CANTLON’S CORNER: WOLF PACK START POST-HOLIDAY THREE-IN-THREE IN PROVIDENCE 

CANTLON’S CORNER: Wolf Pack START Post-Holiday Three-in-Three in Providence

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack look to break a three-game losing streak beginning tonight in Providence against the Baby Bruins.

The Pack is currently two games under .500 at 13-15-3-3 for 32 points. They sit in seventh place in the Atlantic Division. Hartford then hosts a pair of games this weekend.

On Saturday night, the Syracuse Crunch come to Hartford led by former Wolf Pack captain Mat Bodie, North Branford native, Adam Erne. Syracuse also has ex-Sound Tiger, Carter Verhaeghe is riding an AHL season-high, twelve-game consecutive scoring streak (15 points during this span).

Sunday afternoon, the Utica Comets visit the XL Center at 5 pm with a red-hot Cole Cassels, the son of former Whaler, Andrew Cassels who’s put up points in seven of the last nine Comets games (2-6-8) after managing just one assist in the first 18 games.

The Pack has played well in this losing stretch but has been unable to close out games. They’ve played the top teams in their division like when they played Providence two weeks ago and defeated them 6-4.

The Bruins sit atop the Atlantic Division with a record of 21-8-3-0. They’ve lost just two games since November 26, one of them being to the Pack on December 22.  On Thursday, Providence received reinforcement as the parent Bruins sent them Notre Dame product, Anders Bjork, who joins the already formidable forwards, Peter Cehlariik and rookie Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson as well as NHL veteran, Matt Beleskey, who was sent down two weeks ago.

The P-Bruins reassigned defenseman Ben Marshall to Atlanta (ECHL).

For the Pack, they enter the weekend with good news of their own as Peter Holland will be back in the lineup after serving his suspension. They might also see Ryan Gropp return to the lineup. Dan Catenacci and Dan DeSalvo will both be out with upper body injuries.

The Pack has also recalled goalie Chris Nell from his stint with the Adirondack Thunder (ECHL). In five games with the Thunger, Nell went 1-3-0 while giving up 16 goals and carrying a 3.75 GAA.

WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Rangers #2 pick and the 21st overall last summer is current Hartford Wolf Pack player, Filip Chytil. He and his Czech mates reached the WJC semi-final and played Canada, but got swamped 7-2. The play of Drake Batherson (hat trick), who’s the son of former AHL’er Norm Batherson (Portland), and defenseman Cale Makar (UMASS-Amherst of HE) who had two primary assists on Batherson’s first two goals, did in the Czechs.

Chytil was held with a single shot on goal by Canada. He could be back to play by Sunday or he might be given time off and return next week on the road in Laval and Belleville and then a rare 1 pm Monday afternoon game in Springfield on MLK Day.

The Czechs advanced to the semifinal in a wild 4-3 shootout win over Finland. Chytil was in front screening Finnish goalie as Filip Zandina scored the game-tying goal. The Czechs scored the goal with their goalie pulled for a sixth attacker with 2:26 left in regulation.

Chytil had a two-on-one break in the ten-minute overtime session, but the pass from Martin Necas (Carolina) was too far ahead of him. Toward the end of the shift, he took an elbow to the side of the head and on the whiplash hit the sideboards face-first.

The star of the game was clearly the Czech goalie Josef Korenar who stopped 51 of 54 shots in 70 minutes of play between regulation and overtime. This was first semifinal appearance for the Czech Republic since 2005.

Lias Andersson, the Rangers first-round pick (7^th overall) in last summer’s draft and the captain of the Swedish team, played against the US in the other semifinal.  Andersson potted his sixth goal of the tournament which started a three-goal third-period outburst which included two shorthanded goals on the same penalty kill. The Swedes held off a furious late US rally to win, 4-2.

The gold medal game between Canada and Sweden is Friday night at 8 pm. Preceding that game will be the bronze medal game between the US and the Czech Republic at 4 pm. Both games can be seen on the NHL Network.

US OLYMPIC TEAMS

The US Olympic team roster was named on New Years Day during the NHL Winter Classic at Citi Field. The Winter Olympics are for 2018 are being held in PyeonChang, South Korea. The games are next month and there are a lot of Connecticut connections on the men’s and women’s team.

Three former Yale Bulldogs were named to the men’s team. They are Brian O’Neill (presently with KHL Jokerit Helsinki-Finland 25 points-32 games), Broc Little (HC Davos Switzerland-LNA 35-19-12-31) and Milford’s Mark Arcobello, who played his public school hockey with the Fairfield Prep Jesuits and prep school hockey at Salisbury Prep (SC Bern 39 points in 33 games).

Arcobello becomes the fourth Jesuit to wear a US Olympic sweater. Bonus points if you know the other three? Answer at the end.

It probably helps that current Yale head coach Keith Allain (North Branford) is one of the assistant coaches. The other assistant is former Whaler, Scott Young, who is now the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Director of Player Development. Young was inducted into the USHHOF last month in a ceremony in Boston.

Ben Smith is the current US Director of Player Development and was an assistant at Yale under the late Tim Taylor.

There are four ex-Wolf Pack/CT Whale on the team. That list is headed by current AHL leading scorer leader, Hershey’s Chris Bourque who has 39 points in 35 games.

Second on the list is Matt Gilroy, who is an ex-CT Whale-Wolf Pack/Ranger. He’s currently playing with Jokerit Helsinki (44-6-19-25 and a plus-17). Gilroy had his number 8 retired at Boston University and entered the BU Hall of Fame last month.

Chad Kolarik, ex-Wolf Pack/Ranger, is with Cologne (Germany-DEL 52-25-16-41). The last is former Rangers first round pick, Bobby Sanguinetti, who’s playing with HC Lugano (Switzerland-LNA) where he has 15 points in 31 games.

On the women’s roster, the team’s head coach is a very familiar name to Connecticut minor-league pro hockey fans. He is former New Haven Nighthawk and Wolf Pack goalie, Robb Stauber, who was a Hobey Baker winner at the University of Minnesota.

One of his assistant coaches is former Rangers defenseman, Paul Mara.

Hillary Knight (Choate Prep) is back on the team looking for gold.

The Paralympic head coach is Dan Brennan, but NOT the one who played with the Nighthawks in the mid-1980’s.

Former Hartford Whaler, Sean Burke, is the GM of Team Canada. He said he has filled 20 of his 25 spots and one player who might have made the list is former Wolf Pack, and Ranger, P.A. Parenteau. P.A. helped Canada win their third straight Spengler Cup in a 3-0 shutout of Switzerland over the weekend. Parenteau presently plays with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg (Russia-KHL).

The goalie for Team Canada in the game was ex-Sound Tiger, Kevin Poulin. On the backline was former Sound Tiger, Victor Bartley.

The tourney, a long-time European Christmas-time tradition, features some old familiar names. Team Switzerland has the basis of their potential Olympic team. They had ex-Pack, Raphael Diaz, who’s skating with HC Davos from Switzerland-LNA league. He had the aforementioned Little and ex-Pack, Andres Ambuhl, playing for the Czech Republic’s HK Mountfield (CEL). Also, they had ex-Pack Petr Zamorsky and from Latvia Dynamo Riga (KHL) they had ex-Pack, Danny Kristo.

Other familiar names are almost certain to be included when the nations reveal their final rosters.

NOTES:

Former Wolf Pack netminder, Al Montoya, was traded by the Montreal Canadiens to the Edmonton Oilers for a 2018 fourth-round draft pick.

Montoya was drafted by the Rangers in 2004. He was a first-round selection picked sixth overall and played three years in Hartford.

Ex-Pack, Marek Hrivik, has been recalled by the Calgary Flames. He has 29 points in 28 games for the Stockton Thunder. Hrivik was injured in training camp and sent to Stockton when the team signed Jaromir Jagr in the first week of the regular season because of salary cap considerations.

Jansen Harkins, the son of former Whaler, Todd Harkins, was reassigned from Manitoba to Jacksonville (ECHL). Considering the weather, certainly not a bad thing…

Brock Beuekeboom, the son of former Wolf Pack assistant coach and Rangers legend, Jeff Beukeboom, was traded from Greenville to Worcester (ECHL).

Doff of the chapeau to former Wolf Pack/CT Whale Jonathan Marchessault after he signed a six-year, $30 million contract extension with the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The Cap-Rouge, Quebec native always believed he belonged in the NHL. He is the Golden Knights leading scorer (37-15-22-37) in their expansion season and has earned it all.

Ex-Sound Tiger, Scott Mayfield, signs an extension with the Islanders.

Chase Ziesky (Avon/Avon Old Farms) has left Providence College (HE) as has freshmen, Jake Ryczek. The Friars are adding defenseman Davis Bunz for the second semester from Central Illinois (USHL).

Evan Bell of Merrimack (HE) has left school and returned to his junior team Fargo Force (USHL).

Quinnipiac has received a commitment from TJ Friedmann of the Victoria Royals (BCHL) for 2019-20.

Quinnipiac Bobcat alum Jordan Samuels-Thomas (West Hartford) has left San Diego (AHL) and has signed with BK Mlada Boleslav (Czech Republic-CEL).

Ex-Pack, Pavel Brendl, signs a second half deal after a year off with HC Arlanda (Sweden Division-I).

Ex-Pack rearguard, Ilkka Heikkinen, signs a contract extension with TPS Turku (Finland-FEL).

The 16^th known former Wolf Pack offspring is involved in hockey. 15-year-old Jack Finley, the son of former defenseman Jeff Finely, has already played on three teams. His primary team is Okanagan (BCMMHL), but he’s had recalls and played some time with Penticton (BCHL) and Spokane (WHL)

TRIVIA ANSWER:

The brother’s, Drury – Ted, and Chris – who played on the both US Olympic and World Junior teams in their standout careers.

The other player is lesser known. He is Barry Richter who played his freshmen year at Fairfield Prep on a line with Ted Drury before his father Pat took the job as the AD at the University of Wisconsin. He still holds that job today. Richter was drafted by the Hartford Whalers in the second round, 32nd overall in 1988 but never played for them. Richter played four games with the Rangers. He had other NHL stops with the Boston, Islanders, and Montreal for a total of 151 NHL games.

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