Under normal circumstances, this space would be filled with a recap of Sunday afternoon’s Hartford Wolf Pack game, but yet another technical failure on the part AHL Live meant I could only see the game’s first period. The Pack ultimately lost the game by the final score of 6-3, despite outshooting the Providence Bruins 30-25 and earning nine of the twelve power play opportunities awarded in the game. Hartford’s penalty killing, which had been perfect through two games this weekend, got burnt twice in the first period, though only one of Portland’s goals shows as a power play marker — their second came five seconds after a penalty to Corey Potter expired. On the positive side, Devin DiDiomete picked up his second goal in as many games after going pointless in his first nine. He also got in his first pro scrap with fellow rookie Jordan Knackstedt, who came out on the losing side. P.A. Parenteau became the first Pack player to break into double digits in goals with his 10th of the season, and Artem Anisimov maintained his point-per-game pace and extended his points streak to six games with an assist on Dale Weise’s third period goal. Matt Zaba played in his first back-to-back start of the season and was less than stellar, stopping only 19 of 25 Providence shots — there’s still no word on the nature of starting netminder Miika Wiikman’s injury or when he might return. With the loss, Hartford dropped back to the .500 mark, just one point ahead of the surging Lowell Devils, who hold a game in hand.

Half a world away, Avangard Omsk finally halted its losing streak at five games with a 3-2 shootout win over Khimik Voskresensk. Czech Jakob Klepis scored both Omsk goals in regulation, and added the game winner in the shootout for good measure. Jaromir Jagr was held scoreless in the game. Highlights and photos are available from the Avangard Omsk Schedule page.

On the junior front, thanks go to reader Rob for pointing out this interview with Evgeni Grachev over at RussianProspects.com. Grachev will once again face Brampton teammate Cody Hodgson and fellow Ranger prospect Michael Del Zotto on Monday night in the fourth game of the ADT Canada Russia Challenge. Grachev’s junior team won both its games this weekend, breaking the club winning streak record on Saturday and extending their current run to 16 games on Sunday afternoon. Grachev added another goal and two more assists in the process, re-taking the rookie scoring lead in the OHL; he currently leads all rookies in both goals and points.

Finally, for a glimpse at how Grachev’s fellow 2008 third round pick Tomas Kundratek is settling in after a fractured hand delayed the start of his junior season, see this story in the Medicine Hat News about the Czech rookie and his unlikely defense partner.

Three days ago the Portland Pirates rode their power play to a 4-2 victory over the Hartford Wolf Pack at the XL Center in Hartford.  On Saturday it was the Wolf Pack that won the special teams battle, topping the Atlantic Division-leading Pirates 6-2 in Portland on the strength of two power play goals, a shorthanded marker, and a second straight game of flawless penalty killing.

It was only the second regulation loss Portland has surrendered in sixteen games this season.  Even more impressive is that it was done with backup goaltender Matt Zaba — who hadn’t played since earning a win over the Albany River Rats on November 1st — in goal because of an undisclosed injury to starting netminder Miika Wiikman.

The Pirates put the Pack on their heels early, firing off 6 of the first 7 shots on goal in the game.  They took an early lead at 3:32 of the first period when Portland left wing Jimmy Bonneau carried the puck down the right wing boards and threw a backhander towards the front of the net, where Felix Schutz was waiting to deflect it past Zaba on the stick side.

But Hartford roared back with five unanswered goals, starting at 13:18 of the period.  The Pack were given just one of the four power plays awarded in the first frame, and they capitalized on their lone opportunity when Michael Sauer scored his first goal of the season with a low, hard shot from the blue line that deflected off a Pirate defenseman to beat Portland netminder Adam Dennis and tie the score at one.

Devin DiDiomete, who returned to the line up after watching Friday’s game from the press box as a healthy scratch, scored his first professional goal and point just over three minutes later when he deflected a Brian Fahey point shot past Dennis.  The Wolf Pack took the 2-1 lead to the locker room at the end of the period, having outshot Portland by a 12-9 advantage.

With the Pack’s penalty kill languishing at 26th in the league after Wednesday’s loss to the Pirates, Wolf Pack head coach Ken Gernander re-vamped his PK units for Friday’s game against Lowell.  The most noticeable changes were the additions of P.A. Parenteau, who’d seen occasional duty on the PK during his time in Hartford, and Artem Anisimov, who’d taken only a handful of shifts on the penalty kill prior to Friday night’s game.  On Saturday, the re-vamped PK not only thwarted all six Portland power play attempts, remaining perfect over twelve attempts in the last two games, but it earned the team the eventual game winning goal.  Anisimov broke the puck out of the Pack zone, passed it off to defenseman Vladimir Denisov as the two crossed the Portland blue line, and crashed the net, arriving just in time to deflect Denisov’s shot from the right circle past Dennis on the stick side at 7:30 of the second period.

Justin Soryal added his third goal of the season with under three minutes to go in the period when Patrick Rissmiller picked a Pirate pocket as the Portland side was attempting to break out of their own zone.  Rissmiller fed Soryal, who found himself in on a 3-on-1 down low and beat Dennis cleanly with a wrist shot from the right circle.  The period ended with the score 4-1 in favor of the Pack, despite the Pirates’ 11-8 shot advantage.

At 9:03 of the third the Wolf Pack added their second power play goal.  After receiving a perfect cross-ice pass from Parenteau, defenseman Corey Potter faked a shot, skated around the Portland penalty killer who’d dropped to block it, and unloaded a hard snap shot to beat Dennis through a screen.

After falling down by four goals, the Pirates began to apply more pressure, and built some momentum with a power play whn Anisimov went off for holding at 9:26.  The Pack penalty kill held them off, but in the twelfth minute of the period the Pirates managed to pin the Pack in their own zone.  At 12:39, with the Pack scrambling, Portland defenseman Michael Funk was able to stuff in the rebound of left wing Colin Murphy’s shot, cutting the Pack’s lead to three.

Portland center Colton Fretter killed his team’s momentum two minutes later when he was whistled for high sticking Pack defenseman David Urquhart, who was shaky in his return after sitting for the past four games as a healthy scratch.  Pack forward Matthew Ford finished the scoring by notching his first AHL goal and point just 39 seconds after the penalty expired when he wristed in the rebound of a shot by Jordan Owens.

Portland finished the period with a 9-8 lead in shots on goal, for a 29-28 advantage in the game.  Zaba earned his second win of the season and improved his AHL record to 2-1-0-0.  His 27-save performance earned him first star of the game honors.

Notes:

• Brandon Sugden and Bonneau dropped the gloves in the final seconds of the second period. Bonneau held on to Sugden for dear life, threw a few quick rabbit punches and then wrestled the Pack forward to the ice.
• Maxime Daigneault (no relation to Pack assistant coach J.J.) was recalled from Charolotte of the ECHL to back up Zaba in Wiikman’s absence.
• Center Mike Ouellette and defenseman Ethan Graham took seats in the press box as healthy scratches.
• The Wolf  Pack’s 6 goals marked their highest single-game scoring output this season.
• The Pack received only 3 power play opportunities to Portland’s 6, but they scored on 2 of them.
• Tonight marked Fahey’s second 2-assist game in his last three games.
• Rissmiller, who played center on Friday for the first time since being assigned to Hartford, has 6 points in his 5 games in Hartford.
• Anisimov’s shorthanded goal was the Pack’s first of the season. He has points (3g, 4a) in 5 straight games.
• Greg Moore currently holds the Pack’s longest point scoring streak, with points (4g, 3a) in 6 straight games.

Scoring:
1. Schutz (5) (Bonneau, Gragnani) 3:36
1. Sauer (1) (Potter, Parenteau) 13:18 (PP)
1. DiDiomete (1) (Fahey, Rissmiller) 15:32
2. Anisimov (5) (Denisov, Fahey) 7:30 (SH)
2. Soryal (3) (Rissmiller) 17:09
3. Potter (2) (Moore, Parenteau) 9:03 (PP)
3. Funk (1) (Murphy, Gerbe) 12:29
3. Ford (1) (Owens, Pyatt) 17:32

Lines:
Owens – Rissmiller – Parenteau
Ford – Moore – Soryal
Dupont – Anisimov – Weise
DiDiomete – Pyatt – Sugden

Potter – Sanguinetti
Fahey – Denisov
Urquhart – Sauer

Zaba / Daigneault

Three Stars:
1. Matt Zaba
2. Brian Fahey
3. Patrick Rissmiller

The Hartford Wolf Pack dropped a 4-3 shootout decision to the Lowell Devils in Hartford on Friday, but the real story was the game-within-the-game that was played between two friends who were facing each other for the very first time.  Lowell’s Alexander Vasyunov and Hartford’s Artem Anisimov were born a month apart in Yaroslavl, Russia in 1988, came up through the Lokomotiv hockey school together, and played together — often on the same line — in numerous tournaments for the Russian national junior team.  They were drafted just four picks apart in the second round of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, but at the start of the 2007-2008 season their careers took different paths, as Anisimov came to North America to play for the Wolf Pack while Vasyunov stayed in Yaroslavl, where he fought for ice time in an organization known for developing great young talent, but failing to integrate it at the highest level.  Last month, after playing only two games through the first seven weeks of the KHL season, Vasyunov opted to follow in Anisimov’s footsteps, and left Russia for the AHL.

On Saturday the two friends met as enemies for the first of what will likely be many, many times in their North American professional careers.  And there can be little doubt that the game held special significance to both of them.

Anisimov had the best scoring chance in a scoreless first period when he rang a shot off the post with less than five minutes remaining.  The Pack were the better team in the opening stanza, outshooting the Devils by a margin of 11-6, but were fortunate to see the Devil’s shoot wide on two early period breakaways that developed off miscues at the offensive blue line. The first was the result of a bobbled Brian Fahey keep-in, while the second came off a miscommunication between forward Brodie Dupont and defenseman Ethan Graham at the right point.

The Pack started the second period on the power play and Dupont had what appeared to be a can’t-miss opportunity to give Hartford the lead when he found himself alone in the crease with the puck.  But he was unable to find the puck in his feet before a Devils defenseman scooped it away.

Vasyunov had a prime scoring chance of his own when he picked Graham’s pocket in the high slot a few minutes later and fired off a quick wrist shot, but Pack goalie Miika Wiikman was able to make the stop to keep the teams scoreless.

The two teams split a pair of fights in the 9th minute of the middle frame.  The first was a middleweight battle between Jordan Owens and Brad Mills in which neither player landed many punches.  Mills took a slight edge in the bout based on the number of punches he threw.  The second was a battle of the big boys as Brandon Sugden faced off with rookie forward Thomas Harrison.  Sugden was the clear victor in this one, landing a number of heavy rights while Harrison failed to connect on any of his attempts.

The Devils broke the scoreless tie at 11:19 of the period when former Wolf Pack forward Chad Wiseman was allowed to skate out from behind the Pack net, all the way up to the right point, where he turned and threw a weak shot at the net.  So distracted were the Pack by Wiseman’s journey to the blue line that they left 5′9″, 165 lb. Michael Swift unchecked in the slot, where the Lowell center was able to deflect Wiseman’s shot past Wiikman.  The goal seemed to rattle the Pack, which had played fairly well to that point.  The Devils outplayed them through the remainder of the period, a fact evidenced by Lowell’s 8-5 shot advantage.

Lowell took a two goal lead just 58 seconds into the third period when Vasyunov set up Jon DiSalvatore in the crease. Wiikman stopped DiSalvatore’s first shot, but the Lowell forward was able to beat him high with the rebound.

Gred Moore cut the lead back down to one only 28 second later with his fifth goal of the season by splitting two Devils defenders to beat goaltender Jeff Fraze with a wrist shot high on the glove side from the left circle. Vasyunov answered back with his second point of the night by beating Wiikman with a one-timer from the hashmarks, making it 3-1 at 5:09 of the period.

But Anisimov wasn’t about to let his former teammate show him up, and drew the Pack back to within one with 6:21 remaining in regulation when he used his size to crash the Lowell net, tipping in a Dale Weise centering pass from the right corner.

At 18:53 Mills clipped Dupont with a high stick, earning a himself a double minor and setting up a 6-on-4 advantage for the final minute after Wiikman was pulled for the extra skater.  With just 6.1 seconds remaining, Anisimov sent the teams to overtime by deflecting Corey Potter’s point shot past Fraze.  The Pack finished an improved, but still somewhat error-prone, third period with a 13-4 advantage in shots for a 29-18 edge through regulation.

Despite starting the extra frame with the second of Mills’ two minors still on the board, the Wolf Pack were unable to solve the game in overtime, and after the two teams swapped 4 shots each, they headed to the shootout.

Wiikman allowed the first four Lowell shooters to score while Fraze stopped P.A. Parenteau and allowing goals by Patrick Rissmiller, Tommy Pyatt, and Moore. That set the Pack goalie up for the must-have stop on Rod Pelley.  The Swedish-born netminder made the save to give Anisimov the chance to tie the skills competition and send it into extra rounds.  With a repeat of the beautiful backhand move he used to win the shootout against Bridgeport on opening weekend, Anisimov did just that.  That sent Tyler Eckford, who’d beaten Wiikman for the first goal of the shootout, back out to try his luck.  Once again he beat Wiikman, setting up Anisimov for a second must-score opportunity.  This time, Fraze got the better of the young Russian, earning himself his first AHL win and ending the last place Devils’ winless streak at  seven games.

When all was said and done, Anisimov (2 goals) and Vasyunov (1 goal, 1 assist) were named first and second stars of the game, respectively, and the two friends met up on the ice to congratulate one another after their teams headed off to their locker rooms.

Video highlights from the game are available from AHL Live.

Notes:

• Dupont, who was cut by Mills’ late-game high stick, did not return for overtime or the shootout.
• The game was Sugden’s first game back after sitting out two as a healthy scratch and was easily his best of the season.  His three shots on goal equaled the total he’d put up through his first 10 games of the season.
• Anisimov now has 16 points (4g, 12a) in 16 games, one behind Parenteau for the team lead.
• Parenteau, who was riding a 7-game point streak coming into the game, was held scoreless.
• The Pack penalty kill, which has struggled this season, featured an infusion of new blood as both Anisimov (paired with Rissmiller) and Parenteau (paired with Moore) took regular shifts.  The PK was perfect in 6 attempts against Lowell’s 23rd ranked power play.

Pack Scoring:
3. Moore (5) (Soryal, Owens) 1:36
3. Anisimov (3) (Weise) 13:38
3. Anisimov (4) (Potter, Rissmiller) 19:53 (PP)

Lines:
Rissmiller – Moore – Parenteau
Dupont – Anisimov – Weise
Sugden – Pyatt – Soryal
Owens – Ouellette – Ford

Potter – Sanguinetti
Denisov – Fahey
Graham – Sauer

Wiikman / Zaba

Three Stars:
1. Artem Anisimov
2. Alexander Vasyunov
3. Jon DiSalvatore