Wolf Pack Scrap for Playoff Lives

It’s a hard way to play when every game is like a game seven, and that’s what the Wolf Pack have been faced with recently.

For the most part they have risen to the occasion, winning five out of eight since suffering through a 1-8-3-1 streak from February 12 through March 10.

The margin of error is almost nil, though, and even though the Pack scored inspiring comeback wins this week over Adirondack Friday and Bridgeport Saturday, making it three straight come-from-behind victories, they found themselves still nine points out of playoff position, with only seven more games to play, after Sunday’s 3-2 loss at Portland.

I think the thing that is going to bother the Wolf Pack most if they end up not making the playoffs has been the fact that lately they don’t seem to start playing until they are behind. They can’t seem to make it easy on themselves by getting off to a good start and dictating the play to their opponents, and only crank up their best game when their backs are pushed to the wall.

Granted, they have shown good character by not getting down on themselves when behind the eight ball, and Saturday’s upending of Bridgeport was a real gut check, but playing from behind is going to catch up to you eventually, and it did on Sunday. Unfortunately for the Pack, the loss to the Pirates coincided with the Sound Tigers’ winning in Lowell, and a lot of good that the Pack did in their rousing head-to-head triumph Saturday against Bridgeport was undone.

No word as of yet on whether P.A. Parenteau is going to stay up with the Rangers, and not having Anders Eriksson certainly hurts the Pack’s defensive depth. I was impressed, though, with the way the Wolf Pack closed ranks and picked up their team game in the absence of their two stalwarts.

Believe me, there wasn’t a lot of cheer going around the Pack camp on Friday morning after word of the two callups came through. Everyone was happy for the two guys, of course, but from a team perspective, the group couldn’t help but feel that a death blow might have been dealt to their already-tenuous playoff hopes.

After the Phantoms got the first two goals of Friday’s game, you could almost feel the season slipping away, but just as quickly the Pack brought themselves back from the brink. After they tied it back up, even the shootout, certainly no picnic for the Wolf Pack throughout much of the season, turned out well, and all of a sudden the outlook didn’t seem so bleak after all.

It was the same kind of scenario Saturday night, although the Wolf Pack scored first in that game against the Sound Tigers. Bridgeport got the next three after Justin Soryal’s first-period goal, and when the Sound Tigers scored twice in 64 seconds in the second period to go up 3-1, disaster seemed imminent.

Once again, though, the Pack showed resilience, scoring twice in 10 seconds, their fastest two goals of the season, later in the period to forge a 3-3 tie.

With the Wolf Pack badly needing to get two points and hold the Sound Tigers to none, Bobby Sanguinetti came up with the biggest play of the year when he was able to penetrate the Bridgeport zone and get two good scoring chances, the second of which he buried behind Scott Munroe for the game-winner with 3:20 left.

Sunday’s game seemed to be following the same script, but this time the Wolf Pack went to the well once too often.

Portland, already missing Tyler Ennis to recall and having to sit out Mark Mancari and Nathan Gerbe due to their impending callups to Buffalo, showed off their depth by coming out strong against the Wolf Pack, scoring the game’s first goal 22 seconds in and building a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period.

Again, however, the Wolf Pack were not cowed. Ryan Garlock scored from outside the blue line on Pirate backup Todd Ford at 4:01 of the second and Dale Weise reached another milestone in a fine second pro year for him with his 25th goal of the season only 48 seconds later, and just like that it was tied.

With Ford seemingly fighting the puck a little bit, you thought maybe the Wolf Pack would really be able to take control of the game, but unfortunately they killed some of their own momentum by taking four penalties after those two goals. The Pack got them all killed off without any damage, but, winded somewhat by all the penalty-killing work, they allowed Kyle Wanvig to get free for a breakaway with time winding down in the period. Wanvig banged a shot in off Chad Johnson’s pads and, wouldn’t you know, that held up as the game-winner.

So, this week begins with Bridgeport having a “magic number” of six points to eliminate the Wolf Pack from playoff contention. Any combination of six points won by Bridgeport or lost by the Wolf Pack knocks the Pack out. The noose has been worked tighter, and the Pack have even less of a safety net. Also, Corey Locke joined Parenteau and Eriksson on the recall parade to the Rangers today, meaning that as of right now the Wolf Pack are without both of their top two scorers.