkling rookie campaign with the Pirates. Kennedy was tops among all first-year players in points (67) and assists (49). “He’s a great hockey player,” Dineen said. “(He’s also) a great kid, and we think a lot of him. Obviously he’s a big part of their team and played a lot of minutes, maybe 30 minutes.”

Whale Head Coach Ken Gernander, a top scorer in his days in a Wolf Pack uniform, knows a thing or two about talent. “It was a goal-scorer’s goal,” He said speaking of the team’s winner. “It was obviously pretty fortuitous on the power play, and you want those types of players to have the puck on their stick in those situations.”

The win gave the Whale a 7-0-0-2 record in their last nine division games and they’ve also managed to put a point in the bank in 14 of their last 15 games (11-1-0-3). And on their current 10-1-0-2 run have moved from last to third in the Atlantic Division. While they are only a lone point behind second place Portland, the Pirates have three games in hand. The two teams battle in the back-end of the home-and-home series Friday night at a special 5:30 pm start time.

Since the rebranding, it seems like a light switch went off and the level of play from the entire roster just overnight went from a struggling last place team to the juggernaut that they’ve been for the last month-plus.

Goaltender Chad Johnson (24 Saves, 11-11-3) followed up his 22-shot 4-0 shutout win Sunday against Bridgeport with an even more impressive performance Wednesday.

“I felt good tonight,” Johnson said.  “Tonight (Portland) had better scoring chances than (Bridgeport) did so it looked a little bit more like I was on my game…I felt like tonight I just had to make a lot more key saves in the game than I did in Bridgeport.”

Gernander was pleased with the performance of his top netminder. “He had some crucial saves for us there and played a strong game for us.”

Dineen was also impressed by the game’s goaltending. “Goaltending was really good at both ends. It was really good goaltending for sure. It was great saves at both ends of the ice.”

As strong as Dineen felt that the goaltenders had taken charge, he felt strongly that the officials had a major hand in how the game was played.

“I’m unhappy with the level of fairness out there, but what are you going to do?” Dineen said looking down at the floor. He looked up and said, “It was a great game, well-played by both teams with lots of back and forth. The nature of the way it played out though,  it turns into in a special teams-type contest. It’s a shame it had to end the way it did.

“I thought our guys executed well. We lost (Gongalsky) early to a nasty concussion, and that puts your lineup short, but you really have to respect how hard our guys played. I’m really happy with the effort we gave. The fans certainly got their money’s worth with a heck of a hockey game, and they got their win, which is probably the way it was written.”

While there wasn’t much in the way of scoring opportunities in the first period, that’s not to say there wasn’t any action.

The Pirates put relentless pressure on the Whale puck carriers. The team was unable to get any sustained effort in the offensive zone and they certainly got very limited chances. In fact the Whale only managed to put four shots on goal, and even those shots were cleared away by the Pirate defense and Portland didn’t allow any second chances to the home team.

Connecticut just seemed to have no life in them. That was until 8:10 into the period when Dale Weise sent a wake up call.

Weise, who had a tremendous game, absolutely leveled Igor Gongalsky with an overpowering hit along the right sideboards that left the Pirate left winger unable to continue in the game. It was learned later that Gongalsky had suffered a concussion and will be out of the Pirate lineup for some time.

After the Weise hit, Tim Conboy, the Pirate enforcer, came charging in and apparently felt that it was Brodie Dupont who had made the hit. Conboy went right after the Whale left winger. Dupont stood up to the challenge and got in a few really strong shots in and dumped the Pirate defenseman to the ice.

Five seconds after the Dupont/Conboy preliminary, and just after the ensuing faceoff, Dennis McCauley, Portland’s third leading penalty minute holder, went after the Whale’s enforcer, Justin Soryal who was more than a little happy to accommodate him and drop the gloves. Soryal threw some very sound punches that landed and knocked his opponent down with strong shots that scored.

Despite being badly outshot 10-4 in the period, the Whale went to the dressing room for the first intermission knowing that they had put in a solid defensive effort and were outworking their visitors in the one-on-one battles.

As the period came to a close, Weise reminded the Pirates of his presence when he threw an elbow at a Pirate player and it sent him to the penalty box to start the second period.

After the game was over, Weise was told that he was heading to the airport Wednesday morning to fly to Tampa Bay for his third career call-up second of the season as a need arose in New York after Eric Christensen sprained his knee in the game against New Jersey. It is unknown a this point the extent of Christensen’s injury or how long Weise will by up with the Rangers.

With the Pirates on the power play to start the second, Johnson came up strong when he turned aside T.J. Brennan from the right point.

After the team successfully freed Weise from his two-minute captivity, Johnson again was called upon to bail out his teammates and did so when Conboy was abandoned in the high slot at 3:26.

Enroth had his share of big stops as well. At 6:44 Evgeny Grachev got around Marc-Andre Gragnani along the right wing side but Enroth rejected Grachev’s backhanded attempt.

At 11:12, Johnson made a spectacular stop when he negated Derek Whitmore’s shot from “dead-red” in front of him.

With the two teams see-sawing back-and-forth in terms of momentum, referee Tim Mayer tilted the ice in Connecticut’s favor by calling back-to-back-to-back calls on the XL Center’s visitors.

With 1:20 to go in the period came the turning point of the game.

The Whale were on the power play thanks to Brian Roloff’s hooking call at 17:12.

Weise had the puck along the left wing side and went to send the puck back to the point to Wade Redden. The puck however sailed by the one time NHL All-Star and Whitmore had a breakaway.

I was just trying to be patient,” Johnson said. “Benny’s (Allaire – The Ranger’s goaltending coach) been talking to me about breakaways…I wanted him to make the first move. I just kind of got a good read on him…I had good depth in my net, wasn’t too far in or too far out and kind of forced him to shoot it and I was in good position.”

Breakaway: Denied!

If that weren’t enough of a scare for the team in green, with just 5.4 ticks left in the period, Johnson came up huge again when he was attacked in the crease by a couple of Colin Stuart shots from point blank range.

The Whale started the final frame with a 52 second 5-on-3 power play thanks to carry over time from a Gragnani Boarding call with 46.8 left in the second and a Drew Schiestel hooking that came just 22 seconds into the third period.

Kennedy had two chances in front but was denied on both by Enroth.

But Johnson just kept getting stronger as he made a huge stop on Paul Byron at 3:50 when he didn’t bite on a good move by the Pirate center.

At 4:58, the Whale broke through.

Soryal retrieved a puck in the left corner and shot it out to the point where it found Ryan McDonagh. The rookie defenseman then put a laser of a shot low on Enroth. The puck hit his left pad and bounced out to Kelsey Tessier who slammed it into the twine for his sixth of the season.

But the lead didn’t last that long as Portland came right back. Bryon shot the puck from the left circle with Weise going down on one knee in front of it. Johnson may have been distracted by Corey Tropp’s darting across the crease just as the puck was arriving, but all excuses aside, the puck found the inside corner between Johnson and the post and the score was knotted.

Johnson continued to shine stopping an attempt by Mancari at 10:02.

On the other side of the ice surface, Enroth caught a break when Grachev’s shot from the left circle at 14;15 struck the left post, hit the crossbar and flew out of harm’s way.

Things looked bleak for the 7,913, the second largest crowd of the season, when Ryan Garlock took a hooking call with just 3:32 left in regulation. Exactly one minute later, Johnson turned aside yet another golden opportunity for the Pirates when he rejected a Mancari attempt from the left point.

With 28.4 seconds left in regulation Gragnani would take a tripping call that would end up putting the Whale on the power play that leads to the goal that wins it for the locals.

“It seems to be the theme of our team; we’re just finding ways to win games,” Weise said summing up his team’s efforts. “It’s an ugly way to win. I don’t think we played our best hockey, but at the end of the night we’re closing the gap on a team ahead of us. It’s a big win.”

Bruce Berlet had a busy night. His Whale perspective is at CTWhale.com and his write up for the Portland perspective is at PressHerald.com.

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

SOUNDS OF THE GAME:

Ken Gernander:

Kevin Dineen:

Tim Kennedy:

Howard Baldwin:

Chad Johnson:

Dale Weise:

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS:

NOTES:

* Wednesday’s 7,913 attendance was the second highest of the season topped only by the 13,089 November 27th first night of the Whale.

* Whalers Sports & Entertainment announced today that WTIC NewsTalk 1080, CBS Radio’s 50,000-watt AM powerhouse, will carry the Connecticut Whale’s game this Sunday, January 2 vs. the Atlantic Division-leading Manchester Monarchs.

The game between the Whale and Monarchs faces off at 3:00 PM, and the WTIC NewsTalk 1080 broadcast will begin with the pregame show at 2:30.  Whale play-by-play voice Bob Crawford, and color commentator Mark Bailey, will be joined by veteran WTIC NewsTalk 1080 sportscaster Scott Gray for the game broadcast, which will reach the entire Northeast via WTIC NewsTalk 1080’s 50,000-watt signal.

Sunday’s game is one of several Whale contests throughout the season that will be featured on WTIC NewsTalk 1080, and each and every 2010-11 Whale game can be heard live in HD on WTIC’s 96.5 HD 2, and on-line at www.wtic.com.

* The Whale reported that there were nearly 5,000 walk-ups for the game which is a Hartford hockey record. “We never had a walkup like this in the 70’s or 80’s.” Howard Baldwin, Sr. said. “It just shows you that it’s building. It’s not going to happen overnight, you know what I mean? It just takes time. It’s all starting to come together nice…the market is here.”

LINES:

Dupont – Newbury – Weise
Grachev – Kennedy – Jeremy Williams
Kolarik – Eizenman – Tessier
Soryal – Garlock – DiDiomete

Redden – Nightingale
Valentenko – Kundratek
McDonagh – Niemi

Johnson
Talbot

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Todd White – Healthy Scratch
Jason Williams – Healthy Scratch
Stu Bickel – Healthy Scratch

THREE STARS:

1. CT – T. Kennedy
2. CT – C. Johnson
3. POR – J. Enroth

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Tim Mayer (19)

Linesmen:
Luke Galvin (2)
David Spannaus (8)

NEXT GAME:

The Whale finish their sixth home-and-home as they travel to Portland to play the Pirates battle at the Cumberland County Civic Center  Friday night.  Bob Crawford and the pregame hit the air at 5pm on New Year’s Eve.

To watch the game live, you can purchased it for $6.99 at AHL-live.

For Ticket information 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.

SCORE-SHEET:

Portland Pirates 1 at Connecticut Whale 2 (OT) – Status: Final OT
Wednesday, December 29, 2010 – XL Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Portland 0 0 1 0 – 1
Connecticut 0 0 1 1 – 2

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Conboy Por (fighting), 8:10; Dupont Ct (fighting), 8:10; McCauley Por (fighting), 8:15; Soryal Ct (fighting), 8:15; Ellis Por (hooking), 15:13; Weise Ct (roughing), 20:00.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Williams Ct (cross-checking), 6:00; Persson Por (high-sticking), 13:42; Roloff Por (hooking), 17:12; Gragnani Por (boarding), 19:13.

3rd Period-1, Connecticut, Tessier 6 (Soryal, McDonagh), 4:58. 2, Portland, Byron 11 (Stuart, Biega), 6:09. Penalties-Schiestel Por (hooking), 0:22; Garlock Ct (hooking), 16:28; Gragnani Por (tripping), 19:31.

OT Period-3, Connecticut, Kennedy 5 (Redden, Williams), 0:36 (PP). Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Portland 10-7-8-0-25. Connecticut 4-10-14-1-29.
Power Play Opportunities-Portland 0 / 3; Connecticut 1 / 6.
Goalies-Portland, Enroth 9-9-1 (29 shots-27 saves). Connecticut, Johnson 11-11-3 (25 shots-24 saves).
A-7,913
Referees-Tim Mayer (19).
Linesmen-Luke Galvin (2), David Spannaus (8).

The post WHALE “GO-MOBY” AND SINK PIRATES first appeared on Howlings.