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mitchbeck · 2 years

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CANTLON: HARTFORD WOLF PACK OFF SEASON VOL 8

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The Hartford Wolf Pack and New York Rangers are working hard developing their roster for the 2022-2023 season but joined other teams in congratulating the Colorado Avalanche for gaining the 2021-2022 Lord Stanley Cup. A few local notables got to grip the Cup. They include ex-Bridgeport Sound Tiger Devon Toews, who played at Quinnipiac University. He becomes the first Bobcaever to hold hockey’s golden chalice. He is the third Sound Tiger after Eric Godard (2009 Pittsburgh), who was the first to do it. Carter Verhaeghe (2020 Tampa Bay)s, now with the Florida Panthers, was the second. Ken MacDermid, the son of ex-Hartford Whaler Paul MacDermid, and Bowen Byram, the son of former Springfield Indin, Shawn Byram, also have their name on the Cup. Also as part of the winners is Colorado head coach Jared Bednar. He is a former Springfield Falcons coach. His assistant, Nolan Pratt, is an ex-Beast of New Haven, Hartford Whaler, and Springfield Falcon player and coach. AHL CALDER CUP For the third time in the Chicago Wolves' history, the team captured the AHL title and their fifth minor league title in 25 years (two IHL Turner Cups in 1998 & 2000). The team went 14-4 in the postseason to win the championship in five games over the Springfield Thunderbirds. The Wolves outscored the Thunderbirds 18-4 after losing game one as they plowed through with four straight wins in six days. The championship game was a 4-0 shutout and the first twin shutouts in the finals in 22 years. In the team's championship picture, the AHL suspended Ex-Yale Bulldog Alex Lyon for two games for a two-hand flipping-off of the Springfield crowd, who razzed him all game long. The 29-year-old goalie is a likely Euro candidate. But, should he be signed with another club next year at the beginning of next season, he'll sit out two games after making a Frankie Lessard impression with a two-finger salute done in a late-season game (April 15, 2007) in Portland, Maine, BEFORE the second period started in a scrap with another ex-Pack Trevor Gillies, with then captain Craig Weller at his side. Hartford head coach and GM, the retired Jim Schoenfeld, eventually broke up the battle by wading through a maze of players before a full-scale brawl erupted. MORE ON THE CALDER CUP With 15 goals and 29 points, Josh Leivo won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy playoff MVP with the third highest playoff point total in AHL history. Bill McDougall's unbeatable 52-point performance in 1993 with the Cape Breton Oilers will be forever #1, and Hubie McDonough’s 31 in 1989 with the New Haven Nighthawks, the record McDougall shattered. Jack Drury, son of ex-Hartford Whaler Ted Drury and the nephew of the Rangers President/GM Chris Drury, acquitted himself very well with a 24-point effort (nine goals) in 18 games. The third best on the Wolves team and in the league will get a long look at training camp. Ex-Pack Joey Keane had a good run and deserved a shot up top. Richard Pánik, the ex-Bridgeport Islander, acquired at the trade deadline, got his second Calder Cup (Norfolk 2012) and will likely get another North American offer next year. The Wolves became the third Carolina-affiliated team to capture a Calder Cup. They did it in Charlotte in 2019, as the Whalers affiliate in Springfield, and again in Springfield in 1991, so ironic they won it in Springfield at the Mass Mutual Center, then known as the Springfield Civic Center. This win marked the first Calder Cup awarded in three years because of the pandemic. Former Sacred Heart University player Ryan Warsofsky became the youngest coach to win a Calder Cup. He surpasses Peter Laviolette. It was his second Championship behind the bench. His first came as an assistant in Charlotte. A DEEP TEAM Two players acquired at the trade deadline are both ex-Pack players, Chris Bigras from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and the Wolf Pack’s Tarmo Reunanen (exchanged for UCONN alum Max Letunov). Unfortunately, he didn’t play one game in the postseason. Reunanen wasted little time after the season ended skedaddling back to Finland to play for Lukko Rauma next year. He played on the third defensive pair in Hartford. Now Bigras will likely be among the next batch to go to Europe. PLAYER MOVES Despite being Florida property, last season, Springfield’s captain, Simsbury resident Tommy Cross (Westminster Prep), was signed by St. Louis the day after the season ended. Despite being just 25 miles from Hartford has never been signed by the Wolf Pack or offered a contract. All his past and present teammates have raved about his leadership skills. He’s been out of the New England area just three times in his playing career as a youth with the Ohio Jr. Blue Jackets (USHL); in his first pro year, he played half a season with South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL) and one season with the Cleveland Monsters (Columbus) as an AHL free agent. He has been a New England regional fixture playing at BC in college and Providence in his early AHL years. MEMORIAL CUP The Saint John (NB) Sea Dogs, the Memorial Cup host team, and a long shot at upending the Hamilton Bulldogs, did so in a 5-3 win. Future Bridgeport Islander William Dufour won the Memorial Cup Stafford Smythe MVP with a goal and an assist in the championship win. 39 days after firing head coach former Pack, Ranger, and Springfield Falcon Gordie Dwyer and his entire staff, including his assistant ex-New Haven Nighthawk Paul Boutilier, after a first-round QMJHL President Cup playoff first-round loss exit to Rimouski, they’re crowned champions. They won with an interim head coach in UNB’s Gardiner MacDougall. He had won the Canadian University championship a few months ago, and he acidly replied after the win, while being interviewed by TSN, "I’m glad I picked up the phone.” The Sea Dogs advanced with an improbable semifinal win against the QMJHL Shawinigan Cataractes. They built a first-period 3-0 lead. Dufour then showed why he was the QMJHL scoring champ firing off a natural hat trick and four total in the first ten minutes of the second period to secure a 5-3 come-from-behind win. Dufour already has signed his three-year entry-level contract (ELC) and will likely start next year in BridgeportHowever, heHe is still WJC eligible and was a finalist for the CHL David Branch Player of the Year Award. Hamilton upended Shawinigan 4-3 in overtime in the semifinal’s victory. He snatched what seemed to be a narrow win by Shawinigan, who scored late before Jan Mysak (Montreal) ended their dreams. Saint John, the host city, was the home crowd favorite. They became the first QMJHL team since Saint John in 2011 to win the championship in thy last hockey game in North America this season. AND MORE Ex-UCONN defenseman Yan Kuznetsov (Calgary), who missed a wide-open net late in the second, a year removed from Storrs, and undrafted captain Vincent Sévigny, the son of ex-Pack Pierre Sévigny, played his very last junior game both got to hoist the Cup and he scored in the first two minutes of the game. At the QMJHL annual holiday mid-season trading deadline, Victoriaville acquired Sévigny. One other CT connection was winger Cameron MacDonald, a Nova Scotia native from the Selects Academy at South Kent Prep U-15 team, and one game with the CT Jr. Rangers (NCDC) scored in the contest. There were several finalists for Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Awards. Incoming Wolf Pack Dylan Garand (Kamloops-WHL) for Goalie of Year won the award. Coach of the Year honors went to former Springfield King Brian Kilrea Award, a legendary OHL coach, one of the finalists was former Ranger/Whaler James Patrick of the WHL Winnipeg Ice. CHL IMPORT DRAFT Before CHL Draft occurred before the NHL made their selections, only 27 players were chosen out of the 120 slots. One move made before the draft was the rights of Brad Lambert, nephew of former Nighthawks player and Sound Tiger head coach and now the Islanders head coach Lane Lambert was traded by the Saskatoon Blades, who took him in the 2020 Import DraftThen, they were traded to the Seattle (WA) Thunderbirds. He is eligible for next week’s 2022 NHL Draft and is likely to be taken in the top ten picks. Next year is his last junior-eligible season for the Finnish forward. His cousin Jimmy is signed to start next year in Bridgeport. PLAYER AND COACHING MOVEMENT The Florida Panthers signed former Whaler head coach Paul Maurice. The Pack’s Anthony Greco signed with Frölunda HC (Sweden-SHL) for next year. Bridgeport Islander Aatu Räty finished the year in Park City with a solid eight-game audition (two regular season and six playoff games). This follows a stellar Finnish season between Kärpät Oulu and Jukerit. He is one of four Islander Finnish prospects invited to the Finnish camp to try to be on the WJC team for the redux event scheduled for August 9-20. The four include Räty, Eetu Liukas, Matias Rajaniemi and a long shot is Aleksei Malinen. The Rangers have forward Kalle Väisänen from TPS Turku. The US will open up against Germany on August 9th. Latvia was added to the tournament to replace a banned Russian team because of the invasion of Ukraine. All players eligible for WJC in December can play even if they have turned 21 in the eight months preceding the tournament. All games will be played at Rogers Place in Edmonton, and the WJC 2023 tourney will be played in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Moncton, New Brunswick, next year. All WJC Games will be on the NHL Network. MORE MOVES Ex-Pack Darren Raddysh signs a two-year, two-way contract extension with the Tampa Bay Lightning paying $750K-$775K-NHL/$250K-AHL. Current teammate and another ex-Pack, Sean Day, gets a one-year extension in Syracuse and a nice raise to a two-way deal for $750K-NHL/$200K-AHL. Mathieu Olivier, the son of former New Haven Knights Simon Olivier, was traded from the Nashville Predators to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a fourth-round draft pick. Former Avon Old Farms Winged Beaver, Nick Hutchison, who wandered the hockey map last year with Adirondack (ECHL) and after a brief stay with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and half of a year with the Manitoba Moose and former UCONN Husky and fellow Adirondack Thunder (ECHL) himself, Jarrod Gourley both sign one-year AHL deals with Utica. Ex-Pack Patrick Newell departs Sterjen (Norway-NEL) for Fehérvár AV19 (Hungary-IceHL) next season. Ex-Pack Shawn “Odie” O’Donnell heads from Dornbirner EC (Austria-IceHL) to EHC Freiburg (Germany DEL-2). Ex-Pack Danny Kristo heads from Västerviks IK (Sweden Allsvenskan to HK Dukla Michalovce (Slovakia-SLEL). He started last year at HC Kladno (Czech Republic-CEL) (Czechia), the Jaromir Jagr owned team he still plays for. Another ex-Pack, Simon Denis, comes back to North America from the Tokohu Free Blades (Japan-ALIH) and signs with Toledo (ECHL). EVEN MORE MOVES Patrick Harper (New Canaan/Avon Old Farms) heads from HPK Hameelina (Finland-FEL) to Mora IK (Sweden-SHL). He started last year in Milwaukee. Phillip Samuelsson, the eldest son of former Whaler/Ranger and assistant coach at Avon Old Farms and the Wolf Pack, leaves Oskarshamn IK (Sweden-SHL) and skates over to Fischtown (Germany-DEL). Ex-Pack/Sound Tiger Joe Whitney, who had the shortest reign as a Pack team captain (two days faster than Cole Schneider) for half a season, hangs them up after a four-year career in Europe with the Iserlohn Roosters (Germany-DEL) after starting in Finland. Ex-Sound Tiger Matt Donovan leaves for Europe again after departing Milwaukee for Adler Mannheim (Germany-DEL) next year. Ex-Sound Tiger Josh Winquist, who split last year between Reading (ECHL) and Allen (ECHL), departs from the Allen (TX) Americans for HC Dukla Michalovce (Slovakia-SLEL). Reunanen joins 33 AHL’ers that have signed in Europe and the first American or AHL’er to sign in Russia defenseman Randy Murphy from Grand Rapids. STILL MORE D3 college commits Kevin MacKay from Aberdeen (NAHL) commits to Trinity College (NESCAC) of Hartford, and Bailey Irwin of Stouffville and Burlington (OJHL) heads to Albertus Magnus (NCAA I independent) in New Haven. One of the state's most prestigious public high school programs has a new coach. Hamden hired just their sixth bench boss in school history in just retired former West Haven special education school teacher Bill Reynolds. Reynolds, 70, is a former two-time champion at the school in his youth, and his brothers both played there. He coached at the Division II level at Cheshire and Guilford. He has ALWAYS wanted to coach Hamden and is fulfilling à lifelong goal and dream. He wanted the job when Bill Veneris got the job over thirty years ago. He replaces ex-Pack Todd Hall, who stepped down after twenty years back in April. A usually plumb job in high school circles both in Hamden and West Haven, but both schools are experiencing dwindling player numbers, and both could shockingly become co-op programs in a few years. HARTFORD WOLF PACK HOME Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 2 years

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CANTLON: PACK HOST SYRACUSE LOSE AGAIN 8-5

BY: Gerry Cantlon - Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Alex Barré-Boulet’s goal and two assists paced an 8-4 Syracuse Crunch victory as the tumble down the Atlantic Division standings for the Hartford Wolf Pack continues. The Pack dropped their seventh straight and have lost nine of their last eleven games while surrendering 24 goals in the previous four games and allowed seven or more goals three times in a month. Only the exemplary efforts of newcomers former UCONN Husky Maxim Letunov and UMASS Minuteman Bobby Trivigno, who had two primary assists in his debut game, have stood out. The team had a players-only meeting after the game, while the coaches and upper management were in post-game meetings as they separately tried to sort out what had caused this unraveling. In addition, the team pulled the plug on their post-game Zoom press conference for the first time to deal with this on-ice collapse. The Wolf Pack leave home for what remains of the regular season in an all-important seven-game road trip. As a result of their strong play earlier in the season, the team remarkably is still in the playoff hunt sitting in fifth place with a .524 winning percentage, just a fraction ahead of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, who were 9-2 winners at home against the Bridgeport Islanders who led 2-0 in the first period but allowed nine unanswered goals. Bridgeport has a .523 winning percentage, but the Wolf Pack still control their destiny as just the Penguins and the Charlotte Checkers, 3-1 winners over the Hershey Bears, took advantage of the losses in the division. SECOND PERIOD Both the first and second periods were a wild affair as in the first period, the two teams exchanged goals. However, when the second intermission came, the Wolf Pack trailed 6-4. The goal-scoring started early as Cole Koepke registered his 19th of the season at 1:32 from new defenseman Brandon Scanlin. An assist each went to Barré-Boulet and ex-New York Ranger, Frederik Claesson. The Pack came back to within one at 4-3 after Hunter Skinner sent his fourth of the season into the net from a cross-ice pass from Trivigno, who registered his first pro point at 7:36. However, the Pack’s poor play continued as the Crunch tallied just 1:23 later. Simon Ryfors was in the slot in the shooter’s position on one knee and blasted home Gabriell Fortier’s left-wing corner pass past Pack starter Keith Kinkaid at 10:28. At 17:51, Ty Ronning brought the Pack back to within a goal on his 17th of the season, taking advantage of Alex Whelan’s second effort hustle on the left-wing boards. He beat ex-Pack Darren Raddysh to the puck and caught Ronning in full stride with a backhand chip pass. Ronning snapped it past Amir Miftakhakov to the glove side. Miftakhakov hasn’t played since February 19th. The Wolf Pack gave the goal right back just 59 seconds later. HERE WE GO AGAIN Ronning was the first Pack player to tally multiple goals in a game in a month. His last multiple-goal game came on November 5th. Syracuse’s Otto Sompii beat everyone to a loose puck on the left-wing side and shipped it back to ex-Pack Sean Day at the blue line. Day beat Kinkaid from 55-feet out with a high shot to the short side and off the post. In the third period, Nick Merkley cashed in for his 13th goal to make it 6-5, with Trivigno earning his second pro point with a nice setup in tight at 3:29. The Pack power-play continued to sputter, going 0-for-9 on the weekend, and gave up their ninth shorthanded tally. Merkley had a quality chance stopped, and Lauri Pajuniemi’s cross-ice pass for Austin Rueschoff late in the power play was picked off by Gabriel Dumont. Anthony Richard broke away from Scanlin and Ronning and slipped in his 13th goal on Dumont’s lead pass at 8:09. Finally, Richard put the last nail in the coffin with his second goal into an empty net at 17:13. FIRST PERIOD A wild first period started with Barré-Boulet’s tally at 1:50. Syracuse had the edge in shots, 6-1 in the game’s first two minutes. However, the Wolf Pack answered as Patrick Khordorenko snaked a pass for his eighth goal off assists by Zac Jones with the primary helper and Zach Guittari earning the secondary assist at 4:47. The Pack took a rare lead at 2-1 when Ronning got his 16th goal at 3:05. His shot went off rookie Declan Carlile. Gabriel Fortier, who could operate freely from behind the net, found Simon Ryfors open on the doorstep, and he jammed home his eighth goal at 10:28. Again operating behind the net, Riley Nash found Carlile, a former Hockey East second-team All-Star, up top. Carlile put a nice shot over Kinkaid’s right shoulder to restore Syracuse’s lead at 13:56 with his first AHL goal. LINES Merkley-#10-Bobby Trivigno-Letunov Ronning-Greco-Khordorenko Rueschoff-Pajuniemi-Fritz Whelan-O’Leary-DiGiacinto Lorito Tinordi-Skinner Jones-Scanlin Robertson-Guittari Kinkaid Huska SCRATCHES: Gettinger - (Upper-Body) Taylor Lundkvist (Illness, day-to-day, Questionable for Monday) Brodzinski #17 NEWS Abbott Girduckis was released from his PTO and sent back to the Jacksonville Icemen (ECHL) with Trivigno and Brodzinski now in Hartford. The signing of Ethan Brodzinski from St. Cloud State (NCHC) to a PTO deal makes him the third Brodzinski to put on a Wolf Pack sweater this season. Only one Brodzinski brother hasn’t yet. That would be Bryce Brodzinski, who is currently going to the Frozen Four next weekend in Boston with the Minnesota Golden Gophers. It’s not the first-time siblings there have been brought into the Wolf Pack fold, but the first time in the regular season and three of them. Michael Brodzinski is back with the Orlando Solar Bears (ECHL) and played three games mid-season. But, of course, Jonny, the team’s leading goal scorer and captain of the Wolf Pack, is currently on recall in New York. Over 25 years, just a few brothers have been on the ice in three separate training camps. Wolf Pack great and AHL Hall of Famer, Ken Gernander, saw his twin brothers Jim and Jerry here one fall. PA (Pierre-Alexandre) Parenteau brought brother Guillaume, and Dane Byers had brother Cole to Hartford one year. Only a few have played together in the regular season. The most famous were brothers Chris and Ryan Bourque, the sons of Hall-of-Famer Ray Bourque. They were the only duo to play together. The other two did not, Peter and Chris Ferraro, and Chris (older) and Michael (younger) St. Croix. In the lineup, Syracuse had ex-Pack’s P.C. Labrie, Daniel Walcott, Day, and Raddysh. Scratched as he was when he was here was Brandon Crawley. Day was hurt late in the game in the neutral zone. At the first break in play, he exited to the dressing room with an undisclosed injury. He never returned. In 16 months of playing and a little over two years since the Las Vegas Golden Knights purchased their AHL team, The Henderson (NV) Silver Knights debuted their new $84 Million Loan Arena on Saturday night in a 5-2 loss to the Bakersfield Condors. Next season San Jose Barracuda and Coachella Valley Firebirds will debut new state-of-the-art-new arenas. Tarmo Reunanen will be wearing #29 for his new team, the Chicago Wolves. He will skate along with ex-Hartford Whaler and Trumbull product Ted Drury’s son, Jack Drury, ex-Pack skaters Chris Bigras, Joey Keane, and former Yale Bulldog Alex Lyon. also on the roster are the loaned-out former Bridgeport Islander, Richard Pánik. They will host the Texas Stars featuring one-time Sound Tiger Blake Comeau and GM, one-time New Haven Senator MVP Scott White. HARTFORD WOLF PACK HOME Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 2 years

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THOMAS: WOLF PACK PRE-GAME REPORT

BY: Alex Thomas, Hartford Wolf Pack HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack will look to snap just their second three-game pointless streak of the season tonight when they continue their five-game road trip against the Laval Rocket. It is the first of two trips to Canada this season for the Wolf Pack and opens a back-to-back set that concludes tomorrow night in Belleville against the Senators. The puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. Tale of The Tape This is the second and final meeting between the Wolf Pack and the Rocket during the 2021-22 season. The Wolf Pack skated to a 4-0 shutout victory at the XL Center on January 15th in the first showdown. Keith Kinkaid made 31 saves for his first shutout of the season. Austin Rueschhoff opened the scoring with the eventual winning goal just 1:36 into the hockey game, the first of two tallies he’d register on the night. Forwards Lauri Pajuniemi and Patrick Khodorenko would also score for the Pack. The 4-0 victory is, to this point, the only shutout registered this season by Hartford. This is Hartford’s first visit to Laval since November 1st, 2019. That night, the Rocket took a 2-1 shootout decision over the Pack. Alex Belzile scored the lone goal in the shootout for the home side. Wolf Pack Outlook The Wolf Pack have lost three straight games in regulation for just the second time this season. Their most recent defeat was a 4-2 decision at the hands of the Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday night. Justin Richards and Zac Jones scored for the Pack, but Hartford surrendered three goals in the final period to ultimately come up short. The Wolf Pack are 0-3-0-0 to start their five-game road trip and are 9-12-3-1 overall away from home this season. Hartford has yet to lose four consecutive games in regulation in 2021-22 but does have one four-game losing streak on their record (0-3-0-1), which came back in December. Anthony Greco leads the Wolf Pack in scoring with 42 points (12 g, 30 a) on the season. Jonny Brodzinski, currently on recall to the parent New York Rangers (NHL) is second on the club with 39 points (18 g, 21 a). In transaction news, the Rangers assigned forward Morgan Barron to the Wolf Pack on Thursday afternoon. Barron is expected to make his first appearance with the Pack since February 5th in tonight’s tilt. Rocket Outlook The Rocket enters tonight’s contest with a record of 26-21-3-0, good for a points percentage of .550 and a third-place standing in the North Division. The Rocket fell by a final score of 6-2 in their last outing on Saturday night against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Jo��l Teasdale and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard both scored in the loss. Sam Poulin had a hat-trick for the Penguins, while Chris Bigras, Felix Robert, and Alexander Nylander also lit the lamp. Like the Wolf Pack, the Rocket lost both of their games in Pennsylvania last weekend. They’ve dropped two straight games in regulation, with their last win being a 7-2 victory over the Rochester Americans on March 9th. Harvey-Pinard leads the Rocket in scoring with 30 points (13 g, 17 a) on the season. Jean-Sébastien Dea is second on the club with 28 points (16 g, 12 a). Dea’s 16 goals lead the club in that department. Game Information WATCH: AHLTV The Wolf Pack conclude their five-game road trip tomorrow night when they visit the Belleville Senators in the second of four meetings this season. The puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. The Pack will return to the XL Center on Wednesday, March 23rd. That night, the Pack plays host to the Springfield Thunderbirds in the first of four straight home games. The puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available for all remaining home games at hartfordwolfpack.com. HARTFORD WOLF PACK HOME Read the full article

#AHL #AlexanderNylander #AnthonyGreco #BellevilleSenators #ChrisBigras #HartfordWolfPack #JonnyBrodzinski #JustinRichards #KeithKinkaid #LavalRocket #NewYorkRangers #NHL #RochesterAmericans #SpringfieldThunderbird #SpringfieldThunderbirds #SyracuseCrunch #Wilkes-Barre/ScrantonPenguins #XLCenter

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mitchbeck · 4 years

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CANTLON: WOLF PACK BLANK PHANTOMS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Igor Shestekin’s 26 saves were good enough to secure his second career AHL shutout while Nick Jones’ two goals paced the Hartford Wolf Pack to a 4-0 victory and extended the team's winning streak to five games. The Wolf Pack has an unblemished record of 12-0-1-2 when leading after two periods. “We're playing good hockey right now. We lost five-in-a-row and that woke us up. We didn’t like the way we were playing. There were some close games, but we tightened things up and over the past five games we have made a great bounce back,” said defenseman Nick Ebert. The Wolf Pack (16-2-4-5) travels to Allentown tomorrow for the completion of the home-and-home with the Phantoms (10-11-1-4). The Wolf Pack remains in first place in the Atlantic Division with 39 points and are now four points ahead of the idle Providence Bruins. “Our passing was so good tonight that it allowed for good puck pressure and you want guys skating and using their legs. That was a good indicator of how well we can play,” Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch remarked. Jones scored twice in the third period with the first coming off a long rebound from a Darren Raddysh blast from 30 feet out. “I got a good rebound there. It was nice to get one of those bounces and get one in,” Jones said of his third goal of the season. Knoblauch has confidence and admitted he had been worried about his lack of points, but he paid him a huge compliment. The fourth line had three goals on the night. “He had been frustrated with his point totals. Sometimes they go in, and sometimes they don’t. Overall, he has been one of the most consistent players on our team. "The (fourth) line played very well tonight. Jonesy has been strong for us all year long. Everyone who plays with him has good games, and that’s a good indicator of how valuable a player he is. He makes his teammates better,” said Knoblauch of his rookie center. His play with Tim Gettinger is a prime example of his benefit to the team. The coach rewarded his play with some late-game power play duty. His standing in front of the net led to a perfect tip of Joey Keane’s low-riding, and hard slapshot at 19:25. It was his second goal of the night and fourth of the season. “It was nice to get out there. I’m usually only out there for the PK,” Jones said with a laugh. “Keane put it right where you want it.” Besides pitching his second shutout, Shesterkin tried to get into the record books attempting to become the fifth goalie in AHL history to score a goal. A Phantoms' glove blocked his shot and was the only thing preventing him from doing so. The Wolf Pack’s second goal was a result of good old-fashioned hard work. Lewis Zerter-Gossage was in on the forecheck and all over Phantoms forward, Isaac Ratcliffe. Zerter-Gossage stripped Ratcliffe of the puck and moved in on and beat goalie, Alex Lyon, to the far side notching his second of the season. The goal came at 6:46. “Lewis adds so much to the team with his size and speed. We could use a little more speed. He’s a very smart hockey player and he doesn’t take risks and made a smart play there." Shesterkin played in back-to-back games for just the second time this season and demonstrated just why he is so highly regarded. He stopped Andy Andeoff to start the second period just as he did at the end of the first. He denied Nicolas Aube-Kubel from off the right-wing side with 5:59 left in the period. Tyler Wotherspoon saw his shot from the right point stopped and then with 3:16 he drilled a shot over Shesterkin's glove hand. The puck went off the post and up the right-wing half wall where ex-Pack Chris Bigras was stationed. Bigras came off the left point and stepped into the shot with a wide-open cage, but Shesterkin slid over with his paddle down and used his blocker to prevent a goal. “That was one of about five-or-six saves that he made that were something else. He makes all look good. We're so lucky to have him,” said Jones. The Pack had some chances before Zerter-Gossage’s goal. Matt Beleskey had a breakaway at 1:58 and then Raddysh came down the right-wing with 14:46. Vinni Lettieri had a chance from the blue-line late at 18:47 and then Patrick Newell took a shot from off the right wing with 37.4 seconds left. The Pack had an early shot advantage of 7-1 and scored their first goal on the seventh shot. Ebert was at the left point and took a pass. The right-handed shot put the puck quickly to his backhand and with an outside position on the Phantoms, German Rubstov. The move got Rubstov turned outside and zipped it past him. He then went to a forehand shot that went off Lyon, a former Yale goalie, and it skittered over the goal line for the 1-0 Wolf Pack lead. “The player got a little aggressive and I was able to get around him and got the puck to the net. The key to the game now is getting pucks to the net and I think I caught their goalie sleeping a little bit,” said Ebert. Rubstov tried to atone for his error with a strong move to the net with 2:05 to go, but Shesterkin was able to come up with a dandy glove save. Andeoff came off the right-wing at a high rate of speed going airborne and was stopped with 1:17 remaining in the period. LINES: Andersson-Fogarty-Beleskey Nieves-Gettinger-Newell O’Regan-Lettieri--DiGiuseppe Jones--Zerter-Gossae-Gropp Raddysh-LoVerde Keane-Geersten Rykov-Ebert SCRATCHES: Jeff Taylor (healthy) Ryan Dmowski (healthy) Gabriel Fontaine (season-ending shoulder surgery) NOTES: The ceremonial face-off prior to the start of the game featured four women from Team USA women’s team. The four were Amanda Kessel, Emily Matheson, Lee Stecklein, and Alex Cavallini. Saturday night, Team USA and Team Canada will face-off in Game 1 of the Rivalry Series at the XL Center at 7 PM. The game will air live on the NBCSN. It was announced that the US roster will include Hilary Knight, a three-time Olympian who won two Silver and a Gold medal. She played at Choate Rosemary Hall (Wallingford) as well as the CT Polar Bears (Northford). Game 2 of the series to be played Tuesday night in Moncton, New Brunswick and will air live on the NHL Network. Mellissa Samoskevich (Sandy Hook/Quinnipiac University) didn’t make the final cut for the team. Adam Huska will be in net tomorrow for the Wolf Pack. Pack captain, Steven Fogarty, is not 100% after taking a puck off his hand on Wednesday night. “I don’t think he has been healthy since he was nine years old,” Knoblauch said with a laugh. “I have learned already he gets banged up, but just keeps on going, and if he's hurt he isn’t going to tell you about it. He is the captain for a reason in the way he plays and handles himself." Ville Meskanen, who was released on Wednesday, has signed a two-year contract with Ilves Tampere in the Finnish Elite League (FEL). He will play his first game next Friday. Meskanen's release was made to accommodate the return of Vitali Kravtsov, whose KHL contract with the Traktor Chelyabinsk in Russia was terminated. He was officially recalled from his loan by the Rangers and assigned back to Hartford. Kravtsov will not be in the lineup in Allentown, PA on Saturday against Lehigh Valley. He's already there and will meet the team, and skate with them on Sunday and Monday. Knoblauch stated he could play Tuesday in Charlotte. Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON'S CORNER: THE POST FREE AGENT FRENZY

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - If Steve Miller wanted to rewrite his masterpiece, "Take the Money and Run" and put a Hartford Wolf Pack spin on it, it might sound something like this. "This a story about Bigras and Gilly, two young hockey players with plenty of skill to show, here’s what they did when they decided to cut loose - Go on take the money and run!" AHL CONTRACTS ON THE RISE Take the Money and Run also defined how the last few days of NHL/AHL moving day or free agents. Jaws were sure to drop upon review of some of the salaries AHL players were handed out this week. It left everyone in the know, in some cases, more than just a little bit astonished. Cantlon's Corner has been reporting on the AHL since the late 1980s. At that time, the average salary was approximately on average, around $40K. A scant few top echelon players made $50K. Since that time, the 100-plus time percent increase is mind-numbing and must leave former AHL vets, shaking their collective heads. In 2019, in professional hockey, everything is about the cap. As of Wednesday, of the 124 total contracts offered, the teams collectively have spent over $707M. Stunning… poverty is certainly not a word one would hear among those in hockey circles. All salary numbers come from capfriendly.com A longtime hockey insider who requested anonymity put it in stark terms. What has driven this hockey salary "arms race?" ”The salary cap is precious gold. Teams protect that at all costs. The one-way money; that’s a real number and affects the cap either negatively or positively. Two-way contracts, which most AHL contracts, are, you see that while the increases are real, it really doesn’t affect the cap because the AAV is based on the overall one-way contract and that’s what matters.” Some players don’t need to head to Europe if they are raking in these type of salaries. Several teams have more lateral ability than others and some current and ex-Wolfpack players are benefiting greatly. Greg McKegg, who split last season between Charlotte and Carolina, inked a one-year, one-way deal for $750K with the Rangers. That money counts on the cap. It's also a nice hefty increase from his AHL gig last season that paid $70K. Danny O’Regan, Jeff LoVerde, Harry Zolniercycyzk, and Thomas McCollum, are all new Pack signees. Their salaries have yet to be posted. Philadelphia helped out Lehigh Valley with ex-Pack, Chris Bigras, who signed for a $250K-AHL & $700k-NHL deal up from his $70K AHL contract last year. Andy Andreoff from Syracuse got himself a $750K one-way up from his previous $680K deal. Nate Prosser, from Iowa, earned a slight increase at $421.5K-AHL/$700K-NHL for two years up from his $400K/$700K contract. Rochester will get John Gilmour if he doesn’t make the Sabres roster and it will cost them $700K. Arizona helps out Tucson with two players returning from Europe. Andy Miele from Torpedo Novgorod (Russia-KHL) gets a two-year deal paying $275K in the AHL and $725K in the NHL. Beau Bennett from Dynamo Riga (Latvia-KHL) nails down a $200K-AHL and $725K-NHL pact while Aaron Ness, the ex-Sound Tiger, gets a two-year deal at $300K-AHL & $725K-NHL. In Binghamton (New Jersey), Dakota Mermis goes from $100K in Tucson to $200. A few took a pay cut. Ben Street was making $750K in San Diego and slips to $425K while Matt Tennyson from Rochester goes from $659K to $350K. Neither is expected to start clipping coupons. Charlotte (Carolina) sign enigmatic ex-Pack, Brian Gibbons (Salisbury Prep), for $100K-AHL and $725K-NHL after playing for a $1million last year between Anaheim/Ottawa. The Colorado Eagles (Avalanche) handed ex-CT Whale, Jayson Megna, a $350K-AHL and $700K-NHL one-year deal. Dan Renouf, from Charlotte, gets a two-year deal paying $275K in the first year and $350K for the AHL in his second year. He'll earn at the NHL level, $700K for two years. T.J. Tynan gets one-year deal paying him $425K in the AHL and $700K in the NHL. Chicago (Las Vegas) was among the busiest teams. Pat Brown from the Calder Cup champion Charlotte Checkers goes from $100K to $450K in his first year and $700K in his second year. Tyrell Goulbourne, after a nine-goal campaign with Lehigh Valley, goes from $70K to $225K-AHL/$700K-NHL in the first year and $700K second. Jaycob Megna (Jayson’s brother) goes from $260K in San Diego to $400K with the Wolves. Montreal beefed up Laval with Riley Barber ($300K-AHL.$700K-NHL) and Phil Varone ($450K-AHL/$700K-NHL) from Hershey and Lehigh Valley respectively. San Diego, via Anaheim, signs AHL Butterfield trophy winner, Andrew Poturlarksi, from Charlotte to a $350K-AHL/$750-NHL on a one-year deal. In Springfield, Tommy Cross (Simsbury/Westminster Prep) goes from $300K to $325K. Ethan Prow from Wilkes Barre/Scranton is joining him and going from $90K to $700K per for the next two years. Kevin Roy, after just 14 games last year with Anaheim and San Diego, gets a $300K-AHL/$850K-NHL seal for one year. Tampa Bay aids Syracuse with two new goalies veteran Scott Wedgewood and Spencer Martin at $750K one-way each. Ex-Pack, Chris Mueller, migrates to the Syracuse Crunch from the Toronto Marlies where he'll make $700K on a one-way, one-year up from his $650K last season. Danick Martel, despite an injury-shortened season (15 games) is rewarded with a $700K one-way deal after a $65K-AHL deal last year. Daniel Walcott, the ex-Pack, who, after just five games because of shoulder surgery, is given a one-year $125K deal for the AHL and a $700K NHL contract. Stockton gets Bryon Froese next season for $450K-AHL/$700K-NHL after splitting last season with Laval and Lehigh Valley. The Texas Stars got help from parent Dallas when they signed Tanner Kero from Utica. He gets two years at $300K in the AHL in the first year and $350K in the second with $700K & $775K respectively in the NHL. That's for two years and both are “down” from his one-way $800K deal last year. Utica (Vancouver) inked Justin Bailey to a $700K one way for two years. PLAYER AND COACHING MOVEMENT Last season’s Wolf Pack captain Cole Schneider re-signs with Nashville and will play for Milwaukee. No contracts details have been released yet. Six more AHL’ers head overseas for next year with two of them heading to Kunlun (China-KHL). Tyler Wong, from the Chicago Wolves, and ex-Pack, Adam Cracknell, who split last season between San Diego and Toronto. Also heading East is Adam Helewka of Milwaukee/Tucson who signs with Barys Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan Russia-KHL) and the latest Trevor Cheek of the Tucson Roadrunners goes to Esbjerg (Denmark-DHL). Mark McNeil goes from Providence to EHC Linz (Austria-EBEL) and Zack Mitchell leaves the Ontario Reign for Neftekhimik (Russia-KHL). In Mitchell’s case, you think his agent explained to him he was leaving a sunny, warm LA suburb to go to Siberia? Now 52 AHL’ers have signed for Europe next season. Ex-Pack, and one funny guy, Francois Bouchard, makes it back home after playing with Dundee (Scotland-EIHL) to play for St. Jerome (LNAH) next season. Ex-Pack, Tomas Kundratek, leaves HC Davos (Switzerland-LNA) and heads home to HC Ocelari Trinec (Czech Republic-CEL). Brett Magnus of Sacred Heart University (AHA), signs overseas with HUS Hokii (Netherlands BEL-NED HL). That makes 44 collegians to sign for Europe and 221 overall college players signed pro deals. Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON: WOLF PACK OFF-SEASON - Volume 9

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - In spite of the fact that the prevailing news of the day centers on the precipice of a new era for the New York Rangers, as the 2019 NHL Entry Draft is about to occur in Vancouver, more news is going in professional hockey. PACK NEWS Clearly, the NHL Draft tomorrow in Vancouver (NBCSN Round 1 at 8 pm. Saturday Rounds 2-7 NHL Network 1 pm) will be important to the Wolf Pack roster for this and next year. The Rangers have nine picks second only to host Vancouver with 10 picks in the seven rounds. The Rangers had two in the first the second overall pick in which either they get Kappo Kakko or Jack Hughes they had a second one at 20th slot from Winnipeg from the Kevin Hayes deal which they dealt back to the Jets Monday night in the Jacob Trouba deal for ex-Pack Neal Pionk. Trouba, a right-handed shot like Pionk is a big sturdy two-way defenseman who will command serious playing time at age 25 is an RFA (restricted free agent). Part of the Trouba Factor is that his wife is studying to become a doctor and clearly wants to do so in the US rather than Canada so a long term deal is in the offing. The deal will be dependent on the salary cap for next year (no final figure yet) and future contracts that will expire for the Rangers, especially the slew of ELC deals they have signed the last two-three years and future ones coming after tomorrow’s draft and the unknown of a new CBA structure. GM Jeff Gorton told the media in a conference call Monday that he has a deal number in mind for Trouba which means one or two of the other four defensemen in New York making $4 million plus Kevin Shattenkirk, Marc Staal, Brady Skeij or Brenden Smith will either be traded, brought out or buried in Hartford next season. Some of the first roster shoes dropped late Thursday night with the announcement that defenseman’s Frederick Claesson of the Rangers and the Wolf Pack’s Chris Bigras’s were not given qualifying offers to make them UFA’s. Claesson, despite his role as the seventh defenseman in NY, was very good, the current roster didn’t give him a spot, Bigras was a slight surprise he played well for most of the year and was one of the last cuts at Rangers training camp plus was Libor Hajek's primary defense partner through the 25 games or so, but had his season cut short with a severe high ankle sprain. Julius Bergman, acquired from Columbus is a UFA has already signed a two year deal with the defending Swedish Hockey League champion Frolunda HC. That leaves two other defensemen, John Gilmour and assistant captain Rob O’ Gara as Group 6 UFA’s on July 1st who will be clearly getting new addresses. Goalie Dustin Tokarski is also a UFA was reassigned to Charlotte on February 28th where he never lost a game and they captured the Calder Cup title. Tokarski won’t be offered a deal and is likely to be playing in Sweden next year. To nobody’s surprise goalie Brandon Halverson was not given a qualifying offer either. Just two Wolf Pack roster players left as RFA’s are winger Vinni Lettieri and the organization’s last goalie Chris Nell their status has not been announced yet. The rest of the draft selections look like this; in the second round, the Rangers have two picks 49th from Dallas and 59th from Tampa Bay via the Mats Zuccarello and Ryan McDonagh/JT Miller trade respectively. They have as of now then one selection in each of the remaining five rounds. In the third round 68th overall, in the 4th round they go 112th from Columbus, in the 5th round 130th, the 6th round they select 161st and in the 7th and last round 205th from Columbus. CALLAHAN TO RETIRE In some sad and late-breaking news, last night on the Tampa Bay Lightning website former Ranger and ex-Pack Ryan Callahan announced his NHL career has come to a screeching and sudden end and is being placed on their LTI (Long Term Injury) list protecting Tampa Bay on the salary cap. He has been diagnosed with a degenerative disc disease in his back that has limited him the past three NHL seasons and now forces him to leave the game he played with so much passion. He was limited to just 52 games last season with seven goals and 17 points His trade over five years ago from the Rangers after eight years on Broadway assuming the captaincy after Chris Drury’s retirement to Tampa Bay and Martin St. Louis, was highly unpopular at the time but saw him compete in one Stanley Cup Final. His NHL career spanned 757 games with 186 goals, 200 assists, and 386 points. He was originally selected by the Rangers in the 4th round in 2004 NHL Draft (124th overall). He came off a strong four-year junior career with the Guelph Storm 249 games with 130 goals and 237 points leading them in scoring his last two seasons play under former Hartford Whaler, Dave Barr. He was named as OHL Overage Player (Leo Lalonde Trophy) of the year in his fourth and last season and won an OHL championship in 2003-04. He played for two US Olympic Teams getting the silver medal in 2010 in Vancouver. He was a member of the Wolf Pack for just 71 games scoring 42 goals and adding 28 assists for 70 points. He was named to the AHL All-Rookie Team and played in the AHL All-Star Star Game. In his last Wolf Pack game on February 1, 2008, he scored one of the prettiest breakaway goals in Wolf Pack history against the then Springfield Falcons in a 6-2 romp. He left Devan Dubnyk’s goalie equipment still hanging from the ceiling of the XL Center. PLAYERS & COACHING MOVEMENT Ex-CT Whale and Ranger, Carl Hagelin signed a four year deal with Washington. Former Beast of New Haven Dallas Eakins was hired as the new head coach for Anaheim elevating him from San Diego (AHL). Former UCONN Husky (Division II era), New Haven Nighthawk and Hartford Whaler, Todd Krygier, keeps climbing another rung of the coaching ladder. After three years with Western Michigan Broncos (NCHC), three with Muskegon (USHL), and seven with Novi HS (MIPUB), he was hired by the Detroit Red Wings to be an assistant coach in Grand Rapids (AHL) starting in the fall. Columbus made Chris Clark (South Windsor) the new GM for the Cleveland Monsters plus Director of Player Development for the Blue Jackets. Clark played 175 AHL games. He won a Calder Cup with the Saint John Flames (2001) and 607 NHL games with Calgary, Washington, and Columbus. He has been a scout and the last seven years as a development coach for Columbus and Cleveland. Cleveland also hired a very experienced new head coach in Mike Eaves 63, to guide them next season. Eaves was the head coach at Division III St. Olaf College (MIAC) the last three years after spending 14 years at his alma mater University of Wisconsin (Big 10) where he helped the Badgers to seven NCAA tournament and one national championship in 2006. He had prior AHL experience with Hershey for three years (1990-1993) and was an assistant coach for three NHL teams Calgary, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. His other coaching stints included Division III Wisconsin-Eau Claire (WIAC), Shattuck’s St. Mary’s (MNPREP), two years with the US National Development Team (USNDTP) and a season with HIFK Helsinki (Finland--FEL). He helped coach the 2004 US WJC team to a gold medal. He played eight years in the NHL with Minnesota and Calgary and while at Wisconsin won the NCAA title in 1977 making him one of the few players to coach and play to win an NCAA title. His brother Murray was inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame last year. -Bridgeport’s John Stevens Jr. was the only New York Islander, or Bridgeport Sound Tiger not given a qualifying offer. That makes him a UFA as of July 1st. He is the son of former Whaler and NHL head coach, John Stevens, Sr. -Ex-Sound Tiger Andrew MacDonald has been placed on unconditional waivers by the Flyers with the intention of buying him out the last year of his contract. -Brett Sutter winner of the AHL Fred T. Hunt Award this year has re-signed for another season with Ontario. -The Wolf Pack’s second affiliate, the Maine Mariners (ECHL) signed five players for the upcoming season and two of them have CT ties. Terrence Wallin (Gunnery Prep) has 30 points in 41 games with the Mariners, but just one assist in 23 games in Hartford. Defenseman Derek Pratt, a former UCONN Husky captain, had a solid first pro season with 63 games and finished with a plus-eight and 16 assists and 18 points signed a one year deal. He got in his first AHL game with Utica on the last weekend of the regular season and was recalled to Hartford, but never played. -AHL to Europe list adds Brooks Macek leaves Chicago to Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg (Russia-KHL) making it 43 AHL’ers that have signed in Europe so far. -Ex-Pack captain Mat Bodie leaves Torpedo Novgorod (Russia-KHL) to Vaxjo HC (Sweden-SEL). =Former Wolf pack Brodie Dupont goes from Dornbirner EC (Austria-ECEL) to the Herning Blue Fox (Denmark-DHL) -Ex-Sound Tiger Mark Flood leaves Ilves Tampere (Finland-FEL) to play for Vienna (Austria-EBEL). -Former Quinnipiac University (ECACHL) goalie Michael Garteig fresh off an ECHL Kelly Cup championship with the Newfoundland Growler’s has signed with Tappara (Finland-FEL) for next season. -Former New Haven Nighthawk and 1980 Rangers 4th round draft pick, Kurt Kleinendorst signs to be the head coach of Nuremberg (Germany-DEL) next year. His brother Scot was drafted by the Rangers in the 5th round that year played 53 games in New York and then five years for the Whalers before ending his career in Washington. -The two-time defending national champion University Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs (NCHC) rewarded head coach Scott Sandelin with a four-year contract extension. -Goalie Max Prawdzik is a graduate transfer from Boston University (HE) to Arizona State Sun Devils (NCAA Division-1 Independent) -Five more collegians head overseas, led by former UCONN (HE) player Max Kalter who signed with HC Cergy (France Division-1), University of Nebraska-Omaha (NCHC) goalie Matej Tomek leaves and heads back to his homeland and play for HK Dukla Trencin (Slovakia-SLEL). Lucas Benedet from Division III Northland College (NCHA) signs with HC Meudon (France Division-2) and Ryker Leer from the University Alaska-Fairbanks (WCHA) signs with Visby/Roma (Sweden Division-I). The latest is Thomas Stahlhuth goes from Colby College (NESCAC) to Melbourne (Australia-AIHL). That makes 41 collegians have signed in Europe and a total of 243 have signed pro deals in North America and Europe. -Jay O’ Brien, Providence College (HE) will play at Penticton (BCHL) this year to preserve his NCAA eligibility and transferring to another school seems a strong likelihood for the Flyers draft pick. -College hockey at the University of Illinois is closer to becoming a reality and joining the Big 10, but a few issues need to get resolved before making a formal announcement. See it HERE -Zach Malik, son of ex-Whaler, Ranger, and Beast of New Haven defenseman, Marek Malik, has left North Bay (OHL) where he was traded to last year from Sudbury. He has joined HC Plzen (Pilsener) (Czech Republic-CEL) during summer offseason workouts on a tryout basis but has not yet signed a playing deal. He was drafted by Muskegon (USHL) in April along with younger brother Nick. He is draft eligible for this week’s NHL draft in Vancouver which may determine where he plays in 2019-20 in either the OHL, USHL or CEL. SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE HOCKEY While hockey in North America is put to bed shots, saves and slapshots are in full swing in Australia and New Zealand. In the Land Down Under, the Newcastle Northstars and CBR (Canberra) Brave are battling the top of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) through its first 12 games tied at 33 points and identical 11-1 records and will meet in a big clash Saturday in Newcastle at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium (5:00pm Australian local time). The Northstars second-leading scorer (4th overall in the AIHL) is Francis Drolet (Salisbury Prep) with 11 goals and 25 points in 12 games and its captain Robert “Bert” Malloy (Cheshire/Hartford Jr. Wolf Pack) is off to a strong start in 10 games 11 assists and 15 points in his ninth AIHL campaign and fourth straight as Newcastle’s captain. The Sydney Ice Dogs second-leading scorer (6th overall in the league) is ex-Pack Paul Crowder with nine goals, 18 assists and 23 points in nine games and their goaltender is former UCONN goalie Garrett Bartus is struggling with a 2-5 record and a 4.32 GAA and .889 save percentage. The Melbourne Ice leading scorer is another ex-UCONN Husky in Jesse Schwartz with 12 points in 10 games. Last weekend the AIHL All-Star Game was held in Sydney at the International Convention Centre and Malloy’s Team North triumphed over Team South 11-9. His North teammates included Drolet, Crowder (and his brother Tim) and Schwartz. As part of the two-day event, they held a skills competition on Friday evening. Over in New Zealand, the five-team short season NZIHL (New Zealand Ice Hockey League) is underway and one US player of note is Corey Morgan (Avon Old Farms) fresh from Skidmore College (NEHC) is playing for the Botany Swarm with three goals, five points, and a plus-five in the first four games. 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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON'S CORNER: OFF-SEASON NEWS AND NOTES - VOLUME I

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Now that the Bradford pears and forsythias have sprung into bloom and are kicking in, the New York Rangers might want to put a giant set of forsythias in front of the XL Center to obscure the Hartford Wolf Pack after another spring without playoff hockey. The roster for 2019-20 is in the embryonic stage of development, however without a coaching staff, not much will be known until after a new Rangers President is named. That decision isn’t likely to come until mid-to-late May. GM Jeff Gorton is the final hockey authority in the MSG hierarchy and a lot will be ongoing as the presidential search process continues. As of May 1st, this is what the Wolf Pack roster might look like before any trades and the upcoming June draft in Vancouver is done. Goalies: Alexander Georgiev and Adam Huska. The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! Goaltender, Igor Shestyorkin, and forward, Vitali Kravtsov, will finally be coming to New York next season, but there are caveats. Neither has formally signed a contract, but that could be coming soon as both of their KHL contracts concluded on April 30th. Both will be in the Rangers prospects camp at Chelsea Piers in Stamford, CT while their practice facility undergoes renovations. A report from Larry Brooks of the New York Post says that in Shestyorkin’s deal, there will likely contain a non-Hartford clause roughly along these lines; if he doesn’t make the Rangers he could be reassigned to SKA St. Petersburg, his KHL club. If he does make the Rangers, Shestyorkin would likely need some adjustment period to the North American smaller rinks. It's entirely possible that he could play for Hartford say for a limited period of time at the beginning of the season before being elevated and Georgiev either gets returned to the Pack or traded. It would be similar to the Dustin Tokarski, who is a UFA this summer and Marek Mazanec who rotated this season with Georgiev to get playing time when Henrik Lundqvist was playing long stretches. Brandon Halverson and Chris Nell have their entry-level deals expiring. Neither is likely to be re-signed. Defense: Ryan Lindgren, Libor Hajak, Chris Bigras, Brandon Crawley, Sean Day, Darren Raddysh, and Joey Keane. Except for Keane, a rookie from London (OHL), they are all players returning some coming off season-ending injuries (Lindgren - a concussion, Bigras - ankle, and Hajak-shoulder). Day and Crawley had major struggles this past season. Bigras is an RFA and a player the Pack should re-sign if they are going to have to have some continuity. Leaving: John Gilmour, a Group 6 UFA (Unrestricted free agent) was undrafted and has not played 80 NHL games by his 25th birthday. Because of this unique status as an unrestricted free agent, under the CBA, he should and will likely sign elsewhere. A pro hockey career is a short one. This is a rare financial opportunity and with the Rangers currently having four defensemen making $4 million plus per year, it's not likely to leave much roster room. Defenseman Rob O’Gara, another Group 6 UFA, and one of the assistant captains this year, ended the year with an injury (back spasms). Like Gilmour, with economic freedom, he's likely to take advantage of it. O’Gara was cautious in his exit interview on breakup day. “It's very tough to be a part of something like this, with the season we had and to see how it affects somebody like our coach. You develop a relationship over a season, so when something like this happens, you feel personally responsible, even though we were together as a team. He helped me keep developing my game. Early on in the season, I went to get some mental help for my game (with a sports psychologist) and he also helped me come around on that end. We built that trust early on. It was big. I was trying too hard and not doing the things I do well.” A four-year pro veteran, O'Gara is getting healthy with his back and handling his pending nuptials in Booth Bay Harbor, Maine. In July, he'll marry his high school sweetheart, Isabella Wise, and letting the hockey economics take care of themselves. “You know the first three years between here, Providence, and Boston, I have seen all sides of this business. We (he and his agent) have talked informally, but my priority is to get healthy, get back to normal, plan my wedding, and we'll see what happens for next year,” O’Gara said as he departed with personnel from the locker room still having to carry his bags to his car because his back is still clearly not 100%. Josh Wesley, still Carolina Hurricane property, will likely be cut loose when the Charlotte Checkers end their run likely in June in the Calder Cup Final. Julius Bergman, a late-season acquisition from Ottawa, is an RFA. He is being pursued by several Swedish Hockey League teams and will likely return home. Darren Raddysh, acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks for Peter Holland, was unimpressive during his stay in the Connecticut capitol. He supplied just a lone goal on 23 shots in 22 games. Not sterling numbers for an offensive defenseman to say the least. Add in a minus-10 rating, and he shouldn’t come back even with another year left. Buy him out. It’s a worthy investment. Forwards: Steven Fogarty, Ville Meskanen, Ryan Gropp, Tim Gettinger, Matt Beleskey, Shawn O’ Donnell, Ty Ronning, Jake Elmer, Ryan Dmowski, Patrick Newell, Nick Jones, Shawn McBride Fogarty, a group 6 free agent, has already signed for next year at ($150K-AHL). Boo Nieves is another who was already signed. He would seem to be a logical choice to carry the captain's C next year. Lately, though that has been like having the scarlet letter on your chest and not a badge of courage since the last four captains have all been traded. Gropp must have a breakout year next season. He was better in the second half, but he spent three weeks in Maine in December to jumpstart his game. Matt Beleskey, if he isn’t brought out in the summer or packaged in a trade, will return for just two reasons. First, he has an extremely cap friendly contract of which the Rangers take just a $825K hit when he isn’t in the NHL on his last year of a four-year deal at $1.9 million per season that was originally signed with the Bruins and they need to fill a veteran spot up front. Meskanen, paired with Beleskey and Peter Holland for most of the season, was heading back to his home in Southern Finland to see his girlfriend and his dog. Losing his first pro head coach was not on his bucket list. “That’s not what I was expecting or wanted. I guess they want some fresh (new) blood here maybe it will be a change for the better. I liked both those guys.” The lanky winger showed progress and mental toughness, and he knows he has lots of offseason work ahead. “They were very honest with me about my play. I really liked when they told me what I had to improve on. Playing with Holly (Holland) was very good for me. He helped me (adjust) both on and off the ice and to get used to North American style. I know I have to improve my skating and get stronger to win the one-on-one open battles in the corner, so I’m looking forward to working on that in summer practices. I think I have a better idea of what it's like here and I will be more ready next year. I had no clue when I got here.” Meskanen replied with his sly, dry wit. Shawn O’Donnell provides another veteran presence that they will need, O'die is a good loyal soldier who knows he isn’t NHL material, and he accepts working with the prospects in their development. He is on an AHL deal only. Ty Ronning, who was misused most the season in Hartford and then suffered injuries, will look to play a full season in the American League for his sophomore season. The late-season rookie Elmer, Jones, Dmowski, McBride, and Zerter-Gossage all showed good skill sets and should be in training camp in the fall. The Vitali Kravtsov factor will be interesting if he is sent to Hartford to get quality playing time early a la Filip Chytil two years ago is an unknown. Tim Gettinger had some genuine understanding of what he needs to for next season after a season at minus 20 in his rookie campaign. “I have been more physical consistently in the offensive and defensive zone. It’s a big summer for me personally and everybody in the room to be fully ready for training camp in the fall. It’s gonna be a whole new coaching staff to adjust to, but we have to work harder and try to worry about the things off the ice and concentrate what we do on the ice,” commented the rookie winger while driving back to the Cleveland area for the summer. Leaving: Vinni Lettieri is an RFA (Restricted Free Agent). He just misses Group 6 status by five months, but he has no room in New York. The Rangers don't appear to believe he is top six forward material. He should sign elsewhere and could become the next Jonathan Marchessault, one of the Rangers worst player evaluation mistakes ever. Lias Andersson, shouldn’t be in Hartford. His was a very poor sophomore season in Hartford. He had just three multi-point games, was a minus-24 in 36 games and contributed just 20 points. He didn’t do much in New York either with six points in 42 games. It's too early to toss a 20-year-old aside and label him a bust, but he is a major project next season at either the NHL or AHL levels. He might be here or he might be packaged in a deal at draft time. The Rangers should have left him in Kitchener (OHL) last year where he belonged. Now he is about two years behind his draft class in development and he needs to learn has to go to the game, not thinking the game will come to him. Gabriel Fontaine had 26 points in 72 games and one of the more likable guys in hockey at the end of his three-year entry-level deal. He has one year left on his ELC deal and is really a bubble player for returning, It looks like he might head elsewhere as a buyout or trade. Sadly, Bobby Butler didn’t work out well here at all with a minus-26. He was shuttled on almost every different line and had some strong games, but not enough to make a difference. Butler was a real rental player. He lives at home in Massachusetts and worked his second job as Director of Player Development for a junior hockey team, the Boston Jr. Bruins (NCDC) after practice with his father, John as the team’s assistant coach in the afternoon after practice in Hartford. He and his wife are expecting child number three next month, so retirement as an active player is much more likely to occur. The season left Butler feeling very empty. “The fans were great to us, wished we put a better product out there for them to cheer for. We tried to nip this thing early and every time we get back to a level spot, we got back to where we didn’t want to be it was very frustrating. I hate to lose and there was too much of it this year and it wasn’t like we weren’t trying-people like winners and it's tough coming off a losing season. I hope guys find that hunger for next year when they're in the gym in the summer,” said in his deep Massachusetts accent was genuinely disappointed as he completed his ninth year as a pro. The trade of Cole Schneider sunk the Wolf Pack. It was bittersweet as they lost a captain and gained an old friend, Connor Brickley. “I was happy to see Brick. He’s a very good dude. We played together our first year in San Antonio and he’s a Boston guy, and once you make friends with a Boston guy, it's for life,“ Butler said with a laugh. The trade of the captain, he acknowledged, hurt the team tremendously, “It’s something you don’t see often except if you're in this organization where it happens every year.” Dawson Leedahl, who played just 29 games, was scratched for eight games and missed 23 of the last 24 games with a shoulder injury. He had zero points. With a year left on his deal, he likely won't be back and if he does it will be in Maine. Shawn St. Amant, who had a nice training camp earned an AHL deal never seem to fit in here. He did well when he was sent to Maine. He's more of an ECHL player and will likely be in Maine or elsewhere, next season. Its gonna be a long, interesting summer in Wolf Pack-land. Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON'S CORNER: (FOR THE FANS) PACK SEASON COMES TO A MERCIFUL END

BY: Gerry Cantlon, HOWLINGS HARTFORD, CT- The 2018-19 season has mercifully ended for the Hartford Wolf Pack and thus begins another long spring without having playoffs in the Connecticut capitol and a summer of big questions for the New York Rangers' AHL franchise. The locker room was silent. The ice surface is gone as scrubbers cleaned up any residual water left over. Wolf Pack players received their exit interviews and left for various different ports in the US, Canada, and Europe. On a day the world mourned the burning of the 870-year-old iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, the Rangers were completing the immolation of the latest edition of the Pack. The Rangers relieved head coach Keith McCambridge and his assistant coach, Joe Mormina. The team chose not to renew their contracts. This hardly came as a surprise given the team's performance these past two years. They became the first AHL coaching casualties of the 2018-19 season. Pack GM, Chris Drury, declined to be interviewed as he was conducting the exit interviews. Calls to McCambridge were not returned. Three weeks ago, Cantlon Corner was told by an NHL source that McCambridge had been informed his tenure was up. Out of respect for McCambridge, an honorable man, we declined to publish that. “It’s tough. You feel really bad, and you wish you could have done more for the team as a whole. It’s not fun for anyone,” Shawn O’Donnell said. The 30-year-old completed his third tour of duty in Hartford. “One thing is we had a lot of (personnel) turnover and it’s a part of the league. You look at Hershey. They had very few changes in the second half of the season. We had changes on an almost a weekly basis.” One of the assistant captains, Rob O’Gara, was sidelined for much of the second half with back spasms was very disappointed. "When you work with someone who has helped you and you develop a relationship with them, it's never fun to see them go through something like this. We do develop a family atmosphere and (McCambridge) was very honest with me, which I appreciated, and he helped me because I struggled a lot early on trying to do too much. I got to be in a good spot where I was playing some good minutes, and then I got injured, but I appreciate he gave me a leadership role this season.” The season result was not all McCambridge’s fault, nor was it his predecessor, Ken Gernander’s, fault either. Asking a head coach to turn lemons into lemonade is what was asked of both men. The Wolf Pack have hit bottom and have been cresting at the bottom of the division and the entire AHL for almost five years. They have not made the playoffs in six of the last seven years. That's an organizational failure, not just a coaching problem. There have been some moments to celebrate the signs of player development, but those are few and far between and what has seemed to become a trend, change is in the air again. The team’s break up day process was shifted until Tuesday despite ending on Sunday with a 3-1 loss in Hershey. Many of the players who ended the season with Hartford now will clearly not be here for training camp next fall. Sunday’s loss saw the Bears sweep all the Pack in all six games they played this season. On January 14th, the Wolf Pack (40 pts) were four points ahead of the Bears (36) and just three points out of the fourth and final playoff spot in the Atlantic division. At the conclusion of the season, the Pack finished 25 points behind them! Give some credit to the Bears, who played .789 hockey from that point and amassed 56 points. They will deservedly be in the playoffs while the Wolf Pack will look back to see that they won only TEN games in the final three months. January 14th was the day the Rangers made the fateful decision to trade Pack captain Cole Schneider to Milwaukee for Connor Brickley. The Wolf Pack simply never recovered. “It was rough no question," O'Donnell said. "Cole was a good hockey player, a good leader, and was an all-around good guy. We lost guys to the NHL and a couple of other trades. It was different that’s for sure.” Schneider was the fourth captain in a row that was traded. For this Wolf Pack team, the self-inflicted pyromania by the Rangers continued with the subsequent trading of their goaltender, Marek Mazanec, who was the team's first off-season signee. Then came the departure of their leading goal scorer, Peter Holland. All of this went down in a three-week span as the Rangers made it clear they had thrown in the towel, not only in New York but in Hartford as well. “I had no idea that three other captains had been traded before Cole," O'Gara said. "His going was tough enough. He was the backbone of this team and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be because we won the first game after the trade, 6-5 in OT, in Lehigh Valley. We weren’t consistent enough. We would win five in a row, then turn around and drop five in a row. In some games, we struggled to be consistent. We would have a bad five-minute segment that would kill us. Just before Christmas we were above .500. We never got back to that level the rest of the way.” O’Donnell is at a playing crossroads and enjoys Hartford. “Hartford has become a second home. I like it here, but this is still a business. What comes my way this summer, and my second year when we went to the conference finals, I will look back at the years here were one of the best of my life in hockey and it's great to go on a playoff run like that. I just wish we could have had a few more of those here." The scoring on Sunday by Hershey was all done by ex-Pack, Chris McCarthy. He tallied a goal and two assists, while Joey Leach, who was just recalled from the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL, scored his first of the season. Joe Snively, fresh out of Yale, also tallied a goal and two assists. Hershey’s Aaron Ness had two assists on Friday night in Hartford’s home finale. That production allowed him to surpass the Pack's John Gilmour 55 to 54 points and capture the AHL defenseman scoring title. The on-ice carnage is best reflective in the plus/minus numbers. While plus/minus can be skewered by individuals making a faux pas that reflects on the rest of their teammates on the ice, but once a player gets into the deep teens or to over minus-twenty, that reflects far more on a fundamental flaws that extend from the forwards to the defensemen and possibly even the goaltender. Six Pack players were a minus-20. In that category, Bobby Butler and defenseman Libor Hajak were both a minus-26. Lias Andersson was a staggering minus-24 in just 36 games, breaking Matt Gilroy’s record of minus-16 in 31 games mark, yet he was recalled to NY. Sean Day was a minus-23 in 47 games. Steven Fogarty, the team MVP, was also over 20 with a minus-21. Rookie Tim Gettinger was a minus-20. The best players on defense ended their season on the injured list, Chris Bigras (ankle) was a plus-5, assistant captain Rob O’Gara (back spasms) plus-3, Ryan Lindgren (concussion) with two Rangers recalls at minus-1. Only Binghamton, Ontario, and San Antonio had numbers like that. Daniel Brickley, Ontario's Jake Walman, John Gilmour’s collegiate defense partner were tied for the worst at minus-31. The Rangers are on the hook here as they await the naming of a new president of the team to succeed Glen Sather. That fortunate soul will have to pick through the debris in New York and Hartford and try to plot a forward course. The Rangers clear indifference to Hartford has to end. Winning and the playoffs were once synonymous here. Over a 14-year consecutive stretch where the team made the playoffs and competed at the top end of the AHL. Winning and playoffs still matter. The Rangers have to decide if they care to accomplish that objective here. Cantlon’s Corner has learned that the Rangers have had a preliminarily interview with at least one Hockey East coach about the Hartford opening, However until a new President is named, these preliminary interviews will likely be done to present the new person a list of candidates to come for second interviews. Director of Player Development, Jed Ortmeyer, was on the bench during three games this season. He also conducted several practices last week and is likely on an initial short list. Clearly, the Rangers talent evaluation process is broken. A major shakeup is needed to achieve better results so necessary changes in the scouting department will likely happen. About seven years ago in Worcester, a former high-ranking AHL official in a profanity-laced tirade lamented at how poorly Hartford had become both on-and-off the ice. Since then, it has only gotten worse. Too many average skilled players have been sent to the Connecticut state capitol. Others were picked off the waiver wire scrap heap, or they were traded for, have all dotted the lineup over the past five years. Many of the present Wolf Pack need to excise a set of words from their vocabulary how good, great or talented they are. The team's record demonstrates the team's reality and other teams that used to fear the Wolf Pack over the years, have, over the past several seasons, feasted on the Wolf Pack. The Rangers have an abundance of selections coming up at the Vancouver Entry Draft this summer and that's all fine and dandy, but they need to make sound choices and sign genuine quality AHL free agents to help nurse them along the path. The days of bringing in the likes of players like Akim Aliu, Cody Beach, Andre Deveaux, Dustin Tokarski, and Bobby Butler have to stop. The organization must stop the goaltending madness. This year with simply a redux of years past with a refined packaging of rotating people to be Henrik Lundqvist’s backup. Remember the Cam Talbot-Chad Johnson saga when the Ranger's rotated them up and down the Merritt Parkway like a relay recall race? Both players went elsewhere to find NHL playing time in other NHL cities. This year Alexander Georgiev was dispatched to play in Hartford while Lundqvist went one of his playing tears. Tokarski and Mazanec went to New York to be well-paid practice goalies and fatten their bank accounts but didn't help either team. If the Rangers choose to name a captain or to sign a player next season to assume that role, that agent must extract the first AHL NTC-No Trade Clause. A franchise that set the standard of what a captain should be and that had his number retired as his should have been, that indifferent approach to the captaincy has to end. The Schneider situation demonstrates so clearly that it can have a truly devastating consequence to the team's in-season plight and the growth and development of their prospects. The Rangers have to make choices in Hartford. You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that the status quo is not good and not working. Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON: (SAT) TWO EX-PACK LEAD COMETS TO VICTORY IN HARTFORD

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Two ex-Hartford Wolf Pack players lead the Utica Comets to a 4-0 shutout victory over their former team before an announced crowd of 3,980 at the XL Center on Saturday night. Tom Pyatt paced the win with a goal and an assist ex-Pack goalie Marek Mazanec recording his first shutout of the season in his eighth game for Utica. It was also the fourth time the Wolf Pack have been held scoreless this season and the Comets scored via even strength, powerplay, and a shorthanded goal. The Comets outplayed, a clearly youthful, professionally inexperienced Wolf Pack squad with half their forwards lacing their skates up with less than four games under their belt Saturday night at the XL Center. “We didn’t have the puck very much tonight. I think they had a majority of the play the first half of the game. Tough to play when you're down 3-0. We worked and got a better slice of the game in the third, but we weren’t able to play a 200-foot game most of the night,” remarked Pack head coach, Keith McCambridge. For Utica, the win snapped a four-game losing streak and was just their second win in eleven games. The win boosted their record to the .500 mark at 32-32-6-2 (72 points) and seventh place in the North Division. The Comets play in Providence against the Bruins tomorrow afternoon. The Wolf Pack record falls to 28-34-7-3 (65 points) for eighth place in the Atlantic division and have lost five-in-a-row with four games left in the season, one of which comes Sunday afternoon against the Binghamton Devils at 3 pm. The Comets were launching shots like a meteor shower throughout the first period in which they outshot the Wolf Pack, 17-8. Utica scored early. Jonah Gajdovich had inside position on the Wolf Pack defenseman. Gajdovich took a cross-ice feed from Lukas Jasek that was tipped in the air. The Czech finished for the third time of the season at 2:15. The entire scoring sequence came about as the Comets Brendan Gaunce was at the left point and got a wraparound cleared by Josh Wesley and sent it back to Jasek at the goal line on the left wing side. Wesley peeled back chased him up the right wing boards creating the mismatch that Gajdovitch took advantage of. “We just didn’t get another good start and you fall behind it's not easy to fight back from. We battled back in spurts, but we just didn’t do enough to win the game,” remarked Ryan Gropp. The Pack, as they did early in the week against Springfield, surrendered another shorthanded goal. Matt Register got knocked off the puck and lost his stick in the process. Reid Boucher created the turnover along the lower right wing boards and then sent a crisp short pass to Pyatt, who wasted little time and snapped his fifth goal past Pack starter Adam Huska at 9:16. “It felt really good. I haven’t scored one in a while,“ Pyatt said. "Credit to Reid. He did all the work on that play to get the puck first and made a perfect pass.” Pyatt played for the Wolf Pack ten years ago. The Wolf Pack’s best chance of the period came late with 3:05 remaining. The Pack had just four shots but just two quality shots. One of those quality shots came from rookie Patrick Newall, who got a good lead pass from Gropp, his linemate, with a clean chance on the right wing and Mazanec, made a glove save, his toughest save of the entire game. “You can see the skill set he has, the vision, the speed, and with time and more play his play will evolve and surely get better. We just need more of that from all parts of the lineup, “ said McCambridge. Gropp was duly impressed with his play. “Newsy certainly has a shot and really good speed and if we get more time he will do pretty good here.” The Comets tallied their third goal in the second period again courtesy of sloppy play in their own end of the ice by Hartford. Pyatt fired the pass to Zach MacEwan who put a one-timer on net that Huska stopped, but the rebound was in the crease area and Cam Darcy got his stick on it before a Wolf Pack defenseman and swept his tenth of the season into the back of the net at 10:02. Huska made a great breakaway stop on MacEwan with 38.4 seconds left the second period MacEwan closed out the scoring with an empty-netter with 52.3 seconds left in the contest for his 21st goal, a minute after the Wolf Pack took a timeout to try to ruin Mazanec’s bid for a shutout to no avail. “It would have been better if we kept things simpler, got more bodies at the net, but we shied away from that too much and we just were never able to generate enough offense,” said Gropp. NOTES: Huska played his first back-to-back pair of games in his brief pro career. Brandon Halverson will start tomorrow against Binghamton Bobby Butler and Brandon Crawley wore A’s for the first time. Stratford native, and former Fairfield Prep and Salisbury Prep high school player, Jamie Sifers was in the starting lineup for Utica. Rangers won their regular season finale 4-3 in overtime over Pittsburgh. Ryan Lindgren played, but John Gilmour and Vinni Lettieri did not. There was no word if any of three will be reassigned to Hartford for tomorrow’s game. Wolf Pack fan jersey of the night: #39 Nik Latta playing hockey in the German DEL league and a real golden oldie #2 Burke Henry now retired working in real estate in Florida. SCRATCHES: Dawson Leedal (Upper Body) Shawn O’Donnell (Healthy) Matt Beleskey (Lower Body, likely out for the rest of the season) Rob O’Gara (Lower Body, out for tomorrow) Shawn St. Amant (Healthy) Chris Bigras (Ankle, done for the season) LINES: Fogarty-Gropp-Newell Fontaine-Meskanen-Gettinger Butler-Dmowski-Shawn McBride Jones-Jake Elmer-Lewis Zerter-Gossage Day-Raddysh Wesley-Crawley Bergman-Register Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON: (WED) WOLF PACK LOSE IN SPRINGFIELD, 5-2

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings SPRINGFIELD, MA - A strong start allowed the Springfield Thunderbirds to stay ahead of and eventually beat the Hartford Wolf Pack 5-2 on Wednesday night at the Mass Mutual Center. The Thunderbirds won the season series six games to four. For the Pack, the loss was their fifth in a row (0-4-1-0) and drops their record to 28-33-7-3 (66 pts) leaving them in 8th place. They will be in action on Saturday night against the Utica Comets at the XL Center. The Springfield record improves to 30-27-9-5 (74 pts), seven behind Providence, in fourth place, but with a game in hand and six games left for the Bruins. “They came out hard on us and while they're not mathematically eliminated, they're still in the (playoff) mix, and they came out with lots of desperation and took a little bit of time to get our feet under us." The Pack’s lack of desperation of any kind both early and for the better part of the second half of the season has been painfully obvious, no more so than in the game’s first ten minutes in which a white flag or towel could be seen. It didn’t take long for the Thunderbirds to score on the Pack. At 1:01, Joel Lowry was on the left side of Adam Huska and left unchecked. He was able to redirect Matt Mangene's right point shot for his ninth goal. Lowry bagged his second goal on the powerplay when he was again, unchecked, but this time on the left side of the net. He took a pass from Vincent Praplans and buried it at 3:24, just 30 seconds into Brandon Crawley’s hooking minor. “It’s not like we haven’t played them before,” said Pack center Gabriel Fontaine. “We know they're a big, fast team, and we weren’t ready to play.” The Pack responded back and cut it down to a one-goal deficit. Ty Ronning got the puck to Josh Wesley who was coming off the right point and he got all of it from 30 feet out for his first Wolf Pack goal at 5:36. The Thunderbirds were able to regain the two-goal advantage when Blaine Byron found a speeding Anthony Greco surging down the left wing. The Pack killer flipped a backhanded pass to a wide-open Jonathan Ang on the right wing, who easily slipped his fifth past Huska at 7:46 as he was getting zero defensive support. At the ten-minute mark, the shots read 10-5 Springfield, and a blowout was hanging ominously over center ice. “They had us on our heels early, and it took us getting that first goal to get ourselves back in the mix, and we got down one and closed the gap again, but that shorthanded goal was a dagger for us,” remarked Pack head coach Keith McCambridge. Pack rookie Nick Jones got his second point of the period & first professional goal when he sped down the right wing and put a wrist shot on net that eluded Chris Driedger at 13:45 and again made it a one-goal deficit. Matt Register also recorded his first Wolf Pack point on the play. Typically a goalie might get pulled in a situation like that. But McCambridge wasn't thinking about doing that to Huska. “The last thing I want is for our goalie to worry about the head coach at that point," McCambridge said. "Adam wasn’t at fault on any of those goals. There are times during the season you utilize that move, it wasn’t the time to do so.” In the third period, the Wolf Pack for the second period in a row, had a power play to start the period but failed to capitalize. Again, midway through the third, another man-advantage and Thunderbirds Driedger was a large part responsible for the power play outage as he shut the door on some strong Wolf Pack chances. “Give their goalie credit, he made saves in tight on us. I don’t have a problem with how we made the plays, we just couldn’t find a way to execute them,” said McCambridge. Byron scored an empty-net goal in the third at 18:36 for Springfield, his 13th of the season to close out the scoring and the game. The Wolf Pack played better defense in the second period and maintained puck possession in the offensive zone better, but one mistake on the power play cost them. “We were getting to loose pucks, we're coming out on some of those battles on top, we were just unable to find lanes to the net or take the eyes away from the goalie,” said McCambridge Wesley had two shots stopped, early in the period. Ronning was denied, and rookie Patrick Newell made a nice play off the half wall to Register who was stopped. On the flip side, Huska was finally getting some team defensive support and made some key stops on Juho Lammikko at 6:56 and a blocker save on Bobby Farnham’s shot from the slot. However, the season-long penchant for giving up the big play reared its ugly head once again. The Pack defensive pair of Sean Day and Darren Raddysh got caught and Greco took the lead pass from Lammikko who intercepted Ryan Gropp’s pass. It allowed Greco to race away after splitting them like a Sunday brunch cantaloupe and beat Huska, high over the right shoulder and popping the water bottle allowing the Thunderbirds to restore their two-goal lead at 12:54. It was Greco’s team-leading 27th goal and his second point of the night. The Pack had a great chance to cut the lead again on two on one and Gabriel Fontaine on the right wing a lefty shot missed the net entirely. SCRATCHES: Dawson Leedahl (upper body, still a week away) Terrence Wallin (healthy) Matt Beleskey (lower body, likely done for the season) Rob O’Gara (lower body flare up, day to day) Julius Bergman (healthy) Chris Bigras (ankle done for the season) LINES: Fontaine - Meskanen - Gettinger Fogarty - Gropp - Patrick Newell Ronning - Ryan Dmowski - Jones O’Donnell - Butler - St. Amant Linden - Raddysh Day - Crawley Wesley - Register NOTES: The Pack is 3-7-0 over their last 10 games. Their winning another game this season seems remote at this point. Newest Pack tryout Patrick Newell wore jersey #29 The Wolf Pack announced John Gilmour was named the team winner of its IOA/American Speciality Man of the Year Award and now joins 31 other team winners to potentially be selected as the AHL Yanick Dupre Award Winner. Some of the other team winners include, Ben Holmstrom (Bridgeport), Bobby Farnham (Springfield), ex-Pack Daniel Walcott (Syracuse) who missed most of the season thus far with offseason knee surgery, Alex Lyon (Yale University) from Lehigh Valley and Stratford native who played high school hockey at Fairfield Prep and Salisbury Prep defenseman Jamie Sifers with Utica. The first winner of the award was Beast of New Haven and ex-Wolf Pack defenseman John Jakopin, Dupre who played with Hershey passed away after a 16 month battle in 1997 from leukemia, Hartford signed local Springfield product Shawn McBride, the captain of American International College (AIC) late this afternoon to an ATO deal. He is not yet listed on the roster and will likely play this weekend. AIC knocked off St. Cloud State in their first NCAA tourney game one of the biggest upsets in college hockey history. He is the second McBride to play for the Wolf Pack Brock played eight games in the 2008-09 season and is no relation and presently is an assistant coach with the Cornwall Colts (CCHL) one of the 10 Junior A leagues in Canada. The college signings continue as Quinnipiac University (ECACHL) free agent goalie, Andrew Shortridge, has signed with the San Jose Sharks for a one-year, two-way deal and was assigned to the San Jose Barracuda (AHL). Huska’s UCONN teammate, Miles Gendron, was released by Brampton (ECHL) after four games with one assist and 10 PIM. Gendron has a one-year AHL deal to play in Belleville next season. Wolf Pack fan jersey of the night - #23 Tomas Kloucek. Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON: (FRI) CHECKERS KNOCK OFF PACK IN HARTFORD 4-1

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - In their first home game in two weeks, the Hartford Wolf Pack saw the Charlotte Checkers continue their season-long dominance over the New York Rangers' AHL affiliates in a 4-1 win. The loss sent the Wolf Pack to their third straight defeat despite scoring three goals in the final ten minutes of the game. After losing their first game against Hartford this season, the Checkers swept the next seven. All of their wins came in regulation. The Wolf Pack (28-32-6-3) challenge the Belleville Senators in one of their last four home games of the season. Charlotte (46-15-7-1) hit the 100-point mark for tops in the AHL tomorrow in Bridgeport against the Sound Tigers in another Atlantic Division matchup and what could possibly be a division final playoff series. “I like our first two periods," Pack head coach Keith McCambridge said. "We kept it close. The third period we stopped moving our feet; stop making plays, and they made us pay. I don’t care what team you're playing. I didn’t like that third period at all.” The third period started out with some action. A big hit on Aleksi Saarela by Brandon Crawley, followed a shot by the Checkers' Jake Bean trickled through and beat Brendan Halverson, and Ryan Lindgren dove for the puck along with a Charlotte player and covered it with his hand leading to a penalty shot that came at 2:43. For the penalty shot, the Checkers selected rookie, Stelio Mattheos, who went for the left leg back kick, but Halverson didn’t bite and slid over to make the save and keep the game tied at one. It could have been a momentum shifter for the Pack, but it wasn’t. The penalty shot was Halverson's fourth of his career and his third since his recall from Maine. The team record of five held by Chad Johnson. The Checkers as they always did the season found a way to score. Ross McKeown was at the left point and quickly wheeled Morgan Geekie’s pass to Saarela, who was alone in the right-wing circle. He fell down on his one-timer, but the shot hit at the point where the crossbar and post meet and made a distinctive ping. The puck laid behind Halverson and Andrew Poturlarski seemingly pushed it over the goal line turning the red light went on. Poturlarski pointed to Saarela immediately. The video review by the off-ice officials confirmed that it was the original shot by Saarela that went in for his team-leading 25th goal of the season. “He has a bomb of a shot, and to be honest, I wish he would use it more,” Charlotte head coach Mike Vellucci said. It says quite a bit about the depth of the team when the team's leading goal scorer doesn’t shoot enough. The AHL‘s fourth-leading scorer, Poturlarski, helped put the icing on the cake. He took a terrific lead pass from Haydn Fleury, came in off the left wing and received too much space from Pack defenders and took a forehanded shot that Halverson saved, but Morgan Geekie got his stick on it for his 17th at 16:25. Julien Gauthier then deposited his 21st into an empty net just 19 seconds later to end the Wolf Pack's night, securing the Charlotte win. “I’m very proud of this group. With the exception of one stretch, we have been very consistent and that shows the team commitment this year. It’s a mark they should all be proud of,” said Vellucci. For the Wolf Pack, it was another third-period collapse, one of many they have suffered this season. “We have had problems finishing out games all season. We did well in the first two periods, but the third? I don’t know what to say,” said Sean Day. Despite just seven shots, the Wolf Pack exited the second period tied at one with a goal in the last minute of the period. Just after Tim Gettinger was stopped on the sixth shot, the puck came up the wall. Ryan Lindgren grabbed it and fed Day at the right point. Gettinger stayed down low as a screen as Day’s shot beat former Pack netminder, Dustin Tokarski, to the short-side with 22.3 seconds left. “It was a real good heads up play by Gettinger and a really good shot by Sean. It's one of the few offensive zone pressures we put on them. We just didn’t put enough pucks on net to make them work hard though we played a good two periods of keeping them wide, but, again the third period can’t have that,” said McCambridge. This play came after a near net gaffe with just under minute to play. Gropp crossed in front of the net and Mattheos knocked the puck off his stick and it just went wide on a startled Halverson. No surprise Charlotte scored the game’s first goal. The Checkers' Steven Lorentz, who has spent most of the season with the Florida Everblades (ECHL), intercepted an outlet pass by Bobby Butler off the right wing boards at the blue line. He quickly fed Mattheos, playing his third game out of Brandon (WHL), and he got behind Darren Raddysh. The right-handed shooter was on the left wing and beat Halverson low, to the glove side at 3:03 for his first professional goal. “He had a very strong night and he has played very well since he got here. It seems he has been here all season. He has quickly picked up the systems and he was involved all night,” said Vellucci. The Pack offense was few and far in-between registering four shots on goal. The first came from rookie Nick Jones who was trying to stuff one in on the right wing side of the net. It was the only shot in the first ten-and-a-half minutes of the period. Day had a good left point drive stopped by Tokarski, who was loaned out to Charlotte on February 12th. The other solid chance was Gabriel Fontaine sporting full face cage off the left wing. NOTES: Defenseman Rob O’Gara returned to the lineup after missing 21 games with a lower body injury and resume wearing the A. The Pack now have a three game losing streak and dip below .500 in their last 11 at 5-6-0-0 Charlotte goalie, Alex Nedejlkovic, is tops in the AHL among goalies in minutes played, wins and fourth in saves and tied with three others with four shutouts. Charlotte’s Andrew Poturlarski in his second AHL season is fourth in overall in scoring with 65 points in 69 games with 23 goals and 41 assists. He led the season series between the two teams in scoring with (2-8-10) and former Ranger draft pick Alexsei Saarela was tops in goals with five and nine points. Ryan Lindgren leads AHL rookies in PM with 92. Rookies Ryan Dmowski (East Lyme/Gunnery Prep) wears jersey #10 and Nick Jones #17. Dmowski played at Gunnery a year after the Pack’s Terrence Wallin graduated from there. Greg Chase wore #9 and Matt Register #6. SCRATCHES: Matt Beleskey (Day-to-Day - Lower body) Chris Bigras (Ankle - Done for the year) Josh Wesley (Healthy) Dawson Leedahl (Upper-body, Week-To-Week) Shawn O’Donnell (Healthy) Julius Bergman (Healthy) Gabriel Fontaine is playing with a full face cage. He was hurt in Syracuse and suffered some teeth loss and big cut near lip area when hit by the puck. LINES: Fontaine-Chase-Gettinger Fogarty-Gropp-Meskanen Butler-Jones-Ronning Wallin-Dmowski-St. Amant Lindgren-Raddysh Day-Crawley O’Gara-Register Wolf Pack fan jersey of the night: #27 Jesper Fast and a real golden oldie #30 Dan Blackburn. Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON: PACK VANQUISH DEVILS IN OT

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - John Gilmour’s overtime breakaway goal, his second of the game, allowed the Hartford Wolf Pack to escape with a 4-3 victory over the Binghampton Devils at the XL Center Wednesday night. The Devils' Josh Jacobs lost control of the puck at the right point. Gilmour was right there to collect the loose puck and, while playing three-on-three, and with room to operate, and with his tremendous speed, nobody was going to catch Gilmour. Gilmour charged in on Cam Johnson and slipped his 20th of the season through the five-hole. He is the third Wolf Pack player this season to hit the 20-goal mark. The goal came at the 2:20 mark of overtime and gave Hartford the win and two points. “Certainly, we would like to close these games out a little earlier, so we went to overtime, but as long as we're getting the results (a win) we're a happy bunch," Gilmour said. Gilmour wasn’t going to mess with success. He went with the breakaway move he's most comfortable with and that's helped him tally his fifth game-winner,l tops on the team. “That was a bit of a gift and I had some space and went with the move I’ve been using,” Gilmour remarked with a laugh. "I had that all planned out once I touched the puck,”. For the Pack's head coach, Keith McCambridge, Gilmour is the go-to guy right now. “He has the ability to pull away from his checks when he has that much room to skate and he can finish for us. He’s playing great hockey for us right now. When trailing from behind, John is the guy you want hopping over the boards for you. He can score a goal and the trust is there for him defensively." Gilmour has 12 points in his last six games and is the leading point-getter for all AHL defenseman with 51. The Wolf Pack record improves to 27-28-6-3 (63 points) and has them in eighth place in the Atlantic Division. They trail the Springfield Thunderbirds by one point and are nine behind the fourth place Providence Bruins. Binghamton sees their record drop to 24-34-6-0 (54 points). They sit in eighth place in the North Division six points behind the Laval Rocket. The Wolf Pack used the powerplay to perfection in tying the game at three just past the midway point of the third period. While in a four-on-three situation, McCambridge wisely took their timeout. Off the ensuing face-off, the Wolf Pack were able to light the lamp in just seven seconds. “Crucial moment in the game," McCambridge said. "We had the chance to calm things down. We got the chance to do what we wanted to on that powerplay, and Vinni (Lettieri), of course, is a big piece of our powerplay. He can shot that puck. It was quite evident there.” Tim Gettinger won the draw and got the puck back to Gilmour at the right point. Gilmour, in turn, hit the ever-dangerous Lettieri with a diagonal pass. Lettieri then wired his patented shot from the left wing circle for his team-leading 22nd goal at 11:17. The Pack seems to never take the easy path as evident in parts of the third period. Goaltender Brendan Halverson had to make several key saves to prevent Binghamton from establishing a two-goal lead. He also took his high wire act early when he handled the puck and it nearly went in the back of the net. Once again, a Wolf Pack opponent scored early in the second period and gained the momentum and had traction after a well-played first period. Ex-Pack, Alex Krushelnyski, tallied his first of the season. Nick Sorkin was on the left wing side behind the net. He took a pass from Sam Kurker and reversed direction on Pack defenseman Julius Bergman. Brendon Crawley then left his spot to go play him and fell down. Sorkin sent a pass to Krushelnyski, who wasn’t picked up by Gabriel Fontaine and zipped his first AHL goal of the season low to the stick-side to tie the game at one. “We got a little too happy and comfortable there (early in the second period). You can’t take your foot off the gas pedal in this league. You saw that (early) in the second and part of third as well," McCambridge said. The Devils made it 2-1 as they used their second powerplay to take the lead. Ryan Schmelzer was deep in the right-wing corner and got Ryan Lindgren to come to him. That left Nick Saracino alone in front. Schmelzer had the time to take the pass, turn to face Halverson. His first attempt was stopped, but he got to the rebound and jammed it in for his fourth goal of the season. “We got away from what we were doing in the first, cheating and cutting corners, but over a matter of time, we got back to what we do best and came out on top,” said Steven Fogarty. The Wolf Pack used their second powerplay to tie it but did their damnedest not to. The first 1:30 of the man advantage was simply atrocious until McCambridge put out his top PP unit and competency set in. Ryan Gropp did a good job gaining the offensive zone with a strong rush down the right. He then passed to Fogarty, who made a quick snapshot/pass. With Gettinger setup in front, the puck went off his stick blade, deflected off his stick shaft and then over the shoulder of Devils' goalie, Cam Johnson. The goal was his 13th of the year and came at 13:14 with just two seconds remaining on the powerplay. “I saw him and I tried a fake pass/shot kinda thing, and fortunately he got his stick on it for a good tip,” said Fogarty. The Devils though ended the period with a goal. The Pack's defense got all tangled up allowing Egor Sharangovich to get behind Darren Raddysh who pulled him down as they crashed into Halverson. The ref immediately signaled for a penalty shot, but they reviewed the play first to see if the puck crossed the goal line before the net was dislodged and it hadn't. Sharangovich remedied it on the ensuing penalty shot. He slowed down and went to his backhand, shooting from the right wing side beating Halverson for his ninth goal of the season with just 4.7 seconds left in the period. It gave Binghamton a 3-2 lead. “That was tough to get a goal in the last minute, let along the last seconds, but we rebounded well and got the tying goal in the third,” said McCambridge. The Wolf Pack first goal was a record setter. The Wolf Pack’s top line got the offense generated. Lettieri pushed the puck up to Fogarty who was coming in off the left wing. Fogarty used Devils' defenseman Tariq Hammond as a screen and zipped a shot on Johnson. He made a left pad save, but the rebound went right to the hard-charging Gilmour who buried his 19th of the season at 12:07. The goal broke the team record for goals scored in a season by a defenseman. It's a record that stood for eleven years and was held by Andrew Hutchison who went on to win the AHL’s Eddie Shore Trophy that season. With the goal, Gilmour took over the scoring lead among AHL defenseman from Zach Redmond of the Rochester Americans. “(Scoring the record-setting goal is) very special obviously, and nice to get a pat on the back, but we have ten games left here. We still have points to get here,” Gilmour said. McCambridge started the game by changing all his defense combinations and shook up his bottom two lines from the previous game. He changed the lines again in the second period even a bit more when the team did not come up with much of a jump as they did in the first period. SCRATCHES: Dawson Leedahl (upper body, week-to-week) Rob O’Gara (lower body, week-to-week) Sean Day (lower body, day-to-day) Shawn O'Donnell (healthy) Chris Bigras (ankle, out for the season) If Day isn’t ready for the weekend another body will be added for the backline. LINES: Fogarty-Lettieri-Gropp Fontaine-Beleskey-Meskanen Butler-St. Amant-Wallin Greg Chase-Ronning-Gettinger Gilmour-Wesley Raddysh-Lindgren Bergman-Crawley NOTES: Wolf Pack recall Libor Hajak will likely not return this season after suffering a shoulder injury in New York. Thankfully, the injury is not as serious as first thought, but with the Rangers and Wolf Pack not making the post-season, they opted to not take an unnecessary risk and shut him down for the rest of the season. The penalty shot was the 38th against the Wolf Pack in their 22-year history of the franchise. It was the third that Halverson has faced. Te most by a goalie was Chad Johnson, who faced six. The last Wolf Pack successful penalty shot was taken by Dan Catenacci on April 14, 2017, against Utica. Attendance was announced at 1,775 making it the 18th worst home crowd in Wolf Pack history. In reality, there were only maybe 500 fans in the building. 26 of the 39 least attended games in team history have come under the Global/Spectra umbrella. The top day is Wednesday with 27 games, 5 on Tuesday and 2 on Thursday. Paul Carey (Salisbury Prep) and Connor Clifton (Quinnipiac University) were recalled by Boston from Providence. Congrats to now two former UCONN seniors for signing their first pro contracts. Captain Miles Gendron signed two contracts, one deal for the rest of the season with Ottawa’s Double-A affiliate, the Brampton Beast (ECHL), and a one year deal for next season to play for Belleville (AHL). He could make his pro debut for Brampton on Saturday against Ft. Wayne. Karl El-Mir signed an ATO deal with Providence (AHL). Other collegiate signees today include; Canisius College (AHA) saw three of their players sign. Ian Edmondson with the Wichita Thunder (ECHL), and Jimmy Mazza to the Reading Royals (ECHL) and Dylan McLaughlin to the Rockford Ice Hogs (AHL). Hans Gorowsky went from the University of Alabama-Huntsville to Adirondack Thunder (ECHL), while Jay Dickman of Bemidji St. State (WCHA) signs with the Florida Everblades (ECHL). The first player to go to Europe after this past season is Jacob Ratcliffe, from Division III's Westfield St. (MASAC). The first New Zealander (Canterbury, NZ) male player to play US college hockey at any level, will play with the Sydney Bears (Australia-AIHL) this summer. Goalie Grace Harrison plays varsity for St. Lawrence University (ECACHL) and is the only other Division I New Zealander in Kiwi hockey history to date. Pack jersey of the night: #5 Tommy Hughes, #46 Jordan Owens and a very unique defunct Lewiston Maineiacs QMJHL jersey. Howlings has learned former Ranger Colton Orr who resides in Southwest Connecticut is part of a consortium that has purchased the Danbury Ice Arena. No word if they will pursue a low-level minor league team, junior level or collegiate team to be the main tenant. Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON: BEARS BURY PACK DESPITE LETTIERI HAT TRICK

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Vinni Lettieri and Devante Smith-Pelly matched hat tricks while John Gilmour’s and Nathan Walker each had three helpers for their respective teams, but in the end, it was the Hershey Bears who pulled off a 5-3 victory over the Hartford Wolf Pack. The loss effectively removed any chance the Wolf Pack might have had in catching the Bears, whose record improves to 33-22-2-4 (72 points). They hold an eleven point lead over the Pack with just thirteen games left to play. The loss drops the Pack record to 26-28-6-3 (61 points). The Bears' win ended their current, and longest, losing streak in over two months. They are 0-1-2-1 over the span. Penalties and loose defensive zone play cost the Wolf Pack another loss, which also ended a modest three-game winning streak. “When you're killing penalties, your shot totals are going to be going up, and the first part we're putting ourselves to be in a position to take those penalties. At the top of my list, we were mismanaging pucks in critical areas and we know this Hershey team set a record for consecutive wins. Anytime you give a team a free play on turnovers like that, there's a very good chance it's going to wind up in the back of your net,” Wolf Pack head coach Keith McCambridge said. The Bears took a 3-2 lead as the Pack was, once again, unable to clear the puck or get to a loose puck off a rebound. Rookie Wolf Pack goalie, Adam Huska, stopped ex-Pack Ryan Sproul’s left point drive with a pad save. The Bears Nathan Walker got to the loose biscuit after a center ice turnover by Tim Gettinger, who was going off for a line change. Walker fed another ex-CT Whale, Jayson Megna, for a quickly developing two-on-one. Megna, a right-handed shot, was playing on the left wing. He slid the pass over to Smith-Pelly on the right wing. The NHL veteran deposited his second of the game at 1:52. The Bears nearly got another with a Sproul shot that that was stopped, but on the net-front battle, Walker seemingly scored, but a lengthy review determined there was no goal. The Bears kept the pressure on as the Wolf Pack took penalties allowed the Bears quality O-zone time. At 8:53, and on the powerplay, Megna redirected Michael Sgarbossa's perfect pass from the left point. Megna had inside position on Josh Wesley and put it past Huska giving the Bears a two-goal advantage at 4-2. The Wolf Pack followed with 1:16 of five-on-three late but didn’t connect until six seconds after it ended. After passing it back-and-forth several times, Lettieri took a cross-ice pass from Gilmour and buried his third goal of the game past a diving Bears goalie, Vitek Vanacek at 16:45. The goal completed Lettieri's hat trick and some of the crowd of 4,685 followed the hockey signature rituals by throwing hats on the ice. It was Lettieri’s 21st goal of the season, which leads the team. Lettieri was the second Pack player to record a hat trick in two weeks, but just the third hat trick in three years and sixth in the last seven years. Gilmour's third assist of the game gave him 48 on the season to become the AHL leader for points by a defenseman passing Zach Redmond of the idle Rochester Americans. ‘Our line has been doing great,” remarked Lettieri. The team’s number one unit consists of Lettieri, Steven Fogarty, and Ryan Gropp, “When I get the puck. I always try to get it to Gropp or Fogarty and then try to get ahead of the play and they always seem to find me.” Smith-Pelly matched Lettieri’s hat trick restore a two-goal lead as the trailer on Walker’s breakaway. Huska made the pad save, but Smith-Pelly went unchecked and was able to sweep and bury that a shot just 44 seconds after Lettieri’s goal at 17:29. The play started when Gabriel Fontaine blew a tire at center ice. Sean Day was unable to get back to contain Walker allowing Smith-Pelly to record his seventh point in six games. McCambridge was happy with his rookie goalie who showed flashes of his UCONN form. “I like the way Adam played. I really can’t fault (him) on those rebounds against us, but he did give us some chances to win the game. He had to fight thru traffic to find those pucks and he did so. There are going to be rebounds, and that’s our defenseman’s job to clear those rebounds.” The Wolf Pack came out at the start of the second as they did in the first attacking Hershey defense and gained the lead back at 2-1. Gilmour wired a shot off the left pad of Vanacek and Lettieri was right there to easily deposit the loose change for his second of the night at 30 seconds. Two milestones were reached on the play. Lettieri became the second Wolf Pack to reach 20 goals. The other was the now traded, Peter Holland. With his second assist of the night, Gilmour broke the record for assists by a defenseman passing Andrew Hutchison in the 2007-08 season. Hershey came back at 5:53 on the powerplay. Huska made a save with the shoulder on Jusso Ikonen, but the Wolf Pack didn't get to a loose puck, but Walker did at the left side of the net. Walker sent the puck behind the net to Juuso Ikonen. He quickly fed Garret Pilon who rifled his seventh goal of the season to the far side past Huska, evening the game at two and completing a well-executed three player sequence. Pack grabbed the first goal of the game on the powerplay. Gilmour fed Lettieri at the right point. Lettieri then unloaded a heavy snapshot that sailed past Vanacek who was screened by Gabriel Fontaine 12:39. Hershey bounced back with Smith-Pelly, in his sixth game since being demoted by the Washington Capitals, when he scored his first of the game from the left wing. Smith-Pelley's perfect redirect of ex-Sound Tiger Aaron Ness’s left point shot beat Huska to the short-side at 17:29 to tie the score at one. SCRATCHES: Dawson Leedahl (upper body, week-to-week) Rob O’Gara (lower body, week-to-week) Chris Bigras (ankle, out for the season) Drew Melanson (healthy) Julius Bergman (healthy) LINES: Fogarty-Lettieri-Gropp Fontaine-Beleskey-Meskanen Ronning-Gettinger-St. Amant O’Donnell-Butler-Wallin Gilmour-Lindgren Raddysh-Day Wesley-Crawley NOTES: The Pack will host the Binghamton Devils on Wednesday at 7:00 pm, the last mid-week game of the season and the last home game for the next two weeks. Gilmour’s next goal will be his 19th and will break the Wolf Pack team record for goals by a defenseman set by Andrew Hutchison in the 2007-08 season. Hutchinson was the Wolf Pack captain and became the only Eddie Shore trophy winner for Best Defenseman in franchise history. Matt Beleskey's powerplay goal last night in Springfield against the Thunderbirds broke a 23-game scoreless streak that dated back to January 5th against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. With Huska now in the red, white, and blue, Chris Nell became expendable and was reassigned to the team's ECHL affiliates, the Maine Mariners, who in turn released veteran Hannu Toivonen. Wolf Pack Fan Jersey of the Night: Plenty to choose from #15 Greg Moore, #36 Craig Weller, #40 Steve Valiquette, #42 Jeff State, CT Whale #5 Blake Parlett, a Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL) #27 Tim Gettinger, and a special tip of the chapeau to a #27 Hershey Bears Dennis Bonvie plus two beautiful blue Maine Mariner’s road uni’s. Former team captain and head coach, Ken Gernander’s #12 jersey was sighted as well. Speaking of Moore, he is now the head coach of the Chicago Steel (USHL). Moore was the second Wolf Pack captain following Gernander's retirement. Their first captain was Craig Weller who is not currently active in hockey. One of 38 players to play for both the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and the Wolf Pack, Valiquette is now an MSG-TV hockey analyst on Rangers' broadcasts. He was part of the greatest Wolf Pack goalie tandem ever with Jason LaBarbera. Speaking of the 6'5 Jeff State, who also played for the wildly, infamous Danbury Trashers, then Wolf Pack head coach, Ryan McGill, now an assistant with the Las Vegas Golden Knights, and who was never one for mincing words said, “He was like a human pillon out there,” Blake Parlett is now playing in Beijing, China with Kunlun Red Star (KHL). Bonvie, the AHL's all-time PIM leader with 4,493 in 871 games and was one of the most honest and decent players in the game, is currently scouting for the Boston Bruins. Bonvie's fight with Richard Scott in Hartford was one of the greatest toe-to-toe bouts in XL Center history. Scott was smiling throughout the tilt. At the time, Scott's teammate Jeff Toms, said after the game, “If you couldn’t get juiced after watching that you need to check your pulse.” Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON'S CORNER: PACK REFLECT ON BAD LOSS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings CROMWELL, CT - It was a very silent Hartford Wolf Pack practice at Champions Skating Center on Wednesday. Fresh off a disheartening 4-1 loss to the Hershey Bears, who scored all four of their goals in the last seven minutes of the game, the New York Rangers' AHL affiliates did their drills and skating, but the usual chatter was missing. “We liked our first 53 minutes held them, to 21 shots to 11 shots against those back to back penalties, one of which they scored on. We had some missed D zone coverage, then a blocked shot, bounces up in front of the net and then a turnover by our goalie and an empty net goal, it‘s over. That’s not the recipe for closing out games especially a team like Hershey that’s won now how many games in a row? (Nine and 17-1-0-1 in their last 19),” Wolf Pack head coach, Keith McCambridge, said. The mental part of the game is still is not up to par in critical situations. “Your up 1-0, have control and taking penalties. You get away killing one, but then you come right back with another it's just not about managing the puck it's managing the game,” remarked McCambridge through a hoarse voice. When your goalie commits a turnover that led directly to the third Hershey goal as Brendan Halverson’s pass up the middle was intercepted by the last guy you wanted to have it, the Bears leading scorer Riley Barber who put in his second of the game and 26th of the season. “There’s a fine line in how he plays the puck. He had several nice plays on the penalty kill. He took control sent it all the way down (the ice). .There is that fine line when you play it too much,” said McCambridge of Halverson who will start tonight in Springfield. The team offense has been done by a small cache of players led by Vinni Lettieri, on a six-game point streak, Steven Fogarty 12 points in his last seven games and Ryan Gropp who has five points in seven games. “Vinni’s been dangerous all year here. That line has been very productive for us, very strong in the offensive zone, but their defensive zone coverage has been as equally strong between the three of them they will generate offense. By far our most dangerous offensive line,” remarked McCambridge. Conversely, the secondary scoring has been a trickle as of late. “It’s the secondary scoring that we need and it drops off from that line. You hope during the season when these players are having dry spells will pick it up. Lately, we have had players who hit some real dry spells been a while since they had points or goals. It was nice to see Fontaine last night score a goal, gain some traction, but I do like how hard we're working, but we have been missing some players (to injuries, trades). We have points in the last six games then last night we let one slip away from us with Hershey, where we should have had them in seven.” With 18 games remaining there is simply no margin for error and likely no margin left. “It's very disappointing because we have played well of late,“ Assistant captain Steven Fogarty said while wearing one of the team hoodies. “We got points and to play so well for most of the game and collapse…in a matter of two shifts… it's tough. It’s unacceptable, it's why we are, where we're at (in the standings). We're running out of time here.” The team also had another day of changes as the newly minted assistant captain, Ryan Lindgren, was in a left boot cast after taking a shot off his foot. He is likely out for this weekend’s games against Springfield and Wilkes Barre/Scranton breaking up their top defensive duo of Lindgren and John Gilmour. The Rangers also recalled rookie rearguard, Libor Hajak, Wednesday morning. With Lindgren out, the fans will likely see former QU Bobcat, Zach Tolkinen, back in the lineup taking his place. The Rangers did what was expected as they reassigned goalie Dustin Tokarski, too, of all places, Charlotte the top team in the Atlantic Division. With that, the AHL ending the veteran goalie experiment that didn’t produce the results the Rangers/Wolf Pack had hoped for this season (more info below). The most frustrating thing about last night’s loss, is it stalled momentum that the Wolf Pack have been building. Recently, they have been in this position clawing from the bottom trying to make the playoffs. Why this has become a yearly routine occurrence with a mostly new team? “We’ve been asking that question for three years. There obviously is a mental aspect to it. You're going to get scored on, but you can’t cheat when you get scored on. Obviously, It's going to be March tomorrow and we haven’t learned that yet. We're still in the hunt, but it's a desperate time. There are only so games left.” Will the clock strike midnight on their season this weekend? The Wolf Pack fate is in their skates and sticks. NOTES: On the injury front, Lindgren is listed as day-to-day pending a medical evaluation. After he got some x-rays done, Rob’Gara (lower-body) skated in a red non-contact jersey. He's week-to-week. Ville Meskanen (upper body) was skating in a red non-contact jersey. He's day-to-day while Chris Bigras was with cast and crutches and is listed week-to-week. So far the Hartford Wolf Pack have remained mostly intact from Monday’s NHL Trade Deadline Day with some minor deals, but might be different after Monday’s AHL Trade Deadline. Tokarski's reassignment/trade comes as no surprise, but to be sent to Charlotte, the top team in the AHL and, of course, the Atlantic Division, was quite shocking. Tokarski’s last Wolf Pack game was a porous effort against Bridgeport February 17th in a 5-4 OT loss to the Sound Tigers. He played in 21 games, just one more than his other veteran battery mate, Marek Mazanec, who was shipped off to Vancouver two weeks ago. Tokarski’s record was 10-6-2 with a 3.01 GAA and a .901 save percentage and one shutout. He, like Mazanec, was inconsistent. While he did have a 9-1-1 stretch, that was the extent of his best playing period. He was pulled three times this season, twice in his ten playing days. One NHL scout described Tokarski as, “either really good or really (crappy). There is no in between.” In return, the Wolf Pack will receive Hartford-born, Josh Wesley, and will add another defenseman who has shuttled most of his pro career in the Carolina organization between Charlotte and Florida (ECHL). Wesley is the son of former Whaler, Glen Wesley (1994-1997), who played ten years in Carolina with the exception of seven games with Toronto when he was a deadline trade in 2003. Currently, he is the defensive skills development coach for St. Louis after spending ten years in the same position in the same capacity with Carolina. A few former players have been moved to new addresses. Ex-CT Whale, Michael Del Zotto, lands on his third team this year. He leaves the Anaheim Ducks to head to the St. Louis Blues. Then ex-Pack forward Oscar Lindberg was involved in the Ryan Stone deal and heads to the Canadian capital city to play for the Senators from Las Vegas. Jonathan Dalen, son of former New Haven Nighthawk and Ranger, Ulf Dahlen goes from Vancouver to San Jose. Ex-Pack Brian Gibbons (Salisbury Prep) is moved from Anaheim to Ottawa for Patrick Sieloff. In non-trade news, recently ex-Pack goalie, Marek Mazanec, was assigned to Utica by Vancouver. Ex-Wolf Pack, Dale Weise, has been recalled from Laval by Montreal. Weise had two goals in three games with the Rocket. Ex-Sound Tiger defenseman Matt Donovan was recalled by Nashville from Milwaukee. Rangers announced Monday that they have signed two of their potential Group 6 free agents centers, Boo Nieves and Steven Fogarty, to one-year contracts. Nieves' deal was for one-year. It's a one-way NHL deal paying $700K. Fogarty’s deal was a one-year two-way deal paying $700K in the NHL and $150K at the AHL. Fogarty celebrated with a hat-trick in a 4-1 win over the Providence Bruins on Sunday. Two of the goals were shorthanded. That gives Hartford three in a two-game span and Fogarty was involved in all of them. It was the first Wolf Pack hat trick in a little over two years. The last came from Adam Tambellini against Springfield on February 10, 2017, at the Mass Mutual Center. It's also just the fifth Wolf Pack hat trick in the last seven years. “I wasn’t sure how this was going to work. This is my first. I was going to be a free agent,“ Fogarty remarked. “It's obvious. It's exciting. When I got the call and the process started. They called a few weeks ago and things just progressed pretty nicely.” Did you want to test free agency? “To be honest, I was not sure how that process works out. I think I have a good year personally, made strides in my game and my goal is to get to the NHL. I really do like this organization who drafted me. I like coaches and the staff, so my heart has always been here,” said the Edina, MN native born in Chambersburg, PA. The Wolf Pack are still in the playoff hunt with a very steep hill to get there. They are nine points behind Providence and saw some personnel shift in the Atlantic Division. Springfield got Jean-Sebastien Dea, a frequent Pack killer, from the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins and right-handed defenseman Chris Wideman heading to PA. Charlotte, already an exceptionally strong offensive team, added Tomas Jurco from Springfield. They are an early Calder Cup Final favorite. Matt Finn, just released by the Wolf Pack and sent back to Florida (ECHL), has signed another PTO with Ontario (AHL) and Alex Krushelnyski is traded from Lehigh Valley to Binghamton for his second AHL tour in southwestern New York state. He started the season with Reading (ECHL). Philippe Hudon, a Hudson, Quebec native who played three years at Choate Prep of Wallingford, then three years of Canadian major junior with the Victoriaville Tigres (QMJHL) and then five years of Canadian college hockey at Concordia University (OUAA) in Montreal signed an ECHL tryout deal with the Florida Everblades (ECHL). Nick Dilsi, a former Hartford Jr. Wolf Pack, goes from IFK Stromsund (Sweden Division-2) to HC Tabor (Czech Republic-Division-2). William Rinaldi (Kent Prep) is playing with Wellington (OJHL) commits to R.I.T. (AHA) for next year. The first of the European and Asian hockey titles have been decided. The Scottish National title was won by the Murrayfield Racers, the Italian title was won by SV Ritten/Renon their fourth straight title and fifth in six years. Then in India, the Indo-Tibet Border Police team won their third straight title over the Ladakh Scouts 6-5. The Ice Hockey Challenge Cup of Asia begins on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with seven teams competing. The countries involved are defending champion and host Malaysia, Indonesia, Macau, Mongolia, Oman Philippines, and Singapore. In the Republic of Ireland, the Irish Times reports a deal has been struck to open the first ice rink converting an old building owned by the Institute of Technology in Dundalk. The city is located along the eastern coast near the Irish Sea just south of the Northern Ireland border. The rink would be the first and is expected to open in September. In Northern Ireland, they have the only rink, the SSE Arena that is run by AEG and houses the Belfast Giants (EIHL) and has hosted the Friendship Four college tournament the past five years. Read about it HERE. Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON: BEARS CLAW THEIR WAY PAST THE WOLF PACK

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - After a solid 53 minutes of hockey, the Hartford Wolf Pack effort fell apart over the final seven minutes and it resulted in their dropping a 4-1 decision to the red-hot Hershey Bears before the seventh-lowest crowd in team history, 1,563, on Wednesday night at the XL Center. The Bears ran their current winning streak over their last 11 games to 9-1-0-1. They are 17-1-0-1 over their last 19 and have surged to third place in the Atlantic with a 32-2-0-3 record (69 points) just behind second place Bridgeport. The Pack record drops to 23-24-6-3 (55 points). They are nine points behind the Providence Bruins with 18 games left. The Bruins also have two games in hand putting the Pack on the verge of being eliminated from contention for a playoff spot. The Pack's unraveling began with a very poor hooking call assessed to Shawn St. Amant. It was his second straight penalty and came with 7:29 left. The Bears capitalized 24 seconds later. AHL veteran, Nathan Walker, the first Australian to play North American pro hockey, sent a perfect net front feed to Riley Barber, who got behind Libor Hajak and redirected the puck past Pack netminder, Brandon Halverson, for his 25th of the season. The goal came with 7:05 left. Then, just 24 seconds later, the Bears struck again with what would prove to be the game-winner and the 2-1 lead. Beck Malenstyn won a one-on-one battle in the right corner and made a diagonal pass to Jonas Siegenthaler at the left point. Siegenthaler shot the puck from 55-feet out and amazingly it found the back of the net as Halverson was partially screened and may have gotten a piece of it. The Bears had the lead and momentum. Hershey made it a two-goal lead with 2:02 left on the clock. The play started on a major miscue by the Pack netminder. Halverson, usually a good puck handler, made a dreadful decision to go up the center of the ice with the puck, but it was intercepted by Barber, who tallied his second of the period. The goal was his 26th of the season and came on his seventh shot of the game. Barber is the eleventh leading scorer in the AHL. Nathan Walker sealed the Pack’s fate with an empty net goal from the Hartford blue line with 1:19 left. It was his 13th goal and with it, a seemingly strong defensive effort evaporated into a very difficult loss for the Wolf Pack. The Wolf Pack entered the third with a 1-0 lead. The team is now 14-3-2-2 when leading after two. The Pack's lone goal came as a result of a strong three-way power-play goal midway through the second period. John Gilmour, who had one of his stronger defensive games of the season, used his vaunted speed and quick passing to find Vinni Lettieri. He, in turn, fed Gabriel Fontaine who motored off the left-wing, cut to the inside on the Bears' Aaron Ness, and fired his seventh of the season past Illya Samsonov at 10:08. With the assist, Lettieri extended his point-scoring streak to six games that include five goals and three assists over that span. SCRATCHES: Rob O’Gara (lower body) Chris Bigras (ankle) Ville Meskanen (upper body) Brandon Crawley (healthy) Dawson Leedahl (healthy) Zach Tolkinen (healthy) Dustin Tokarski (healthy) PACK LINES: Fogarty-Lettieri-Gropp Gettinger-Beleskey-Butler Fontaine-Ronning-St. Amant O’Donnell-Melanson-Lynch Gilmour-Lindgren Raddysh-Hajak Bergman-Day NOTES: The Bears have won all three games with the Wolf Pack this season Julius Bergman, a right-handed defenseman, was acquired Monday from the Columbus Blue Jackets made his Wolf Pack debut. He wore number 63. The Pack is Bergman’s third NHL/AHL organization of the year. He started in Belleville with the Senators and then with the Cleveland Barons. He was originally drafted by the San Jose Sharks in the second round, 46th overall in the 2014 NHL Draft. Matt Beleskey had a team-high seven shots on goal, however, his goal scoring drought has reached 20 games. His last goal was scored on January 5th against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The effort is there, but the bucket is still empty. Not since Bob Errey in the Wolf Pack's first season has a quality veteran had a streak like this. Lettieri had five shots, and St. Amant season had a high four shots on goal. With 49 seconds to go in the game, Shawn O’Donnell and Connor Hobbs had a nice scrap. It was O’Donnell’s 5th fighting major on the year tops on the team. Read the full article

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON: BRUINS DROP WOLF PACK IN OT ON HERITAGE HOCKEY NIGHT

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The Providence Bruins captain, Jordan Swarz, went right to the net and redirected a Connor Clifton pass giving the Bruins to a 3-2 OT win over the Hartford Wolf Pack before a high-energy, season-best crowd of 8,608 at the XL Center. The Wolf Pack record drops to 22-25-6-3 (53 points), and remain eleven points behind Providence whose record improves to 28-197-1. The Wolf Pack record, when trailing after two periods, is 2-18-3-0. The game-winning play started with Clifton, a former QU Bobcat, came down the right-wing in the three on three OT session and was patient as he waited to get around a diving Steven Fogarty. He hit Swzarz perfectly just as he arrived at the net and the redirect went over Pack netminder, Brandon Halverson, for his 18th goal of the season. Pack Head coach Keith McCambridge looked at the game from a glass-half-full ideology. “I liked the way we played. I thought we played a hard, heavy game, took care of the puck, battled from behind twice, and overtime is anybody’s game, but I loved the effort of the group there.” Ty Ronning who had another strong game for the Wolf Pack with four shots on goal. ”I think our start was a little choppy, but I think we picked it up and we battled back. We tied the game up, and we, unfortunately, didn’t get that bounce in the end.” The Pack tied the game at two early in the third period. On a shorthanded play, Fogarty ziplined a perfect lead pass to Vinni Lettieri, who took a page from Ronning’s playbook with a right leg kick, and slipped his 17th goal under the Bruins Dan Vladar at 2:59. The Pack put everything into play seeking to win it in regulation. Even Halverson got into the act skating out to the blue line to retrieve a puck and did a spinarama to advance the biscuit. In the second period, the Wolf Pack couldn’t put two passes together and its first real quality shot didn’t occur till Tim Gettinger alone on the right was stopped by Dan Vladar at 9:15. On the next shift, the Wolf Pack got their first goal on a giveaway. The Bruins' Emil Johanssen was at the blue line along the left wing boards. He muffed his pass attempt and Ronning was right there. He snatched the loose puck and raced towards the net off the left wing and tallied his third goal, and second in as many games, low to the glove side past Valdar at 9:52. “I was just trying to read off the goalie. Right when I got the puck in that area, I do like to go backhand on that angle. But just reading him, I stuck with my guns, realizing I kind of did the same thing last night. I was kind of feeling it and lucky enough to get it in.” The Bruins had control over most of the first period and tallied the only goal. Casey Fitzgerald put a lead pass through the legs of Matt Finn to NHL veteran Lee Stempniak, playing his third game, for a clean breakaway. Halverson was not set properly allowing Stempniak to bury a backhander via the five-hole at 13:22. Sean Day, on a Wolf Pack powerplay, rang one off the crossbar. A turnover by the Bruins' Urho Vaakainen went right to Shawn O’Donnell. Vladar incredibly stretched out and kept it out of the net with his left skate. The Pack lost Ryan Lindgren in a first-period fight/wrestling match with former Yale Bulldog Michael Doherty because his tie down snapped. NOTES: Goaltender Chris Nell will get his first AHL start in Providence tomorrow against the Bruins. He will be the fifth Pack goalie this season. Pack not only lost Lindgren, but Ville Meskanen suffered an upper-body injury in the first period and did not return. SCRATCHES: Rob O’Gara (lower body) Chris Bigras (ankle) Brandon Crawley (upper body) Dustin Tokarski (healthy) Dawson Leedahl (healthy) Zach Tolkinen (healthy) Drew Melanson (healthy) LINES: Fontaine-Ronning-Meskanen Fogarty-Lettieri-Gropp Butler-Gettinger-Beleskey O’Donnell-St. Amant-Lynch Gilmour-Lindgren Raddysh-Hajak Day-Finn Former Wolf Pack players, Stefan Cherneski, and Richard Scott dropped the ceremonial opening game pucks. The PA announcer misidentified Cherneski as being a former Hartford Whaler. On Brady Skej Bobblehead Night, the former Wolf Pack defenseman scored a goal on the Rangers 5-2 win over New Jersey Saturday afternoon. Pack Fan jersey of the Night: #37 Bryan Rodney and 22 CT Whale Ryan Garlock. A changing of the guard in Wolf Pack-land. Director of Ice Officials, Bob Gurrente, stepped down officially due to his battling an illness. Gurrente has held his post since 1975 when he started with the New England Whalers, the entire Hartford Whalers period, and of course the Wolf Pack. That’s 44 years of service and he has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of pro hockey in the city of Hartford. He's got an amazing sense of humor whether it's telling or hearing a good joke. He also served his country. He was in Cuba during the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962 where he was guiding Air Force recon runs over the island. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Read the full article

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