CANTLON’S CORNER: (SAT) WOLF PACK KNOCK OFF AHL’S TOP TEAM, THE CHARLOTTE CHECKERS  

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – A strong third period all across the board paced the Hartford Wolf Pack’s stunning 5-3 victory over the AHL’s best team, the Charlotte Checkers on Saturday night.

The Pack third period was led by Peter Holland’s early goal, Dustin Tokarski’s 19 saves and three assists from Matt Beleskey.

The Wolf Pack record improves to 11-9-1-2 while Charlotte’s dropped to 16-6-1-0. The loss was the Checkers’ first two-game losing streak. Much like last year when they were strong against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the Wolf Pack rise to the occasion against top echelon teams and they passed an early season exam with flying colors.

“Our start was strong. We put pressure on the puck,” a very pleased head coach Keith McCambridge said. “We were able to capitalize on scoring chances and with a momentum swing halfway through the game, we did a good job swinging it back to our side. That gave us a chance to play on the offensive zone of the ice.”

Holland snagged the game-winning goal with a laser beam shot to the top shelf and over the shoulder of Checkers’ goalie, Alex Nedeljkovic. It was his fourth of the season and his second game-winning goal.

“I knew their D was going to come up top and I knew the goalie was cheating and looking around his defenseman. I was able to put it in the back of the net,” Holland said.

The play was aided with a strong net-front presence by his linemates, Beleskey and Ville Meskanen.

“It takes all the small things to make it work, and the work by those two made my goal possible,” Holland stated.

The Checkers played the last four-and-a-half minutes of the third in the Wolf Pack zone firing 11 shots on net.

“They’re an offensive team, and play well in that zone,” Holland said. “We did a great job playing tight in the D-zone and when they did, Tokarski made the save.”

The Checkers’ Alexei Saarela had one chance gloved, then Tokarski dove across on Janne Kuokkomen, their leading scorer. Tokarski denied Nicolas Roy among some of his most acrobatic saves.

After a glove-save on Saarela, Tokarski went out to tap Ryan Lindgren, who had moved a player out of the way so he could make that save. ”That’s a very good team and they play a 200-foot game,” McCambridge stated. “They have a lot of firepower, and they’re number one in the league for a reason. At the end when it was five-on-five and there were a couple of breakdowns, we did a good job protecting things on the ice, and when we didn’t, we paid the price and we got some good goaltending from Tokarski to get the two points from a very good team in Charlotte.”

The icing on the cake came off the stick of Cole Schneider. While shorthanded, the Pack team captain had an unassisted breakaway goal, lifting his right leg to get Nedelkjovic to make the first move, and swept in his seventh of the season with a nifty forehanded shot.

The Wolf Pack tied the game at three early in the second period.

Beleskey used his speed to race down the left wing side, came around the net and put the puck in front. It just missed Shawn St. Amant, but Shawn O’Donnell came down the middle, got the puck, and wasted little time in firing it through a maze of skates and into the net at 7:37.

“We were in the right places tonight, and Odie was in that sweet spot and that goal made a difference to keep the game in our favor. The Checkers maintained possession of the puck and had the greater amount of quality chances,“ Beleskey said.

For the Pack, Tokarski was on top of his game.

A Chris Bigras pass was intercepted by Cliff Pu who started a quick three-man break. His shot was stopped. Then Czech rookie, Martin Necas, on the left wing side, was denied by Tokarski. The next shift, Saarela was stymied on a left-wing bid of his own.

Julien Gauthier and Saarela converged on Tokarski, but couldn’t get off a clean shot.

Then on a late powerplay, Nicolas Roy shot from the left wing and Andrew Poturlarski re-directed it, but Tokarski took away the low part of the net.

The Pack did manage a quality chance, but Bobby Butler’s bid was stopped.

Gauthier had another quality pushed aside by Tokarski to keep the game tied.

The Pack used a successful dump-in to gain the game’s first goal.

Beleskey tracked down the loose puck in the right wing corner and got it back to Brandon Crawley at the right point. He put a shot toward the net and Meskanen (two pts and plus-2) turned in to the right spot and deflected the shot for his fourth of the season at 5:11.

“I’ve made a career of chipping pucks in and it doesn’t have to be pretty,“ Beleskey said with a laugh. “When you have everybody on the same page, good things will happen and it’s going good for us right now.”

There is a reason Charlotte is the AHL‘s best team.

Just 59 seconds later they tied the score. A breakout pass attempted by the Pack’s was intercepted by Roland McKeown. He wasted no time in putting a shot toward the net and Patrick Brown was in front and made a perfect open blade deflection for his sixth goal at 6:10.

Hartford regained their one-goal lead when Holland fired a cross-ice pass that bounced out the to the left wing to defenseman Rob O’Gara pinching in and beat Nedjlkovic to the far side with a slapshot from a sharp angle early at the goal line at 7:39.

Holland’s assist extended his point-scoring streak to a team-high seven games.

Charlotte went right back to the attack and tied the game at two.

Tim Bean, who just returned by the parent Carolina Hurricanes, was at the left point and took Patrick Brown’s pass. He zipped it over to Nick Schilkey who motored down the right wing side. Schilkey whistled a wrist shot for his second goal of the season at 10:42.

Two minutes later the red-clad Checkers got their first lead of the night.

Gauthier was sprung free by Saarela. Gauthier, a Montreal native, got defenseman Libor Hajak to turn inside out and got Tokarski to make the first move before slipping a backhander into the open for seventh of the season.

The Wolf Pack had a late power play to even the game and Nedjlkovic slid over to block a sure goal from entering the back of the net on a Dawson Leedahl shot.

NOTES:

The Wolf Pack for the first time this season had no scratches

John Gilmour saw his torrid pace cooled a bit now with six points in eight games

Charlotte is on a five-game road trip will be back at the XL Center next Friday.

Charlotte reassigned goalie Callum Booth (Salisbury Prep) to Reading (ECHL).

WOLF PACK LINES

Nieves-Butler–Leedahl
Holland-Beleskey-Meskanen
O’Donnell-Schneider-St. Amant
Fontaine-Wallin-Gropp

Gilmour-Lindgren
Bigras-O’Gara
Crawley-Hajak