CANTLON: (SAT) SOUND TIGERS DOWN WOLF PACK 5-1 

CANTLON: Sound Tigers Down Wolf Pack 5-1

       VERSUS      

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The Bridgeport Sound Tigers put three goals into the net in the third period and pulled away from the Hartford Wolf Pack for a 5-1 victory before 3,508 at the XL Center on Saturday night.

Early in the third period, The Wolf Pack had their best and most effective offensive zone pressure since the first period, but the very next shift the Sound Tigers come down the ice and found the goal they were looking for and never looked back.

Connor Jones picked up a Mitchell Vande Sompel pass after Filip Chytil couldn’t gain control of the puck at the blue line. Jones came in off the right wing and snapped one over the glove of Alexander Georgiev at 7:48. For Georgiev, he probably would have wanted to have that one back.

The Sound Tigers captain, Ben Holstrom, nailed his second goal in as many games against the Wolf Pack. Holstrom took a turnaround shot from the left wing faceoff dot taking Ross Johnston’s clear around and then swung behind the net. The 6’5 Johnson headed to the net. He and Pionk screened Georgiev and the shot eluded him at 10:43 to make it 4-1.

The coup-de-grace came on the powerplay. Alan Quine got the shooter’s gift as Michael Del Colle’s shot rang one off the crossbar and went right to Quine’s stick. Quine shoot it into a wide-open net for his first goal after being sent down by the Islanders on Wednesday.

The team’s captain Joe Whitney was succinct in his post-game comments, “We didn’t work hard enough to win tonight. There is only one way to get out of this, to work harder. We can’t do anything about it now except just get ourselves ready for tomorrow night’s game.

“We saw our compete-level in spurts. We had been building an identity to start the season, but we saw only flashes of it, tonight there was not enough consistency every shift. We didn’t do enough of the right things to come away with the two points.”

The second period the Pack could only manage nine shots and were far too spaced apart. The Sound Tigers were able to maintain puck possession and had strong chances, but Georgiev was able to make the saves.

“In all three periods, they had more possession than we did. The turnovers we had, and we gave up too many odd-man rushes in the first period. You just can’t have that. Our goalie kept us in the game in stretches. He is not one of the players I’m focused on who didn’t play very well.” Keith McCambridge, the Pack’s head Coach said of his troops.

The Wolf Pack had a golden chance on a powerplay with Adam Tambellini getting the puck passed right to him by a Sound Tiger, but missed the net completely. A Dan Catanacci drop pass was left for Alexei Bereglazov but he was stopped and Gabriel FonFontaine jam attempt at the right side of the net was denied.

The Sound Tigers Josh Ho-Sang, just sent down by the Islanders, connected on his first shift. The goal came after Scott Kosmachuk couldn’t snag the puck in the Sound Tigers zone on the left wing wall. Ho-Sang took Dal Colle’s pass at center ice and went down the left wing on a two-on-one with Alan Quine. The right-hand shooter took his time and got around Neal Pionk then snapped off a shot off Georgiev’s arm and into the net for a 1-0 Sound Tigers at 1:21.

Chytil, The Pack’s top prospect, was back in the lineup and answered back. Pionk was smart and patient with the puck. As he waited, he made a small deke that got him past his check and ripped the shot. Sound Tigers’ goalie, Christopher Gibson, made the save, but the rebound went right back to Chytil. The rookie centerman put it off Vande Sompel’s skate and past Gibson for his second of the season tying the game at one at 10:16.

The Sound Tigers caught the Pack napping late and Kurt Lafranchise snapped a perfect headman pass to Travis St. Denis. The former Quinnipiac Bobcat went in uncontested and deked Georgiev, who came out to try to force a move. St. Denis did, and went right around him and backhanded his second into an open net at 18:40.

NOTES:

Wolf Pack lines:

Dan Catenacci – Cole Schneider – Filip Chytil
Vinni Lettieri – Adam Tambellini – Scott Kosmachuk
Gilbert Fontaine – Joe Whitney – Adam Cracknell
Steven Fogarty – Dan DeSalvo – Ryan Gropp

Defense pairings:

Ryan Graves-Neal Pionk
Ryan Sproul-Alexei Bereglazov
Vince Pedrie-Tony DeAngelo

With the Pack having eight defensemen on the roster, two will have to sit every game this weekend. John Gilmour and Brandon Crawley sat tonight.

Eric Selleck sat his first game for the Wolf Pack

Scott Kosmachuk was given a fighting major and game misconduct under Rule 46.2 with 3.3 seconds left in the game as he started throwing lefts at Parker Wotherspoon.

Vince Pedrie finished with a minus-3

Chytil clearly is playing at less than 100% as he battles a lower-body injury.

McCambridge had a long post-game meeting with GM Chris Drury.

Hockey jersey of the night; Dan Girardi London Knights and Alex Ovechkin Russian national jersey.

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