The Cliff Notes:

• Mike Lee replaced Josh Gratton in the line up while Gratton served a 1 game suspension as the result of a kneeing penalty he took in a knee-on-knee hit with Portland’s Brett Festerling. Festerling was not in the lineup for Portland last night.
• Michael Sauer was hurt on hit in the corner from Portland captain Tyler Bouck and left the ice with assistance, favoring his right knee. He reportedly left the XL Center on crutches last night after the game.
• The first Portland goal was a slapshot from the center point through a screen. Pack goaltender David LeNeveu nearly trapped it between his arm and body, but it trickled through and over the goal line.
• The Pack’s first goal was all Andrew Hutchinson, who got the puck at the right point and skated along the blue line to the left point to open things up a bit. He then skated a few steps in towards the top of the left circle and threw a wrister at the next which Dane Byers deflected on the way in.
• Second Pack goal was the result of lots of hard work. The Pack upped their battle level in the final 5 minutes of the period, and had a number of consecutive shifts during which they kept the puck deep in the Portland zone.  Mike Ouellette, who’d come on for Artem Anisimov as the start of a line change, Dane Byers and Alex Bourret all worked the puck down low. It looked like Oullette got the initial shot on goal, and then a battle ensued, with all three getting whacks at it from the slot. Ouellette was finally able to roll it over Pirate goaltender J.S. Aubin.
• Bourret and Anisimov were both hurt in the same shift in the first minute of the 3rd period. It looked like Bourret might have taken a slash on the arm/wrist, as he was obviously cradling it as he left the ice. Anisimov might have just gotten the wind knocked out of him. Bourret went to the locker room with the trainer, but returned about two-thirds of the way through the 3rd and played the rest of the game. Anisimov stayed on the bench, missed a shift, but returned and played the rest of the game.
• Portland’s tying goal was a bit of a softie on LeNeveu’s part — just a floater from the right point, no screen, no traffic. It trickled through him, and another Portland player was there to knock it the rest of the way over the goal line.
• The Pack looked, in the first overtime period in particular, like a team that was just waiting for the winning goal to be scored so they could get off the ice. Shots at one point were somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-2 in favor of the Pirates.
• About halfway through the 2nd OT period Parenteau took an undisciplined slashing penalty (the Pack took too many penalties in general, and could have been called for more than they were). On the ensuing power play, Corey Potter deflected Jason King’s shot on LeNeveu, handcuffing him. He made the save, but left a rebound, which Michal Birner put up over top of him from in close.
• According to Howlings Rangers brass including Glen Sather, Gordie Clarke, and Benoit Allaire were in the house last night. Bad night for the team not to show up. Based on last night’s performance, LeNeveu, Jordan Owens, and maybe Andrew Hutchinson and Mike Ouellette deserve their contracts.

Pack Scoring
2. Byers (2) (Hutchinson, Parenteau) 3:31
2. Ouellette (1) (Bourret, Byers) 17:50

Lines
Korpikoski – Moore – Parenteau
Byers – Anisimov – Bourret
Owens – Ouellette – Jessiman
Fritz – Lee – Pock

Hutchinson – Potter
Taylor – Sauer
Baranka – Sanguinetti

LeNeveu / Wiikman

Three Stars
1. Michal Birner
2. David LeNeveu
3. Jean-Sebastien Aubin

The Pack finished the regular season by winning their 50th game of the season to finish with a 50-20-2-8 record for a franchise record 110 points, giving them the 3rd best record in the AHL.

Notes

• The Pack finished with the 3rd highest goals for (266) in the AHL and tied for the 5th lowest goals against (198).
• The Pack finished with the 2nd best power play in the league (21%) and 12th best penalty kill (83.7%)

Pack Scoring
1. Parenteau (34) (Moore, Korpikoski) 0:22
2. Potter (5) (Korpikoski) 7:44
3. Sauer (4) (Moore, Gratton) 3:30

Lines
Korpikoski – Moore – Parenteau
Byers – Anisimov – Jessiman
Gratton – Ouellette – Bourret
Fritz – M. Taylor

Pock – Sauer
Baranka – Potter
J. Taylor – Sanguinetti

Wiikman / LeNeveu

Three Stars
1. Lauri Korpikoski
2. Jeff Tambellini
3. Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau

The Bridgeport Sound Tigers have been one of the few teams that have made life difficult on a consistent basis for the Hartford Wolf Pack this season. Tonight, with their season on the line, needing at least a point to keep their playoff hopes alive, Bridgeport put forth their least impressive effort to date, allowing the Pack to roll to a 5-2 win with minimal effort. In the process, the Pack set a franchise record for points in a season with 108, one more than the 1999-2000 Calder Cup-winning team.

The Pack took the lead 6:31 into the first when Tomas Pock broke up a Bridgeport scoring chance and fed Alex Bourret, who’s returned from his 14-game absence looking to prove he deserves a prominent role in the Pack’s playoff run. Bourret carried the puck into the Bridgeport zone and fed Michael Sauer, who’d jumped up on the play to make it a 3-on-2, as he arrived at the right side of the net. Sauer shoveled Bourret’s pass towards the net along the ice, partially fanning on the shot, but the puck glanced off the inside of the right post and into the net to make it 1-0.

Artem Anisimov gave the Pack a 2 goal lead at 18:27 after Hugh Jessiman stripped the puck from a Bridgeport player just inside the Sound Tigers’ zone and passed it down low to Anisimov, who was able to put a backhander up over Bridgeport goaltender Joey MacDonald from the right side of the net. But off the ensuing faceoff Jessiman went from hero to zero when he was whistled for a hooking penalty at 18:49. Less than a minute later, with only 14 seconds to go in the period, Bridgeport cut the Pack’s lead in half when Tim Jackman scored his first of two goals on the power play.

The Sound Tigers carried their momentum into the second, looking more engaged in the game than they had in the first, while the Pack looked a lot like a team who’d clinched their playoff berth weeks ago and was looking ahead to the playoffs. Just before the halfway point of the period, at 9:42, Jackman got his second goal of the game to tie things up at two with a blinding wrist shot from the top of the circle that beat an unscreened David LeNeveu cleanly.

On the next shift, Lauri Korpikoski showed off his tremendous speed by breaking past two Bridgeport defenders to go in on a partial breakaway, drawing a penalty shot when a hook prevented him from getting a clean shot off. On the penalty shot he got in too close to MacDonald before trying to make a move, and was stopped on what amounted to a pretty unimpressive attempt. The period finished with the two teams tied, after the Sound Tigers outworked the Wolf Pack, forcing them to take the only three penalties called in the period, including a bench minor for two many men.  The advantage in power play time lead to a 13-7 shot advantage for Bridgeport for the period.

But the Pack came out harder in the third, and somehow managed to make stripping Bridgeport of any hope of making the playoffs look easy. Jessiman got what would ultimately be the game winner at 4:28 after another strong forecheck on which he was able to once again strip Bridgeport of the puck in their zone and feed it down to Byers behind the net. Byers then passed it back out front, where Jessiman was able to get a stick on it and knock it past MacDonald from in close.

Just past the halfway point of the period Ivan Baranka, in his first game back after missing 5 with a shoulder injury, controlled the puck in his own zone and fed Anisimov, who skated down the right boards into the Bridgeport zone, where he was joined on a 2-on-1 by Mitch Fritz. Anisimov threaded a perfect pass through the skates of the defender to Fritz, who swatted the puck in the open side of the net for the first goal of his injury-shortened season. Only a few shifts later the scenario was repeated, this time with Josh Gratton joining Anisimov on the carbon-copy 2-on-1. But this time the pass came a second late and Gratton wasn’t able to get enough on it to get it past MacDonald.

Bridgeport did have a number of good opportunities in the third, forcing LeNeveu to come up with a number of tough saves. With around two minutes remaining, they pulled MacDonald and applied furious pressure in the Pack zone. But with 1:28 remaining, Baranka managed to get a stick on a Bridgeport pass and Anisimov picked up the loose puck before another Bridgeport player could control it, and lofted it out of the zone to a waiting Lauri Korpikoski, who put it around a Bridgeport player and into the empty net from just outside the Bridgeport blue line, sealing the victory and sending the baby Islanders to the golf courses with their big brothers.

Notes

• LeNeveu made 27 saves for his 3rd straight win in his 3rd straight start. Since joining the Pack he has a 1.83 GAA and a .924 save percentage.
• Jessiman has 14 points in his last 12 games.
• Korpikoski has 14 points in his last 15 games.
• Anisimov was a team-high +4 on the night and had his second 3 point night in the last 7 games. He has 14 points in his last 16 games.
• Late in the 1st Bobby Sanguinetti blocked a shot with his right foot/leg and hobbled off the ice in obvious pain. He was helped over the bench and assisted down the runway to the locker room, but returned for the second period.

Pack Scoring
1. Sauer (3) (Bourret, Pock) 6:31
1. Anisimov (16) (Jessiman) 18:27
3. Jessiman (18) (Byers) 4:28
3. Fritz (1) (Anisimov, Baranka) 10:44
3. Korpikoski (23) (Anisimov, Baranka) 18:32 (EN)

Lines
Korpikoski – Moore – Parenteau
Byers – Anisimov – Jessiman
Gratton – Ouellette – Bourret
Fritz

Hutchinson – Potter
Baranka – Sauer
Taylor – Sanguinetti
Pock

LeNeveu / Wiikman

Three Stars
1. Hugh Jessiman
2. Tim Jackman
3. Artem Anisimov