Crawford's Pack Report: Happy New Year
Tuesday, January 1, 2008 - 8:57 PM
Hearty Holiday and New Year's greetings…hope you had a wonderful Holiday celebration!
The Pack won only two out of five games since my last analysis in this space, and the fact that a run like that is disappointing is indicative of what a high standard the team has set for itself during the past nearly two months. 2-2-0-1, with the two regulation losses being by one goal (actually one was by two, but with an empty-netter), hardly qualifies as a free fall, but around the Wolf Pack it feels like a definite slump. Such is the price of success, eh?
Luckily, the Pack have continued to have great success in their divisional games, unbeaten in regulation in 10 straight after their 5-2 victory at Manchester this past Sunday. Those four-point swing games are obviously key in the battle for second-half playoff position.
It's been the non-divisional games that have given the Wolf Pack some trouble over the time around the holidays, particularly with Bridgeport having held the Pack to one point in a pair of GEICO Connecticut Cup contests.
Quite a contrast from last year, when the Wolf Pack couldn't seem to do anything wrong in any of their games against Bridgeport and won nine out of ten, this season it's the Sound Tigers who are pulling wins out of their hats against the Pack. The Wolf Pack and Al Montoya were 1:55 away from a shutout in the two clubs' clash at the XL Center December 21st, only to see the Sound Tigers get a fluky goal to tie it at one and then win in a shootout. Then in Bridgeport this past Saturday, the Pack and Montoya played plenty well enough to win again, but the offensive well ran dry.
The Wolf Pack outshot the Sound Tigers 35-24 overall and 27-13 over the last two periods, but Bridgeport goaltender Mike Morrison had one of those games where it looked like the Pack could have kept shooting on him until dawn and the puck never would have gotten past him. A bang-bang power play goal in the third period and an open-netter gave the Sound Tigers all the ammunition they needed in a 2-0 win, the Wolf Pack's first shutout-against of the season.
The Pack's two post-Christmas wins, the victory in Manchester and a 3-2 triumph in Springfield last Friday, both were largely dictated by the potent combination of Greg Moore and Nigel Dawes, which has been a consistent theme throughout the time those two guys have both been on the Wolf Pack roster.
In the Springfield game, Moore and Dawes combined on a shorthanded goal late in the third period that featured a dazzling combination of speed and passing. It almost look like one pass too many, but instead turned into a perfect setup, as Dawes' last handoff provided Moore with an open-net tap-in. That goal actually made the score 3-0 for the Pack, so it looked at the time to be nothing more than window-dressing, but that would turn out not to be the case. A five-minute high-sticking penalty to Pierre Parenteau 49 seconds into the third allowed the Falcons to get back in the game, to the tune of two power-play goals in 2:42, and led to a 15-4 shots on goal advantage for the home team in the third. So the Pack had to hold on by their fingernails, and the shorthander ended up being the winning goal.
In the Manchester contest, the Wolf Pack's last of four visits on the season to the Granite State, a scoreless first period brought a Pack scoring drought to better than five full periods, going back to the Friday game, but the firm of Moore & Dawes would key a big breakout in Sunday's second period.
It started at 8:42, when the Monarchs ill-advisedly gave up a three-on-two to the line of Moore, Dawes and Parenteau, who had replaced Alex Bourret on the starboard side of that group in Saturday's third period. Parenteau set up Dawes for a slump-breaking tally, and the floodgates were officially opened, as Bruce Graham notched his first AHL goal in more than two years only 18 seconds later and Dawes scored on his next shift just 1:59 after that.
That made it three goals in 2:21, and the Wolf Pack would tack on a power-play goal by Lauri Korpikoski and a great individual-effort goal by Moore before the period was out, putting the Monarchs down by a five-spot in their own building and effectively rendering the rest of the contest meaningless. It ended up being a run of five goals in 10:31, which, amazingly, was not the fastest run of five goals ever scored by the Pack. Back in the third game of their second season, 1998-99, the Wolf Pack racked up five in an incredible 7:59 (remember these names…Bill Berg, Marc Savard, Chris Winnes, Bob Errey and Daniel Goneau?) in the first period of what would turn out to be a 6-4 win at Providence. The Bruins and their young goalie John Grahame didn't look very good that day, but they would go on to dominate the league and win the Calder Cup.
Moore's goal that finished that scoring outburst Sunday was the kind that makes you think, “wow, that was an NHL goal!” He took the puck down his off-wing with speed, shouldered Monarch defenseman Jeff Likens out of the way without breaking stride and roofed a backhand shot under the crossbar. Just another eye-opening play in what has been a breakout season for Moore. With Artem Anisimov away at the World Juniors and the Wolf Pack thus less deep at center, Moore has been seeing even closer checking, but he seems to be getting to a point now where if he is playing his game, it doesn't matter what the opposition does, they are not going to be able to keep him from making an impact.
In the “when it rains it pours” department, in addition to missing Anisimov, the Wolf Pack lost no fewer than three regulars, Dane Byers, Brodie Dupont and Ivan Baranka, to injuries in the Springfield game. Graham was already up from Charlotte to fill in for Anisimov, and Pat Boller had to get his travel agent's hat on Saturday to wheel Ryan Murphy (who had just been dispatched back two days before), Jordan Owens and Matt Waddell up from the Checkers on Saturday. The roster shuffling certainly may have caused some chemistry issues in the Saturday shootout loss, but the callups did yeoman work Sunday, with Owens and Murphy adding assists (Murphy's being his first point in nine games with the Wolf Pack) to Graham's goal and Waddell going +2.
It's been funny, too, Pack goaltenders have knocked on the door of a shutout several times, including all three games this past weekend, and have fallen short, and that has somewhat obscured some really good numbers being put up in the Pack crease. Montoya had to be cursing his fate at losing the shutout late in the shootout loss against Bridgeport, and had the misfortune to be on the other end of a great performance by Morrison in the game down there, but you take away that team meltdown in the 6-1 loss to Houston a few weeks ago, and he is really compiling some solid stats. After his excellent battle with Morrison, Montoya, if you discount the Houston game, has allowed a total of only seven goals on 167 shots in a span of six starts. That pencils out to a gaudy 1.15 goals-against average and a 95.8% save percentage. Miika Wiikman, meanwhile, saw his perfect AHL record suffer its first blemish in the Pack's last game before Christmas, a 4-3 home loss to Syracuse, but upped it to 7-1-0 in the win at Manchester, allowing only two meaningless third-period goals after the Pack had strafed the Monarchs with their big second-period burst.
Now to bring in some reader contributions that have built up over the Holiday time…
Stephen Malone from Bayside, NY asks, “How do you like your new young assistant coach Pat Boller?
I played roller and ice hockey against him and is a great guy!! Tell him all of St. Luke's is proud of him.”
Stephen, I will certainly pass that along, and I agree, Pat is a great guy. He is a perfect fit for his current position, that is, he possesses a terrific hockey mind and is also a master of the small details involved in all the minute administrative elements of running a team. By that I mean things like travel, roster maintenance, scheduling and things like that. And with the way hockey is going now, with the importance of video as a teaching tool, a guy like Pat's skills are invaluable, with the way he can edit and break down the video of a game.
Gerry Ouellette of Mississauga, Ont. asks, “Can you provide some background information regarding Jordan Owens' status? Why was he dispatched to Charlotte? Is he too small for the AHL? In my humble opinion he is a better hockey player than Cody Bass (just called up to Ottawa). Unfortunately he is not 200 pounds!”
He's not, Gerry, but I think you'd agree he plays a lot bigger than 6-foot, 180. And as you probably read earlier in this treatise, he earned a recall to the Wolf Pack this week with his strong play in the ECHL.
I personally have really liked Jordan's game. He might need to get a little meatier and stronger in the weight room to handle playing an all-around game at the pro level, but I've been impressed with his desire and quickness. His being sent to Charlotte, to my reading, was simply the result of a numbers game. The Wolf Pack have so many good forwards, Jordan wasn't going to get enough ice time to further his development and help his learning curve as far as reading the play and playing away from the puck.
I had never heard of Jordan before he joined the Wolf Pack at the end of Mississauga's season last year, and I think his acquisition has a chance to rank as a strong example of really good scouting. It's got to be hard to watch a smaller, undrafted player and try to figure how his game might translate to a higher level, but I have a feeling that whoever in the Ranger organization saw Jordan in the OHL did a good job of finding a diamond in the rough.
Kris from Cheshire, CT writes, “I still have not herd anything about Chris Holt and his injury. Is he out for the season? How is he doing?”
Kris, far from being out for the season, Chris is back ready to play and has been assigned to Charlotte to get some game action in. His absence from active duty ended up being a little over five weeks, which I think is about average for a knee sprain. Hopefully after that run of injuries that the Wolf Pack goal crease saw, the strong organizational depth at that position is returning.
Jason from Waterbury, CT asks, “What is your opinion on Lauri Korpikoski being selected to the AHL All-Star Classic? He seems to be "sliding in under the radar" with the kind of season he has had so far, along with his blazing speed. I think he has had a good season so far and would deserve some mention in the voting.”
I don't know how much of a chance Lauri is going to have in the fan voting, Jason, just because his numbers aren't overwhelming. I think that blazing speed that you mention, however, has opened some eyes among opposing coaches and players. Especially lately, Lauri's hands seem much more in tune with his speedy feet, and he has made some dazzling offensive plays in tight quarters. If he ever develops more of a finishing touch to go with his skating and dangling, look out. He'll be on a lot of peoples' All-Star ballots, and not just in the AHL.
And Kaitlyn Fisette of Berlin, CT asks, “How serious is Dave Liffiton's injury, and any news on when he will be back?”
Kaitlyn, when Dave's injury first happened, I don't think it was thought to be very serious at all. Like many concussions, though, it has turned out to be a nagging difficulty that has been a bear to shake. Dave is still around the team, and from what I've been able to observe, seems to be working out pretty hard off the ice, which is a good sign, but has yet to practice with the club. It's now over two months out of the lineup for him, so hopefully he will make some progress here soon. With a concussion, though, you can never really put a timetable on it.
