CANTLON: PACK VANQUISH DEVILS IN OT 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – John Gilmour’s overtime breakaway goal, his second of the game, allowed the Hartford Wolf Pack to escape with a 4-3 victory over the Binghampton Devils at the XL Center Wednesday night.

The Devils’ Josh Jacobs lost control of the puck at the right point. Gilmour was right there to collect the loose puck and, while playing three-on-three, and with room to operate, and with his tremendous speed, nobody was going to catch Gilmour.

Gilmour charged in on Cam Johnson and slipped his 20th of the season through the five-hole. He is the third Wolf Pack player this season to hit the 20-goal mark. The goal came at the 2:20 mark of overtime and gave Hartford the win and two points.

“Certainly, we would like to close these games out a little earlier, so we went to overtime, but as long as we’re getting the results (a win) we’re a happy bunch,” Gilmour said.

Gilmour wasn’t going to mess with success. He went with the breakaway move he’s most comfortable with and that’s helped him tally his fifth game-winner,l tops on the team.

“That was a bit of a gift and I had some space and went with the move I’ve been using,” Gilmour remarked with a laugh. “I had that all planned out once I touched the puck,”.

For the Pack’s head coach, Keith McCambridge, Gilmour is the go-to guy right now.

“He has the ability to pull away from his checks when he has that much room to skate and he can finish for us. He’s playing great hockey for us right now. When trailing from behind, John is the guy you want hopping over the boards for you. He can score a goal and the trust is there for him defensively.”

Gilmour has 12 points in his last six games and is the leading point-getter for all AHL defenseman with 51.

The Wolf Pack record improves to 27-28-6-3 (63 points) and has them in eighth place in the Atlantic Division. They trail the Springfield Thunderbirds by one point and are nine behind the fourth place Providence Bruins.

Binghamton sees their record drop to 24-34-6-0 (54 points). They sit in eighth place in the North Division six points behind the Laval Rocket.

The Wolf Pack used the powerplay to perfection in tying the game at three just past the midway point of the third period.

While in a four-on-three situation, McCambridge wisely took their timeout. Off the ensuing face-off, the Wolf Pack were able to light the lamp in just seven seconds.

“Crucial moment in the game,” McCambridge said. “We had the chance to calm things down. We got the chance to do what we wanted to on that powerplay, and Vinni (Lettieri), of course, is a big piece of our powerplay. He can shot that puck. It was quite evident there.”

Tim Gettinger won the draw and got the puck back to Gilmour at the right point. Gilmour, in turn, hit the ever-dangerous Lettieri with a diagonal pass. Lettieri then wired his patented shot from the left wing circle for his team-leading 22nd goal at 11:17.

The Pack seems to never take the easy path as evident in parts of the third period. Goaltender Brendan Halverson had to make several key saves to prevent Binghamton from establishing a two-goal lead. He also took his high wire act early when he handled the puck and it nearly went in the back of the net.

Once again, a Wolf Pack opponent scored early in the second period and gained the momentum and had traction after a well-played first period.

Ex-Pack, Alex Krushelnyski, tallied his first of the season.

Nick Sorkin was on the left wing side behind the net. He took a pass from Sam Kurker and reversed direction on Pack defenseman Julius Bergman. Brendon Crawley then left his spot to go play him and fell down. Sorkin sent a pass to Krushelnyski, who wasn’t picked up by Gabriel Fontaine and zipped his first AHL goal of the season low to the stick-side to tie the game at one.

“We got a little too happy and comfortable there (early in the second period). You can’t take your foot off the gas pedal in this league. You saw that (early) in the second and part of third as well,” McCambridge said.

The Devils made it 2-1 as they used their second powerplay to take the lead.

Ryan Schmelzer was deep in the right-wing corner and got Ryan Lindgren to come to him. That left Nick Saracino alone in front. Schmelzer had the time to take the pass, turn to face Halverson. His first attempt was stopped, but he got to the rebound and jammed it in for his fourth goal of the season.

“We got away from what we were doing in the first, cheating and cutting corners, but over a matter of time, we got back to what we do best and came out on top,” said Steven Fogarty.

The Wolf Pack used their second powerplay to tie it but did their damnedest not to.

The first 1:30 of the man advantage was simply atrocious until McCambridge put out his top PP unit and competency set in.

Ryan Gropp did a good job gaining the offensive zone with a strong rush down the right. He then passed to Fogarty, who made a quick snapshot/pass. With Gettinger setup in front, the puck went off his stick blade, deflected off his stick shaft and then over the shoulder of Devils’ goalie, Cam Johnson. The goal was his 13th of the year and came at 13:14 with just two seconds remaining on the powerplay.

“I saw him and I tried a fake pass/shot kinda thing, and fortunately he got his stick on it for a good tip,” said Fogarty.

The Devils though ended the period with a goal.

The Pack’s defense got all tangled up allowing Egor Sharangovich to get behind Darren Raddysh who pulled him down as they crashed into Halverson. The ref immediately signaled for a penalty shot, but they reviewed the play first to see if the puck crossed the goal line before the net was dislodged and it hadn’t.

Sharangovich remedied it on the ensuing penalty shot. He slowed down and went to his backhand, shooting from the right wing side beating Halverson for his ninth goal of the season with just 4.7 seconds left in the period. It gave Binghamton a 3-2 lead.

“That was tough to get a goal in the last minute, let along the last seconds, but we rebounded well and got the tying goal in the third,” said McCambridge.

The Wolf Pack first goal was a record setter.

The Wolf Pack’s top line got the offense generated. Lettieri pushed the puck up to Fogarty who was coming in off the left wing. Fogarty used Devils’ defenseman Tariq Hammond as a screen and zipped a shot on Johnson. He made a left pad save, but the rebound went right to the hard-charging Gilmour who buried his 19th of the season at 12:07.

The goal broke the team record for goals scored in a season by a defenseman. It’s a record that stood for eleven years and was held by Andrew Hutchison who went on to win the AHL’s Eddie Shore Trophy that season. With the goal, Gilmour took over the scoring lead among AHL defenseman from Zach Redmond of the Rochester Americans.

“(Scoring the record-setting goal is) very special obviously, and nice to get a pat on the back, but we have ten games left here. We still have points to get here,” Gilmour said.

McCambridge started the game by changing all his defense combinations and shook up his bottom two lines from the previous game. He changed the lines again in the second period even a bit more when the team did not come up with much of a jump as they did in the first period.

SCRATCHES:

Dawson Leedahl (upper body, week-to-week)
Rob O’Gara (lower body, week-to-week)
Sean Day (lower body, day-to-day)
Shawn O’Donnell (healthy)
Chris Bigras (ankle, out for the season)

If Day isn’t ready for the weekend another body will be added for the backline.

LINES:

Fogarty-Lettieri-Gropp
Fontaine-Beleskey-Meskanen
Butler-St. Amant-Wallin
Greg Chase-Ronning-Gettinger

Gilmour-Wesley
Raddysh-Lindgren
Bergman-Crawley

NOTES:

Wolf Pack recall Libor Hajak will likely not return this season after suffering a shoulder injury in New York. Thankfully, the injury is not as serious as first thought, but with the Rangers and Wolf Pack not making the post-season, they opted to not take an unnecessary risk and shut him down for the rest of the season.

The penalty shot was the 38th against the Wolf Pack in their 22-year history of the franchise. It was the third that Halverson has faced. Te most by a goalie was Chad Johnson, who faced six. The last Wolf Pack successful penalty shot was taken by Dan Catenacci on April 14, 2017, against Utica.

Attendance was announced at 1,775 making it the 18th worst home crowd in Wolf Pack history. In reality, there were only maybe 500 fans in the building.

26 of the 39 least attended games in team history have come under the Global/Spectra umbrella. The top day is Wednesday with 27 games, 5 on Tuesday and 2 on Thursday.

Paul Carey (Salisbury Prep) and Connor Clifton (Quinnipiac University) were recalled by Boston from Providence.

Congrats to now two former UCONN seniors for signing their first pro contracts.

Captain Miles Gendron signed two contracts, one deal for the rest of the season with Ottawa’s Double-A affiliate, the Brampton Beast (ECHL), and a one year deal for next season to play for Belleville (AHL). He could make his pro debut for Brampton on Saturday against Ft. Wayne.

Karl El-Mir signed an ATO deal with Providence (AHL).

Other collegiate signees today include; Canisius College (AHA) saw three of their players sign. Ian Edmondson with the Wichita Thunder (ECHL), and Jimmy Mazza to the Reading Royals (ECHL) and Dylan McLaughlin to the Rockford Ice Hogs (AHL). Hans Gorowsky went from the University of Alabama-Huntsville to Adirondack Thunder (ECHL), while Jay Dickman of Bemidji St. State (WCHA) signs with the Florida Everblades (ECHL).

The first player to go to Europe after this past season is Jacob Ratcliffe, from Division III’s Westfield St. (MASAC). The first New Zealander (Canterbury, NZ) male player to play US college hockey at any level, will play with the Sydney Bears (Australia-AIHL) this summer. Goalie Grace Harrison plays varsity for St. Lawrence University (ECACHL) and is the only other Division I New Zealander in Kiwi hockey history to date.

Pack jersey of the night: #5 Tommy Hughes, #46 Jordan Owens and a very unique defunct Lewiston Maineiacs QMJHL jersey.

Howlings has learned former Ranger Colton Orr who resides in Southwest Connecticut is part of a consortium that has purchased the Danbury Ice Arena. No word if they will pursue a low-level minor league team, junior level or collegiate team to be the main tenant.