Crawford's Pack Report: Week in Review
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - 2:03 PM
The Wolf Pack made it a 100-point season for the fourth time in the last five seasons, and the fifth-time in their 11-year history, with a 4-0 week this past week, and they reached some new heights of offensive explosiveness, scoring a total of 25 goals in the four contests.
There was no one real kingpin, either, in the two biggest offensive outbursts, an 8-2 win in Lowell on Wednesday and a 10-1 thrashing of Springfield at home on Saturday, although P.A. Parenteau and Greg Moore both finished the week having totaled seven points in the four games. The scoring was spread nicely throughout the lineup, as 15 of the 17 skaters dressed for Wednesday’s game registered at least a point, and 14 of 17 Pack players found the scoresheet on Saturday, and one of the guys who didn’t, Ivan Baranka, was injured in the first period and didn’t return.
The Wolf Pack had had their hands full with the last-place Devils prior to Wednesday night, 4-1-0-1 in six previous meetings but having been forced to scratch and claw for everything they had gotten against the New Jersey farmhands.
Wednesday’s game started as if it would be a cakewalk for the Pack, who scored a pair of goals on two-on-ones, created by messy Lowell turnovers, in the first 1:40. The Wolf Pack let up after that, though, and found themselves once again in a battle for a while against the Devils, who turned the tide and ended up tying the score at two by the end of the first.
Once the Pack got another two quickies fairly early in the second, however, it seemed to take the starch out of the Devils and the Pack seized control. The first of the two was by Andrew Hutchinson, and it was his 16th of the year, eclipsing Thomas Pöck’s 2005-06 team record for goals by a defenseman, and Hugh Jessiman, back in the lineup after missing two games with a groin injury, made it 4-2 just 1:02 later.
The story of this game, though, turned out to be the scoring exploits of Mike Ouellette.
Ouellette, as diligent and responsible a player in the defensive zone and the faceoff circle as you are going to find, had only scored five goals in his first 53 games with the Wolf Pack before tallying a pair in a 4-0 win over San Antonio only six games prior, and he would go that one better with a hat trick, the Wolf Pack’s fourth of the season, in Wednesday’s game. The former Dartmouth Big Green scored once in each period, finishing the trick with a power-play goal 5:54 into the third that made it 7-2 for the Pack, and had a great chance later on a two-on-one for a fourth goal, only to fire the puck wide.
The “snowman” that the Wolf Pack carded against the Devils represented the Pack’s biggest offensive output of the season, and that stood for all of two games.
The next two outings were both at home, and the Wolf Pack were going for an eight-game season series sweep of Worcester in the Friday-night contest at the XL Center, with the franchise never having previously taken every game of a season set as long as eight games.
The Pack had seen almost everything go right for them in the first seven meetings between the two clubs, whether they were close games or easy wins. That trend continued in Friday’s game, although there was a point when it looked like a karmic turn might be in the offing. That was when, with the Wolf Pack cruising along with a 2-0 lead, defenseman Brennan Evans, who had gone without a goal while playing regularly in all 69 of Worcester’s previous games on the season, put the Sharks on the board with a long shot that missed the net and then came back out in front off the end boards, hit David LeNeveu’s skate and went in.
If the hockey gods were suddenly going to start favoring the Sharks over the Wolf Pack, though, they tired of it quickly. The Pack answered Evans’ goal only 1:14 later, with Lauri Korpikoski scoring his 20th of the season on a rebound, and although Worcester managed to cut the lead to 3-2 with 42 seconds left in the third, after they pulled their goaltender, LeNeveu and the Pack made Korpikoski’s goal hold up as the game-winner and the 8-0-0-0 sweep was complete.
Springfield is another team the Wolf Pack have played real well against this year, and the big rink in downtown Hartford has tended to be a bit of a house of horrors for the Falcons through the time they have been making the short trip in to face the Wolf Pack. For some reason, the Birds have tended to come into the Pack’s lair on some of their worst nights, leaving town on the short end of a number of 7-1s and 6-2s over the years, but nothing as bad as how Saturday night ended up.
And the funny thing is, for nearly half of it, it was a pretty good, competitive game.
The Falcons actually scored first, only 54 seconds in, with Stephen Werner cleanly beating LeNeveu on a two-on-one break, and although the Wolf Pack came back with two goals later in the period to jump in front, 2-1, it stayed that way, back and forth, until almost the halfway point of the second frame.
Starting at 9:54 of the second, though, things came apart on the visitors in a big hurry. Dane Byers and Jessiman scored 34 seconds apart to open the lead to 4-1, and a Springfield goaltending change, from Devan Dubnyk to Glenn Fisher, making his AHL debut, only threw gas on the fire. Ouellette got his fourth in three games 2:09 after Jessiman’s goal, making it three scores in a span of 2:43, and then Mike Taylor, in just his second game out of Harvard University, scored shorthanded, 1:40 before Hutchinson made it 7-1, with what was his 62nd point of the year. That surpassed Pöck’s team-record point total for defensemen from 2005-06 and gave the captain a three-point game, a goal and two assists.
The Pack kept the foot on the pedal to start the third, as Dubnyk came back in but was unable to stop the bleeding, after having all but stood on his head in the Wolf Pack’s 4-1 win in Springfield the Saturday before. The Wolf Pack upped the lead to 9-1 with a pair of goals in the first 7:38, Taylor’s second of the game and Josh Gratton’s third in a span of five games. Things calmed down a bit after that, but, in a final punch in the gut for the Falcons, the Pack hit double digits with only 22 seconds left in the game when, with Springfield on the power play, Falcon defenseman T.J. Kemp tripped and fell in his own zone, allowing Artem Anisimov to walk in, make a couple of moves on Dubnyk and score shorthanded.
The nine-goal margin created by that goal made it the most decisive victory in Wolf Pack history, besting by one goal an 8-0 shutout of Bridgeport almost five years to the day earlier, March 30, 2003. The ten goals also tied a franchise record, set December 18, 2002 in a 10-6 win over Utah.
In addition to Hutchinson’s three points and Taylor’s two goals and an assist, Jessiman had a goal and two helpers, to extend a point-scoring streak to a pro career high-tying six games, Ouellette also had two assists to go along with his goal, as did Anisimov, whose three points was a personal season best. Moore and Gratton had a goal and an assist apiece, Parenteau contributed a pair of assists, and in the final confirmation that it was a great night, Mitch Fritz, the former Falcon, in just his second game back after being out for 69 games while rehabbing from shoulder surgery, had his first two Wolf Pack points with two helpouts.
LeNeveu, another ex-Falcon, shut Springfield out over the final 59:06 to chalk up his third straight win, and had to be reveling in the offensive support he was suddenly getting. Over his first five starts, three of which he lost, LeNeveu saw the Wolf Pack score a total of only eight goals in front of him. He’s now had 25 goals to back him up in his last four outings, in which he is 3-0-1, and I think any goalie will tell you that getting 18 goals in two starts makes his job pretty close to a walk in the park.
After the dominant second half of the Saturday game, the Wolf Pack started out Sunday’s visit to Bridgeport as though they were going to lose by nine goals. The Sound Tigers scored on the game’s first two shifts, Ben Walter at the 21-second mark and Trevor Smith at 1:00, and the Wolf Pack were collectively looking like a deer in the headlights.
The Sound Tigers, though, like the Wolf Pack, were playing their fourth game in five days, and the home squad had three important players, forwards Tim Jackman and Steve Regier and defenseman Matthew Spiller, playing their fifth in five days, due to recalls to the parent Islanders. And after the blazing start, Bridgeport started to look like the more tired team as the first period wore on, and the Wolf Pack had tied it at two by the 33-second mark of the second.
Parenteau scored his second goal, and seventh point, of the week on a five-on-three power play with 1:49 left in the middle frame to give the Pack their first lead of the game, but that didn’t last long either. The Sound Tigers knotted it back up again on a man advantage of their own just 2:43 into the third, on a pretty back-door play finished by defenseman Jamie Fraser.
Both goaltenders, the Wolf Pack’s Miika Wiikman and the Sound Tigers’ Joey MacDonald, were strong the rest of the way through regulation and overtime, Wiikman making a dramatic save on a breakaway opportunity for Bridgeport leading scorer Jeff Tambellini in the dying seconds of OT, and that sent the Pack and Sound Tigers to their third shootout in eight games against one another.
The shootout has been a real bugaboo for the Wolf Pack this year—they had lost six straight and seven of nine overall going into Sunday—and it looked like it was going to be more of the same. MacDonald stopped the Pack’s first four shooters, Korpikoski, Moore, Anisimov and Parenteau, all nifty offensive players, and Walter beat Wiikman on Bridgeport’s third opportunity.
Then, in a do-or-die situation, the Wolf Pack sent out, as their anchorman, rookie Jordan Owens, in his first AHL shootout attempt. A bold move, but it ended up looking like a stroke of genius, as Owens made a terrific move on MacDonald, put the puck in, and seemingly tilted the scales in the Wolf Pack’s favor. Wiikman then stopped Regier, Korpikoski scored, and Walter lost the puck looking for his second goal of the shootout, and voila, the Pack’s shootout futility had ended.
Some sort of drastic measure seemed to be needed to shake the shootout blues, and the selection of Owens turned out to be just the ticket. Word was that J.J. Daigneault suggested that move, but however it came about, it was just what the doctor ordered.
Also, Hutchinson completed his re-writing of the Wolf Pack offensive records for defensemen in the Sunday game. His two assists in the contest gave him 47 on the year, one more than the team-record 46 that Pöck rang up in 2005-06.
The Pack entered the penultimate week of their regular season winners of five straight, and unbeaten in regulation in eight in a row (7-0-0-1) and 10 of their last 11 (9-1-0-1), and needing only two points to clinch at least second place in the Atlantic.
With that, a segue to some reader input…
Rich from Croton, NY asks, “Has there been any talk about the AHL increasing the size of the nets beginning in the 2008-2009 season? I think what they should do instead is to limit the size of goalie equipment, like the size of the glove and chest protector. Any word as to whether or not Ryan Hillier will be joining the Pack anytime soon? How is his team doing?”
Rich, I have not heard any serious rumblings that the AHL might try bigger nets next year, but that is one of the options that has been generally bandied about in discussions of ways to open up the game. If it is ever decided that making the net bigger is worth trying, I would expect it to be tested in the AHL before it might possibly be adapted in the NHL, but I have no knowledge of that being imminent for 2008-09. And greater restrictions were put on goalie equipment, including the size of the catching glove, coming out of the 2004-05 lockout, so I wouldn’t expect that to be increased again soon.
Hillier’s team, the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL, won its first-round playoff series, four games to two, over Victoriaville and as of this writing, has not yet started the second round, after a first-place finish in its division during the regular season. I haven’t heard Hillier’s name mentioned among players who might be joining the Pack soon, and if the Mooseheads continue to have a good run, it could be a while before he would be available.
T.J. from Hartford writes, “A recent reader asked about future Rangers and who you thought would make the big club. To that end, I was curious about the contract status of both Hutchinson and Pöck. I believe, based on reading about and watching many NHL games, that many teams in the NHL could use offensive defensemen who can move the puck and QB the power play while not being gross liabilities on the defensive end. While the Rangers may not be one of those teams that need this type of player (I think they could use more size on the blue line as opposed to offensive punch), what is your take on both players remaining in the organization?”
I don’t have information on the contract statuses of the Wolf Pack guys, T.J., but the one bottom line I do know is that all the veteran guys in this league, like Pöck and Hutchinson, are all looking for the situation that gives them the best chance to get back to the NHL. They have both conclusively proven, too, as you say, that at the very least, they would both be of value to an NHL team on the power play and are good enough at the other end certainly not to hurt the team, at the very least.
A lot depends on what happens up top. It’s true, the Rangers possess plenty of puck-moving D-men, but if one or two of them aren’t back next year, that could open a door for a guy like Pöck or Hutchinson. If everything stays status quo on the Ranger blueline, though, I would think that both of those guys would be appreciative of an opportunity to get a look somewhere else.
David McLeod from Willimantic, CT says, “I get the impression that Ouellette, Owens and Gratton are clicking together real nicely. I have a feeling they will step up their game and be just the sort of surprise weapon this team could dish out come playoffs…maybe not a surprise, but definitely a weapon. Do you see these guys possibly being the difference makers in tight games?”
David, I certainly think the potential is there. So many times in playoffs, you see the top-line guys on both teams kind of cancel each other out, and the series turns on whose other guys can step up and make some big plays.
Ouellette has been a real key cog on the Wolf Pack’s half of the ice all year and has shown recently that he can chip in some key offense, Gratton is a real “glue” guy and has been surprisingly dangerous in the offensive end, and Owens gave the Pack some quality minutes in last year’s postseason as a real unknown, and he’s another guy who goes hard all the time and can make some plays around the net. If the Wolf Pack are going to go deep in the playoffs, I think players like that are going to be real important.
And James Bessell of Holbrook, NY asks, “How are the Rangers’ rookies in Europe progressing?”
The prospect stats on the Rangers’ official website, James, make it look like Alexei Cherepanov had a very solid year in the extremely deep Russian Superleague, David Kveton, a fourth-rounder from 2006, did decently well in the Czech Extraleague, with 10 goals and 15 points in 28 games, and Lukas Zeliska, a seventh-rounder in 2006, had a big year in the Czech Junior ranks, with 28 goals, 52 points and 236 penalty minutes (wow!) in only 38 games with Trinec.
Thanks for the questions and I’ll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can put together enough material!
