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CANTLON’S CORNER: WOLF PACK BUSY BEFORE CHRISTMAS
AHL

CANTLON’S CORNER: WOLF PACK BUSY BEFORE CHRISTMAS 

CANTLON’S CORNER: Wolf Pack Busy Before Christmas

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

Over the last three weeks, the Hartford Wolf Pack have been in the midst of a very arduous schedule that includes their current stretch of three-games-in-four-days starting today against the Providence Bruins before a quick turnaround before a Saturday afternoon holiday matinee against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

It was gut check time for the team on Wednesday when they completed a come-from-behind 5-4 win in overtime over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The win stretched their streak of games without a regulation loss to eight, (5-0-1-2) and their third win over the Phantoms this season.

After going 0-11 when trailing in the the third period they have won the last three times they have trailed entering the final frame.

Caleb Herbert tallied a goal and assist in his first game with the Wolf Pack as he was wide open at the left wing faceoff circle to make it 1-0 at 16:06 with good low shot along the ice. Herbert’s hard work in the left wing corner to win a one on two battle and got the puck to Ryan Graves to start the scoring sequence for the goal.

Hebert sent a gorgeous backhand cross-ice pass to a hard-charging Gabriel Fontaine. He went down to one knee and drilled home his fifth goal, and third in three games, a little over two minutes after Herbert’s tally to make it 2-0.

Ryan Gropp continued his strong play snapping his seventh goal off a bang-bang play for the Pack’s third goal. The red-hot John Gilmour had his shot on the powerplay redirected by Steven Fogarty. The puck went off the post and Gropp put the loose biscuit in back of the net from just above the goal line hitting the far side.

The Pack grabbed the lead at 4-3 after Adam Tambellini won a faceoff back to Neal Pionk. He slid it over to Gilmour for his third goal in as many games and fifth overall from the left point. Dawson Leedahl was battling veteran TJ Brennan in front at the six-minute mark.

The Pack closed it out in overtime after the Phantoms’ Chris Connor missed a two-on-one chance. The Pack stormed back in the three on three with Peter Holland sending Scott Kosmachuk and DeAngelo off on two on one. DeAngelo finishing off a neat rush zipping his shot by Dustin Tokarski at 1:40.

LETTIERI SMILES

Want to make Vinni Lettieri smile? All you have to say is his grandfather’s name-Lou Nanne, the NHL legend with the Minnesota North Stars (1967-1978) from their inception as an expansion franchise in the NHL’s first period of expansion going from six to twelve teams.

“He’s my grandpa and since day one he has been a big part of our family,” Lettieri said of his smile grew wider. “We’re a very close family and there’s a lot of hockey that goes on with my family. From me to Louis at RPI and Tyler at the University of Minnesota.

“I put up a snapshot of my grandpa at the Gopher game with a phone up to his ear listening to my game and a picture on a TV of the Wild game in the background!”

He’s trying to stay with everything and how committed and there he is for all of us.”

NHL ARENA NEWS

As the afterglow glistens over the NHL starting the process of expanding into Seattle in a renovated Key Arena by 2020, comes news that several teams with building issues that are in various stages of discussion have heated up.

Want to see how long the process took in Seattle? You may notice some similarities. Read the Seattle Times post HERE.

The Islanders have finally found a home back in Long Island.

The team had the winning bid to redevelop property adjacent to Belmont Park. They will build an 18,000 seat arena to be ready by 2020. This one clears up one problem and scratches the Islanders off the relocation table. Read about it HERE.

The Arizona Coyotes have quietly signed a one-year lease extension to stay in Glendale and figure how and if they can get a new arena built in the eastern part of the City of Phoenix.

The team that has been turmoil for the better part of ten years and not made a profit at all since relocating from Winnipeg, but it fits in the NHL TV map and not much else. The team has a small core fan base and its present arena is in the highly undesirable western part of the city. Despite having stockpiled some of the best young talents in the NHL, the team is also highly under-performing making box office sales even more difficult.

Houston may well be the ultimate destination for the franchise once the league irons out everything in Seattle. Read that story HERE.

The Ottawa Senators and their mercurial owner, Eugene Melnyk, who picked the outdoor game between Ottawa and Montreal to complain about their fan support, also needs a new arena and rumors abound of relocating the team.

Since its inception, the team’s front office has always had nagging questions regarding finances and how it conducted itself in the market under two different ownership groups.

The present building is outside the City in Kanata and the hope is to get one downtown in a spot known as LeBreton Flats, but Canada has a very strict rule to not use public money for pro sports arenas.

Ed Willes of the Ottawa Citizen writes a great piece regarding this situation and NHL hockey future North of the border. Read it HERE.

The Carolina situation seems to be resolved. There is an agreement in principal for Peter Karmanos to sell the Carolina Hurricanes to Dallas businessman, Thomas Dundon. A condition of the sale is that the team must remain in Raleigh. Karmanos remains the minority owner with 48% of the team for the next three years at which such time he can be brought out.

NOTES:

Sound Tigers recalled defenseman Pat Cullity from Worcester (ECHL) and returned goalie Eamon MacAdam yesterday.

The Pack goalie Marek Mazanec has an older brother Martin 28, playing hockey in Europe. He played 20 games with Nice in France (Magnus French Elite League) just left to go play back to play in Slovakia.

Tage Thompson (Orange/UCONN) was recalled by St. Louis from San Antonio and scored his first NHL goal on a 40-foot snapshot past former Wolf Pack/CT Whale goalie, Cam Talbot, at 9:40 of the third period Thursday night in Edmonton.

Ex-Pack Tommy Thompson (no relation) has signed an AHL contract with the Texas Stars.

Alexander Nylander, youngest son of Whaler and Rangers great Michael Nylander, has been reassigned from Rochester to the Swedish World Junior squad. His older brother, William, is a star with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Former Wolf Pack and current Greenville leading scorer, Allen McPherson, (34 points in 27 games) left the team and signed a contract for the rest of the year with HC La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland-LNB). This explains why he wasn’t recalled with Dan DeSalvo’s injury.

Ex-Pack, Michael Joly, was recalled by San Antonio from Colorado (ECHL) as was defenseman Brady Shaw, son of former Whaler, Brad Shaw.

Mike Vaskivuo (Westminster Prep/South Kent Prep) who played with both Orlando (ECHL) and Florida (ECHL) this year has signed with HC Brest (France Division-2) for the rest of the year.

Ex-Pack defenseman Tommy Hughes, after four games and no points in Hershey, has been reassigned to South Carolina (ECHL).

Luke Esposito (Greenwich/Brunswick Prep) was reassigned again by Grand Rapids to Toledo (ECHL).

Jason Akeson, a long time Wolf Pack killer, leaves Syracuse after just 11 games and signs with Mora IK (Sweden-SHL).

Ex-Pack, Jason Gratton, goes from HC Epinal (France-FREL) to HC Zamsky (Slovakia-SLEL).

Ex-Wolf Pack and Sound Tiger, Mark Lee, signs with SSI Vitipeno (Italy-AlpsHL).

Ex-Pack, Zdenek Bahensky, suffered a major should injury and by mutual agreement had his contract dissolved with SSI Vitipeno (Italy-AlpsHL) and has returned home to Prague, Czech Republic.

Peter Quenneville, the ex-Quinnipiac Bobcat, is on his third European team this year. He started with HC Dynamo Pardubice (Czech Republic-CEL), now is going from SaiPa (Finland-FEL) to the Aalborg Pirates (Denmark–DHL).

Wilkes Barre/Scranton got the veteran AHL goalie they wanted in a trade. The team picked up Michael Leighton from Arizona. Leighton played in Chicago (AHL) and so far this year. The team sent goalie Sean McGuire and forward Josh Archibald, who played just six games with WBS, the other way. Both are likely to be reassigned to Tucson.

Edmonton made some organizational moves that could help Springfield. Veteran defenseman Mark Fayne was loaned to the Thunderbirds from Bakersfield where he played just six games. Then the Panthers acquired the Oilers’ forward Greg Chase, nephew of former Whaler, Kelly Chase, for future considerations.

Greg Chase played one game in Bakersfield and had 17 points in 17 games in Wichita (ECHL). Chase has been assigned to Springfield.

College hockey moves: In Hockey East, Northeastern announced that senior defenseman Garret Cockerill 23, has left the program and has signed a minor pro deal with Kalamazoo (ECHL).

Junior forward, Liam Pecararo, will not be attending school the second semester, but will reenroll in the fall. That sounds like somebody didn’t hit his required GPA first semester.

Boston College’s  Mike Campoli has left the Eagles and will be playing Canadian Junio A hockey the rest of the year with the Penticton Vees (BCHL) preserving his NCAA eligibility. He played 12 games with just one assist for the Eagles who UCONN will play after Christmas on December 30th.

-Canada named its World Junior championship team and features from Hockey East Cale Makar (UMASS-Amherst) and Dante Fabbro (Boston University). One of their goalies is Colton Point (Colgate-ECACHL) who last collegiate game was against UCONN a 4-2 loss.

Canada beat the Czech Republic 9-0 in a preliminary game minus the Wolf Pack’s Filip Chytil who was a scratch from the game in London, Ontario.

The US squad will be named on Saturday with the tournament to begin on Boxing Day December 26th against Denmark with all US games live on the NHL Network and 28 WJC games in total will be seen on the network which has broadcast the tourney for 10 years.

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