CANTLON: WOLF PACK EDGE TORONTO ON LATE GOAL 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – Brandon Halverson made 43 saves and Tim Gettinger’s late goal allowed the Hartford Wolf Pack to pull out a 3-2 win over the visiting Toronto Marlies before an announced crowd of 1,548.

The Wolf Pack record improves to 21-25-3-3 (48 points). They are still in last place in the Atlantic Division and nine points behind the idle Lehigh Valley Phantoms. They are off until Saturday night when they travel to Bridgeport to play the Sound Tigers.

Toronto’s record drops to 25-17-5-3 (59 points) and they hold on to third place in the North Division. The Marlies will play in Providence against the Bruins on Friday.

For just the sixth time this season, the Wolf Pack won when the game was tied after two periods on Gettinger’s goal.

Ryan Lindgren’s left point shot hit some bodies and came right to Gettinger. With a perfect screen from Steve Fogarty, Gettinger amazingly got his tenth of the season making it 3-2, a lead they would hold onto.

“We got the puck in deep and Lindy got the shot from the point. It was tipped in front and just turned around and shot it, plus I had the traffic in front and that was a big win for us,” Gettinger, who had a game-high six shots, said.

The line of Fogarty, Gettinger and Ryan Gropp have been playing very well of late.

“We’ve been able to keep them together for the last few games and they have been reliable defensively in addition to their offense. They did a really good job at getting pucks into the offensive zone with good net-front presence taking away the goalie’s eyes. Tim did a good job using his reach to get to loose pucks like he did there.” Pack Head Coach Keith McCambridge said.

Fogarty picked two points of the line’s five for the game.

“Every time Steven goes over the boards he plays the right way. We have seen him develop over the past three seasons from a one-dimensional defensive-type forward to a well-rounded player who plays a 200-foot game,” McCambridge said of Fogarty.

They gained a lot of third-period ice time but they lost Ville Meskanen with an undisclosed injury in the third period.

The Marlies picked up right where they left off in the first and Brandon Halverson kept the Marlies off the board.

The Marlies’ Griffen Molino had two chances on the same shift. The first was a snapshot that Halverson made a right pad save on. Molino was able to retrieve the rebound of his shot and curl back into the zone with another snapshot. Halverson deflected it away with his blocker.

The veteran right-wing, Richard Clune, was all alone one in front and made a great redirect of a shot. Halverson made a glove save on it at 4:02.

“They’re a good team. I was able to make good saves and guys also were down blocking some shots too and we were able to hold them off,” remarked Halverson.

He earned the number two star of the game and his head coach was enthusiastic about his play.

“He was composed in net tonight. He made key saves at key moments. When guys came down on him point blank, he out waited them.”

Halverson’s teammates appreciated his play.

“The last three games he has played great. Tonight, every time we had a breakdown in the zone, he was there. He battled all night and kept us in the game,” remarked Gettinger.

The Pack saw defenseman Chris Bigras suffer a potentially serious injury in the right wing corner of the Wolf Pack defensive zone. He had a hold of a Marlies players stick and went to kick the puck and either he stepped on the puck or caught a rut in the ice as he turned and collapsed in a heap on the ice.

Bigras valiantly tried to rise three times, but to no avail. He was clearly favoring his right leg/knee and was taken off to the locker room by team staff at 4:52.

The Wolf Pack’s offensive forays were few and far between. Gettinger had a good rush up the left-wing but his shot was stopped and that was it…just one shot with no second or third chances.

Vinni Lettieri won a rare one-on-one battle for the Pack and had his shot from ten feet out stopped. At 12:09, Fogarty found himself fifteen feet out, but his one shot was stopped.

The Marlies kept pressing Michael Carcone and had a huge chance coming off the right wing side, but Halverson denied his bid then seconds later, Pierre Engvall was on the same side and motored his 6’5 frame past Sean Day. Engvall, a left-handed shot, snapped his thirteenth goal past a sprawling Halverson at 16:37 making it a 2-1 game.

The Wolf Pack got a gift and made it count to even the game at two late in the second period.

Gettinger was able to take the puck away from former QU Bobcat, Tanner MacMaster, a center ice head-on two-on-none with Fogarty slipped him a pass on the left-wing and didn’t miss the shorthanded chance beating Hutchison at 18:21 for his twelfth goal of the season.

“I was right there and got the puck and looked up and saws Fogs on a breakaway, so I sent him the puck and it was a great move and helped us going into the third period tied.”

The Toronto Marlies, one of the AHL’s best teams, got on the scoreboard first on the power play.

Defenseman, Calle Rosen, was almost dead center at the blue line and took a drop pass on the left wing from Dmytro Timashov and fired a 50 foot slapper. The shot sailed past a partially screened Halverson making his third straight start at 4:40 for his sixth of the season.

The Wolf Pack answered back on the very next shift, just 16 seconds later.

Lettieri, returned for the third time this season, raced down the right-wing boards with Connor Brickley charging to the net, but the sharp angle pass went past Marlies netminder, Michael Hutchison, to the far side. The goal was Lettieri’s thirteenth of the season to even the game at one.

“We didn’t like the first goal we gave up, but Vinni comes right back and we’ve been doing that a bit more lately. We battled hard all night,” said Gettinger.

The remainder of the period was all Marlies as they launched 18 shots on goal.

Among Halverson’s 17 stops, were one to Vincent LoVerde from the left point, and Timashov and then Gabriel Gagne from the right wing.

The Wolf Pack had just six shots of which two came from Lettieri’s stick while the other came from Matt Beleskey at 13:08 from the left wing and Lettieri with 2:55 to go in the period off the rush dead center.

SCRATCHES:
Brandon Crawley (Healthy)
Dawson Leedahl (Healthy)
Ty Ronning (Just reassigned from Maine)
Shawn St. Amant (Healthy)
Rob O’Gara (Lower body, Week-to-Week)

LINES:
Fogarty-Gettinger-Gropp
Holland-Beleskey-Meskanen
Andersson-Lettieri-Brickley
Fontaine-O’Donnell-Butler

Gilmour-Lindgren
Bigras-Hajak
Tolkinen-Day

NOTES:

With the injury to Bigras, its looks likely Matt Petgrave, who was reassigned back to Brampton (ECHL), will likely be recalled.

With Meskanen’s injury, depending on the severity, the team has several extra forwards to shoulder tap and insert in the lineup.

Among the Toronto scratches were ex-Pack and leading Marlies scorer, Chris Mueller, and Mason Marchment, the son of ex-Hartford Whaler, Bryan Marchment.

The Wolf Pack have the AHL’s third worst GAA at 182 behind Ontario and Stockton of the Pacific Division.

The attendance of 1,548 was the fifth worst recorded in franchise history. Of the 36 under crowds of 2,000, a total of 23 have come during the Global/Spectra management run.

It CLEARLY looked like there were far less than a 1,000 actual live bodies.

The Wolf Pack lost goalie Marek Mazanec to a trade yesterday as the Rangers sent him to the Vancouver Canucks for a seventh round draft pick in 2020.

Mazanec played in twenty games, the same this season, as Dustin Tokarski, while amassing a record of 8-7-4, and a .903 save percentage and a 3.01 GAA.

The trade from Vancouver’s perspective according to the Vancouver Province was to deal with a current short term issue of injuries in goal and lack of experience.

For Mazanec, it wasn’t an easy way to Anaheim from Hartford.

With an EU passport, the Czech Republic native would have his work visa transferred to a Canadian team from a US based team. So Mazanec had to first go to Vancouver to present himself to Canadian immigration before he could go to Anaheim as the Canucks start a three game road trip.

Ex-Pack, TJ Hensick, signed a SPC (standard player contract) deal with the San Jose Barracuda (AHL) from the Toledo Walleye (ECHL) where he was the ECHL league point getter with 58 points in 47 games.

Henrik Samuelsson, the second son to former Whaler, New York Ranger, Wolf Pack and Avon Old Farms player and coach, Ulf Samuelsson, was reassigned from Rockford Ice Hogs (AHL) to the Idaho Steelheads (ECHL).

Logan Roe (Kent Prep) was assigned to the Manitoba Moose from the Florida Everblades (ECHL). He’ll need to do some clothes shopping since it was minus-9 Fahrenheit (minus-23 Celsius) in Winnipeg yesterday.

Providence received a pair of players from the Manchester Monarchs (ECHL) both with CT connections. Former Yale Bulldog Michael Doherty and Nic Pierog (Canterbury Prep).

That helps with the loss of Karson Kuhlman to recall to Boston.