#DrewBannister

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HARTFORD WOLF PACK SWEEP SPRINGFIELD THUNDERBIRDS

By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The Hartford Wolf Pack vanquished their playoff demons after a 7-1 dismantling of the Springfield Thunderbirds at the XL Center before 5,745, completing the two-game sweep of their I-91 rivals. The Pack received outstanding efforts from Tanner Fritz, Turner Elson, and Anton Blidh in the series-clinching win. The Pack saw seven players score in the first-round sweep and will need to continue to receive that kind of balanced scoring if they are to continue moving forward in the playoffs. "Going into the series, they had won nine of the twelve regular season games, but I felt at five-on-five we had played good hockey against them. The special teams was the difference," remarked Hartford Head Coach Kris Knoblauch. The Wolf Pack move on to challenge the Providence Bruins in a Best-of-Five series beginning Friday, April 28th, and Saturday, April 29th, at the Amica Mutual Pavilion. Both games start at 7:05 PM. As the higher seed, The Bruins will have the home-ice advantage in the Atlantic Division semi-final. After the first two games in Providence, the Pack return home for Game Three on Wednesday, May 3rd, and a potential Game Four on Friday, May 5th. Those two games will have puck drop starting at 7:00 PM. Finally, a potential Game Five would be back in Providence on Sunday, May 7th, with the first puck drop coming at 7:05 PM. The Pack should have a level of confidence in this upcoming series. In ten regular season games against the Baby Bruins, the Wolf Pack went 5-3-1-0. "We have been playing playoff hockey for three or four weeks before this series, so we got into a groove," Knoblauch said. The challenge for Knoblach with the Pack's top four regular season players on recall to New York serving as the Black Aces squad for the Rangers meant the call went out to the roster to come together and find ways to score. "We needed somebody to step up and everybody did so in some way. We had the energy and we knew Springfield had taken us lightly in Game 1, but our guys were prepared for them." THIRD PERIOD In the third period, Springfield trailing 5-1, they pulled their goaltender early. The Wolf Pack capitalized, adding two unassisted empty net goals. The first came shorthanded from Blidh at 13:34, and then Tim Gettinger tallied at 15:02. Pack goaltender Dylan Garand managed the third period well. He made key stops on Martin Frk, Will Bitten, and Nikita Alexandrov to secure the victory over Springfield in a contribution reminiscent of Cam Talbot, who thwarted the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in a short playoff win for CT Whale years ago. "Garand, has been solid all year and we played well defensively in front of him," said Knoblauch. SECOND PERIOD The second period started with the Pack picking up right where they left off in the first frame scoring early and controlling the play. "We got great support from all our lines, and you need that in the playoffs," Knoblauch stated. Adam Edström forced Brady Lyle down and out into a tripping penalty on an early two-on-one. The Pack power play, a work in progress throughout the regular season, paid off in this series. After a successful zone entry, Bobby Trivigno took a short pass from Elson and fired it into the net off the near post at 3:57 for the team's fourth goal. Moving Elson from the fourth to the first line wasn't difficult for Knoblauch. "He got lost in the shuffle, when we had all those trades in the beginning of March. He kept working. We had him when (Ryan) Carpenter was sent down (by the Rangers) in early December and they had good chemistry. So we had to restructure our lines. We put them back together. It was a fairly easy decision for a coach to make," Knoblauch said. Repeating their success from Game One on Wednesday night, the Wolf Pack kept their foot on the gas pedal and continued their exigency. Fine work on the left-wing boards by Will Cullye kept the puck in the zone. He intercepted a Thunderbirds clearing attempt and got it back to Zac Jones. The Pack defenseman wasted little time sending a cross-ice feed to a wide-open Blake Hillman. Hillman moved in with Elson and Carpenter providing traffic in front of Joel Hofer and fired a rocket past the Springfield netminder for a 5-1 lead at 6:30. FIRST PERIOD The Pack struck first. Lauri Pajuniemi received a backhanded pass from Blidh, faded off the left wing, and found Fritz rushing in. Fritz received the puck and deposited the first postseason goal of his career at 8:03. "Fritz was so strong. We played a stretch of four-and-a-half minutes and he was a plus-three. It was easy to give him the tap on the shoulder to go out," an impressed Knoblach stated. With limited playoff experience, Fritz had opined weeks ago about his desire for postseason play. He put action into his words. "I've got what, three games, in like six or seven years. It was something I really wanted to experience," Fritz added, "We got belief in that locker room right now. We're a lot different (team) than Springfield faced before. The crowd has been regularly exciting. We fed off that." The Pack made it 2-0 with Fritz and Blidh factoring in again. Fritz got the puck to Wyatt Kalynuk on the left point. Kalynuk sent a perfect drive to the net with Blidh with the Hofer screen at 10:48 for what would prove to be the game-winning goal. The Pack made it 3-0 with Fritz and Blidh factoring in on the tally again. Fritz was on the left side. He and Jones played a quick pass and catch before finding Ty Emberson open on the right point. Emberson sent a low shot on the net with Blidh and Springfield defenseman Tyler Tucker tied up in front of Hofer, who never saw the puck. Blidh will try to torture his ex-teammates in Providence in the next series. With his team reeling early, former Wolf Pack and now Springfield Head Coach Drew Bannister was forced to use his timeout early to settle his rattled Thunderbirds down, much to the delight of the exuberant XL Center crowd. The crowd started early, chanting, "We want pizza." The chant was about a team promotion with a local eatery providing free slices to ticketed fans whenever the Pack scored four goals. Adam Clendening laid a perfectly clean shoulder check and ran over Quinnipiac grad Matt Peca when he tried to cut across the ice on his zone entry in a one-on-four situation. SPRINGFIELD'S ONLY TALLY Springfield scored in the last minute of the first period on the power play. A Bitten cross-ice, across-the-goal crease pass went off Alexandrov's stick right back to Bitten. He put a shot on the net that went off the inside of Garand's stick and pad while sliding over to make the save with 27.8 left in the period. The Pack never wavered or gave Springfield a chance. LINES: Cullye-Carpenter-Elson Fritz-Pajuniemi-Blidh Gettinger-Edström-Lockwood Henriksson-Sýkora-Trivigno Jones-Emberson Hillman-Scanlin Clendening-Kalynuk Garand Gahagen #35 SCRATCHES: Talyn Boyko #40 Matt Rempe (upper body, day-to-day) Louie Roehl #4 (healthy) Bryce McConnell-Barker #8 (healthy) Brett Berard #27 (healthy) Cooper Zech #37 (healthy) Matt Robertson (upper body, may return in the later half of the next round of the playoffs) Patrick Khordorenko (season-ending shoulder surgery). C.J. Smith (hip area surgery done for the season) NOTES: Near the end of the second period, the XL Center scoreboard malfunctioned and went out. Only the video portion came back. The issue forced the XL Center PA announcer to announce the time left when the play stopped. This continued until just 7:46 remained in the third period when only a small video was shown for the rest of the game. The last playoff series win for the Wolf Pack came in a six-game quarterfinal series victory over the Hershey Bears in 2015. Two of the team's home games were forced to be played in Worcester, MA, at the DCU Center. The now-shuttered Ringling Brothers Circus was at the XL Center. Worcester was still in the AHL before becoming an ECHL city. Simsbury native Tommy Cross (Westminster), injured for half the season, dressed and served as a captain for an elimination game for Springfield. Fritz's three assists on Wednesday allowed him to become the 21st Wolf Pack to accomplish that in the playoffs. Chris Bourque was the last player to do so on May 15th, 2015. That was the last time the Wolf Pack had won a playoff game. The Wolf Pack had three playoff series in the early years against the Springfield Falcons. They came in 1999, 2000, and 2003. Eleven Pack players made their playoff debuts for Hartford on Wednesday night. The AHL media voted Calgary Wrangler's Dustin Wolf the league's regular season Les Cunningham MVP. He becomes just the eighth goalie in league history to accomplish that honor. Wolf is the first netminder since the Wolf Pack's Jason LaBarbera won the award in 2004. LaBarbera is presently the Calgary Flames goalie coach. Another ex-Pack, MacKenzie Skapski, is the Wranglers' goalie coach. The Jacksonville Icemen, the Wolf Pack Double AA affiliate, began its seven-game ECHL South semi-final series against the Rangers' former ECHL affiliate, the Greenville (SC) Swamp Rabbits. Greenville took Game 1 4-1, with former UCONN forward Ben Freeman registering one of the goals, and former Thunderbird Ryan Bednard was in the net for the Swamp Rabbits. Former Quinnipiac Bobcat Craig Martin had Jacksonville's only goal. In the net for Jacksonville was a former Wolf Pack emergency goalie, Charles Williams. He made 27 saves in the loss. Gettinger played his junior career under Bannister for three seasons with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL). The Greyhounds was the landing spot for Wolf Packm assistant coach Jamie Tardif before coming to Hartford. Bannister was a member of the 2000 Wolf Pack Calder Cup championship team celebrated here two weeks ago. The Springfield Thunderbirds went to the Calder Cup Final against the Chicago Wolves last year and didn't face an elimination game until the Conference Final against the Laval Rocket. Then, they staved off elimination against the Kevin Dineen-coached Utica Comets. Speaking of Dineen, congrats to his son William. As a freshman at Yale, he won the William Chace Sportsmanship and Dedication Award at the Ivy League School. Chris Harpur, the younger brother of current Ranger, and former Wolf Pack, Ben Harpur, was recalled from the Orlando Solar Bears (ECHL) by the Syracuse Crunch. After five years of NCAA hockey, Erik Gotz, the nephew of Wolf Pack great Ken Gernander, heads to Europe and signs with the Krefeld Penguins (Germany-DEL). He played a fifth year at the alma mater of two of his other uncles, the Gernander twins, Jim and Jerry, who were graduates of the Vermont Catamounts (HE) program. He played a Wolf Pack exhibition game with their brother many years ago. Twelve players are now off to Europe. 228 Division I and III college players have signed pro deals in North America and Europe. The USA U-18 Team is about to embark on the World U-18 championships in Basel, and Ajoie, Switzerland. They'll play April 20-23. They named their roster. The team is coached by former Yale assistant Dan Muse and one of his assistants is ex-Pack, Chad Kolarik. Their players include two former Mid-Fairfield U-16 members, Sal Guzzo and Ryan Fine, who played together at Don Bosco Prep (NJPREP). The Canadian U-18 squad coaches are ex-Springfield Falcon coach Jeff Truitt (Prince Albert-WHL), with one of his assistants being ex-Danbury Trasher, Bruce Richardson (Blaineville-Boisbrand-QMJHL). Ex-Pack John Gilmour officially signed with Adler Mannheim (Germany-DEL). Cheshire native and former Hartford Jr. Wolf Pack, Robert "Bert" Malloy, now a dual citizen, has been playing for the Australian National team this week in Madrid, Spain. It hasn't gone well. They dropped their first three games to Croatia, Spain, and Iceland in Division II Group A. They won a 7-1 rout of the Israel National Team. Malloy collected the last two goals of the game. He had three shots and was a plus-three. The team plays tomorrow against the nation of Georgia at the Pista del Hielo Arena. Some European titles have been decided. But, amazingly, in the middle of everything going on in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Hockey League (UHL) has crowned MHK Sokil as their champion. SG Cortina (Italy) has won the Alps Hockey League (AlpsHL). Anyang Halla (South Korea) won the first Asia League Ice Hockey (ALIH) title in three years because of the pandemic. The team's head coach is former AHL'er Jim Paek, with one-time Providence Bruin Matt Dalton, a South Korean citizen, in the net. The XL Center honored their late colleague Pat Rudolph-Anderson by having her family drop the ceremonial first puck after a moment of silence. In addition, all monies raised from the 50/50 raffle, Chuck-A-Puck, and jersey auction were donated to the family. The other tribute came behind the goal on each end of the ice as the name "Pat" was etched onto the ice surface by 40-year-plus XL veteran Ice Crew Chief Therell Wayne Knight in a thoughtful homage. HARTFORD WOLF PACK HOME Read the full article

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HARTFORD WOLF PACK DESTROY SPRINGFIELD THUNDERBIRDS IN GAME ONE

By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings SPRINGFIELD, MA - The Hartford Wolf Pack received three-point games from Ty Emberson and Tanner Fritz, two goals from Lauri Pajuniemi, 24 saves from Dylan Garand, and put forth a total sixty-minute effort in a 6-1 win in Game One over the Springfield Thunderbirds. The Wolf Pack, who picked the right time for their best game of the season, can wrap up the series at the XL Center on Friday. Puck drop is at 7:05 PM. In the third period, the Pack closed out Game 1 with an early tally to make it 5-0. Will Cullye was at the left side of the net and shuffled a pass out to Ryan Carpenter, who was down on his left knee in a shooter's position. Carpenter popped his first postseason goal this season and 12th career AHL playoff goal at 3:35. Carpenter's exuberance at the goal prompted a strong fist pump. Defensively, the Wolf Pack quickly extinguished any thought Springfield may have had thought of making a comeback with their foot firmly on the gas pedal. The only Thunderbirds tally in the contest came on the power play. It ended a PK kill streak of 29 straight for the Pack. Righthanded shooting Adam Gaudette put a shot off his back foot and put it past Garand at 11:44. BEST DEFENSE IS A STRONG OFFENSE The Pack kept the offensive pressure on with a hat trick bid by Pajuniemi that Hofer stopped with his blocker before Adam Clendening had a drive stopped. Garand faced spaced-out activity in the first two periods but was tested in the third with the expected pushback as Nikita Alexandrov was stopped. Then down the stretch, Garland stopped Matt Peca, Gaudette twice, and then Martin Frk. Springfield Head Coach Drew Bannister pulled Hofer with 4:21 left. The Wolf Pack did everything incredibly well. Garand tried for the empty net goal but came up short. The Pack finally tacked on the sixth and final goal as Emberson launched a 200-foot flip shot that found the back of the empty net at 18:38. It clinched his third point of the night for both he and Fritz and the final score. SECOND PERIOD The second period saw the Pack control the pace of the game. Coming out of the penalty box, Zac Jones was wide open. He took a backhanded pass on the left wing from Will Lockwood, went to the forehand, and tucked it around Hofer's right pad at 6:02. It gave the Pack a 2-0 lead. The Pack penalty kill held Springfield without a shot, and the MassMutual crowd was audibly groaning and irritated with their Thunderbirds. The Pack played quality defense and were counter-attacking at will. FIRST PERIOD Frk was stopped early, followed at 1:20 by Anton Blidh, who fed Blake Hillman. He was stopped. Blidh had a solid chance on a turnaround just off an offensive zone draw. The Pack made it 3-0 as Pajuniemi registered his second goal of the night, the second time that a player had just exited the penalty box. The whole play came off a Blidh block shot that left him prone on the ice. The puck caromed off him right to Pajuniemi. The shot hurt Blidh, who went down the runway back to the locker room afterward. He returned 15 minutes later. On the next shift, Springfield’s Tyler Tucker tried some rabbit punches on Pajuniemi, earning him a minor. Springfield’s Matt Highmore was left enraged, and the crowd was confused by an odd delay of game call, but the Pack was not about to turn down the five-on-three power play, confusing as it might have been. Carpenter went wide with a backhander. Another strange call for hooking to Turner Elson left him bewildered and frustrated. Referees Jim Curtin and Mike Dietrich gave him four minutes for the hooking call and then tacked on unsportsmanlike conduct. With 13:30 left, Hugh McGing was stopped by Garand, but Blake Hillman was cross-checked from behind into the net. It earned Will Bitten a penalty, and a small scrum ensued. FIRST PERIOD In the first period, during the first five minutes, forechecked the Thunderbirds hard. They outshot them and scored first to level an early dent in Hofer’s armor. Pajuniemi was the recipient of a perfect tape-to-tape pass from the left-wing boards by Emberson. He moved in and from thirty-feet out, fired it over Hofer on the blocker side, ending his personal shutout streak of 206 minutes against the Wolf Pack. The perfect road period began with strong forechecking from Bobby Trivigno and Karl Henriksson. Eight minutes in, Trivigno went down the right wing was stopped. A sterling opening 20 minutes for the Pack included 11 shots and they held the Thunderbirds to just two shots, equaling a season-low mark in Bridgeport in a 9-0 win.  LINES: Cullye-Carpenter-Elson Gettinger-Edström-Lockwood Henriksson-Sýkora-Trivigno Fritz-Pajuniemi-Blidh Jones-Emberson Hillman-Scanlin Clendening-Kalynuk Garand Gahagen #35 SCRATCHES: -Talyn Boyko #40 -Matt Rempe (upper body, day-to-day) -Louie Roehl #4 (healthy) -Bryce McConnell-Barker #8 (healthy) -Brett Berard #27 (healthy) -Cooper Zech #37 (healthy) -Matt Robertson (upper body, out for the first round of the playoffs) -Patrick Khordorenko (season-ending shoulder surgery). -C.J. Smith (hip area surgery done for the season) NOTES: The USA U-18 Team is about to embark on the World U-18 championships in Basel and Ajoie, Switzerland, on April 20-23. Finland named their roster. The team is coached by former Yale assistant Dan Muse and one of his assistants is ex-Pack, Chad Kolarik. Players include former Mid-Fairfield U-16 team players Sal Guzzo and Ryan Fine, who played together at Don Bosco Prep (NJPREP). The Canadian U-18 squad coaches are ex-Springfield Falcon coach Jeff Truitt (Prince Albert-WHL), and one of his assistants is an ex-Danbury Trasher, Bruce Richardson (Blaineville-Boisbrand-QMJHL). The XL Center had a tough day today, despite the Wolf Pack playoff appearance.  On Monday, the long-time supervisor of the night cleaning crew, Pat Rudolph, passed away after a brief illness. Pat was always polite and kind. Sadly, she joins a sad club of  XL employees over 50 years of age to suffer from or pass from some form of cancer. RIP to Pat, and may God comfort your family during this difficult and painful time. HARTFORD WOLF PACK HOME   Read the full article

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SPRINGFIELD THUNDERBIRDS MAKE HISTORY

By: Sam Zis, Howlings Springfield, MA – The Springfield Thunderbirds set a franchise record with their seventh straight win after defeating the visiting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 4-2 at the MassMutual Center on Friday night.   The T-Birds started quickly. After missing a high-quality scoring opportunity in the first minute, Keean Washkurak found the back of the net just four minutes into the game. The sneaky wrister found its way past the Penguins' starting goaltender, Taylor Gauthier. A recent AHL All-Star selection Matthew Highmore continued the early offense with a power play goal halfway through the first period. Highmore caught a pass from Matthew Peca and threaded the needle with a beautiful between-the-legs play past Gauthier.  With 2:45 left in the first, the Penguins cut the lead in half with a power play goal of their own. The Thunderbirds took a controversial Too Many Men penalty, which the Penguins capitalized on off a crazy double-deflection goal that was awarded to Colin Swoyer. At the first intermission, the Penguins were outshooting the Thunderbirds 14-10, despite trailing on the scoreboard 2-1. Springfield came out of the gates hard to start the second period. The Thunderbirds dominated play and peppered Gauthier with quality shots but couldn’t solve him. The Penguins didn't get their first shot on goal in the period until a slapshot into the glove of Thunderbirds goaltender Vadim Zherenko with only 8;42 left in the second period. The Thunderbirds' domination in the second period resulted in a power play goal with 5 minutes to play in the period as American Hockey League veteran Martin Frk buried a slapshot top shelf past Gauthier for his 16th of the season. The Thunderbirds flipped the shot total on the Penguins 25-22 after 40 minutes.  The Thunderbirds aimed to defend their lead in the third period; but, the Penguins had different ideas. Only 4 minutes into the period Penguins forward Alex Nylander snipped a blast past Zherenko to cut the lead down to one. With the Penguins pressing, the Thunderbirds found themselves on their heels being forced to fend off a flurry of shots only two minutes after Nylander's goal. The physical game heated up as the period progressed. The Penguins were frustrated by their lack of scoring chances, due to a smothering defensive performance by the Thunderbirds.  The Thunderbirds sealed the deal with Peca's empty-netter with 44 seconds left in the game. After the game, T-Birds Head Coach Drew Bannister praised his leadership group and the team's hard work. Washkurak's energy and physical play were very impressive throughout the contest. Bannister described him as, “a workhorse from day one.”  The Thunderbirds look to extend their streak to eight Saturday night when they face off against the Bridgeport Islanders in the team's highly popular, "Springfield Isotopes game."  SPRINGFIELD THUNDERBIRDS HOME Read the full article

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CANTLON: THUNDERBIRDS FIND A WAY OVER PACK

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Sam Anas tallied twice for the second straight game and posted three points. Dakota Joseph scored a late power play goal propelling the Springfield Thunderbirds to a 3-2 win past the Hartford Wolf Pack, who dropped their fifth game in their last six. Hartford (.553) held onto fourth place and have a minuscule point percentage lead over tomorrow night’s opponent, the Hershey Bears (.548) who were shut out 2-0 in Providence by the second-place Bruins. Rookie Nils Lundkvist was called for the penalty and Anas began the winning play by launching the first shot. It was stopped by Huska. Veteran James Neal got a piece of the shot and Joseph was all alone in front of the net and was able to bury his fifth of the season into the back of the net at 15:09. The defensive duo of Matt Robertson and Zac Jones were both victimized just 19 seconds into the penalty. “We had a good first period and really good in the third period. We got a good power play goal, but they got two. I don’t think we deserved five penalties.” That was as far as Head Coach Kris Knoblauch would go in his criticism of the officiating. The Pack thought they might engineer a third-period comeback scoring a power play goal of their own at 6:36. Lauri Pajuniemi returned to the lineup and uncorked a rocket of a shot for his tenth of the season into the open right side of the net. His game has been missed and his whole game impressed Knoblauch. “For a guy who has hardly played in three or four weeks (one game in the last five weeks) to not only score a goal but play a heckuva of a game was not easy for a guy to come into our lineup. Lauri was impressive for us.” Springfield was granted another early power play in the second period. A power play specialist in his playing days in Hartford, Springfield Head Coach, Drew Bannister, put out five forwards and struck gold. “Springfield has very good and dangerous players whether they have five or four forwards or not out there. There tough to defend against.” Hugh McGing and James Neal were stopped, but three times was the charm as Anas scored his second goal in two games and collected his 18th of the season. Adam Huska kept the score close with some key goaltending. At 8:40 James Neal on a breakaway took away the intended right side of the net. Then just after the goal, the Thunderbirds' Mathias Laffiere was denied and then Anthony Greco hit his third post in two games. “Adam did a good job making it only a one-goal game after 40 minutes. He played really well for us. We gave up too many odd-man rushes.” At 14:58, former Wolf Pack Josh Wesley, the son of former Hartford Whaler Glen Wesley, came from his own zone and sprung Will Bitten for a breakaway. Huska made the stop. Puck management, or lack thereof, was the culprit in a less than a sterling second period where the Pack only generated five shots. “We were atrocious. We turned the puck over way too many times at the blue line whether on the attack or defending," Knoblauch said. "Six were a direct result of turning the puck over at the blue line. Nothing had to do with defending, it was the puck management.” With 2:05 left, Springfield’s Hugh McGing was stopped on the doorstep as Huska lost his stick in the process. Defenseman Zac Jones was backchecking and assisted him in keeping the puck out. The Wolf Pack grabbed the lead as rookie Brandon Scanlin sent a blast from the point. It was blocked in front and Jones found the biscuit and sent a short pass to Patrick Khordorenko who whistled his seventh goal of the season past Charlie Lindgren for a 1-0 lead at 12:37. “Scanlin played well he played a very good game for us, kept it simple, got the puck for us played very well, has a good shot from the point. and made a nice play and it can be a bit overwhelming in playing your first game from college he played a really good game.” The big guns of Springfield came through as Joseph was down low and found Anas and he scored his 17th goal and hit the half-century mark in points in the process. Anas was on the left-wing goal line and able to have his shot in a tight area. He had eyes and eluded Huska with 3:33 left. Huska made several big stops early as the Thunderbirds had an advantage in shots. He stopped two back-to-back attempts by Hugh McGing. Mathias Laffiere is the rookie from the Montreal area and has had one goal in the first 40 games. He left Matt Robertson in the dust. He got around Huska who went for the poke check but lost that battle, however, Laffiere hit the side of the net. Nick Merkley made a nice play in his second Wolf Pack game had a solid bid for his first goal on the right-wing. He made a good move on Lindgren who reached back and just made the save and the officials reviewed and confirmed no goal. LINES Merkley-Fritz-Lorito Ronning-Greco-Khordorenko Richards-Rueschoff-Pajuniemi Taylor-Whalen-O’Leary Tinordi-Skinner Jones-Scanlin Robertson- Lundkvist Huska Kinkaid SCRATCHES Guittari Gettinger (out until next week) Girduckis Reunanen DiGiacinto (still dealing with the effects of a facial laceration, day-to-day) NOTES Aaron Luchuk's release was simply a numbers game. HARTFORD WOLF PACK HOME Read the full article

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CANTLON'S CORNER: MUCH TO DISCUSS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT -  The Hartford Wolf Pack went to Pennsylvania in search of a couple of wins, but despite some strong play, they returned to Insurance City with two losses which ran their current losing streak to five games. The team started off the season with a nine-game winning streak. It wasn't going to last forever. This is an expected bump in the road for a team whose fans who have suffered through a long five years where a long losing streak has been the signal that a season was about to unravel. The Pack has fallen from the top spot in the AHL during their quick start, but have since fallen into the eighth spot overall in the last two weeks. They now trail the Milwaukee Admirals, Toronto Marlies, Providence Bruins, Tucson Roadrunners, Rochester Americans, Stockton Heat, and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The Pack is now third in the Atlantic Division behind both Providence and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It is not a good development. This crew seems to possess both the design and the mental toughness differently than teams past and should be able to weather this storm. At the same time, however, some hard truths have surfaced. The Pack's two goalies, Igor Shesterkimn, and rookie Adam Huska have provided a lot of cover with their exceptional play and have allowed Hartford to jump through the escape hatch too many times for this early in the season. Their over-reliance on these two top-notch goalies that they will always bail them out often leads to taking shortcuts. The team's offense has been all over the place. They're living on the ledge in so many one-goal games. There seems to be a brief period of popping 4, 5, or 6 to the overall offensive shortage that has been lost in the wins. Now, with the inevitable injury and lineup changes, the veneer has sustained a few chips. Captain Steven Fogarty has been consistent and leading by example. He's scored late goals twice that forced overtime, but other veterans have had struggles. The team’s leading scorer, Vinni Lettieri, has been all over the map in this early part of the season. He's either shown a vintage windup cannon of a slapshot or he's not as involved in the flow of the game as the coaches would like. Finding a way to increase his consistency would be a huge help to this team. After a strong start, Phil DiGiuseppe has cooled off. Though in his case, it's not from lack of trying. It's just that his stick has gotten frosty. Matt Beleskey has had his issues too. He's had great chances, but too many are missing the net. Those three are not alone. To no one's surprise, rookie, Patrick Newell, making the move up from college and playing his first pro season has seen him go very quiet. Meanwhile, Lias Andersson continues to be an enigma. He seems to have come to Connecticut's capital city with the right temperament. He wants to use the time in Hartford wisely, but he has just contributed two chippy goals in five games, on just eleven shots on goal. He's also sporting a minus-five, which is just not good enough for the third-year pro. Add in that he is playing at center, where the Rangers have a logjam of talent. The 21-year-old has another year to go on his Entry-Level-Contract. Should the Rangers brass decide to trade him,  hopefully, they get someone back that will fit in better with the scheme of things and add production? Maybe they consider shifting Andersson to the left-wing or they find a spot for him in Europe like the Swedish Hockey League for him to get more time to develop? The team has also had its share of injuries. The Pack has lost Gabriel Fontaine for the season. They are now hurting for his leadership and his helping with line consistency. Lewis Zerter-Gossage now finds the Pack testing the outer range of their depth chart entering the third month of the season. The Pack must get more goal production, and spend more time in their opponent's end of the ice to alleviate the pressure on their goalies and defense. COACHING CHANGE IN TORONTO  On Monday morning, Ex-Wolf Pack captain, and former Sound Tiger, Greg Moore, was surprisingly named the new head coach of the Toronto Marlies. He replaces the departed Sheldon Keefe, who was promoted to the Maple Leafs last week after Mike Babcock was given his walking papers. Moore was a "guest coach" in training camp for the Marlies, and was hired away from the USHL Chicago Steel, where his team led the East Division and tied for the overall league lead with Waterloo at 15-4-1. He inherits the AHL’s second-best team, who sit atop the North Division with a record of 15-3-2. There are far worse ways to start. The hire was an out-of-the-box move by Leafs GM, Kyle Dubas, who went outside the Marlies' structure. The team's three assistants, Rob Davison, Jack Han, and AJ Mclean must be feeling left out. Moore's first game is Wednesday night in Rochester. He then returns home for a pair of weekend 4 pm games with the San Antonio Rampage, who are also coached by a former Wolf Pack, Drew Bannister. Moore will now miss the USHL outdoor game as part of the Bridgestone NHL Classic Series between Chicago and the Green Bay Gamblers scheduled for January 3rd. UP AND DOWN The Montreal Canadiens have made two recalls from Laval. They are former QU Bobcat, Matt Peca, and goaltender, Cayden Primeau, who is the son of ex-Hartford Whaler and NHL’er, Keith Primeau, and he's considered a very promising prospect. Two generations ago, another big, young goalie was recalled to Montreal. Ken Dryden came up from the Montreal Voyageurs and had a spectacular, but just nine-season career winning the Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) before winning the Calder Trophy the following season. Over those nine seasons, Dryden won five Stanley Cups. Dryden's last AHL game on March 15, 1971. It was a 9-3 stinker against Hershey. His first NHL game was against the Buffalo Sabres. The opposing goalie… his older brother Dave. It would be the only time a pair of goalie brothers faced each other in an NHL game. Ex-Pack and Sound Tiger, Joe Combs, leaves Wichita (ECHL) for EC Bad Nauheim (Germany-DEL-2). Ex-Pack Shawn O’Donnell’s five-game tryout EV Ravensburg (Germany-DEL-2) with five points has been extended for the remainder of the season. Former UCONN Husky, Evan Richardson, leaves from HC Briancon (France-FREL) to HC Amiens (France-FREL). After seven games, Ryan Horvat of Charlotte opts to sign with Nottingham (England-EIHL) for the rest of the season. USA vs. CANADA In a little over two weeks, the women’s hockey world will be spotlighted in Hartford for the first of a five-game Rivalry Series between the US and Canadian programs. It kicks off at the XL Center on Saturday, December 14. Simply put, these two are indisputably the best national women’s programs. It would make sense to turn the Olympics into a Best-of-Seven series between the two countries. That would be a winner in the ratings. They will have to settle for a Best-of-Five tournament. Their meetings in the Olympics have been among hockey’s most classic games. The second game between the North American neighbors will be on Tuesday, December 17th in Moncton, New Brunswick Canada at 7:30 PM AST at the Avenir Centre, which is home to the QMJHL's Moncton Wildcats. The other three games will be played out West. Two will be in Canada. One will be on Monday, February 3rd at 7 PM PST in Victoria at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, the home of the WHL's Victoria Royals. The second will be held in Vancouver on February 5th at the Rogers Arena, the home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks. The series concludes in Anaheim, California at the Honda Center, the home of the NHL's Anaheim Ducks on Saturday, February 8th at 7 PM PST. The US will also be holding its camp from December 9-13 at the XL Center in preparation for the big game. The US squad has a lot of young ladies whose fathers and brothers had NHL careers. They are led by Alex Carpenter, one of the top female college hockey players who hales from Boston College. Her father, Bobby Carpenter, was a first-round pick (3rd overall) in the NHL Entry Draft. Carpenter was picked right out of high school by Washington in 1981. Her brother, Robert, is presently injured, otherwise, he likely be playing in Bridgeport for the AHL Sound Tigers. Hilary Knight is scheduled to skate. The three-time US Olympian, where she's picked up two silvers and a gold medal, played at Choate Rosemary Hall (Wallingford) and on the CT Polar Bears (Northford), the first all-girls program started in the Nutmeg state in 1985. Melissa Samoskevich of Sandy Hook, a former Quinnipiac University Lady Bobcat, is playing professionally with Brynas IF (Sweden-SDHL). Her brother, Mackie Samoskevich, is currently playing with the Chicago Steele (USHL) and is University Michigan (Big 10) commit for next year. His twin sister Madison plays prep hockey for Shattuck’s St. Mary’s in Minnesota. Other notables include; Jesse Compher, who's brother, J.T., skates with the Colorado Avalanche, Amanda Kessel, the sister of Phil Kessel, is with Arizona and Blake is with Orlando (ECHL). Hayley Scamurra, who's father Peter Scamurra played with the Washington Capitals. Two players are coming over from playing in China with KRS Vaske Rays in Shenzhen, China in Megan Bozek and Carpenter, who has played in China for the last three years. Read the full article

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CANTLON: WOLF PACK OFF SEASON VOLUME 15

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Another week closer to the start of the 2019-20 hockey season. While the bulk of the hockey news has already happened with the draft, free-agent signings, and buy-outs, there's still plenty of news to share. The Hartford Wolf Pack are bringing back Greg Chase for the upcoming season after signing him to a one-year AHL deal. Chase enters his fifth professional season, after skating in five games with the Wolf Pack in 2018-19. He went scoreless with four penalty minutes and two shots on goal. The 6-0, 190-pound Edmonton, Alberta native also logged a total of 64 ECHL games with three different teams last season.  In 41 contests with the Wolf Pack’s ECHL affiliate, the Maine Mariners, the 24-year-old Chase notched 21 goals and 21 assists for 42 points, as well as 72 penalty minutes.  He also suited up for ten games with the Wichita Thunder (1-5-6, 12 PIM) and 13 games with the Allen Americans (1-2-3, 19 PIM). Chase was taken in the seventh-round draft pick (188th overall) by the Edmonton Oilers in 2013 and has seen action in 102 AHL games in his career. He's played with the Wolf Pack, the Oklahoma City Barons, Bakersfield Condors and Springfield Thunderbirds and has tallied seven goals and 20 assists (27 points) and amassed 55 penalty minutes. In 124 career ECHL contests with the Mariners, Thunder, Americans and Norfolk Admirals, he has totaled 48 goals and 57 assists for 105 points, as well as 159 PIM. Prior to turning pro, Chase played five seasons junior hockey action in the WHL with the Calgary Hitmen and Victoria Royals.  In 265 career WHL games, he registered 78 goals and 143 assists for 221 points, along with 247 penalty minutes. Chase is the nephew of former Hartford Whalers forward Kelly Chase. Kris Knoblauch and Gord Murphy start their first full week as the Hartford coaching tandem as they prepare for the Traverse City Prospects tournament. Looking at the WJSS in Plymouth, Michigan, two defensemen for the US squad really stood out. They are two Ranger draft picks, K’Andre Miller (University Wisconsin - Big10) and Zac Jones (Tri-City - USHL). Ex-Pack Layne Ulmer is not done yet. He left Cardiff Devils (Wales-EIHL) and signed with Manchester Storm (England-EIHL) for next season. Nice update on ex-Pack/CT Whale goalie Cam Talbot now in Calgary now on the other side of the Battle of Alberta, by Luke Fox of Rogers Sportsnet. Read it HERE Ex-Pack Shane McColgan was named Head coach and GM of the Valencia Flyers (WSHL) an AAU Tier III junior level league. The San Antonio Rampage announced Jim Johnson was let go in Edmonton. Johnson has a long NHL background with Tampa Bay, San Jose, and Washington as a head coach and assistant. He is the Rampage's new assistant coach to replace former Wolf Pack assistant coach JJ Daigneault, Daigneault took a head coaching job with Halifax (QMJHL). The other Rampage assistant is ex-Sound Tiger Daniel Thaczuk and the head coach is ex-Wolf Pack Drew Bannister. Great piece from the Sunday Toronto Sun column from long-time hockey writer columnist Steve Simmons and a great line from Ray Ferraro. A WHALE OF A STAFF The 1984-85 Hartford Whalers were not a very good team, finishing with 69 points, last in what was then the Adams Division, 14th in a 21-team NHL with a load of lousy teams. But here we are, 35 years later and the Whalers leading scorer, Ron Francis, was recently hired as the general manager of the expansion Seattle franchise, a week before, former teammate Paul Fenton was fired surprisingly as GM in Minnesota. From that forgettable Whalers team, there are coaches such as Joel Quenneville (Florida-NHL), Dave Tippett (Edmonton-NHL), Mark Johnson (University Wisconsin Big 10-W) and Kevin Dineen (San Diego-AHL), who have done quite well for themselves. There are broadcasters such as Ray Ferraro (TSN), the best in the game, and the long-serving Hockey Night in Canada color man, Greg Millen. There’s even career assistant coaches or minor league coaches like Ulf Samuelsson (presently not in coaching), Dean Evason (Minnesota-NHL) and Kurt Kleinendorst (Nuremberg Germany-DEL) from that team and a prominent player agent in former goalie, Mike Liut. Pretty amazing that ordinary NHL team could produce so many hockey lifers in prominent positions. “When I look back, we had Joel, Kevin Dineen, Dave Tippett, Doug Jarvis (Vancouver-NHL), John Anderson (Retired), Dean Evason — a lot of guys who became coaches on that team,” Ferraro said. “Maybe that was our problem with the Whalers. We had too many coaches, not enough players !!” Kevin Shattenkirk (Greenwich/Brunswick Prep) after just being bought out of his deal with the New York Rangers last Wednesday, officially signed a one year $1.75 million deal with Tampa Bay Monday. Another AHL'er leaves North America for Europe. Jonathan Dahlen, the son of former Ranger, Ulf Dahlen, gets loaned to Timra IK (Sweden-Allsvenskan) by the San Jose Sharks. Dahlen had been playing for the Sharks affiliate, the Utica Comets That makes 64 AHL’ers have signed in Europe and Asia and now 25 of 31 teams have lost at least one player. Former UConn Husky, Derek Pratt, the son of former New Haven Nighthawk, Tom Pratt, was involved in a two-for-one trade. He and Garrett Cecere were sent by the Maine Mariners to the Kansas City Mavericks (ECHL) for Jordan Klimek. Ex-Sound Tiger, Josh Holmstrom, signs with Norfolk (ECHL). Evan Wiscocky transfers out of UConn (HE) after two years to attend and play at Sacred Heart University (AHA). At age 21, he can play immediately this season and not sit out a full year. Wisocky, will meet his former school on opening night of the college hockey season in Bridgeport at the Webster Bank Arena October 5th. Five more collegians sign professional deals. John Marino leaves Harvard (ECACHL) a year early and signs and an entry-level deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He will likely start the season with the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL). Anthony Crosten, of Arizona State, the NCAA Division I independent, signs with Adirondack (ECHL). Brendan Robbins of the University Maine (HE) signs with Reading (ECHL) and Devin Campbell, of Division III SUNY-Oswego (SUNYAC), signs with Wichita (ECHL). C.J. Stubbs departs Morrisville State College (SUNYAC) and signs a one-year deal with Roanoke (SPHL) and a try-out deal with Utah (ECHL) making 191 Division I players to have signed, and 258 overall college players to sign pro deals. Patrick Mullen, the nephew of ex-Nighthawk, Tom Mullen, and the son of former NHL great, Joey Mullen, moves from Vienna (Austria-EBEL) to Belfast (Northern Ireland-EIHL). Ex-Sound Tiger, Kirill Kabanov, goes from Krefeld (Germany-DEL) and heads back to Aalborg (Denmark-DHL). Brian Flynn (Pomfret Prep) goes from EV Zug (Switzerland-LNA) and goes to HC Ambri-Piotta (Switzerland-LNA). Steven Seeger (Stamford/Brunswick Prep/CT Oilers-EHL) leaves EHC Freiburg (Germany DEL-2) and heads to EC Kassel (Germany DEL-2). Matej Baca, the nephew of former Whaler, Jergus Baca, goes from HC Liptovsky (Slovakia-SLEL) to HC Bratislava (Slovakia Division-2) Former Ranger, Josh Green, goes from Winnipeg Blues (MJHL) in Junior A hockey to the just relocated Winnipeg Ice (WHL) in the same role as an assistant coach under ex-Ranger, James Patrick, the team’s heads coach. Ty Pochipinski, the son of former Nighthawk, Trevor Pochipinski, played four games with Colorado College (NCHC) and then the rest of the year with Penticton (BCHL), commits to Air Force (NCAA Independent) next year. David Bell leaves Ontario to take the same position as an assistant coach with Belleville, leaving only Springfield and Hartford without a second assistant coach. On the heels of seven schools announcing they're leaving the WCHA conference to form their own new hockey conference in two years, the University of Alaska's two programs; the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks and the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves may become a combined program in the very near future because of serious state budget cuts. Read a story from the  Anchorage Daily News HERE. The Nutmeg State has another Division III hockey program as the Post University Eagles (Waterbury) have officially joined the Northeast-10 for hockey. Other schools in the program include St. Anselm (Manchester, NH), Assumption College (Worcester, MA), Southern New Hampshire University (Manchester, NH), Franklin Pierce (Rindge, NH), Saint Michael’s College (Colchester, VT), and Stonehill College (Easton, MA). The seven teams now comprise the only Division II college hockey conference in the nation. Presently five Division III level programs exist in the state. The Eagles head coach in his second season is Pete Whitney, who spent 11 years coaching at Gunnery Prep of Washington, CT. He also spent two years at Central Connecticut State University (ACHA Division-2). One of his three assistant coaches enters his third season, Tim Richter (Naugatuck). Richter played junior hockey with the CT Clippers and the Hartford Jr. Wolf Pack. He then spent two years with the Danbury Whalers (FHL) and played six games with the Danbury Titans. The Eagles’ home arena is The Sports Center of Connecticut, formerly known as the Twin Rinks of Shelton. Read more about it HERE. The Carolina Hurricanes dysfunctionality is an open case study of poor ownership and Tom Dundon seems not to care. Cantlon's Corner has not had one pro source spoken with that has a positive word to say about how he is handling the Hurricanes. Read that HERE The Danbury Colonials (N3HL) the newest junior team in the state has added its first four players to its roster. Goalie Shane O’Brien from the Boston Jr. Bruins (NCDC) and CT Chiefs (Newington) (EHL) last season was their first signee. Nate Mastrony (Trumbull) is the first CT signee played last season with Notre Dame - Fairfield.  He was also coached the past two seasons in Spring HS hockey by Howlings Editor-In-Chief, Mitch Beck. Kolby Donovan was just signed from the Boston Jr. Bruins (USPHL - Premier) and Wesley Westendorf, who comes from a very non-traditional hockey market, Little Rock, Arkansas. Read the full article

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CANTLON: PENS WIN IN OT OVER PACK

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Adam Johnson’s penalty shot goal at 1:47 of overtime allowed the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins to pull out a 4-3 win before a season-best XL Center crowd of 7,438. The situation presented itself when the Wolf Pack’s Nick Ebert fell down near the left-wing boards at the blue line and the Penguins Adam Johnson picked up the loose puck and was off to the races. Vinni Lettieri makes a valiant effort to get back as he shot but clearly interfered with Johnson who was awarded the rarest play of all--an overtime penalty shot. Johnson went in on Adam Huska decided to go with a forehand to backhand move and slipped his ninth of the season past him at 1:47. “Something about this building we’ve been playing pretty good in it. Adam hasn’t had a lot of luck in shootouts, so it was nice to see him get that. His speed is dynamic and when you get a break like that you got to make the most of it and he did,” said Wilkes Barre head coach Mike Vellucci. The Pack’s bench boss Kris Knoblauch couldn’t dispute the call. “A penalty shot was the right call. It was a tough way to end a game.” The penalty shot was the 43rd against Hartford, but the first one in overtime in 23 years. The Wolf Pack had a great chance to start the third period on the powerplay and only managed two shots. The powerplay was 0-4 and the opportunity was there just let them slip through. “When you need that powerplay goal it just disappoints you when you don’t score, but we did bounce back and we fought back,” said Knoblauch. The Wolf Pack had the chance and it was the Penguin who got the goal. After the penalty expired Cole Cassels started a rush up ice fed Adam Johnson as they crossed into Wolf Pack territory and he, in turn, slipped a short pass over to Kevin Roy, who in one motion ripped his 11th goal far side on Huska at 3:31 that allowed Wilkes Barre/Scranton to slip ahead 3-2. Cassels picked up his second point to make the play happen has been gaining more ice time with the Penguins and making it count. “He’s a good kid and a good player,” remarked Vellucci “The last few years they didn’t let him be an offensive guy. He really is a 200-foot game guy and he has really good hands as you saw on the first goal and getting that play started you see, he’s a smart player as well The Wolf Pack fought through the defensive maze of Wilkes Barre to tie the game at three overcoming their third deficit of the night and breathed life into the possible late-game theatrics trying to win the game. Steve Fogarty getting the puck up to Nick Ebert who spotted an open Vitali Kravtsov surging to the middle threaded the pass between two players to send the Russian in on a breakaway, Kravtsov put on the afterburner saw ex-Pack goalie Dustin Tokarski feet were locked up and zipped his fifth goal of the season five-hole to tie the gamer at three at 10:39. The Wolf Pack had two solid chances late, no better one with 1:32 left with Vinni Lettieri in close wide open, but  Tokarski made the save. “We did a lot of good things tonight. We were just fighting it too much at times,” remarked a clearly frustrated Lettieri knowing he had a golden opportunity. The Pack’s Patrick Newell had a grade-A chance searching out and forcing a turnover and then taking the puck turning and firing through a screen, that Tokarski blocked blindly with his blocker with 4:20 left that fell at his feet, but the Pack couldn’t get at the loose puck. The first three to five minutes of the second period was wild and wooly. The Wolf Pack tied at 45 seconds as Vinni Lettieri curling off left-wing half wall got the play started sending a diagonal cross-ice pass to Vincent LoVerde who then took his pass finding an open Danny O’ Regan at the left side of the Penguins net O’ Regan partially fanned on the shot, but the net was wide open for the puck to slide over the goal line before Tokarksi could dive over and pull it back for his 11th of the season. The Penguins answered back as the defense combo last week that got the better of the Wolf Pack did so again. Pierre Olivier-Joseph zipped it over to Jon Lizotte who put a perfect low shot that rookie Ryan Scarfo, playing just his fourth game on recall from Wheeling (ECHL) perfectly redirected past Adam Huska at 2:16. The Wolf Pack on the penalty kill tried to stay back as Danny O ‘Regan burst down the right-wing with a semi-breakaway. He cut across the net caught a hook/slash from Derek Warsofsky lost control of the puck and Tim Gettinger was there took a shot and the goal horn was inadvertently sounded and immediately waved off, but the Wolf Pack got a powerplay out of it, but the Wolf Pack couldn’t connect. The Penguins scored first as John Nyberg from left point let a good low slapper go and Cole Cassels who lost a goal here last time got credit for this one again on a deflection in front for his seventh of the season at 11:16. It was ironic that the son of former Whaler Andrew  Cassels would score the first goal on Hartford Heritage Hockey Night. The Wolf Pack tied it two-on-one of the stranger goals of the season. The Penguins Olivier-Joseph was forced into coughing up the puck with checking along the right-wing boards. Vitali Kravtsov got the loose puck on the right-wing sent a pass to Darren Raddysh, drifting to the left side who let a rocket go that missed the net, but went right to Lettieri. From behind the goal line, he put the puck back toward the net and it went off Tokarski’s left leg and into the net for his team-best 23rd goal with 37.3 seconds left. That gave the Wolf Pack the momentum back before the period ended. “Anything can happen around the net, You’re always taught you just have to shoot when the goalie isn’t expecting it,” commented Lettieri scoring just his second goal in the last seven games. The Wolf Pack in the first period had four shots in the first five minutes and then just four in the final 15 of action as the two teams had a very close-to-the-vest period. The Wolf Pack best chances came from Ty Ronning and Brandon Crawley had two shots on net. The Penguins countered in their five other shots with Riley Barber just acquired from Laval with a right drive stop by Huska and late Sam Miletic had strong bids turned aside. NOTES: “Obviously, we wanted to win, but we just have to leave it behind us and get ready for tomorrow,” said Lettieri. The next home is next Sunday, March 1st at 3 PM against Providence. The penalty shot was Huska’s third he has faced and the third he was scored upon. In fact, the last five penalty shots by opponents have all been successful. The other goalies have to faced three include Jeff Malcolm, Steve Valiquette, Johan Holmquist, and Brandon Halverson had four. The most, Chad Johnson had six tossed his way in his Wolf Pack career. LINES: Fogarty-Kravtsov-Beleskey Jones-Newell-Gettinger O’Regan-Lettieri-Gropp McBride-Dmowski-Ronning Hajek-Raddysh Ebert-Geersten Crawley-LoVerde SCRATCHES: Boo Nieves - Upper body injury - Out indefinitely (He skated in practice the last few days for the first time in more than a week) Yegor Rykov - Healthy (Sixth time in the last eight games) Jake Elmer - Healthy Gabriel Fontaine - Shoulder Surgery - Season-ending NOTES: The ceremonial puck drop was two ex-Pack players, Stefan Cherneski and a big surprise, John Tripp. Wolf Pack Fan Jersey of the game. #25 Jake Taylor (Head coach Lakeville, MN HS), #44 Ryan Hollweg (retired), a pair of #7’s Drew Bannister (head coach in San Antonio) and a retired Lee Sorochan. #9 Nigel “Burger King “ Dawes (Avtomobilst Yaketerinburg Russia-KHL), #30 Ryan Haggerty (Springfield), #29 Ryan Cuthbert, who played just 25 games, #19 Benoit Dusablon (retired) whose linemate was John Tripp. UCONN Huskies on the strength of Sasha Payusov’s hat trick routed Boston University 6-1 in Boston Saturday night. The Huskies now are in fourth place in Hockey East one point behind third-place Maine who involved with scoreless overtime duel with Maine. UCONN closes out the regular season next weekend with a home and home with UMASS-Amherst. Fans are encouraged to wear white shirts next Friday is senior night in the regular season home finale. Ex-Pack Dan DeSalvo signed a PTO deal with the Chicago Wolves. Ex-Sound Tiger goalie Kevin Poulin signed a PTO deal with the Los Angeles Kings. Read the full article

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CANTLON: GETTING TO KNOW GETTINGER - HOLIDAY NEWS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings At 6’6, Tim Gettinger is hard to miss on the ice and his stock is rising as tall as he is. Gettinger, a Hartford Wolf Pack rookie left winger, has had some strong, decent numbers posting 12 points in 23 games through the first quarter of this AHL campaign. Gettinger was drafted by the Rangers in the fifth round (141st overall) in 2016. His four-game audition was a bit from left-field even for the left winger. “I was a little surprised, for sure. I was so excited, and surprised when I got the call, like really? The experience was very good for me. I really got an idea of what it will take to play at the next level. I take a lot of pride to have gotten there, but now I have more work to do to get back up there.” This past weekend the Wolf Pack had a pair of games against the AHL’s best team the Charlotte Checkers. “They're fast and skilled with the puck and without it. We realized how good they were last week. We have had a good week of practice to prepare.” The onus is on the older players to handle some scoring and assist in the growth curve for prospects as well. “It’s been great and a great group of guys on any line I’ve been on. And everyone has helped in my transition even lately when we have guys in and out of the lineup.“ Gettinger uses his size effectively and on the PP, his ability to redirect pucks is quite good. “I’ve been working on that since juniors. Being net-front, that’s where a lot of goals are scored these days. The key to practice is making sure your taking away the goalie’s eyes is key.” His recall to the New York Rangers opened his eyes as to what the NHL is like for a player, but in person, he saw what it's all about. “The speed of the game was something else. Down here it’s fast, but the NHL is so much faster up there. They go by you in no time, and you have to be physical just to keep up with the speed.” Gettinger has been in involved in a period where the evolution of the big man’s role in the game is changing. “It’s all about pure puck possession now and everybody is fast and to make plays you have to keep up with it.” The Rangers were selective in putting together a veteran core of players like Peter Holland, Shawn O’Donnell, and Bobby Butler to shepherd their young flock. The older players brought in during the offseason are there to help in the mentoring/tutoring process. THose players have been important in Gettinger's growth. “We have an excellent group of older players, I think. They really have taken us under their wings and it's not really just one guy. It has been a collective group. In juniors, you really don’t have to worry about players coming in and out of the lineup as much as we do here. It’s a bit different. I think we're all getting used to it by now. You have to just keep working hard no matter who is here.” Gettinger played four years with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, two of which were as an assistant captain. His last year he was the team's captain. He finds himself in Hartford as he did with the Sault. “I had it my first year in Sault Ste. Marie. I was a first-year guy learning the league. Again, there it was older guys like Darnell Nurse (Edmonton) and (current Ranger and ex-Pack) Tony DeAngelo bringing us along, and by the end of my (OHL) career, there I was, one of those guys, and the captaincy was a sign of trust in me.” Gettinger comes from Ohio, a non-traditional hockey area, that has been producing new hockey players. “Coming from Ohio, it's not the mecca of the hockey world,” Gettinger, from North Olmstead which is just north of Cleveland, said with a laugh. “I was very fortunate to get into a good program, and it was a good area and team for up-and-coming hockey players.” He got his baptism in hockey early. “I was four or five, and my brother (Grant) was playing. When the (AHL) Barons were in town we got to see games and they sponsored the youth teams. I really benefited from it, and my brother kept pushing me into hockey. I don’t regret that at all,” Gettinger said with a broad smile. His trek to the Canadian major junior route was a direction he hadn’t thought of as he was growing and developing with the Cleveland Jr. Barons program, initiated by the former AHL tenant of the same name in that city. “I was 15 at that time. I had somewhat of an idea what the OHL was about, but like most American guys, you're looking at the college route. Sault Ste. Marie called and said they were kind of interested (in me). To be honest, when I heard about it (that he had been drafted) I really didn’t know where Sault Ste. Marie was. They brought me into a development camp and I liked it right away, and it’s a very good hockey town.” He was very fortunate to have a family support system as he started his major junior portion of his early hockey odyssey. “My grandparents turned out lived about an hour away, just south of Sault Ste. Marie (Cheboygan, Michigan), so they were up all the time and that was great. It was a dream come true getting to play a high level of hockey. I had four great years there, and it’s a move I don’t regret at all.” The Greyhounds had lots of success during his time there. They had a tough series with the Hamilton Bulldogs in the OHL Final last spring with a Memorial Cup invite on the line as well as the OHL title. “We just missed out in the OHL Finals from going to the Memorial Cup. We lost in a seventh game that was a heartbreaking loss. My first year, we had some really good players and lost, and last year was a special group too, and we came up just a little short. It was a great series. Both buildings were packed every night. It was a fun time, but I wasn’t happy with the final outcome.” Former Wolf Pack player, Drew Bannister, now the head coach in San Antonio, was Gettinger's coach in Sault Ste. Marie and played a big role in his growth as a player. “He really helped me learn what it was going to take to be a pro. There were days, of course, he harped on me a little more. but that is a part of the process. Having Drew as a coach for three years, no question helped me grow tremendously both on and off the ice.” Gettinger will be heading back to Ohio for the holidays. “It's nice to get away from the bus for a bit. I'm looking forward to a few days at home for Christmas.” NOTES: The Pack was able to keep the Checkers "in check" partly because they had one of their best players, Janne Kaukkonnen, on recall by Carolina when Jordan Staal was put on IR. Christmas hockey tournaments are big every year and one of them in Davos, Switzerland is the 92nd edition of the Spengler Cup that starts on Boxing Day. Six teams from across Europe and an entry from Canada participate. Quite a few familiar names dot the lineups of each of the six teams. Team Canada-Could be called Team Whaler with recently named co-GM’s Sean Burke and Ron Francis and the head coach being Kevin Dineen. HC Dynamo Pardubice (Czech Republic-CEL) - The team GM is former Sound Tiger, Dusan Salficky. HC Davos (Switzerland-NLA) - Features ex-Pack forward, Andres Ambuhl, and the recently added ex-Pack, d-man, Bobby Sanguinetti. Metallurg Magnitogorsk (Russia-KHL) - Ex-Pack defenseman, Alexei Bereglasov. Nuremberg (Germany-DEL) - A pair of ex-Pack in Chris Brown and ex-CT Whale and Wolf Pack, Brandon Segal. KalPa Kuopio (Finland-FEL) - The coaching staff is led by former Whaler great Sami Kapanen and his assistant coach is from the very first Sound Tiger team, Marko Tuomainen. Lastly, HC Ocelari Trinec (Czech Republic-CEL) has skating for them, ex-CT Whale, Tomas Kundratek, who just returned from Kunlun (China-KHL), and former Sound Tiger Tomas Marcinko. Former Yale goalie, Alex Lyon, continues his season-long shuttle from Lehigh Valley to Philadelphia. Another goalie, Jon Gillies, (Salisbury Prep) is recalled from Stockton while Paul Carey (Salisbury Prep) is returned to Belleville by Ottawa. Mitch Eliot, the son of former Nighthawk, Daren Eliot, has signed a three-year entry-level deal with Vancouver. He is currently playing with the Sarnia Sting (OHL). Goalie Charlie Millen, the son of former Whaler goalie, Greg Millen, was loaned by Birmingham (SPHL) to the Reading Royals 9ECHL). Greg Chase, the nephew of former Whaler, Kelly Chase lands on his third ECHL team this year. He leaves the Allen (TX) Americans for the Maine Mariners. -Ex-Sound Tiger Greg Mauldin leaves Medvescak Zagreb (Croatia-EBEL). They are in deep financial trouble and released most of their players for a second time in two years. Mauldin signed for the rest of the season with the Stavanger Oilers (Norway-NEL). Read the full article