Okay, so the Hartford Wolf Pack’s two wins this week don’t rank anywhere near a Stanley Cup victory, but for a team that had only won three of its last 21 games and was mired in a seven game winless streak they were pretty important. And not just because of the points gained in the standings.  In those games the Wolf Pack started to show signs of being the team many thought they should have been all season long.  The question now, with only 13 games remaining in the season, is whether it’ll be too little, too late.

Sometimes the addition of one player can change the entire dynamic of a team.  That’s what’s happened when Kris Newbury joined the Wolf Pack at the NHL trade deadline two weeks ago.  Newbury’s arrival allowed third-year pro Brodie Dupont to slide back to his natural position on the wing, and with the return of P.A. Parenteau from injury, reunited two-third of last season’s dynamic top line, with Newbury slotting into Artem Anisimov‘s place at pivot.  That allowed the team’s leading scorer, Corey Locke, to center his own line with Dane Byers and Dale Weise, giving the Pack a pair lines that pose an equal and serious threat .  And, in turn, take some of the pressure off rookies like Evgeny Grachev and Paul Crowder and ECHL call-up Ryan Garlock, who have all been asked to do a little more than they’re currently capable of throughout much of the season.

It wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops this week, however.  The week started off with a trip to the DCU Center in Worcester, where the Wolf Pack faced the division-leading Sharks on Wednesday night.  Despite their troubles this season, the Pack had somehow managed to come away with victories in each of the first four meetings between the two clubs.  As they took a 3-2 lead into the final period — after having the better of the play through two periods — it looked like they’d keep that streak alive.

Corey Potter, who’s playing as well as he has all season, scored a pair of goals in the first period to bookend Worcester’s only score of the frame, and Dupont added another midway through the second to give Hartford a 3-1 lead.  But Sharks responded with three goals — one in the second and two more in the first half of the third period — to go up 4-3.  Weise scored two and a half minutes later knot the score at four, but Worcester added another goal at 18:15 to take back the lead.  A Too Many Men penalty with a minute remaining in regulation set up Worcester its fourth goal of the period with only a second remaining on the clock, cementing the Sharks’ first victory of the season over the Pack.

Losing a game where they’d clearly been the better of the teams through two periods, and even had outshot their hosts 18-8 in the second period, could have dealt a death blow to the Wolf Pack’s already fragile psyche, not to mention its fading playoff aspirations.  Instead, the team went into Springfield on Friday night, took an early lead on a soft goal scored by Parenteau, and never looked back.  Dupont added a power play goal later in the first, and Weise made it 3-0 in another strong second period in which the Pack outshot their hosts 15-8.  But the Falcons got on the board with only 1:03  on the clock, cutting the lead to 3-1.

The late goal could have given the Falcons a momentum boost to start the third period — especially after what had happened on Wednesday — but Hartford came through with a solid team defensive effort, holding Springfield to just seven shots in the frame.  While one did manage to get  past goaltender Chad Johnson, it came at with only 1:22 remaining in the game, and after Locke had already given the Pack back the three goal lead three minutes earlier.

And so the Wolf Pack returned to the cozy confines of the XL Center in Hartford on Saturday night, looking to win back-to-back games for the first time since picking up victories in games against Bridgeport and Syracuse on January 2nd and 3rd.  The Pack got off to a rough start, falling behind 7:54 into the game after a turnover by Garlock just inside the blue line allowed Ben Walter to skate in alone on Johnson.  A pair of early second period tallies, the first by Byers on the power play at 1:37 and the second from Locke at 4:18, put the Wolf Pack ahead, but the Devils responded with a power play goal of their own just under three and a half minutes later to tie the game at two.

Locke got his second of the game and team leading 27th of the season with only 54 seconds remaining in the period, giving the Wolf Pack a 3-2 lead.  And while Hartford had managed to prevent a late period Springfield goal from swinging the momentum a night before, the Devils had no such luck.  Dupont scored his third goal in three games off a beautiful tick-tack-toe passing play between Parenteau and Locke at 3:31 of the third period, and Newbury expanded the lead to three goals when his centering pass from the left corner went off Devils goaltender Mike McKenna and in the net 1:19 later.  Sophomore Bobby Sanguinetti capped off the scoring on a similar play midway through the period, breaking a personal 33 game goalless drought dating all the way back to November 14th in the process.

Who’s Hot
If it seems like the same people were doing all the scoring this week, they were.  The only forward not on the top two lines to pick up a point was Donald Brashear, who earned an assist when Locke batted the puck in out of mid air after Brashear’s slapshot missed the mark and took a crazy bounce off the glass behind the net and back out in front of the goal.  In three games the line of Dupont, Newbury and Parenteau combined for five goals and nine assists, with Dupont picking up three goals and two assists and Parenteau adding a goal and four assists to go with Newbury’s goal and three assists.  And Locke’s line with Byers and Weise put up a total of six goals and a seven assists, with Locke putting up a team best three goals and four assists, Byers adding a goal and three helpers, and Weise tallying twice.

Who’s Not
With Newbury and Anders Erikkson joining the club at the NHL trade deadline and Parenteau returning to the line-up following a concussion, the Wolf Pack are over the AHL’s veteran limit.  That has forced 25-year old Swiss import Andres Ambuhl out of the line-up and into the press box.

What’s Next
Still six points out of the final Eastern Conference playoff berth, with only 13 games remaining, Hartford will look to build on this week’s momentum during three straight home games this week — part of a season-high seven game homestand that started on Saturday.

The week kicks off on Wednesday night with the first of two match-ups against the Providence Bruins.  The Bruins enter the week just one point behind the Pack in the Atlantic Division standings, but winless in their last six.  Wednesday’s game gets under way at 7:00pm.  The Bruins return to Hartford four days later for a Sunday matinée that kicks off at 3:00pm.

In between, the Pack will welcome the Springfield Falcons to the XL Center at 7:00pm on Saturday in a rematch of Friday’s 4-2 Wolf Pack win.  The Falcons remain mired in the AHL basement, but scored a pair of surprising shootout wins last weekend, including a shocker over the league-leading Hershey Bears on Saturday.

Laurie covers the Wolf Pack and the Rangers’ Russian players and prospects for her blog, Beyond the Blueshirts. She’ll be bringing us weekly updates on the Rangers’ top farm club throughout the 2009-2010 season. For updates as they happen, follow her on Twitter @byndblueshirts