1ST RD: GAME TWO – LIKE PARENT – LIKE AFFILIATE 

VERSUS   

The Connecticut Whale lost Game Two of their first round playoff series at the Cumberland County Civic Center to the Portland Pirates 3-2 in overtime before 5,029 Saturday night.

But more than the loss that put the Whale down two games to none, is the tremendous similarities between the parent New York Rangers and their AHL affiliate, the Connecticut Whale. The similarities are almost too eerie. After playing a near carbon copy season, the playoffs are proving out to be even more similar.

It starts in how both teams got into the playoffs to being with.

The Rangers needed help from the Tampa Bay Lightning to knock off the Carolina Hurricanes, who were formerly known as the Hartford Whalers. They got that help in a 6-2 Lightning rout and the Rangers were in the playoffs as the eight seed to face the top seeded Washington Capitals.

Meanwhile the Whale needed the Hurricane’s AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, last season’s Hartford Wolf Pack ECHL affiliate before moving up to the AHL this season, to knock off the Worcester Sharks to punch the ticket for the Whale in order to chase Calder Cup silver. The Checkers came through and the Whale were in as the eight seed that is sent to play the number one seeded Portland Pirates.

That’s just the starting point.

Once they got in, the parent club Rangers lose the first game when a late fluky goal in regulation sends the game to overtime where a busted play leads to the game winner past a helpless goaltender.  They then end up losing the second game to the Capitals when the team can’t generate any sort of offense, get shut out 2-0 and find themselves down two games to none and heading home for a must-win game.

For the Connecticut Whale, they lost Game One due to 2:53 of complete brain lock where they allowed three goals and couldn’t recover and went on to lose 3-2.

It looked like the Whale might be headed in a different direction after a strong first period, but in true “Like Parent-Like Affiliate” thing they allowed a late third period goal to send it to overtime and then lost off a busted play that left their goaltender helpless and lost 3-2 (again) and now head home for a must-win Sunday battle with the Pirates.

The true story of this game was the Whale’s total disappearing act offensively.

After putting sixteen shots on goal in the first period and scoring twice, the Whale put just nine shots on goal the rest of the game including a season low for a period two-shot effort in the third and an equally inept three-shot second.

How bad was it?

To put it into proper perspective, the Whale actually took more penalties in the two periods, (6), than they did shots (5).

Head Coach Ken Gernander, who has stressed player discipline all season long could not be happy about that. He also likely wasn’t happy with the fact that referees Terry Koharski and Mark Lemelin somehow swallowed their whistles and lost site of the fact that they called the Whale seven times and only four for the home Pirates.

“It was an entertaining, back-and-forth game,” Pirates Head Coach told reporters after the game. “At the end of the day, we got the extra break, and that was the difference. And that’s what you need, to really take care of home ice.”

Derek Whitmore scored twice, including both the tying and game winning goals for the Pirates. The game winner came at 12:04 of overtime after Francis Lemieux’s shot from the Pirate blueline was blocked by Tim Conboy which led to a 2-on-1 against.

“I was kind of tired at the end of a shift, but (Conboy) made a great play at the blueline and forced the turnover,” Whitmore said to reporters. “(Brian Roloff) grabbed it, and we smelled blood with the 2-on-1 in overtime and wanted to take advantage of it. He made a great pass over to me, and I had a wide open net.

“It was a huge goal for us because it’s a lot better to be up 2-0 instead of tied 1-1, especially with the way we won coming from behind. It’s a real big boost for us.”

Dov Grumet-Morris (33 saves, 0-2-0), kept the Whale in the game while the offense was M.I.A., “(Whitmore) just got it over me,” said Grumet-Morris, who played with Whitmore earlier this season. “It was a good bury. He’s a good player who made a good play. It was an unfortunate series of events for us, but that’s overtime hockey.”

Whitmore’s first goal, which tied the game with just 7:40 to go in regulation was a fluke goal as rookie Tommy Grant, playing in just his ninth game as a pro, bumped into his own goaltender and the inadvertent contact knocked Grumet-Morris out of the play leaving Whitmore to shoot into practically an empty net.

Grumet-Morris, as he is want to do, protected his young teammate and took responsibility for the boondoggle. “It was unfortunate, but I’ll take the blame before I blame anyone else,” He said. “It happens in hockey…It was a mistake, everyone makes mistakes, I make mistakes all the time.”

Grumet-Morris’ first mistake came when he allowed Matt Ellis goal at 5:02 of the first period. Corey Tropp found the Pirate captain in the lower right corner and then Ellis caught Grumet-Morris anticipating a pass and before he could recover shot the puck and put it between Grumet-Morris and the short side post.

The Whale managed to recover and went on to score two of their own to close the period.

First, Francis Lemieux took a terrific feed from defenseman Tomas Kundratek for a breakaway at 15:26 to get the then game equalizer and then John Mitchell’s pass from the right corner into the crease got deflected into the net off a Pirate defender’s stick.

The goal gave the Whale their first lead of the playoffs with just 3:19 left in the first. But after the second goal, the offense took the rest of the night off managing just six shots through the remaining 2 1/2 periods and now face a huge uphill battle if they are to move on in the playoff race.

“Unfortunately we came out on the wrong side of the game and we have to come back and try to win the next game at home,” Grumet-Morris said. “Quick turnaround, we have the game (Sunday) at home, that’s it.”

Brian Ring was brought in for the Whale perspective. You’ll find that story at CTWhale.com.  Paul Betit could not attend the game due to an upper body injury so off the bench comes our own Bruce Berlet to the rescue. You can read the Master of the Keyboard’s take right here at Howlings. 

GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET

NOTES:

*  Whalers Sports and Entertainment president and CEO, Howard Baldwin made the trip up to Portland and took in the game with his wife Karen and his parents who live in Kennebunkport.

* Highly touted New York prospect Carl Hagelin made his AHL debut Saturday night and in true Rangers/Whale fashion, took a hooking penalty on his very first shift.

* The Whale PK units, which surrendered two goals on five tries in Game One, were seven-for-seven in this one.

* Connecticut had four power-play opportunities in Game One and were scoreless. They had four Saturday as well and put one in the net. They are now one-for-eight (12.5%) after going 5-for-32 (15.6%) against the Pirates in the regular season.

* Francis Lemieux’s breakaway goal was his first as a member of the Whale.

LINES:

Grachev – Mitchell – Williams
Dupont – Newbury – Weise
Grant – Lemieux – Couture
Hagelin – Garlock – Tessier

Redden – Nightingale
Valentenko – Parlett
Bickel – Kundratek

Grumet-Morris
Talbot

(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)

SCRATCHES:

Todd White – Concussion – Season
Devin DiDiomete – Hip – Season
Chad Kolarik – Hamstring – Day-to-Day
Michael Del Zotto – Broken Finger – Day-to-Day
Justin Soryal – Healthy Scratch
Dylan McIlrath – Healthy Scratch
Jason Missiaen – Healthy Scratch
Kale Kerbashian – Healthy Scratch
Andrew Yogan – Healthy Scratch
Shayne Wiebe – Healthy Scratch
Jyri Niemi – Healthy Scratch

THREE STARS:

1. POR – D. Whitmore
2. POR – M. Ellis
3. CT – D. Grumet-Morris

ON ICE OFFICIALS:

Referee:
Terry Koharski (10)
Mark Lemelin (84)

Linesmen:
Landon Bathe (80)
Joe Andrews (32)

NEXT GAME:

As much as Rangers head coach John Tortorella doesn’t like to admit that his team has their backs against the wall, both his and Ken Gernander’s teams are in exactly that position. If the Whale fall to the Pirates after Sunday’s 6pm starting tilt, let’s face it, then this series is all but over. On the other hand, if the Whale can hold serve over the next two games, this is a whole ‘nother thing.  The puck drops at 6pm with Bob Crawford handling the play-by-play and Mark Bailey on the color commentary. Pregame starts at 5:30.

To watch the game live, you can purchased it for $9.99 at AHL-live.

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SCORE-SHEET:

Connecticut Whale 2 at Portland Pirates 3 (OT) – Status: Final OT
Saturday, April 16, 2011 – Cumberland County Civic Center

Connecticut 2 0 0 0 – 2
Portland 1 0 1 1 – 3

1st Period-1, Portland, Ellis 1 (Tropp, Whitmore), 5:02. 2, Connecticut, Lemieux 1 (Kundratek, Bickel), 15:26. 3, Connecticut, Mitchell 1 16:42 (PP). Penalties-Hagelin Ct (hooking), 2:54; Brennan Por (high-sticking), 6:18; Gongalsky Por (slashing), 8:43; Stuart Por (roughing), 16:33.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Lemieux Ct (slashing), 2:21; Valentenko Ct (cross-checking), 7:12; Fienhage Por (interference), 9:53; Grant Ct (roughing), 15:45; Parlett Ct (high-sticking), 19:33.

3rd Period-4, Portland, Whitmore 1 12:20. Penalties-Grumet-Morris Ct (tripping), 3:24; Lemieux Ct (tripping), 8:32.

OT Period-5, Portland, Whitmore 2 (Roloff), 12:04. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Connecticut 16-3-2-4-25. Portland 8-7-16-5-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Connecticut 1 / 4; Portland 0 / 7.
Goalies-Connecticut, Grumet-Morris 0-2-0 (36 shots-33 saves). Portland, Leggio 2-0-0 (25 shots-23 saves).
A-5,029
Referees-Terry Koharski (10), Mark Lemelin (84).
Linesmen-Landon Bathe (80), Joe Andrews (32).