Category Archives: Hartford Wolf Pack
Some teams get bitten by the injury bug. The Hartford Wolf Pack are currently being eaten alive by it.
When the Pack took the ice to face the Norfolk Admirals at the XL Center in Hartford last Wednesday, they did so without forwards P.A. Parenteau (concussion), Dale Weise (hand), and Mike Hoffman (shoulder-season), in addition to defensemen Corey Potter (concussion), Bobby Sanguinetti (lower body), Mathieu Dandenault (groin) and Brent Henley (knee-season).
Although Weise was able to return two nights later, when the Wolf Pack played host to the Lowell Devils, it turned out to be a case of taking one step forward and two steps back, as both defenseman Michael Sauer and forward Ryan Garlock were forced from the game with undisclosed injuries. Goaltender Steve Valiquette joined the long list of walking wounded the next morning when he suffered a fractured finger during the team’s morning skate.
In case you’ve lost count, that left the Wolf Pack short five defenseman, three forwards, and one goaltender as they prepared to host the division leading Manchester Monarchs for the fourth time in seven games on Saturday night. Given all that, is it really any surprise that the week ended with three straight losses, extending Hartford’s current streak of futility to a season-worst 0-4-1-0 and dropping them into a tie for fifth place in the AHL’s Atlantic Division?
To their credit, despite having the odds stacked against them, the Pack refused to roll over and accept defeat.
The Hartford Wolf Pack entered this week’s trio of games already missing their second leading scorer and a top four defenseman. Things only got worse from there, as two more of the team’s top point producers joined the pair on the sidelines over the course of the weekend.
The week got underway with a Friday night rematch against the division-leading Manchester Monarchs, who’d earned a decisive 4-1 victory over the Pack in New Hampshire just five nights earlier. Hartford entered the contest missing defenseman Corey Potter and top-line right wing P.A. Parenteau, both of whom are believed to be out with concussion-related symptoms.
The Pack managed to build itself a 2-1 lead through the first half, however, thanks to goals by Brodie Dupont — his first point in nine games — and Nigel Williams.
But Hartford’s hopes took a massive blow when Dale Weise, the Pack’s third leading scorer and owner of one of its hottest sticks, left the ice with an apparent hand or wrist injury. Weise was coming off AHL Player of the Week honors the week before, and has become an integral part of the Wolf Pack squad in what’s been a breakout season for the sophomore winger.
The second period finished without any scoring, and the Wolf Pack carried a 28-15 shot advantage into the third period. But the Monarchs didn’t earn the third best record in the AHL by giving up easily, and despite goaltender Chad Johnson‘s best efforts, the visitors knotted the score midway through the final frame.
The home team missed the opportunity to put the game away in regulation on a late power play, but didn’t repeat their mistake when the Monarchs were whistled for having too many men on the ice in overtime. After just 30 seconds of four-on-three time captain Dane Byers put a perfect deflection through Manchester goalie Jonathan Bernier’s legs to give the Pack their league-leading seventh overtime victory, 3-2.
The Hartford Wolf Pack split a pair of games last week, entering the AHL’s All-Star break in fourth place in the Atlantic Division with a 22-15-1-4 record and 49 points.
The better result of the week came on Saturday, when the Wolf Pack welcomed the seventh place Providence Bruins to the XL Center in Hartford. For the second time in as many games, the Pack topped the Baby Bs in overtime — this time by a 3-2 final.
It was rookie forward Evgeny Grachev who played the hero in this one, breaking a five game scoring drought by scoring a pair of goals. The 19-year old Russian opened the scoring in the first period, beating journeyman goaltender Dany Sabourin up high with a wrist shot, then clinched the victory with his first career overtime game-winner, a deft deflection of defenseman David Urquhart’s shot from the point.
In between Grachev’s tallies came a pair of Bruin goals and a perfectly-placed stick-side wrist shot from P.A. Parenteau, who broke out of a rare six game goalless streak of his own with the marker.
The victory moved the Pack into a tie for the most overtime victories on the season (6) with their Atlantic Division foes, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
It was a busy four-games-in-five-nights week for the Wolf Pack, and Hartford’s finest came through with a split, picking up four of the available eight points to enter the second half of the season in sole possession of fourth place in the AHL’s Atlantic Division.
It was an especially good week for one member of the Pack. Sophomore right wing Dale Weise was named the Reebok/AHL Player of the Week on Monday, becoming the first Pack player to earn the distinction this season. The honor capped off a week in which the Winnipeg native scored goals in each of the Pack’s games, including two against the Worcester Sharks on Friday.
Weise started his four game goal scoring streak — the longest by a Pack player this season — at the Prudential Center in Newark, where the Wolf Pack met up with the Lowell Devils for a rare (not quite) neutral site game on Wednesday. It took the better part of two periods for the Pack to find their legs, but the squad managed to battle back from a two goal deficit to tie things up on goals by Paul Crowder and Weise early in the third period.
The team’s hard work proved to be for naught, however, when starter Steve Valiquette let a soft wrist shot from the side boards squeeze through the five hole with exactly a minute remaining in regulation, ensuring the baby Devils a 3-2 victory.
The Wolf Pack rebounded two nights later with a dominant 5-2 decision over the Worcerster Sharks, which had entered the contest on a six game winning streak. Forgotten goaltender Matt Zaba saw his first game action in over a month in this one and looked steady as he stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced. Weise and leading scorer Corey Locke each picked up a pair of goals, and defenseman Ilkka Heikkinan added a goal and an assist for his second two point game in as many nights.
Heading into the weekend the Hartford Wolf Pack hadn’t won a game all season in which they’d trailed heading into the final period. That changed on Saturday, when the club rallied with a pair of third period goals to top the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 3-2 in regulation. Hartford repeated the feat the next night, coming back from a 1-0 deficit in the third to earn their first shootout victory of the season, 2-1 over the Albany River Rats. And when the final horn had sounded on Sunday, they’d won four straight — another first in this season of ups and downs.
But before their weekend of firsts could begin, the Wolf Pack had to get through the back end of a home-and-home series with the struggling Springfield Falcons on Wednesday. They did so, by a final score of 5-3, but certainly didn’t make it easy on themselves. After falling behind by a pair of first period goals to the Atlantic Division’s basement dwellers — who entered the game winless in 17 straight games — the club roared back to score three times in 3:12 early in the second on goals by Dane Byers, Derek Couture and Michael Sauer. A late Falcon tally sent the teams into the third period tied at three, but Ryan Garlock broke things open with a shorthanded goal at the four minute mark of the period. Hartford’s heroes never looked back. P.A. Parenteau finished the scoring with a goal in the final minute of play to go along with a pair of assists, giving Hartford one last victory for 2009. Steve Valiquette was solid in his fifth straight start, earning his second straight “W” by stopping 25 shots.
It was another win-one, lose-one weekend for the Hartford Wolf Pack, though the club managed to come away with three of four standings points thanks to a shootout loss on Saturday in Bridgeport.
The Wolf Pack returned from the Christmas break Saturday night with a short trip south to battle the second place Bridgeport Sound Tigers, which started the weekend five points north of the Wolf Pack in the Atlantic Division standings. In a tightly contested match, the Pack entered the third period trailing 1-0. Rookie Paul Crowder’s seventh of the season tied things up at 7:19, but Matt Martin gave the home team back the lead three minutes later when he beat goaltender Steve Valiquette on a penalty shot that was awarded after David Urquhart hooked the rookie as he skated in on a partial breakaway moments earlier.
Like their big brothers in New York did the same night, Hartford knotted the score in dramatic fashion, on a Corey Locke power play tally with only 1:14 remaining in regulation. Unlike the big club, the Wolf Pack survived five minutes of four-on-four to send the game to a shootout, where — as they have each time they’ve gone to a shootout this season — they lost, dropping their record in the skills competition to 0-4. P.A. Parenteau scored the lone Wolf Pack goal, while Locke, Crowder, Dane Byers, Dale Weise and Brodie Dupont were all thwarted on their attempts. Bridgeport’s Trevor Smith and Justin DiBenedetto were able to put the puck past Valiquette, giving the baby Islanders the extra point and their second shootout win over their rivals this season.
It was a short week for the Wolf Pack, and Hartford’s heroes came away with half the points available to them after splitting a pair of home games with the North Division’s Toronto Marlies and Hamilton Bulldogs.
The action got underway on Friday, when the Pack played host to the 12-10-2-2 Marlies. P.A. Parenteau announced his return to the AHL with a pair of assists, as the Pack took a 3-1 lead in the opening period on goals from Dane Byers, Mike Hoffman and Corey Potter. Byers, who was named the fifth captain in Wolf Pack history a week earlier, added another goal on the power play in the second period, giving him eight on the season.
Corey Locke was certainly happy to have Parenteau back in town, and celebrated with assists on both of Byers’ goals, as well as Potter’s power play marker, increasing his league-leading scoring totals to 12 goals and 26 assists for 38 points in 32 games.
Hartford’s penalty kill may only be tied for 24th in the league in kill percentage at 80.4%, but it has managed to score a league-leading eleven shorthanded goals, including Jodan Owens’ tally with less than a minute to go in the second period. Derek Couture capped off a dominant Wolf Pack performance in the third period to give the Wolf Pack a 6-1 win. Hartford outshot its opponents 44-24 for the game, with Steve Valiquette looking solid in goal.
Under normal circumstances taking three points out of a three game weekend wouldn’t be considered a success. But when you’re the Hartford Wolf Pack and you surrendered 20 goals in your previous three games while scoring just four of your own — extending a season-worst losing streak to five games in the process — you’ll take those three points and hope they’re a signal of better days to come.
The weekend didn’t start out well, as the Pack opened it with yet another loss, their sixth straight, 5-2 to the Portland Pirates. The team was able to take a 1-1 tie into the third period of the always-competitive match-up, but that was largely due to the play of goaltender Chad Johnson, who’d been returned to Hartford the day before in order to get in some playing time. Johnson was solid in the second frame, giving up just one goal as the team in front of him allowed 15 shots on his net while putting up only three of their own. Newly demoted defenseman Matt Gilroy was whistled for a penalty 42 seconds into the final period, and 15 seconds later the Pirates took their first lead of the game. Brodie Dupont pulled the Pack even at 4:10 of the period with the team’s league-leading tenth shorthanded goal of the season, but Portland re-took the lead 1:47 later and never looked back.
One hallmark of the weekend was the improved play of the Wolf Pack’s goaltenders. Having Johnson back in the cage for two of the weekend’s three games certainly helped, but it was veteran backstop Steve Valiquette‘s near flawless performance in Saturday’s 2-1 overtime win against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers that really gave the Pack something to build upon. Valiquette stopped 25 shots, with the lone goal against coming midway through the third period when defenseman Corey Potter‘s botched pass put the puck on an unguarded Matt Martin’s stick right in the slot. Fortunately, Dale Weiss came through in overtime, giving the Pack their first victory since Black Friday.
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The Hartford Wolf Pack hit the road last week for a three-games-in-three-nights set that took them from southern New Hampshire on Friday to central Pennsylvania on Sunday. By the time the bus had delivered the team back to Hartford in the wee hours of Monday morning, the Pack had extended its season-high winless streak to five games with a trio of blowout losses in which they were outscored by a combined score of 20-5.
Much has already been written on the performance of newly demoted New York Rangers backup goaltender Steve Valiquette, who’s exile to Hartford was meant to help find his game. If this weekend is anything to go by, a search party may be required to accomplish that feat. That’s not to say the weekend of misery was his fault. Yes, Valiquette gave up 10 goals on 47 shots in 72 minutes of play. His partner in goal, Matt Zaba, didn’t fare much better, surrendering 10 goals on 56 shots in 108 minutes in net. But just as poor was the performance of the team in front of them. The Wolf Pack played sloppy, uninspired hockey this weekend — particularly to start and finish the trip — and got the spanking they deserved, losing 7-1 to the Monarchs on Friday, 4-1 to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday and tying the franchise mark for largest margin of defeat in a 9-2 shellacking by the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears on Sunday.
Valiquette got the call to start the weekend and looked extremely uncomfortable from the very beginning, giving up three goals on the first nine shots he faced before getting pulled at 9:21 of the first period. Zaba came on in relief, but failed to provide any, letting two of the four shots he faced though, including a shorthanded tally by former Ranger draft pick Marc-Andre Cliche. Shorthanded goals became a bit of a theme over the weekend as the Pack power play give up three, while scoring just once on 15 attempts with the man advantage. In fact, prior to scoring with 1:37 remaining in Sunday’s match, the once powerful power play unit had been held scoreless in 26 attempts stretching over eight games.
Valiquette was back in goal to start the second period, and gave up another quick goal, a power play shovel shot on a cross-crease pass he had little chance of stopping, and then settled down and stopped the next 20 shots before getting beat once more on a deflection as time wound down in the third period. ECHL call-up Derek Couture scored the Pack lone marker in the game, off a pretty between the legs drop pass from fellow call-up Ryan Garlock.
You’d think a team playing its first four-games-in-five-nights stretch of the season would be anxious to wrap games up as quickly as possible. That wasn’t the case for the Hartford Wolf Pack, which took three of its four games to extra time last week. When all was said and done, the Pack came away with six out of a possible eight points to move into sole possession of second place in the AHL’s Atlantic Division.
The week started better than it ended, with a systematic 4-1 defeat of the Lowell Devils, who’d entered the week tied for the top spot in the division. Dale Weise had a pair of goals in the contest and finished the week with four points in four games, upping his totals to eight goals and 11 assists for 19 points. Those numbers leave the surging sophomore just four points shy of last year’s totals — in 50 less games.
Bobby Sanguinetti had a two point night as well, tallying two assists in what turned out to be his first and last game of the week with the Wolf Pack. The next day, the second year pro was rewarded for for leading all AHL defensemen in scoring with a call-up to New York, where he played his first three NHL games as a sub for injured veteran Wade Redden. Sanguinetti was scoreless and a minus-1 in his inaugural NHL stint, a figure made more impressive when you consider the Rangers were outscored 18-6 during the span. With Redden ready to resume skating with the club, Sanguinetti was returned to the Wolf Pack on Monday, but he heads back to Connecticut’s capital knowing he’ll be the first one called upon should another defensman go down to injury.
Corey Locke had a pair of assists of his own in Lowell and capped off a relatively quiet three point weekend by being named the AHL Player of the Month for November. The 25-year old center finished the month with five goals and 14 assists for 19 points in 13 games and a plus-6. Locke remains at the top of the AHL leaderboard by a six point margin with 12 goals and 21 assists for 33 points in 24 games. He’ll receive an etched crystal award prior to an upcoming Wolf Pack home game in recognition of his Player of the Month achievement.
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