CANTLON: PENS WIN IN OT OVER PACK 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – Adam Johnson’s penalty shot goal at 1:47 of overtime allowed the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins to pull out a 4-3 win before a season-best XL Center crowd of 7,438.

The situation presented itself when the Wolf Pack’s Nick Ebert fell down near the left-wing boards at the blue line and the Penguins Adam Johnson picked up the loose puck and was off to the races.

Vinni Lettieri makes a valiant effort to get back as he shot but clearly interfered with Johnson who was awarded the rarest play of all–an overtime penalty shot.

Johnson went in on Adam Huska decided to go with a forehand to backhand move and slipped his ninth of the season past him at 1:47.

“Something about this building we’ve been playing pretty good in it. Adam hasn’t had a lot of luck in shootouts, so it was nice to see him get that. His speed is dynamic and when you get a break like that you got to make the most of it and he did,” said Wilkes Barre head coach Mike Vellucci.

The Pack’s bench boss Kris Knoblauch couldn’t dispute the call.

“A penalty shot was the right call. It was a tough way to end a game.” The penalty shot was the 43rd against Hartford, but the first one in overtime in 23 years.

The Wolf Pack had a great chance to start the third period on the powerplay and only managed two shots. The powerplay was 0-4 and the opportunity was there just let them slip through.

“When you need that powerplay goal it just disappoints you when you don’t score, but we did bounce back and we fought back,” said Knoblauch.

The Wolf Pack had the chance and it was the Penguin who got the goal.

After the penalty expired Cole Cassels started a rush up ice fed Adam Johnson as they crossed into Wolf Pack territory and he, in turn, slipped a short pass over to Kevin Roy, who in one motion ripped his 11th goal far side on Huska at 3:31 that allowed Wilkes Barre/Scranton to slip ahead 3-2.

Cassels picked up his second point to make the play happen has been gaining more ice time with the Penguins and making it count.

“He’s a good kid and a good player,” remarked Vellucci “The last few years they didn’t let him be an offensive guy. He really is a 200-foot game guy and he has really good hands as you saw on the first goal and getting that play started you see, he’s a smart player as well

The Wolf Pack fought through the defensive maze of Wilkes Barre to tie the game at three overcoming their third deficit of the night and breathed life into the possible late-game theatrics trying to win the game.

Steve Fogarty getting the puck up to Nick Ebert who spotted an open Vitali Kravtsov surging to the middle threaded the pass between two players to send the Russian in on a breakaway,

Kravtsov put on the afterburner saw ex-Pack goalie Dustin Tokarski feet were locked up and zipped his fifth goal of the season five-hole to tie the gamer at three at 10:39.

The Wolf Pack had two solid chances late, no better one with 1:32 left with Vinni Lettieri in close wide open, but  Tokarski made the save.

“We did a lot of good things tonight. We were just fighting it too much at times,” remarked a clearly frustrated Lettieri knowing he had a golden opportunity.

The Pack’s Patrick Newell had a grade-A chance searching out and forcing a turnover and then taking the puck turning and firing through a screen, that Tokarski blocked blindly with his blocker with 4:20 left that fell at his feet, but the Pack couldn’t get at the loose puck.

The first three to five minutes of the second period was wild and wooly.

The Wolf Pack tied at 45 seconds as Vinni Lettieri curling off left-wing half wall got the play started sending a diagonal cross-ice pass to Vincent LoVerde who then took his pass finding an open Danny O’ Regan at the left side of the Penguins net

O’ Regan partially fanned on the shot, but the net was wide open for the puck to slide over the goal line before Tokarksi could dive over and pull it back for his 11th of the season.

The Penguins answered back as the defense combo last week that got the better of the Wolf Pack did so again.

Pierre Olivier-Joseph zipped it over to Jon Lizotte who put a perfect low shot that rookie Ryan Scarfo, playing just his fourth game on recall from Wheeling (ECHL) perfectly redirected past Adam Huska at 2:16.

The Wolf Pack on the penalty kill tried to stay back as Danny O ‘Regan burst down the right-wing with a semi-breakaway.

He cut across the net caught a hook/slash from Derek Warsofsky lost control of the puck and Tim Gettinger was there took a shot and the goal horn was inadvertently sounded and immediately waved off, but the Wolf Pack got a powerplay out of it, but the Wolf Pack couldn’t connect.

The Penguins scored first as John Nyberg from left point let a good low slapper go and Cole Cassels who lost a goal here last time got credit for this one again on a deflection in front for his seventh of the season at 11:16.

It was ironic that the son of former Whaler Andrew  Cassels would score the first goal on Hartford Heritage Hockey Night.

The Wolf Pack tied it two-on-one of the stranger goals of the season.

The Penguins Olivier-Joseph was forced into coughing up the puck with checking along the right-wing boards.

Vitali Kravtsov got the loose puck on the right-wing sent a pass to Darren Raddysh, drifting to the left side who let a rocket go that missed the net, but went right to Lettieri.

From behind the goal line, he put the puck back toward the net and it went off Tokarski’s left leg and into the net for his team-best 23rd goal with 37.3 seconds left.

That gave the Wolf Pack the momentum back before the period ended.

“Anything can happen around the net, You’re always taught you just have to shoot when the goalie isn’t expecting it,” commented Lettieri scoring just his second goal in the last seven games.

The Wolf Pack in the first period had four shots in the first five minutes and then just four in the final 15 of action as the two teams had a very close-to-the-vest period.

The Wolf Pack best chances came from Ty Ronning and Brandon Crawley had two shots on net.

The Penguins countered in their five other shots with Riley Barber just acquired from Laval with a right drive stop by Huska and late Sam Miletic had strong bids turned aside.

NOTES:

“Obviously, we wanted to win, but we just have to leave it behind us and get ready for tomorrow,” said Lettieri.

The next home is next Sunday, March 1st at 3 PM against Providence.

The penalty shot was Huska’s third he has faced and the third he was scored upon. In fact, the last five penalty shots by opponents have all been successful.

The other goalies have to faced three include Jeff Malcolm, Steve Valiquette, Johan Holmquist, and Brandon Halverson had four.

The most, Chad Johnson had six tossed his way in his Wolf Pack career.

LINES:

Fogarty-Kravtsov-Beleskey
Jones-Newell-Gettinger
O’Regan-Lettieri-Gropp
McBride-Dmowski-Ronning

Hajek-Raddysh
Ebert-Geersten
Crawley-LoVerde

SCRATCHES:

Boo Nieves – Upper body injury – Out indefinitely (He skated in practice the last few days for the first time in more than a week)
Yegor Rykov – Healthy (Sixth time in the last eight games)
Jake Elmer – Healthy
Gabriel Fontaine – Shoulder Surgery – Season-ending

NOTES:

The ceremonial puck drop was two ex-Pack players, Stefan Cherneski and a big surprise, John Tripp.

Wolf Pack Fan Jersey of the game.

#25 Jake Taylor (Head coach Lakeville, MN HS), #44 Ryan Hollweg (retired), a pair of #7’s Drew Bannister (head coach in San Antonio) and a retired Lee Sorochan. #9 Nigel “Burger King “ Dawes (Avtomobilst Yaketerinburg Russia-KHL), #30 Ryan Haggerty (Springfield), #29 Ryan Cuthbert, who played just 25 games, #19 Benoit Dusablon (retired) whose linemate was John Tripp.

UCONN Huskies on the strength of Sasha Payusov’s hat trick routed Boston University 6-1 in Boston Saturday night.

The Huskies now are in fourth place in Hockey East one point behind third-place Maine who involved with scoreless overtime duel with Maine.

UCONN closes out the regular season next weekend with a home and home with UMASS-Amherst. Fans are encouraged to wear white shirts next Friday is senior night in the regular season home finale.

Ex-Pack Dan DeSalvo signed a PTO deal with the Chicago Wolves.

Ex-Sound Tiger goalie Kevin Poulin signed a PTO deal with the Los Angeles Kings.