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CANTLON’S CORNER: HARTFORD WOLF PACK 2018 OFF-SEASON NOTES – WEEK ONE
AHL

CANTLON’S CORNER: HARTFORD WOLF PACK 2018 OFF-SEASON NOTES – WEEK ONE 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The off-season for the Hartford Wolf Pack has begun, but hockey news is still very active.

Here’s what’s happening.

PLAYOFF HOCKEY IN ALL NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUES

In the NHL playoffs, an entertaining and exciting finish to a terrific series as the Boston Bruins eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs with a 7-4 win in Game Seven.

The Bruins posted a four-goal third period that was fueled by an early goal by Jake DeBrusk, the son of former Wolf Pack, and New York Ranger, Louie DeBrusk. The Maple Leafs had grabbed a 4-3 lead in the second period on a shorthanded breakaway goal by the Maple Leafs’ Kasperi Kapanen, who is the son of Hartford Whaler great, Sami Kapanen.

Meanwhile, back in the AHL, the Calder Cup playoffs are also well underway.

In Game 1, the Toronto Marlies got an overtime win over the Utica Comets with the help of an ex-Pack player. Chris Mueller’s seventh shot of the night ended the game at 17:48 of overtime on the powerplay.

Just three of the Best-Of-Five series have concluded entering the weekend.

On Thursday, the Charlotte Checkers completed a sweep of the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins. The Syracuse Crunch eliminated the Rochester Americans in three straight and the Texas Stars advanced in four games over the Ontario Reign.

Over in the ECHL, they are already in their quarterfinal series round with all four series being travel-friendly.

The Adirondack Thunder, featuring ex-Pack, Desmond Bergin, play the Manchester Monarchs, coached by ex-Sound Tiger, Richard Seeley, and have ex-Pack, Charles Williams, and Mark Morris, who’s the son of former New Haven Nighthawk, Mark Morris.

The Florida Everblades have former Yale defenseman, Gus Young, former Kent Prep player, Logan Roe, and former Salisbury Prep goalie, Callum Booth all on their roster. They are playing the Orlando Solar Bears, who feature Enfield native, Robbie Baillargeon and a pair of ex-Wolf Pack players in Kale Kerbashian, and goalie, Mackenzie Skapski. It’s an all-Florida matchup.

The Toledo Walleye have ex-Pack, Simon Denis, on their roster. They are playing the Ft. Wayne Komets, who have former UConn (AHA) goalie, Garrett Bartus.

The Colorado Eagles are playing in their last ECHL season before moving up to the AHL next year. They will be the Colorado Avalanche’s top AHL affiliate. They feature ex-Pack Michael Joly, and their assistant coach is former Pack, Ryan Tobler. They are playing the Idaho Steelheads, who have ex-Pack, Tommy Thompson.

In the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) finals, the Huntsville Havoc and the Peoria Rivermen are playing for that championship. Huntsville won the first game. They advanced by knocking off the Macon Mayhem. Peoria, who has a former UConn (AHA) Husky on the roster in Ben Oskroba, eliminated the Knoxville Ice Bears with Evan Neugold (Goshen/Westminster Prep) on their squad.

PLAYOFFS AROUND THE GLOBE

Cheshire native, Rob Malloy, is off to a good start. He helped Australia, playing in the IIHF Division 2 Group A World championship tourney in Tilburg, of the Netherlands in his fourth international tournament with the Australian national team.

The Mighty Roos, as they are known, wearing their spiffy kelly green uniforms, registered back-to-back shutouts to start the tournament.

The Roos beat Iceland with Malloy, an assistant captain, scoring a late powerplay goal at 18:08 of the third period. He crossed in front and redirected defenseman Lliam Webster’s right point shot. Malloy is playing right wing in this tournament was stopped seconds before from 15 feet out.

Then Australia blanked Belgium 6-0 with Malloy picking up two assists on goals in the third period that broke the game open.

In making it 5-0 Malloy took a Belgium turnover deep in their own zone and on the left wing feathered a pass to Cameron Todd who quickly buried it.

At center ice, after winning a one-on-one battle, Malloy backhanded the puck to an open teammate, Matt Armstrong, who was on the left wing. Armstrong fed a streaking Todd whose first shot was stopped but he tapped in the rebound for the last goal scored. Their line had six points and Malloy was a plus-two and had a team-high six shots.

In the third game, they took on the Chinese National Team. Malloy went scoreless in the game but was a plus-one and tied for the team-high in shots on goal with seven. Josef Rezek also had seven shots in the 3-1 victory.

The Roos fell behind 1-0 as the Chinese scored the first goal in the first period.It was the first goal they surrendered in the tournament. The Mighty Roos responded with three goals in the third period to secure the victory.

They play the Serbian National Team coached by ex-Wolf Pack, David Urquhart on Saturday.

The Vaxjo Lakers swept the Swedish Hockey League championship for the LeMat Trophy over Shelleftea AIK. In the series, the Lakers outscored their opponents 27-1!

The new German DEL champion is a familiar one.

EHC Munich captured their third straight title winning Game 7, 6-3 over Eisbaren Berlin. EHC Munich is now the third team in DEL history to win three straight titles. The other two are Eisbaren Berlin and Adler Mannheim.

The rosters of both squads have lots of AHL names. Among them with their previous team in parenthesis are:

EHC Munich:

  • Keith Aucoin (Chicago was voted DEL Player of the Year at age 39)
  • Daryl Boyce (Peoria)
  • Keith Aulie (Chicago)
  • Ryan Button (Texas)
  • Derek Joslin (Worcester)
  • Markus Lauridsen (Lake Erie nee Cleveland)
  • Jason Jaffray (St. John’s)
  • Steve Pinizzotto ( Oklahoma City)
  • Jon Matsumoto (San Antonio)
  • David Leggio (Bridgeport)  The ex-Sound Tiger goalie did not play in the playoffs due to injury.

Eisbaren Berlin:

  • Sean Backman (Ontario also an ex-Sound Tiger and one time Avon Old Farms player)
  • Blake Parlett (San Antonio) Parlett is ex-CT Whale defenseman
  • Micki Dupont (Peoria)
  • Louis-Marc Aubry (Grand Rapids)
  • Danny Richmond (Lake Erie nee Cleveland, the son of ex-Nighthawk Steve)
  • Jamie MacQueen (Iowa)
  • Mark Olver (Lake Erie nee Cleveland)
  • Nick Petersen (Houston)
  • James Sheppard

The last two are the team’s assistant coach Clement Jodoin (Hamilton) and their Sporting Director, former Nighthawk, Stephane J.G. Richer.

HC Brno Comets won the Czech Elite League (CEL) title for the second year in a row beating HC Ocelari Trinec in five games. After dropping the first game, they won the last four straight to get the title.

Trinec featured ex-Wolf Pack Jakub Petruzalek, ex-Sound Tiger, Tomas Marcinko, and the nephew of ex-Whaler and Ranger, Bobby Holik, David Musil.

The Dubai Mighty Camels (that’s the team name) won the short-season UAE (United Arab Emirates) Emirates Hockey League title beating Al Ain Theebs sweeping the best of three final.

The six-team league has Canadian, American, Finns, Russians, as well as Czech players.

There is only one Connecticut connection, Jack Reynolds of New Canaan who plays for the Abu Dhabi Scorpions.

The Stoney Creek (ON) Generals captured the Canadian Senior League’s Allan Cup. They won the title 7-4 over the Lacombe (AB) Generals.

Ex-Pack Tyler Donati, and his twin brother Justin, plus ex-Sound Tiger, Rob Hisey, had a goal and an assist in the title win. The team also featured another former Sound Tiger, Ryan O’ Marra, and the backup goalie Brett Leggett, is the brother-in-law of ex-CT Whale, Jason Williams. Leggett was an emergency goaltender for Hartford in Hamilton for one night.

TOURNAMENTS

At the World Under-18 tournament’s Top Division, the US is in very good position after defeating Russia, 5-1 on Thursday. They are playing the Czech Republic in the semifinals on Saturday (NHL Network, 10:30 am puck drop). The Czechs knocked off Canada on Thursday by a 2-1 score.

The tourney is a preview of the WJC tournament in December which will be played in Vancouver and Victoria, BC, Canada.

The US Men’s World Championships gets underway next Friday. The first game is against Canada at Jyske Bank Bozen Arena in Herning, Denmark. All US games will be shown on the NHL Network.

Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks is the team captain as announced two weeks ago.

The first portion of the team roster will be announced shortly. Ex-CT Whale and current Ranger, Chris Kreider, is expected to be on that roster.

Canada has released a portion of its roster. The team features two ex-Sound Tigers in Ryan Pulock and Anthony Beauvillier. Sweden also has two and a Ranger. Ex-Sound Tiger goalie, Anders Nilsson, and expect to see current Wolf Pack, Lias Andersson, and Mika Zibinajad to be on the squad.

The Czechs will have Filip Chytil and  the host Denmark are likely to have ex-Pack, Nicklas Jensen.

At the IIHF Division 1 Group B tournament in Kaunas, Lithuania there is an ex-Wolf Pack and Ranger in action. This player is on his last go-round on the ice. He is Lithuanian born defenseman, Darius Kasparaitis. Read a fine feature piece done by Henrik Manninen of the IIHF.com HERE

MOVING AND SIGNING

This season’s first two AHL players to make the move to go to Europe next year have occurred.

Christoph Bertschy, who split the season by starting with the Iowa Wild before ending in Binghamton with the Devils, returns to his native Switzerland where he will play for HC Lausanne (NLA). Goaltender, Danny Taylor, makes the AHL Euro list for the second time in his career. He was playing with the Belleville Senators and made it to his first NHL game with the Ottawa Senators this season. He will be heading to Russia to play for Sibir Novosibirsk (KHL).

Former Wolf Pack, Alexandre Giroux, will not be returning to Grenoble (France-FREL) next season.

Austin Smith, who went to Gunner Prep (Washington, CT) and hails from Coppell, Texas, stays in the Austrian Elite League (AEHL). He will be going from HC Bolzano (Italy) back to HC Innsbruck (Austria) where he played two years ago.

Multiple concussions sustained this season lead Matt Generous (Cheshire) to take a leave of absence for at least a year from EC Salzburg (Austria – AEHL). His teammate, and fellow defenseman, Julien Brouillette, who was an ex-Wolf Pack, announced his retirement.

Ex-Sound Tiger Mark Katic is leaving AIK and going to Adler Mannheim (Germany-DEL) next season.

Ex-Sound Tiger Mike Halmo heads to the North Atlantic next year after playing with HC Bolzano (Italy-AlpsHL). He signed with Illves Tampere (Finland-FEL).

JUNIOR DRAFT

The OHL Priority Draft last weekend saw a slew of selected players with names that have Connecticut and professional connections of note.

Matt DeBoer of Salisbury Prep was taken by Oshawa in the 6th round, 117th overall. He is the youngest son of current San Jose Sharks head coach, Peter DeBoer. His older brother Jack, also an ex-Salisbury Prep Crimson Knight, is a Boston University (HE) commit for next season. He is currently playing for the US Under-18 team at the IIHF tournament in  Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Ethan Cardwell, the nephew of former New Haven Knight, Matt Cardwell, went in the second round, 33rd overall by Saginaw.

Jack Gorton, from South Kent Prep, and the Selects Academy program, was taken in the eleventh round, 280th overall by Sault Ste. Marie.

Isaac Langdon, the nephew of former Rangers’ tough guy, Darren Langdon, was taken by the Kitchener Rangers in the second round, 32nd overall.

Grant Eastwood, the son of former Ranger Mike Eastwood, was taken by the London Knights.

A few other notable names that were selected include Grayson Arnott, the son of ex-NHL’er Jason Arnott. He was selected by Sarnia. Jacob Perreault, the son of former NHL and AHL’er, Yanic Perreault, was taken in the first round, 19th overall by the Sarnia Sting.

Kienan Draper, the son of former NHL’er, Kris Draper, was selected by Saginaw.

COLLEGE HOCKEY NEWS

In coaching news, the University of Wisconsin Badgers (Big 10) renewed and extended the contracts of former Whaler, Mark Johnson (Women’s) and ex-Ranger, Tony Granato (Men’s team) to 2022-23.

The University of Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves (WCHA) has hired Matt Curly as their sixth head coach.

David Quinn (Kent Prep) at Boston University (HE) was named the new head coach for the 2019 US World Junior team. The tourney runs from December 26th to January 5th and will take place in Vancouver and Victoria, BC, Canada.

Dutch-born forward, Guus van Nes of the Boston Jr. Bruins (NCDC) announced a commit next season to Quinnipiac University (ECACHL).

Talk about an early commit, Ryan St. Louis (Riverside/Brunswick Prep), the eldest son of former Ranger, Marty St. Louis, has made a verbal commitment to Northeastern (HE) for the 2021-22 season. He’s just 14 years old!

The NCAA needs to step in and do something. How about a suggestion of requiring a player to be at least 17 years of age to make even a verbal commit.  Things like this are bad for the sport. Bad for the image of college sports and most importantly bad for the kids.

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