CANTLON: PRESEASON – WOLF PACK EDGE SOUND TIGERS 2-1 

      VERSUS    

BY: Gerry Cantlon, HOWLINGS

HARTFORD, CT – Shawn Ouellette-St. Amant’s two goals were the difference makers as the Hartford Wolf Pack slipped past the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 2-1 Saturday afternoon at the Koeppel Community Sports Center on the campus of Trinity College in the team’s lone preseason exhibition game.

“I liked our compete for loose pucks,” Pack head coach Keith McCambridge said. “We did a good job using our speed in the neutral zone to generate second and third opportunities.“

McCambridge had a long post-game meeting with Ranger brass as they worked on cuts that would be done later in the afternoon.

St. Amant tallied the game-winner on a slick setup from Steven Fogarty at 4:18 of the third period. From near the goal line, Fogarty sent the puck through traffic over to St. Amant, who was creeping in from the left wing side. St. Armant just had to tap it in past Sound Tiger goalie, Jeremy Smith, who played the third period and faced twelve Wolf Pack shots.

St. Amant play in the contest made his intentions loud and clear to remain in Hartford for next Friday’s opener against Providence.

“He got those two goals,” McCambridge said of his 6’0 forward. “On top of that, he also did a lot of good things away from the puck. (He) made good decisions in all areas of the ice, and put himself in a position to generate scoring chances.”

St. Amant put the Wolf Pack on the board first with a nice shorthanded tally at 12:33 of the first period. He flew up the right wing side and beat Bridgeport’s starting netminder, Christopher Gibson, to the short-side.

The Sound Tigers evened things in the second period after Yannick Rathgeb took a cross-ice pass from Josh Ho-Sang and buried a slap shot past the Pack’s starting goalie Brandon Halverson at 5:04. Halverson was playing in his first game action since an off-season surgical procedure on his knee. Halverson was solid in stopping 21 of 22 shots.

The Pack netminder displayed a strong glove making a save on Bridgeport’s Mike Cornell at 12:19 of the first, and was very strong on a four-on-three penalty kill situation midway through the second. He stopped three shots by David Quenneville, one from each point, and another from the top of the left wing faceoff circle

“Halverson played a real strong game for us and he was in the right areas when there were breakdowns,” McCambridge said. “He kept the puck on the right side of the goal line.”

While several Pack players had solid games, Sean Day stood out. He had several strong rushes with the puck. The burly, 230-pound rookie rearguard, demonstrated some genuine speed, very deft stickhandling ability, and terrific skating in tight areas.

On one of his better plays, Day cut in off the left wing, got past a defender and put a solid backhanded attempt on the net to test Gibson at 14:31 of the first.

“He used his size effectively in his own zone and was able to take it out of trouble and had several strong rushes. I thought it was a very strong exhibition game for him to build off on.” McCambridge said of the first year pro who had a four year major junior career.

Shawn O’Donnell, who signed an AHL contract earlier in the week, was all over the ice. He played his off wing (left) and had several high grade scoring chances from 15 feet out midway in the first period, and then set-up rookie Tim Gettinger early in the second period and again at 6:33, but was denied.

“(O’Donnell) is a big rangy forward who showed how well he can skate and again got himself into areas of the ice to create offense,” McCambridge commented of the veteran forward.

Big 6’6 Tim Gettinger was on the puck an in position all game long and impressed his coach as well. “He’s a big body guy who used his size to create space for himself and good positioning to get some quality shots.”

The Wolf Pack open the season next Friday night at the XL Center against the Providence Bruins.

LINES:

Gabriel Fontaine-O’Donnell-Mikael Lindqvist

Bobby Butler-Riley Bourbonnais-Ty Ronning

St. Amant-Fogarty-Drew Melanson

Gettinger-Dawson Leedahl-Ville Meskanen

Day-Vince Pedrie

John Gilmour-Derek Pratt

Lindgren-Scott Savage

NOTES:

Chris Nell was the second goalie.

Wolf Pack GM, Chris Drury, was in the house as were course several scouts and team officials for each organization.

Ryan Lindgren and Bridgeport’s Woody Hudson had the game’s only scrap that was primarily a wrestling match at 8:21 of the third.

Derek Pratt wore number nine. When asked if he selected it personally said with a laugh, “No, they just handed me the jersey. I didn’t pick it.”