CANTLON: (FRI) ROCKET CRASHES IN HARTFORD 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack scored two early goals and utilized a stingy defense along with solid goaltending from Tom McCollum and upended the visiting Laval Rocket, 3-1, before 4,089 on Friday night at the XL Center.

The Wolf Pack improved their record to 28-13-5-5 (66 points). Their home record elevates to 21-2-0-2 while their record when leading after two periods remains perfect at 20-0-1-2.

The Pack now trails the Hershey Bears by two points who lost in overtime to the Binghamton Devils, 4-3.

The Wolf Pack takes on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Saturday at the PPL Center and seeks to improve their woeful play and record on the road.

Laval’s record falls to 23-22-5-2 (53 points). They are in sixth place in the North Division and play in Providence against the Bruins on Sunday.

Laval made the game close forcing the Wolf Pack to sweat it out in the third period as two-thirds of the scoring came from players who have hurt the Wolf Pack in the past.

Phil Varone got a pass from defenseman, Gustav Olofsson, in the left-wing circle. His shot was perfectly kicked out by McCollum’s right pad. Unfortunately for the Pack, the rebound went right to Riley Barber who had position on Mason Geersten and was easily able to pot his 13th of the season into the net.

The Wolf Pack’s Tim Gettinger scored his 12th goal of the season depositing the puck into an empty net with 14.6 seconds remaining sealing the Hartford victory.

Laval came out with a bit more fire in the second frame and started taking the body.

McCollum played a well-structured first period but had to do some diving and acrobatics to keep the Rocket off the scoreboard.

He stopped Quinnipiac graduate, Matt Peca, at 6:18. Barber was denied from off the left-wing and leading Laval’s leading scorer, Philippe Hudon, from in the right-wing circle all-alone and Olofsson who was pinching off the left-point with just about 7:50 to go in the second period.

“I felt really good tonight,” remarked McCollum. “I think a lot of it really boils down to a total team effort. The guys in front of me did a really good job. They were blocking a lot of shots and giving me clean lanes to see pucks. Our forwards were doing a good job to create backpressure, which helped our defense.”

His secondary skillset as a good puck handler made a tremendous difference in the game’s outcome for head coach Kris Knoblauch. “He did well for us. His passing skills alleviate a lot of pressure. Making saves is really important, but not letting them establish a forecheck (equally important). I know our defense appreciate that.”

The Wolf Pack grabbed a quick 2-0 lead early in the first period.

The breakout was made possible by Mason Geersten who won a one-on-one battle along the right-wing boards getting the shot/pass to Kravtsov and the scoring sequence began.

At 5:28, Vincent Loverde came across the Laval blueline and sent a short pass to Vitali Kravtsov, who did the same for Danny O’Regan in front of the net. O’Regan was all-alone and went backhand-to-forehand, slipping the puck past Cayden Primeau, the son of former Hartford Whaler, Keith Primeau, for his tenth of the season.

“Our D played awesome tonight. Those small places like that made a difference whether up along the wall or from behind the net makes a big difference,” said O’Regan.

The move in front of the net on the 6’4 Primeau came about as a result of a veteran’s patience with the pay off being a goal.

“Instinct just took over there. I was able to pull it around him and get in the harder work was done by everyone else,” remarked O’Regan while complimenting his teammates.

O’Regan has quietly gone about being a stabilizing force down the middle.

“Danny has been very important to us throughout the year, and that was maybe his best game,” Knoblauch. stated. “I thought he won a lot of key faceoffs. The majority of his shifts were against their top line, which is pretty dangerous. So, not only was he providing offense, but he did a lot of defensive responsibilities. I thought his game was really good.”

Then at 8:55, Nick Ebert skated backward to the blue line and took a pass from Matt Beleskey, who let a hard wrist shot that was blocked and the puck went right to Vinni Lettieri.

Lettieri took a shot that was blocked by Laval defenseman, Josh Brook, and the came right back to him. Lettieri skated back to the blue line and sent a low wrist-shot through a Beleskey/Brook screen.

Primeau never saw Lettieri’s shot, which would become his 22nd goal, go past him,

“I don’t think we could have played any better in the first period. Laval got better as the game went along. We had to defend a lot more. It was a pretty good overall effort from everybody,” Knoblauch stated.

Across the ice, a deeply frustrated Laval head coach, Joel Bouchard, whose Rocket squad is 0-3-1-0 in their last four, and 2-6-2-0 in their last 11, has had some tough times with recalls because of injuries in Montreal.

The Laval lineup that has undergone major changes in the past two months. Bouchard and his staff are working to keep their players as upbeat as possible.

“Every goal seems to weigh on us. We just sag down. We worked hard tonight, but right now we have no chemistry. We have three-or-four guys who were in the NHL most of the year and are adjusting here. Some of our veterans are not playing well. They’re good guys. We just don’t have it right now. They’re a good team (Hartford) and they got out quickly on us.”

LINES:

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

Hajek-Raddysh
LoVerde-Geersten
Crawley-Ebert

SCRATCHES:

Boo Nieves – (Upper-Body, Out Indefinitely) Nieves skated in practice the last few days for the first time in more than a week.
Yegor Rykov – (Upper-Body) For the fourth time in the last five games is just about ready to return to action.
Ryan Gropp – (Healthy)
Gabriel Fontaine – (Shoulder-Surgery, Season-ending)

NOTES:

Pack defenseman Joey Keane was recalled to New York because Rangers rearguard, Tony DeAngelo, suffered an upper-body injury late in the Rangers 5-4 come from behind shootout victory. Keane did not make his NHL debut in Columbus as Marc Staal played despite having had the flu.

Sadly, it was the last game for Minnesota head coach, Bruce “Gabby” Boudreau. He was relieved by the Minnesota Wild early Friday. The interim head coach is former Whaler, Dean Evason.

Bouchard is an ex-Pack and Sound Tiger. Rocket, Hayden Verbeek, is the nephew of former Whaler great and Detroit assistant GM, Pat Verbeek, who was scratched.

The AHL in a late afternoon press release announced the successor to retiring AHL President and CEO Dave Andrews on July 1st.

Scott Howson, the current VP Hockey Operations, and Player Development in Edmonton. He has a relationship from their Canadian Maritime days when Andrews was the GM and Director of Hockey Operations in Cape Breton. Howson was his assistant GM and took over the reins when Andrews succeeded Jack Butterfield in 1994-95 as AHL President and CEO.

According to a hockey executive who went to apply, they were told the process was being handled by Andrews himself.

The fact Andrews knows Howson, he is with a Western NHL team and the league shift and focus is now more a Central and Western US-based league with the recent announcement of Las Vegas purchasing San Antonio and moving them to Nevada, the Palm Springs, CA expansion team that will begin play by the fall of 2022.

WOLF PACK FAN JERSEY OF THE NIGHT: #19 Chris Mueller, #22 Tomas Kloucek and a #22 Thomas Pock whose name is really spelled Poeck.

Barrett Hayton, the son of former New Haven Nighthawk, Brian Hayton, was recalled from his conditioning stint in Tucson by the parent Arizona Coyotes.

Anton Sundin, the son of ex-Pack, Ronnie Sundin, heads from Hanhals IF (Sweden Division-1) to Karlskrona HK (Sweden-SHL) for the rest of the year.

UCONN defeated the University of Maine in the first of two critical weekend games 3-2 handing the Black Bears their first home loss of the season.

Benjamin Freeman, the Maine native scored the game-winner at of the third period. Carter Turnbull returned to the lineup with three primary assists and Freeman three points and a goal and assists from Sasha Payusov they combined for all eight UCONN points on the night.

The two team splay again tomorrow at 7:30 pm (NESN).

The Walter Brown Award is awarded to the top New England Division I collegiate player the award started in 1953.

Of the 23 players submitted for consideration a few CT connections. The group includes two from Sacred Heart University (AHA) in Mike Lee (Hamden/Gunnery Prep) and Pioneer teammate Jason Cotton.

Cotton’s brother, David of Boston College was nominated as well making them just the third brother combo nominated since the award’s inception.

Billy and Bob Cleary and former Whaler Scott Fusco and Whaler draft pick Mark Fusco were the others all four attended Harvard.

Jack Drury, the son of ex-Whaler, Ted Drury, and the nephew to current Wolf Pack GM, Chris Drury, who both grew up in Trumbull. Uncle Chris won the award twice while at BU.

Five other players have won it twice including Ranger and ex-Pack Mike Mottau former New England and Hartford Whaler, Tim Sheehy, and former Ranger, Jimmy Vesey.

Boston College’s Spencer Knight (Darien/Avon Old Farms) and Tyce Thompson from Providence College son of ex-Pack and current Sound Tigers head coach, Brent Thompson are under consideration.

The winner will be announced at the end of the regular season and before the NCAA tourney begins and the winner will be presented the award on May 3rd at a banquet in Saugus, MA.

Several former Wolf Pack players besides Mottau have won it. Matt Gilroy, Dov-Grumet Morris, Bobby Butler, and Ty Conklin. Rangers who have won it include current Blueshirt Adam Fox, Mottau and Brian Leetch (Cheshire).

Several others with CT connections were awarded the honor, the late New England and Hartford Whaler, John Cunniff, Scott Harlow (New Haven Nighthawks) and John Curry (Taft Prep-Watertown).

Keeping up with Gernander’s wonderful piece on their son, Micah, and being a part of the tradition of Greenway H.S. hockey in Minnesota. Read it HERE.

Another superb piece on Brady Tomlak, son of ex-Whaler Mike Tomlak and his play the Air Force Academy. Read that HERE.

Dean Bachiero (Southington/Salisbury Prep) commits to Brown University (ECACHL) for 2021-22 and the 6’3 forward is NHL Draft eligible this year.

Ex-Pack, Jarko Immonen, signs a one-year extension with JYP Jyvaskyla (Finland-FEL).

Ex-Pack, Marek Hrivik, is rumored to be moved from Leksands IF (Sweden-SHL) to Malmo IF (Sweden-SHL) next season.

Ex-Wolf Pack, Josh Gratton, continues his career in Canadian senior league hockey with the Hamilton Steelhawks (ACH) joining another ex-Pack, Kris Newbury.

A pair of former Wolf Pack players and defense tandem Dale “Diesel” Purinton and Marvin Degon are the latest pro athletes that have entered into the CBD ag-health business like retired Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski.