CANTLON: (SAT) PACK SCARE PHANTOMS OUT OF THE XL WITH OT WIN 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – It took another overtime effort, but the Hartford Wolf Pack with Vinni Lettieri’s second goal on the power play to pull out a 6-5 victory over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms before 4,595 fans at the XL Center.

A late double minor for high-sticking in regulation called on the Phantoms’ Mark Vecchione carried into the overtime. The power play combination of Peter Holland and John Gilmour got things started.

Gilmour’s short pass to Holland who then sent a cross-ice feed to Lettieri at his favorite spot to shoot from, the top of the left wing circle, sent a laser into the net and sent the Pack faithful home happy.

“He has a great shot, a great release and it just jumps off his stick when he gets a hold of it,” remarked Pack head coach Keith McCambridge.

Lettieri, playing without his full face cage for the first time in three weeks, was sitting at the top of the left wing circle and nobody was going to stop his two goals.

“I just kept shooting the puck the past four, five, six games. Holly just made a great pass. He’s a great player for us. We’re lucky to have him and Gilly with that speed, you know why he is going to the All-Star game two years in a row,” Lettieri said.

It was an opportunity the Wolf Pack couldn’t waste.

“Double minors – you’ve got to capitalize on them,” Gilmour, the team’s power play quarterback said. “When those chances present themselves, you use that time and we got a good setup from the coaches and executed it.”

McCambridge was anticipating a penalty might be coming. “We knew if we kept our feet moving, we would eventually get one of those calls and we did and made the best of it.”

Holland posted his first four-point game of the season with two goals and two assists. He’s had twelve multiple-point games in the season and a team-best, eight-game point scoring streak that started in his first game back from an AHL suspension on January 30th.

Holland returned the compliment to Lettieri. “He’s like one of the best shooters in the game like an Ovechkin and Stamkos. They set themselves up in the same spot. He has such a tremendous shot.”

In launching 16 shots in the third period, the Pack kept the pressure on the Phantoms and took a 5-4 lead that looked it could be have been the game-winner.

Gilmour zipped into the slot in the Phantoms’ zone and seized a loose puck in between teammates Bobby Butler and Lias Andersson. With 6’6 netminder, Anthony Stolarz, down on the ice, Gilmour went upstairs for his eleventh goal of the season.

“The puck was just sitting in the slot and there was so much traffic in front, I just found a spot and put it in, Credit the (Butler) line for creating so much havoc. (Stolarz) was down and I went (upstairs). I don’t think he ever saw me coming.”

Gilmour posted a five-point night, just one short of the team record, with a goal and four assists. He used his lightning-like speed to keep checkers off balance and found his teammates in the right spots to generate offense.

“Gilly was something else. Not too many guys in this league have that sort of speed. He’s such a dangerous player when he has that puck and when he’s in fifth gear, look out,” commented Holland.

The game was a wild see-saw battle that saw the Phantoms comeback to tie the game at five.

The tying goal came on a strong effort from Phantoms’ newcomer, Justin Bailey, who kept the puck just inside the blue line. The puck went past Mikhail Vorobyev, but it looked like he tipped it. Colin MacDonald was totally unchecked and had Pack goaltender, Dustin Tokarski thoroughly screened and allowed Bailey to pot the goal at the 15:00 mark.

The second period saw the Pack score the first and last goal of the period. Sandwiched in between, the Phantoms used their quick-strike offense to take control that portion of the game.

The Wolf Pack used their powerplay to go ahead 3-2.

Gilmour found Lias Andersson at the top of the left-wing faceoff circle and the former New York Rangers first-round pick sent a strong wrist shot toward the net. Holland was standing just to the left of Stolarz and perfectly deflected it over his glove hand for his second of the game and seventeenth of the season.

The Phantoms responded back with two goals in a nine-second span to first tie the game and then reclaim the lead.

The first goal was a powerplay tally just 16 seconds into the penalty.

At the top of the left wing circle, Greg Carey took a cross-ice feed from Philippe Myers at the left point. Carey let a rocket of a slapshot go and it flew past Tokarski for his 18^th goal.

Off the ensuing faceoff, Bailey, playing his first game since being acquired the day before in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres, cradled the puck on his backhand and got body position on Gilmour. He used his imposing 6’3, 220-pound body, and was going wide. He dropped the puck off to MacDonald. The Phantom’s team captain shot the puck which rebounded off Tokarski and dribbled over the goal line for his fourth of the season. The goal brought a smile to his father, the ex-Hartford Whaler and New Haven Nighthawk, Gerry MacDonald, who was in attendance. The goal came at 10:35.

The early season version of the Pack might have folded, but this group stood strong.

“I’m happy with the group because that was a huge momentum swing. The old team would feel sorry for themselves, but we knew there was a lot of hockey left and we could get the job done,” remarked Gilmour.

The Wolf Pack brought the momentum back to their side with a goal in the last minute of regulation.

Gilmour caught Holland in stride as he entered into the Phantoms’ end of the ice. Holland then pulled the defenseman toward him and threw it back to Connor Brickley, who’d just come off the bench on a line change. Brickley was stopped on a breakaway earlier in the period but didn’t miss it the second time.

Brickley went to the backhand with the puck rolling. His shot eluded Stolarz with 27.9 seconds left in the period.

It was Brickley’s first goal as a Wolf Pack, and his eighth goal of the season.  “People say I have eyes in the back of my head. If you yell at me like he was, I’ll feed you the puck,” Holland said with a laugh.

The head coach was just pleased with the whole play.

“It was a good heads up by Peter in handling and passing the puck and Brickley finished it nicely. Goals at the end of the period are so crucial, especially the way the game was going tonight.”

The Phantoms are one of the quicker transition teams in the AHL and displayed it on the first goal of the game.

MacDonald, a Wethersfield native, picked up a loose puck and fed Mikhail Vorobyev as he headed to the front of the net. Vorobyev found Doug Friedman alone on the left wing for a quick developing two-on-one. Friedman snapped home his fourth of the season to the stick-side at 6:40.

The Wolf Pack have developed a strong habit of responding quickly and did in tying things up.

Gilbert Fontaine got the puck to Gilmour at the point. Gilmour again took advantage of his speed to pull off the right point and sent a perfect diagonal pass to Lettieri, who rifled his ninth goal into the top shelf over Stolarz’ right shoulder at 8:31. Stolarz just sent down on a rehab assignment by the parent Philadelphia Flyers.

The Pack got into some costly penalty trouble.

The Phantoms took advantage just 17 seconds into a five-on-three advantage to regain the lead.

Connor Baumann completed a cycle after taking a pass from Chris Connor from behind the net. Baumann fired his eleventh of the season from off the left wing that beat Tokarski.

The Wolf Pack extra effort got them a tie game at two late in the first period.

Rob O’Gara gave an extra effort came to race down a loose puck and put it toward the net. The puck hit some skates and came out to Brickley. He in-turn flipped a semi-blind backhanded pass to a hard-charging Holland, who’d just come off the bench on a line change. Holland was in the open left wing and in full stride. He whistled his sixteenth goal of the season past Stolarz at 17:34.

NOTES:

Alex Georgiev was reassigned to Hartford as the Rangers near the NHL All-Star break. The move was to get Georgiev more playing time. He will start against the Springfield Thunderbirds. Marek Mazanec heads to New York to on his third recall of the season to understudy Henrik Lundqvist.

Matt Beleskey wore the “A” in place of the injured Steven Fogarty. He joined O’Gara and the newly-minted assistant captain, Holland.

On the late game penalty, the referees took an inordinate amount of time deciding whether to call two or four-minute penalty.

The referees also goofed when a Pack shot hit a stick and went into the netting and went all the way down the ice. They did not blow the play dead just after the penalty call. It would have been a chance to win it in regulation with an offensive zone draw.

The Wolf Pack record for points in a game is six. The record is held by Nigel Dawes and came on December 9, 2007, against the Worcester Sharks with two goals and four assists. Gilmour tied the team record for a defenseman with five points in a game. That record he shares with former Wolf Pack captain in 2007-08, Andrew Hutchison, against the Providence Bruins on February 8, 2008.

Wolf Pack fan jersey of the night: #48 Dan Girardi and #15 Marek Hrivik.

The latest Dale Weise rumor is the ex-Pack will be traded in the next few days as part of salary reduction move to an unnamed NHL team according to a hockey source.

SCRATCHES:

Steven Fogarty (Concussion, Day-to-Day)
Shawn O’Donnell (Upper body, Day-to-day)
Shawn St. Amant (Healthy)

LINES:

Andersson-Butler-Gettinger
Holland-Beleskey-Meskanen
Fontaine-Lettieri-Brickley
Wallin-Leedahl-Gropp

Gilmour-Hajak
O’Gara-Bigras
Crawley-Day

Tokarski
Georgiev