CANTLON: (SAT) SYRACUSE CRUNCH CLIP THE WOLF PACK 3-2 

CANTLON: (SAT) Syracuse Crunch Clip the Wolf Pack 3-2

      VERSUS      

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Hartford Wolf Pack

HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack’s furious third-period rally fell short as they dropped a 3-2 decision to the visiting Syracuse Crunch before 4,191 Saturday night at the XL Center.

In the third period, the Wolf Pack (14-16-3-3) threw 16 shots at Crunch goalie Connor Ingram, but couldn’t find a way to light the lamp with a tying goal.

“We had a good push there, but their goalie did a good against us. We had lots of good looks he stopped them all,” Pack head coach Keith McCambridge said.

The Pack had numerous chances to tie it. Their best chance coming on a Cole Schnieder penalty shot with 3:30 remaining in the game. Ingram, a second-year pro, stopped Schneider’s forehand bid which was his team-high sixth shot of the night.

“He has stepped into the role here with Louis Domingue going up top (to Tampa Bay),” said ex-Wolf Pack captain, Mat Bodie, “That play was obviously a difference-maker at that point in the game for sure, but, he stopped a lot of quality shots before then too.”

Syracuse’s record improves to 19-12-1-2 and will play in Providence against the Bruins Sunday at 3 pm.

John Gilmour, who was just named to be the Pack’s sole representative in the AHL All-Star Game, had three quality scoring chances in the third period. Two of them came twelve apart in at the five-minute mark of the period.

“He put himself in the right position to make those shots, but he wasn’t able to get it through (Ingram),” McCambridge said, of the second year pro’s efforts.

The Wolf Pack continued the momentum built at the end of the first period to score early in the second period to tie the game at one.

The Pack scored with just one second left on a power play. Gilmour was behind the Wolf Pack net and took a drop off pass from his goaltender, Marek Mazanec, and skated up the ice with good speed and hit Scott Kosmachuk with a nice lead pass.

While on the power-play, Joe Whitney, who was stopped seconds earlier in his shift, was in the right spot as Kosmachuk’a shot deflected off the Syracuse defenseman, fluttered off Ingram’s blocker pad went right to Whitney and he deposited the biscuit into the wide-open net for his eighth of the season at 2:49.

Ryan Gropp, playing his second game back from injury, tallied his eighth goal.

Gropp came down the right wing and hit the brakes shaking off a Matt Peca check. At the right wing half wall, Gropp launched a shot/pass directed to Steven Fogarty, who was going to the net, but instead, the puck went past Fogarty as well as Ingram. The puck hit the far post and went past Ingram at 4:20.

“I was trying to pucks to the net and we had a body there. I saw him (Fogarty) at the far post. I thought something would happen and (thankfully) it did. It was lucky to go in. It really was a simple play,” Gropp stated.

Mazanec shut the door as the Crunch had four quality chances in a bid to tie the game. “I was able to get in the right position and help the team. They had one goal maybe not lucky, but I was able to help the team in the first and second,” Mazanec said.

His efforts were noticeable to his teammates.

“He really helped us weather the storm in the first and we started to get our game going in the second,” said Gropp.

After making several terrific stops in a span of 1:27, the Crunch regained a one-goal lead on two quick-strike goals.

Erik Condra redirected his fifth on a left point shot from Bodie at 16:11.

“Not too tough of a play,” Bodie said with a smile. “I just got the shot at the net and Eric made a great redirect. The old saying is ‘put the puck on the net and good things will happen’ and they did.”

Then in a four-on-four situation, Volkov was pinned along the boards but was able to tap the puck over to Cernak, who had circled in from the left wing and all around the zone. When he got back to the left side, he dished off the puck to Mitchell Stephens who then began his own cycle while maintaining position on Anthony DeAngelo, Stephens ripped a 25-footer past, Mazanec. The goal was Stephens ninth of the season and came from the right-wing faceoff circle at 17:39.

“That two-three minute stretch really set us back. We had a breakdown in coverage in the four on four and they capitalized on it,” said McCambridge.

The Crunch, who had the previous night off, was clearly the fresher team to start the game, holding a 6-2 shot advantage over the first 8:44 of play and scored the games first goal.

Peca, a former QU Bobcat, and the Crunch’s leading scorer added to that total when he swept behind the net and spotted an open Dennis Yan and got the puck to him. Yan snapped his sixth of the season past Mazanec, making his second straight start, at 6:05.

“They clearly looked like a team that hadn’t played the night before. They were quick and fast,” McCambridge said. “We expected that they would jump all over us, but Marek played well for us in weathering that storm and their goalie did the same in the third when we put on a push on them. Both goalies played well tonight.”

The Pack is back in action tomorrow afternoon against the Utica Comets at 5 pm.

WOLF PACK LINES:
Chapie-Whitney-Langkow
Fogarty-Tambellini-Gropp
Holland-Kosmachuk-Schneider
Fontaine-Leedahl-Herbert

Crawley-Pionk
Graves-DeAngelo
Gilmour-Sproul

SCRATCHES:
Dan Catenacci – Upper body – day-to-day
Dan DeSalvo – Upper body – week-to-week
Vince Pedrie and Eric Selleck – Healthy

NOTES:

Filip Chytil rejoined the Wolf Pack after his Czech Republic team finished the WJC tournament on a sour note as they were shellacked by the US, 9-3.  Chytil won’t be back into the lineup until Wednesday’s game in Bridgeport.

After five games with the Adirondack Thunder, the Wolf Pack reassigned goalie Chris Nell to the Kansas City Mavericks (ECHL). The move was necessitated by a trade in the organization involving goaltender, Eddie Lack. McCambridge coached Lack in Manitoba. The move left no space left for Nell, so the organization found him an opening in KC.

The Syracuse Crunch were off last night. They are third in the North Division behind Toronto (50 points) and their Empire State I-90 rival, the Rochester Americans (48 points).

The Pack has the AHL’s sixth-best powerplay at 20.1%. Syracuse sits 19^th at 15.5%.

Syracuse has the seventh best PK in the AHL at 85.5%. The Wolf Pack are 9^th at 84.6%.

The Crunch featured Bodie, North Branford native Adam Erne, ex-Sound Tiger, Carter Verhaeghe, Peca and another ex-Pack for a few games and on the roster is Daniel Wolcott.

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