With both teams playing their fourth game in five nights, you’d think the Hartford Wolf Pack and Bridgeport Sound Tigers would have wanted to wrap Sunday afternoon’s tilt in Bridgeport up as quickly as possible.  Instead, the clubs took a full 65 minutes plus an extra round in the shootout to decide a winner.  In the end, it was the Sound Tigers that came away with the extra point, after rookie Matt Martin beat Wolf Pack starter Matt Zaba in the sixth round of the skills competition to give his club a 3-2 victory.

It was far from a full sixty five minute effort from the Pack, who were playing without defensemen Brent Henley, Mathieu Dandenault and Nigel Williams, all of whom missed the game due to injury.  Yet despite being outplayed from the start and managing only a single shot through the first nine minutes of play, the visitors found themselves with a 1-0 lead at 9:17 of the first period. Devin DiDiomete earned his first point of the season in his fourth game back from rehabbing a broken arm in Charlotte when he fed Andres Ambuhl as he crashed in from the top of the circles.  The Swiss import scored his third goal of the campaign — and second in three games — with a quick wrist shot that beat Bridgeport netminder Scott Munroe high on the glove side.

The Pack entered the second period with the 1-0 lead despite being out shot 13-7 in the first and it was the third line of DiDiomete, Ambuhl and Paul Crowder that would strike once again early in the frame.  The trio cycled the puck deep in the offensive zone before Ambuhl dropped the puck back to David Urquhart at the left point.  Urquhart dished the puck to Michael Sauer at the opposite point, where the third-year defenseman launched a low wrist shot on goal which Crowder tipped over Munroe’s glove to, giving Hartford a two goal lead at 1:41.

The Sound Tigers cut the lead in half at 13:38 when Trevor Smith — who’d been stoned by Wolf Pack starter Zaba twice in the closing minutes of the first period — one-timed a pass from behind the net over Zaba’s shoulder from point blank range.

The home side knotted the score at two at 1:24 of the third period.  Defenseman Andrew MacDonald, fresh from his latest call-up by the New York Islanders, scored his third goal of the season from the right point with Smith setting the screen on Zaba.

The teams traded power play opportunities midway through the third period, but neither could convert.  In fact, Hartford had just that one chance on the power play in the game, and without Bobby Sanguinetti or P.A. Parenteau, both on recall to the New York Rangers, the unit hardly threatened.

It was the Sound Tigers that had the better of the play through the remainder of regulation, finishing the period with an 11-7 shot advantage.  They had the territorial advantage for the bulk of overtime as well, though the Wolf Pack came on strong at the end to finish the extra frame tied in shots with four.  But neither team was able to light the lamp, sending the game to the shootout.

Former Wolf Pack captain Greg Moore was the first to score in the shootout, beating Zaba high with a quick wrist shot in the second round after Dale Weise, Dane Byers and Smith had each been stopped.  Corey Locke tied things up in the fourth round with a forehand-backhand deke.  Bridgeport forwards Greg Mauldin and Justin DiBenedetto each rang shots off the crossbar, while Munroe stopped both Andres Ambuhl and Jordan Owens.  That left Martin to score the shootout winner in the sixth round with a low shot from the slot, giving the Sound Tigers the extra point and a spit of the two games played in the ten game season series.

It was the second straight post-regulation loss for the Wolf Pack, which finished the weekend in second place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 13-8-1-2.  On the plus side, it was the fourth straight game in which the Pack were able to earn at least a point, and eighth time in their last nine games.

The Wolf Pack has another busy week ahead, with a three-in-three-nights set starting Friday in Manchester against the Monarchs.  Then it’s an overnight trip to the Keystone State, where the Pack will face the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday and the Hershey Bears on Sunday.

Notes:

• The Wolf Pack re-called defenseman Jared Nightingale and Mike Berube from Charlotte prior to the game to fill in for Dandenault and Williams, who were both injured in Saturday night’s 3-2 overtime loss to Providence.
• According to the ECHL Transactions page, Miika Wiikman was also recalled from Charlotte on November 26th, though the Wolf Pack haven’t confirmed the call-up and he wasn’t with the team for the weekend’s games.  Unless its an error on the ECHL site, it was seem the third-year goaltender has been recalled in order to be loaned to another club, either in the AHL or Europe.
• Apologies for the lack of coverage this week.  I missed Wednesday’s 4-1 win over Lowell and though I saw most of both Friday’s 4-3 overtime thriller against Portland and Saturday’s game against Providence, some emergency work at my paying job has prevented me from spending the time required to write about either… and taken a significant bite out of my so-called holiday weekend.
• You might also have noticed that this web site was down frequently over the weekend.  That was the result of my web host shutting it down — on two separate occasions –  for “abusing” their server resources.  Last night, when the server crashed completely while my site was still disabled, they finally realized it has nothing to do with this little blog and its minimal traffic and everything to do with their crappy server.  Obviously, it’s back up and running now, but if it goes down again, please have patience.

Scoring:
1. Ambuhl, (3) (DiDiomete), 9:17
2. Crowder, (6) (Sauer, Urquhart), 1:41
2. Smith, (8) (Sixsmith, Marcinko), 13:38
3. MacDonald, (2) (Kohn, Smith), 1:24

Hartford Shootout:
Dale Weise    No Goal
Dane Byers    No Goal
Paul Crowder    No Goal
Corey Locke    Goal
Andres Ambuhl    No Goal
Jordan Owens    No Goal

Bridgeport Shootout:
Trevor Smith    No Goal
Greg Moore    Goal
Greg Mauldin    No Goal
Justin DiBenedetto    No Goal
Andrew MacDonald    No Goal
Matt Martin    Goal

Lines:
Byers - Dupont - Weise
Grachev - Locke - Owens
Couture - Garlock - Soryal
DiDiomete - Crowder - Ambuhl

Potter - Berube
Urquhart - Sauer
Heikkinen - Nightengale

Zaba / Johnson

Three Stars:
1. Matt Martin
2. Trevor Smith
3. Andrew MacDonald

Illka Heikkinen scored with 1.2 seconds to go in regulation to spoil Kevin Lalande’s shutout bid, but it wasn’t enough for the Wolf Pack, which fell 2-1 to the Syracuse Crunch in Syracuse.  I skipped this one in favor of a trip to the Garden to watch the Rangers lose (again) so Bob Crawford’s report from the road follows below.

The Pack have a busy week ahead as the team will play its first four-game-in-five-nights stretch — all against divisional opponents.  Wednesday they’ll travel to Lowell to face the Baby Devils, who are currently tied with Manchester for the top spot in the division, four points ahead of the Pack.  Friday and Saturday bring games against sixth place Portland and cellar-dwelling Providence at the XL Center in Hartford.  The team wraps up the weekend on Sunday with a short ride south to Bridgeport, where the Sound Tigers are starting the week tied with Hartford for fourth in the division with 23 points.

Syracuse Crunch 2, Hartford Wolf Pack 1

Syracuse, NY, November 21, 2009 - The Syracuse Crunch, who came into the game with an AHL-low 14 points, defeated the Hartford Wolf Pack, 2-1, in AHL action Saturday night at the Onondaga County War Memorial.

Kevin Lalande came within 1.2 seconds of a shutout in the Syracuse net, making 22 saves, and the Crunch got goals from Maksim Mayorov and Kevin Harvey.  Ilkka Heikkinen scored the lone Wolf Pack goal.

The loss snapped a four-game points streak (3-0-0-1) for the Wolf Pack, and it was only their second regulation loss in the last 10 games (7-2-0-1).

Syracuse, which had lost three straight coming into the game, had the edge in play in a scoreless first period, although shots on goal were even at eight apiece.

The Crunch controlled even more of the action in the second period, enjoying a 12-5 shots advantage, and opened the scoring at 5:18, as Mayorov victimized the Hartford power play with a shorthanded goal.

Rushing down the right-wing side, Mayorov beat Wolf Pack goaltender Chad Johnson with a perfectly-placed shot over the catching glove.

Syracuse made it a 2-0 lead at 13:40, eight seconds after the Pack’s Corey Potter got out of the penalty box.

Nick Holden drove a low shot from the right point, and Harvey deflected it past Johnson.

The Wolf Pack got the only goal of the third period, a shorthander,, but it came with only 1.2 seconds left.  With Johnson on the bench for an extra attacker, Heikkinen beat Lalande from the slot on the glove side, after Corey Locke dropped the puck to Heikkinen from the right-wing circle.  The goal was Heikkinen’s fifth of the season.

The loss dropped the Wolf Pack to 11-8-0-1 (23 points) on the year.

Hartford Wolf Pack 1 At Syracuse Crunch 2
Nov 21, 2009 - Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter

Hartford 0 0 1 - 1
Syracuse 0 2 0 - 2

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Harvey Syr (tripping), 3:53; Heikkinen Hfd (tripping), 6:43; Weise Hfd (roughing), 11:37; Picard Syr (roughing), 11:37.

2nd Period-1, Syracuse, Mayorov 3 (Reese), 5:18 (sh). 2, Syracuse, Harvey 2 (Holden, LaVallee-Smotherman), 13:40. Penalties-Mirasty Syr (roughing), 3:28; Potter Hfd (holding), 11:32.

3rd Period-3, Hartford, Heikkinen 5 (Locke, Weise), 19:58 (sh). Penalties-Garlock Hfd (roughing), 6:17; Harvey Syr (roughing), 6:17; Sanguinetti Hfd (tripping), 19:18.

Shots on Goal: Hartford 8-5-10-23. Syracuse 8-12-4-24.
Power Play Opportunities: Hartford 0 of 2; Syracuse 0 of 3.
Goalies: Hartford, Johnson 8-5-1 (24 shots-22 saves). Syracuse, Lalande 3-4-1 (23 shots-22 saves).
Attendance: 5,416
Referees: Chris Cozzan (68).
Linesmen: Jeff Walker (28), Brian Lemon (25).

The Hartford Wolf Pack stormed out to a 4-1 first period lead, then had to hold on as a depleted  Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins squad closed to within a goal before Corey Locke scored his second of the game to complete the scoring at 5-3 and give the Pack its seventh win in its last nine games.

Locke also added a pair of assists to increase his league-leading point total to 29, seven points ahead of his nearest competitor.  Dane Byers and Dale Weise each added a goal and an assist, while Jordan Owens put up two helpers.

The points put Byers on the scoresheet for the seventh straight game, tying P.A. Parenteau for the team’s longest point streak of the season, furthering the argument that Byers should join his Wolf Pack teammate with the parent club in New York.

Goaltender Matt Zaba, between the pipes for the first time since October 10th, made 21 saves to earn his first win of the season.

The goals came fast and furious in the first period, with Hartford scoring a pair of power play goals 30 seconds apart starting at 8:59.  With Penguins defenseman Brian Strait and forward Joe Vitale in the box on overlapping penalties, Bobby Sanguinetti passed the puck down the boards from the right point to Locke, stationed at the bottom of the circle.  The three time AHL All-Star threaded a pass through the slot to Weise, who smacked the feed into the open side of the net from the left post for his fifth of the season.

With Vitale still in the box, rookie Paul Crowder earned his fourth of the year when his centering pass from the right corner deflected in off a Penguin defender’s skate past netminder John Curry to give the Pack a two goal lead at 9:29.

The Wolf Pack would capitalize on its top-ranked power no fewer than three times in the game, going three-for-six to improve its conversion rate to 26.5% overall, and an even more impressive 32.7% on home ice.

The baby Pens made it 2-1 at 12:53 when Strait’s flip shot from the point deflected right to Tim Wallace, stationed alone on Zaba’s doorstep.  Wallace was able to cut across the top of the crease and flip a backhander over the sophomore goaltender’s pad to cut the Pack’s lead in half.

Not to be deterred, the Wolf Pack’s top line of Byers, Locke and Owens added another pair of quick goals starting at 15:34. With the line dominating down low, Byers’ centering pass to Owens from behind the net was blocked.  But the puck came right back to the fourth year pro, and he was able to thread a pass through the crease to Locke at the right post.  Locke scored the easy goal into the open side of the net to give the Pack a 3-1 lead.

Byers picked up a goal of his own 1:56 later after Owens forced a turnover just inside the Penguins blueline.  The scrappy winger dished the biscuit off to Byers, who wristed a shot over Curry’s shoulder at 17:30 to give the Pack a comfortable 4-1 lead.

Comfortable is exactly what the Wolf Pack became, and it cost them on the scoreboard.  After the home side failed to convert on a 1:13 two man advantage at the start of the second period, the Penguins used the momentum gained on the kill to once again halve the lead when Robert Bortuzzo put a screen shot past Zaba at 2:55.

That proved to be the only scoring in an evenly played second period.  The two teams each put up nine shots apiece in the frame, after the Wolf Pack had taken an 11-5 lead in that category in the first.

After taking their game to a Penguins defense corps that was missing four starters in the first period, the Pack played most of the second and half of the third as if they were trying to hang on to the lead, rather than increase it.  That changed after Wade Brookbank deflected Dustin Jeffrey’s point shot past Zaba at 9:48 of the third to cut the Wolf Pack’s lead to one goal.

Awakened by the prospect that they might actually lose the game, the Hartford’s power play went back to work at 11:35 of the period.  Rookie Evgeny Grachev took the puck off the left half boards, showing great patience has he stickhandled around a Penguins defenseman and fed it through the slot to Locke, who one-timed it past Curry for his 11th of the season.  With the goal, Locke took over the team lead in goals from Parenteau and moved into a tie for tops in the league with Norfolk’s Brandon Bochenski.

This time the Pack didn’t sit back, and as a result the Penguins never really threated the rest of the way.

The win improved the Wolf Pack’s record to 11-7-0-1, moving then into a tie for second place in the Atlantic Division with the Lowell Devils.  After a rare Friday night off, the team will wrap up the week on the road in Syracuse at 7:30pm on Saturday.

Scoring:
1. HFD Weise, (5) (Locke, Sanguinetti), 8:59 (PP)
1. HFD Crowder, (4) (Dupont), 9:29 (PP)
1. WBS Wallace, (4) (Strait, Haddad), 12:53
1. HFD Locke, (10) (Byers, Owens), 15:34
1. HFD Byers, (4) (Owens, Locke), 17:30
2. WBS Bortuzzo, (1) (Caputi, Sill), 2:55
3. WBS Brookbank, (1) (Jeffrey, Boulerice), 9:48
3. HFD Locke, (11) (Grachev, Weise), 11:35 (PP)

Lines:
Byers - Locke - Owens
Grachev - Dupont - Weise
Couture - Garlock - Soryal
Crowder - Ambuhl

Heikkinen - Sanguinetti
Potter - Williams
Dandenault - Urquhart
Henley

Zaba / Johnson

Three Stars:
1. Corey Locke
2. Dale Weise
3. Jordan Owens