Crawford's Pack Report: Week in Review
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 - 3:41 PM
It was never really in doubt, but the Wolf Pack officially extended their streak of always having made the playoffs to 11 straight years this past week, and they did it by assuming a comeback personality that they had hardly shown any of previously this season.
Going into Wednesday’s home game with Philadelphia, the Pack had been 1-13-0-1 when trailing after two periods, and that trend showed no signs of reversing for most of that night’s action.
The Phantoms, whom the Wolf Pack were seeing for the first time all year, exerted some pretty thorough domination over the first two periods of the game, outshooting the Pack by a total of 30-16 and building a 3-1 lead. The first half of the third frame was more of the same, with only some fine play by Wolf Pack goalie Miika Wiikman keeping the visitors from pulling away. The Phantoms weren’t able to add to their lead, but they continued controlling play, and nothing in the Pack’s play indicated that they were poised to turn the tables.
The Wolf Pack were able to put home a power-play goal with 6:55 remaining, though, as P.A. Parenteau buried a pass from Lauri Korpikoski, and all of a sudden, that seemed to bring the Pack to life. Dane Byers capitalized on a fine job by Hugh Jessiman of taking the puck to the net a little over three minutes later, and just like that, it was tied.
The Pack appeared to have all the momentum at that point, but the air temporarily went out of their balloon again at 18:35. With Byers in the penalty box on a tripping call, Philadelphia defenseman Lars Jonsson threw the puck through a screen and got it past Wiikman, and it looked like the Wolf Pack might snatch disappointment from the jaws of elation.
They did not hang their heads, however, and were rewarded when, with Wiikman on the bench for an extra attacker, Greg Moore, who hadn’t scored a goal in seven games and had only one in his previous 14, put an innocent-looking backhander through a tangle of players and in behind Phantom ‘tender Martin Houle for a 4-4 tie.
Energized at that point like condemned men who had avoided the guillotine, the Wolf Pack came out storming in the OT, and drew a penalty on the first shift. And while you’ve got the momentum, why pull back? The Pack didn’t, scoring just nine seconds after the penalty had been called, on a heavy Parenteau shot from the left circle.
The Wolf Pack celebrated after that goal like they had won a playoff series, and you had to wonder whether the comeback win might be the launching pad for a momentous run for the team, one of those games you look back on after a successful season and say, “that one sent us on our way”.
And the two teams certainly wouldn’t have a lot of time to ponder Wednesday’s result, as, in an interesting bit of scheduling, they were right back up against one another in Philadelphia on Friday night, finishing up a two-game season series in three days, after not having played one another for the first three-quarters of the season.
Friday followed almost the same script as Wednesday, just with different color jerseys, as the Phantoms early on forced the Wolf Pack into reacting rather than dictating, and built themselves another 3-1 lead by the end of the second frame.
This time, the Pack started to get their legs going a little earlier, probably by about the halfway point of the second period, but surely lightning couldn’t strike again, could it?
Well, it did, and this time the Wolf Pack nearly pulled off a win in regulation. Korpikoski scored on a shot off the rush on the first shift of the third, and then Josh Gratton tied it at 7:36, combining with linemates Artem Anisimov and Mark Lee on a real grinder’s delight of a goal. Then, with 5:17 left, the Wolf Pack power play, which had been 0/6 with a shorthanded goal-against up to that point, connected to put the Pack ahead, as the sniper Parenteau, a right-handed shot, snapped in Andrew Hutchinson’s rebound from along the goal line on the left-wing side.
That was where the mojo ran out, though, unfortunately for the Wolf Pack, as the Phantoms came back to tie it back up only 1:44 later. Jared Ross got the tying goal, on a play that infuriated Pack goalie David LeNeveu, who reported later that a Phantom player had knocked him out of the goal crease. Another late penalty, against Corey Potter for a high-stick at 17:44, nearly led to another Wolf Pack miracle, as Byers found himself with a shorthanded breakaway just inside the last minute of regulation, but Byers could not finish the play against Philadelphia’s Scott Munroe.
Overtime was scoreless, and once again the Pack couldn’t find the range in the shootout, losing their sixth straight trip to the post-overtime penalty-shot contest and ending up this time on the short end of a 5-4 game score. Still, it was a pretty good standings point to get, down 3-1 going into the third period on the road against a first-place team.
In an interesting bit of karma, the parent New York Rangers, playing the Flyers across the parking lot in South Philly at the Wachovia Center, also lost in a shootout after coming from behind in the third period. Maybe the traveling parties fell short of a statutory level of cheese-steak consumption or something.
The Wolf Pack then went into Saturday’s visit to Springfield knowing that they could officially clinch a playoff spot with a win, and they played that night with the patient relentlessness of a team on a mission.
The first period was fairly even, with Parenteau and the Falcons’ Rob Schremp trading power-play goals within a 1:40 span late in the frame, but the Pack took firm control of the territorial play starting about midway through the second.
The Wolf Pack made all the simple plays well and methodically ground Springfield down in its own end, leading to a 14-2 Pack shots advantage in the second period and a 21-6 edge in the third. Still, the Wolf Pack were unable to snap that 1-1 tie, as 6-5 Springfield AHL rookie goaltender Devan Dubnyk, in his first start against the Wolf Pack, was immense.
Ken Gernander’s boys kept the pressure on, though, and with the Pack seemingly headed to a third straight overtime, they finally solved Dubnyk for a second goal with only 1:54 left in the third. It was Byers, who had secured himself a 20-goal season with his tally in Wednesday’s third-period burst, notching his 21st of the year, parked as usual right on top of the goal crease and hacking in the rebound of a Parenteau drive.
The Pack were not to be denied after that, as they prevented the Falcons from exerting any significant offensive-zone pressure after they pulled Dubnyk, and put a pair of empty-netters in to make the final margin a fairly comfortable 4-1.
If you have been reading carefully (actually it wouldn’t have had to be that carefully), you would have noticed P.A. Parenteau’s name coming up a lot in recapping these games, and he was indeed easily the Pack’s most potent offensive force in the week’s action. The fifth-year pro broke the 30-goal barrier for the second straight year with his power-play goal in Saturday’s game, and his seven points (four goals, three assists) in the three contests sent him into this week with 71 points in 67 games, good for fifth in the league in point-scoring.
Among less obvious offensive stalwarts, Gratton, in particular, stood out. He ended up with a goal and an assist Saturday, giving him points in five out of six games, with four goals and seven points, half of his point total from the 38 games he played with San Antonio prior to his acquisition by the Rangers.
Now to entertain some reader thoughts…
Chris M. from Wethersfield, CT writes, “Any word on where the curtains normally blocking out most of the 200 level of the XL Center have been? Could we possibly be looking at a new upper level seating configuration in the near future? And just an observation, the home game vs. Philadelphia last Wednesday might end up being the Pack's best regular season victory this year. By the third period I thought the game had the feel of a playoff contest and I'm keeping my fingers crossed this victory is a sign of things to come.”
I agree, Chris, for the last eight minutes of it, anyway. That certainly seemed like it could be a victory to build on.
And the absence of the curtains has simply been due to a mechanical malfunction. As I understand it, a power surge after the conclusion of the Big East Women’s Basketball Tournament last week caused the motor that lowers the curtains on the player-bench side to seize up. As soon as that is fixed, the curtains will be back.
TJ from Hartford asks, “Is it just me or are concussions up demonstrably in professional contact sports - hockey, football, etc? Even basketball players are now being concussed. Are team doctors now smarter about not letting players compete until fully recovered?”
I think that’s a big part of it, TJ, that and the fact that, in hockey at least, the players seem to be continually getting bigger and faster, thus the collisions between them are more forceful.
Concussions are a definite concern in the game of hockey, and medical staffs are very careful to ensure that players who are experiencing post-concussion symptoms stay away from any physical activity until they are fully symptom-free. Also, much of the focus of supplementary discipline in hockey these days is geared towards trying to eliminate hits to the head, and thereby hopefully reduce the incidence of concussions.
Oliver from Salt Lake City, Utah says, “I think the fresh start for David LeNeveu has helped him, and he is getting to show he has the ability to be a NHL goalie. Do you think he will get a shot with the Rangers next season?”
Oliver, I would imagine that both David and Miika Wiikman, assuming the Rangers sign him to an NHL contract, will get a look next year, with as high an opinion as Ranger goaltending coach Benoit Allaire seems to have of the two of them. With as well as the parent club’s goaltending is running right now, though, with Steve Valiquette backing up Henrik Lundqvist, they might be hard-pressed to change anything at that position.
Having said that, I agree with your analysis that David has been an excellent pickup for the organization, and his play has been outstanding since the trade. As one of our regular readers, Chris from West Hartford, pointed out in a note he sent about David, the only thing he has lacked since joining the Wolf Pack is luck.
In fact, I said to David on the bus after the game in Philadelphia, following his telling me he got bumped out of the crease on the tying goal and neither of the two referees doing the game that night saw it, or saw fit to call it, “I hope you’re saving up all your good luck for the playoffs.” Other than the two games against his old team, the San Antonio Rampage, if it wasn’t for bad luck, David would have had no luck at all in his games with the Pack. His goals-against average, 1.83, and his save percentage of .921 in his Wolf Pack action, however, are both excellent.
And Kevin Kelly of Parlin, NJ asks, “Is Jarkko Immonen still in the Wolf Pack/Rangers’ plans for the future? Why did he play in Europe this year instead of North America?”
Jarkko received a qualifying offer from the Rangers this past summer, Kevin, but declined it in order to return to play in Finland. Thus, I would tell you it is fairly safe to say that he is no longer on the organization’s radar screen for the future.
Thanks for the questions and I’ll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can put together enough material!
