Too Many Breakdowns

The Wolf Pack struggled to keep the puck out of their own net this past week, and when you do that, you rarely have success.

The goals-against total added up to 20 in three Atlantic Division games, and, not surprisingly, the Pack dropped all three.

The goaltending was not stellar, as Chad Johnson let in a bad goal to start Providence’s seven-goal outburst in Friday’s 7-1 defeat in Providence, Miika Wiikman let in several that he probably would like to have back in Saturday’s 6-4 loss to Bridgeport, and Johnson had a nightmare of a first 5:33 before being lifted in Monday’s matinee in Portland.

The netminding was hardly the only problem, though, and the team collectively failed to pick their goalies up enough, when it was clear that they weren’t having their best games.

After the clunker of a first goal-against Friday, Johnson was left naked several times by the Pack, including on the three third-period Providence goals, which were all scored by Bruin players left alone in front of Johnson for point-blank shots.

In Monday’s game, the fates totally went against Johnson, as he was scored on twice on plays on which he went out and tried to play the puck. On Portland’s second goal, Johnson gathered the puck below the goal line and handed it right to the Pirates’ Kyle Wanvig in the corner, leading to an easy goal for Felix Schutz. And 1:50 later Johnson headed behind the net to play a dump-in, only to see it take a bad carom off the boards and come right in front to Cody McCormick, who had the whole net to put the puck into.

Initially I thought the team did a decent job of having Johnson’s (and Wiikman’s) back after that, getting out of the first period with no further damage and scoring an early goal in the second. After getting it to 3-1, though, the Pack fell into a quagmire for the rest of the second frame, allowing Portland to have way too much room to operate, making some bad decisions with the puck and taking ill-timed penalties.

As a result, that game degenerated to a 7-2 deficit for the Wolf Pack going into the third. Two third-period goals made the final count a much more respectable 7-4, but the fact remains that the Pack squandered a game in hand on both of the teams, Bridgeport and Providence, with whom they are tied for fifth place in the Atlantic.

The Pack battled pretty hard, to my eyes, at least, in Saturday’s game, but kept falling behind, and that’s a tough way to play. The top line of Corey Locke, Dane Byers and Dale Weise produced some quality offense, with Byers’ two goals and an assist representing his most productive outing of the season, but the puck seemingly just wouldn’t cooperate for Wiikman and the Pack’s defensive zone coverage was not quite strong enough to prevent the Sound Tigers from capitalizing when things got scrambly around the Wolf Pack net.

Monday’s afternoon game was only the first game of a run of five in seven days, so there is not going to be a lot of practice time for the Pack this week to try to iron things out, and the games are going to come fast and furious, one after the other.

They know they are still capable, even with the roster as it is currently constructed, of playing solidly against good teams, having taken five of a possible six points from Lowell and Norfolk on the road the previous week, so hopefully the goalies can take a deep breath and re-discover a measure of their confidence (Wiikman was solid in relief of Johnson Monday and Johnson had been sharp in his Ranger action prior to his latest return), and the team as a group can get back to making the opposition work a little harder for those prime scoring opportunities.