With Marian Gaborik, Sean Avery and Chris Higgins all sidelined for tonight’s game against the Minnesota Wild, the New York Rangers have recalled left wing Dane Byers from the Hartford Wolf Pack.  For Byers — who’s 2008-2009 regular season ended one year ago tomorrow when he tore his ACL in a collision with then-teammate Tommy Pyatt — it’ll be only his second NHL game and first since he made his debut on February 5th, 2008.

The 23-year old Saskatchewan native got off to a slow start for the Wolf Pack this season, earning only a single assist in his first six games.  But he came alive last weekend, scoring twice and adding two assists in a trio of games while playing on Hartford’s top line.

Dismissed as nothing more than a “goon” by many Rangers fans, Byers is far from it.  While his skating and stickhandling will never earn him awards, the tough, physical forward has a real knack for for scoring goals from right in front of the net, whether it be on rebounds or deflections.  He’ll also use his 6′3″ 204-pound frame to punish opponents along the boards and win battles in the corners.  And yes, he’ll drop the gloves when needed, though neither of his two scraps of the season — both against Providence’s Adam McQuaid in the Pack’s second game of the season — were up to his past standards.

Without a doubt the incident which earned Byers his “goon” status was a “fight” with Minnesota’s Benoit Pouliot while the pair were playing in the AHL in March 2008.  With 11.3 seconds remaining in a 1-0 game between the Houstan Aeros — Minnesota’s farm club — and the visitng Pack, a scrum broke out after Byers shoved Houston goaltender Barry Brust in retaliation for a cross-check the netminder had delivered to his back.  In the ensuing mayhem, Pouliot, the fourth overall pick in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, ended up paired off in a complete mismatch with a frustrated Byers.  While Pouliot threw the first — gloved — punch, he wasn’t prepared for what came next, which was an uppercut that loosened two of his teeth and bloodied his mouth.  The Aeros forward quickly turtled, but Byers, not knowing his first blow had caused injury, continued unbowed, ripping Pouliot’s helmet off and throwing punches at the back of his head.  Unable to rouse Pouliot from his protective position, Byers pulled him up by the back of the sweater one last time before shoving him down — face first — into the ice.

Byers earned a double minor for roughing and a game misconduct for “Persisting a Fight” from the on-ice officials — who were down to just two men because linesman Paul Wilkinson had left the game earlier with the flu.  The league added a three game suspension after reviewing the incident. (Video of the incident has been removed by YouTube due to terms of use violation.)

Pouliot, who admitted throwing the first punch and harbored no ill-will towards Byers, was called up to Minnesota a week later, and stayed there through the remainder of the season. The two will face each other on the ice for the first time tonight in Minnesota.

Evgeny Grachev and P.A. Parenteau each scored a pair of goals to lead the Hartford Wolf Pack to a 4-3 victory over the Worcester Sharks on Sunday, allowing the club to remain undefeated at home and improve its season record to 4-5-0-0. Miika Wiikman stopped 32 shots, including 17 in the second period, to earn his second consecutive win in goal and make a serious bid for the Wolf Pack’s starting job.

The visitors got on the board first, scoring on the power play at 6:49 of the first period.  T.J. Trevelyan scored his first of two in the game from in close off the rebound of Derek Joslin’s shot.

Grachev answered less than two minutes later, at 8:28, with the first of his pair.  Dale Weise fed Brodie Dupont for a shot from the top of the circles that Sharks starter Tyson Sexsmith stopped, but the rebound came directly to Grachev in the slot, and the 19-year old rookie wasted little time putting it back between Sexsmith’s pads with a flick of his backhand.

The Khabarovsk, Russia native added his second goal of the game 6:10 later, on the power play, when Ilkka Heikkinen’s shot from the point deflected off a skate in front and came right to Grachev in the right circle.  Grachev put a wrister over Sexsmith to give the Pack their first lead of the game at 14:38.

Wiikman held off a frantic flurry of Shark shots in the final minute of the frame that ended with a pair of Pack players in the penalty box, giving the Sharks a two man advantage for 1:35 to start the second session.  The Pack’s penalty kill, which has continued to struggle and remains ranked 28th in the league, came through, however, and killed off both the 5-on-3 and 5-on-4 advantage.

Often a team will gain momentum with a good penalty kill, but that wasn’t the case in this one, as the Sharks continued to dominate throughout the period, out shooting the Pack by a margin of 17-6.  But Wiikman was a wall, stopping all 17 shots to maintain Hartford’s 2-1 lead as the teams headed into the final frame.

Grachev had ample opportunity to earn his first professional hat trick, putting a shot off the post at the 10:15 mark of the second period, and twice getting stoned on partial break-ins by Sexsmith in the third.  It was Parenteau who gave the Pack a two goal lead at 1:45 of the third, on the power play.  The veteran winger skated into the left circle unencumbered and beat Sexsmith with a wrist shot on the stick side.

The Sharks answered back 2:19 later.  Dan DeSilva centered to a wide open Andrew Desjardins at the bottom of the hashmarks and the sophomore center beat Wiikman to cut the lead in half, 3-2.

Parenteau got his second of the game with a shot that was eerily similar to his first.  Left alone at the hashmarks, the 26-year old took a feed from Corey Potter — who finished the game with a pair of assists for the second night running — and fired another wrist shot past Sexsmith for his league-leading eighth goal of the season at 14:09.

When Worcester’s DeSilva earned a two minute roughing penalty for hitting Parenteau as he celebrated his second goal, Hartford looked to have the game well in hand.  But the Sharks managed to cut the lead back to one 21 seconds after DeSilva’s penalty expired.  Travelyan scored his second of the game by jamming home the rebound of Danny Groulx’s shot.

That was as close as the visitors would get, however, as the Wolf Pack rallied with a strong defensive effort to hold off the Sharks through the final 3:30 of the game to earn its second straight win.

Notes:

• Defenseman Michael Sauer left the game with a shoulder injury in the first period and did not return.
• Parenteau finished the weekend with six point in three games, after going scoreless in two matches last weekend.
• The Pack’s power play was 1 for 4 in the game, and remains tops in the league at 29.2%.  With the Sharks converting on their first of three power play opportunities, the Pack penalty kill remained second to last in the league at 70.2%.

Lines:
Byers – Locke – Parenteau
Grachev – Dupont – Weise
Soryal – Crowder – Owens
Hillier – Ambuhl

Potter – Sanguinetti
Dandenault – Heikkinen
Urquhart – Sauer
Henley

Wiikman / Johnson

Three Stars:
1. Evgeny Grachev
2. Corey Potter
3. Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau

While it’s true the Hartford Wolf Pack has gotten off to its second worst start in franchise history, the schedule hasn’t exactly worked in the club’s favor.  Heading into Saturday night’s contest at the XL Center the Wolf Pack had played six of its first seven games on the road, winning just one of them, and getting its only other “W” in the team’s only previous home game.  Last night, they proved that a little home cooking can go a long way, remaining undefeated at home with a 5-2 over the Lowell Devils.

P.A. Parenteau earned first star honors with a goal and two assists, Corey Locke added a goal and an assist, and Ilkka Hiekkinen put up a pair of assists.  Corey Potter scored his first goal of the season, shorthanded into an empty net, added an assist, and finished on the plus side of the ledger for the first time all season with a plus-2.  And Miika Wiikman earned his first win of the campaign by stopping 34 of 36 Devils shots.

After a scoreless first period in which the visitors out shot the home team by a 16-9 margin, Locke opened the scoring on the power play just 32 seconds into the second frame.  Parenteau put a perfect pass across the slot from the left half boards and the three time AHL All-Star one-timed a shot from the right circle to beat Devils netminder Jeff Frazee high on the glove side.

The Devils answered less than two and a half minutes later, also on the power play.  Seven seconds after Jordan Owens was sent to the box for tripping, sophomore winger Vladimir Zharkov put a puck off Wiikman’s glove and into the net to knot the score at one.

Hartford added its second of three power play goals midway through the period.  This time it was Bobby Sanguinetti on the left half boards feeding a cross slot pass to Parenteau as he cut in from the right circle.  Parenteau beat Frazee on the glove side at 9:52 to put the Pack back in the lead, 2-1.

But just as they had after their first tally, the Wolf Pack gave up a quick goal to allow Lowell to tie things up.  Once again it was Zharkov, who stole the puck just inside the Pack blue line, spun, and threw a quick shot on net.  Hartford defenseman Brent Henley deflected it perfectly over Wiikman’s shoulder for an own goal at 11:21 to make it 2-2.  It was the second of only four goals to get past Wiikman in two starts that went in off his own defenseman’s stick.

The Wolf Pack took the lead for good five minutes later with their third power play goal in as many tries.  Evgeny Grachev controlled the puck on the right wing side and fed Michael Sauer at the left point for wrist shot that beat Frazee through a screen at 16:27.  Hartford finished the middle period with a 3-2 lead on the scoreboard and a 10-8 advantage in shots.

Byers gave the Wolf Pack its first two goal lead of the game early in the third period.  After taking a feed at the right post from Locke, the 4th-year pro got his second goal in as many games by jamming home his own rebound at 2:53.

Wiikman held the fort the rest of the way, stopping all 12 third period shots he faced.  A high sticking penalty assessed to Paul Crowder with 1:11 remaining looked like it might give the Devils an opportunity to get back into the game, but Potter salted away the win with a shorthanded goal into the empty net from inside his own blue line with exactly one minute remaining, ending Hartford’s losing streak at three games and giving the club its second straight win on home ice.

The Pack will get a chance to prove that a little home cooking was all they needed this afternoon when they take their first crack at the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season — the Worcester Sharks — at 3pm.

Notes:

• Mathieu Dandenault made his Wolf Pack debut wearing number 25.
• Tyler Aranson missed the game due to a death in the family.
• Locke took a Sanguinetti wrist shot to the ear at the end of the first period, but returned to start the second and showed no ill effects.
• The Pack finished 3-for-3 on the power play, vaulting them into the top spot in the league at 29.5%.  They remain 28th of 29 teams on the penalty kill, with a 70.5% kill rate.
• With seven defenseman in the line-up, none of the defense pairings listed below actually stayed together the whole game.  Up front, all three of head coach Ken Gernander’s new lines showed some good chemistry at different points in the game.

Lines:
Byers – Locke – Parenteau
Grachev – Dupont – Weise
Soryal – Crowder – Owens
Hillier – Ambuhl

Potter – Sanguinetti
Heikkinen – Dandenault
Urquhart – Sauer
Henley

Wiikman / Johnson

Three Stars:
1. Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau
2. Corey Locke
3. Vladimir Zharkov