Crawford's Pack Report: Four Wins in Five Days
Monday, November 19, 2007 - 2:24 PM
The Wolf Pack were faced with their first four-games-in-five-days situation this past week, and they couldn't have asked for it to go much better. The Pack swept all four games, moving into a first-place tie with Providence.
The week started with the Wolf Pack's biggest offensive output of the season, a 6-3 win over the Norfolk Admirals, now the top affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning after the Lightning had housed its affiliate in Springfield for the previous three years. Then the Pack won a game they trailed going into the third period for the first time Friday, as they knocked off defending Calder Cup champion Hamilton by a score of 3-2.
The Pack controlled most of Saturday's game in Lowell, but saw a 2-0 lead slip away with two goals-against in a span of 1:25 in the third period. They recovered to get the game-winner from Artem Anisimov with 3:46 left, and then followed a similar script at Portland Sunday. The Pack built a 3-1 lead in the second period, and then the Pirates scored a late goal in the second and an early one in the third to pull even. This time it was Michael Sauer scoring late, just 1:04 before the end of regulation, to give the Wolf Pack another hard-earned two points.
There were many notable contributors to the four wins, three of which were by one goal. That makes it eight one-goal wins for the Pack, out of 11 overall triumphs.
Perhaps the biggest effort was turned in by Frankie Lessard, not a guy that the Pack normally count on for offense but obviously a big part of the personality of the team, with what he usually pitches in to the physical game.
After having scored his first goal of the season only the previous Friday at Manchester, Lessard banged a wicked slapshot past Norfolk goaltender Ryan Munce in the second period of Wednesday's win. The big French Canadian then was the primary force in the Pack's third period comeback Friday. He slid a low shot through a Hugh Jessiman screen and past Jaroslav Halak for a 2-2 with 7:27 left in the game vs. Hamilton, and then on the very next shift, leaned into another screamer, which cleanly beat Halak and held up as the game-winner.
Unfortunately, Lessard injured a knee in the second period of Saturday's game, an injury that caused him to miss the rest of that tilt and Sunday's contest as well. Hopefully he will be able to get back in quick fashion, now that he has been getting such regular ice time and doing so much with it. His four goals in that five-game span already equals his AHL career high in that department.
Greg Moore continues his consistent offensive production, already having surpassed his rookie-year goal output of eight from last season. His three goals in last week's four games have him challenging for the league lead in tallies, and he is also pushing the top of the league in plus/minus, highlighting how good his two-way game has been. Jessiman used his size real well for the most part in a good week for him, working well with Lessard in that third-period burst on Friday and scoring the first goal of Saturday's game.
Pierre Parenteau and Anisimov, two of the most skilled players on the Wolf Pack club, if not in the whole league, had some good chemistry at times in the four-game grind. Parenteau made a great rush to set up Anisimov's winner Saturday night, and it was Parenteau's hard shot that Sauer deflected in for Sunday's winning goal.
Brodie Dupont has been spending a lot of time on the left wing with Anisimov and Parenteau, and Dupont had another good week. He chalked up his first three-point game as a pro Wednesday, with a goal and two assists, and picked up another goal and an assist in Sunday's victory.
Veteran Andrew Hutchinson is showing the puck-moving and power-play form that has made him a big point producer off the blueline in his previous AHL experience. The former Carolina Hurricane and Nashville Predator had three assists in Portland on Saturday, including one on the game-winner, and scored in both Wednesday's and Friday's games. Also among the D-men, Jake Taylor, not normally a consistent source of offense, scored his second goal of the season Sunday, marking the first time he has had multiple goals in a pro campaign, and also registered assists Wednesday and Friday.
Al Montoya was called on to carry the ball in three of the week's four games and had a good winning touch, jumping his personal record up above the .500 mark to 5-4-1 and turning in a Second-Star performance in Friday's game, in which he stopped 28 and shots and kept the Wolf Pack close until they were able to get the offense going. Chris Holt got the call on Sunday and battled his way to his fifth win in his last six decisions.
In three of the four games, with Friday the only exception, the Wolf Pack 'tenders were forced to try to keep themselves sharp while most of the action was at the other end. The Pack had hefty shot advantages all game Wednesday and Sunday, and for the first two periods Saturday.
Now to bring in some reader prompts…
Travis from Windsor Locks, CT asks, “Where is Mitch Fritz?”
Mitch had to have shoulder surgery, unfortunately, Travis. A nagging shoulder problem kept getting worse, so he had to have it repaired, a procedure that was expected to keep him out at least four months. If that is indeed the time frame, that should get him back into action in mid-February, just in time for the playoff drive.
Dina from New Rochelle, NY asks, “Do you think the Pack will eventually name a captain this season, and why haven't they done so yet? I think that Greg Moore would be a great fit for that role, who's your choice as the next captain?”
Dina, I think they will eventually name a captain, but similar to 2005-06, when they had so many young players and so few seasoned veteran leaders, they are rotating the letters around through the early season, as a way of determining who might be ready really to grab on to the leadership positions and letting different players get tastes of those responsibilities.
I agree that Moore would be a fine choice to wear the “C”. As other good candidates, I would throw out Dave Liffiton's name, although he has been bothered by injury problems lately, as well as guys like Jake Taylor and Dane Byers. No matter what, it looks like it's going to be a very young guy, and he is going to look for some solid support from the entirety of the roster and the coaching staff.
Jackie from Lewiston, ME asks, “How serious was injury to Alex Bourret on November 10th?”
My understanding, Jackie, is that it was a mild concussion. He has been practicing hard in recent days, and I would look for him to return to the lineup soon.
Rene from St.Lazare, Manitoba writes, “Would you comment on the play of Brodie Dupont? Seems that he is receiving more ice time.”
He is definitely receiving a regular turn, plus some pretty good special-teams time, Rene, and he certainly has earned it. I have been very impressed with Brodie from quite early in the season, as he seems to be a guy who not only can bring some very good energy to the ice and get right in the middle of the banging and crashing, but can be a key cog on a potent offensive line. After starting the season basically as an extra forward, he has worked his way on to lines with guys like Parenteau and Anisimov, and it's not like he's just feeding off their play to get points. His grit and touch around the net have helped those highly skilled guys' success as well. Anisimov is a gloriously talented player, but for my money, none of the Pack's rookies has been any more impressive than Brodie here in the first 18 games of the season.
Bruce from Manchester, CT asks, “Do you think Darius Kasparaitis will return to Hartford any time this season or will he play out his time in Russia?”
Bruce, I think we've seen the last of Darius in a Wolf Pack uniform. My understanding of the deal that moved him to SKA St. Petersburg of the Russian League is that it was for the balance of the season.
David McLeod of Willimantic, CT writes, “Would you say that within the last two weeks especially, with the games against Albany, Norfolk and Hamilton, that we are seeing a tremendous surge from the special teams units in power play production and penalty killing? Is this young, feisty team of ours clicking at the right place at the right time in the season? How would you assess the special teams?”
I would say the special teams are a big part of the recent streak of four straight wins and six of the last seven, David. The power play has been helped by the addition of Thomas Pöck and the better health and excellent acumen of Andrew Hutchinson, and also the willingness of guys like Hugh Jessiman, Greg Moore and Brodie Dupont to pay the price in front of the net and impede the goaltenders' vision. The shots from the point have been hard and accurate and there is plenty of traffic in front, and that's a tough combination to defend.
As for the penalty kill, that was a big area of concern the first month of the season, but has been much better as of late. Of course a lot of that is goaltending, and both Chris Holt and Al Montoya are on pretty good streaks, but I've thought the penalty-killers have been more wisely aggressive over the past couple of weeks or so. You've got guys out there like Moore and Korpikoski whose speed is really intimidating, and players like that have done a good job of reading plays and forcing the opposing power plays to be much more careful of the puck than they'd like to be.
One thing's for sure, you can't win at a high level without excellent special-teams play, and it's no coincidence that the recent improvement in that area by the Pack has been accompanied by a corresponding improvement in the win-loss record.
Thanks for the questions and I’ll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can cobble together enough material.
