CANTLON: WOLF PACK SCORES LATE, BEAT BRIDGEPORT 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

BRIDGEPORT, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack winning streak is now six games after a 5-4 win at the Webster Bank Arena against Bridgeport Sound Tigers Tuesday afternoon.

The Wolf Pack record improved to 9-6-1-0 (19 points) and shrunk the once-sizable Providence Atlantic Division lead to just seven points over the idle Bruins. The Bruins have two games in hand.

Bridgeport lost their fifth straight, and their record slips to 3-12-1-0 (7 points).

The game-winning tally came just 1:40 after the Sound Tigers had tied the game.

HUSKA SETS UP A GOAL

The Wolf Pack goalie Adam Huska was inserted to start the third period because starter Tyler Wall struggled.

Huska has been working on improving his puck handling skills, and it showed in the third period when he beat the Sound Tigers’ Thomas Kuhnhackl to a loose puck, fired it off the top of the glass on the right-wing boards in the Wolf Pack end. The puck came to Paul Thompson in a well-executed breakout pass.

“Adam has been so much better handing the puck this year, it helps the defenseman on forechecks, and in this case, he helped the forwards, and you make your own breaks, “ said Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch.

As Thompson entered the Sound Tigers’ end, he lost his balance but could still slip a pass over to Patrick Khordorenko, who was behind the Sound Tigers defense.

Khordorenko went strong to the net and deposited his second of the game and third of the season at 15:02 for his first pro-game-winning goal.

REACTION FROM BOTH COACHES

“It was a really strong play under pressure finishing off the breakaway, and he played a solid, strong game with two goals and, of course, the game-winner.

“There is a lot of competition for ice time and being in the lineup. (Khordorenko) was out a few games, and a game like that makes it tough for a coach making out a lineup and keeping him in,” said Knoblauch.

Across the way, the always competitive Sound Tigers’ head coach, Brent Thompson, took no solace in the final being a close score.

“Any loss is a bad loss.

“No one is happy with the result. There were mistakes in the game you can build on, 100%. We came back, that’s something. It shows character and shows a step in the right direction, but the mental lapses at the end of the day have to be intense defensively. We’ve got to know where people are away from the puck.

“We let them back in the game after battling back to make it 4-4. We did make 2-2, 3-3 throughout the game. We made it easy on them.  It’s disappointing. It’s not where we want to be. When we have breakdowns, they’re big ones.”

SOUND TIGERS HAD JUST TIED THE GAME

The Sound Tigers Parker Wotherspoon, victimized on the game-winning play, had just tied the game for the Sound Tigers with his first of the season. Wotherspoon took a Jeff Kubiak pass and wired it over Huska’s right shoulder through a big screen at 13:24.

It was the only puck to beat Huska.

With the goalie pulled and an extra attacker on for the Sound Tigers, they piled on the pressure over the final sixty seconds. Still, shots by Kyle Maclean and Bolduc went wide, then Patrick Sieloff made a terrific block in front, but Bolduc, who has played well against Hartford, had a final shot as the game ended that Huska stopped to secure the win.

SCORES GALORE IN THE SECOND PERIOD

In the first period, there were no goals, and in the second period, seven combined goals were scored and three in the first four minutes of play.

The Wolf Pack scored first. Morgan Barron came across the blue line, went deep on the left-wing wide on defenseman Mitch Vande Sompel and snapped one just inside the far post for his team-leading ninth goal of the season at 1:01. The goal extended his point-scoring streak to four games. Darren Raddysh also extended his streak with the primary assist.

At 2:54, the Sound Tigers rookie Bode Wilde with Austin Rueschoff bore down on Wall and scored his second of the season. He launched a shot on Wall from the right point. The puck hit off the post and went into the net to even the game at one.

At 3:40, the Wolf Pack grabbed back the lead at 2-1.

PACK GO BACK UP

The Wolf Pack’s red-hot scorer, Ty Ronning, evaded the stick check by Wotherspoon and sent a cross-ice feed to a wide-open Justin Richards in the left-wing circle. Richards buried his second score via Jakub Skarek’s five-hole at 3:40.

The Sound Tiger fought back again to tie the contest. Winger Tanner Fritz went down right-wing with Vincent LoVerde; when he got to the lower face-off circle, Fritz sent a shot on net that Wall couldn’t contain and wound up in the back of the net at 9:42.

“The puck was rolling a little bit. Sometimes those are tough for goalies to squeeze. I was fortunate there. Good things happen when you put the puck on the net,” Fritz said of his second goal of the year, both coming against the Pack.

Forty-nine seconds later, the Wolf Pack jumped back into the lead 3-2 when Alex Whalen snagged a rebound, circled the Sound Tiger net, and flipped a backhand pass back to Rueschoff, who deposited his fourth goal into a wide-open left side of the net with a solid net-front presence from Mason Geersten that helped create that opening.

REACTION TO GERTSEN

“That line played very well, and Gert (Gertsen) makes a difference out there. Guys don’t want to check him, fight him, or leave him alone. He has been doing a really good job and created a lot of commotion in front.

“Austin was left alone back door, and Alex made a perfect pass to him,” said Knoblauch on what has become an effective third line for the Wolf Pack.”

The Wolf Pack extended the lead to two goals when Patrick Khordorenko picked up a loose puck from a shot attempt by Tarmo Reunanen from the left point. It hit Bolduc’s skate and sent a backhander past Skarek for his second goal of the season at 14:51.

Bridgeport rallied again to make it 4-3. Defenseman Seth Helgeson went down the right-wing with Raddysh keeping him at bay, launched a backhand shot in the lower right-wing corner. It almost got to the goal line because Wall was deep in his net; he thought he had the puck pinned to his near post.

However, he didn’t have it completely controlled, and the Sound Tigers’ Arnaud Durandeau, trailing on the rush, went to the net, smacked the loose puck, and into the net. It was his second goal with a minute remaining in the period.

The Durandeau goal getting past Wall gave Knoblauch the impetus to make the call to Huska for the third period.

FIRST PERIOD

The first period was a scoreless duel with the Wolf Pack with an 8-5 shot advantage.

Early on, the Wolf Pack had solid forechecking pressure keeping the Sound Tigers five pinned in their zone for two minutes earlier.

The fourth line provided the pressure but had two shots stopped.

Tim Gettinger was stopped on his second shot. Wolf Pack rookie D-man, Hunter Skinner, put on a solid check inside the Sound Tiger side on Kyle MacLean of the Sound Tigers.

LINES:

Richards-Gettinger-Ronning
Newell-Barron-Greco
Whelan-Rueschhoff-Geersten
Khordorenko-Thompson-Cullye

Raddysh-Reunanen
LoVerde-Skinner
Giutarri-Sieloff

Huska
Wall

THREE STARS:

Patrick Kordorenko
Tarmo Reunanen
Darren Raddysh

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Adam Huska
Paul Thompson
Patrick Sieloff
Anthony Greco

SCRATCHES:

Jonny Brodzinski (upper-body) will likely play Thursday
Jeff Taylor
James Sanchez
Michael O’Leary
Ryan Dmowski
Zach Berzzola
Francois Brassard
Gabriel Fontaine (upper-body, done for the season)

BRANDON CRAWLEY

The Wolf Pack reassigned/loaned defenseman Brandon Crawley to the AHL Cleveland Monsters on Monday. He is still Rangers’ property and subject to recall by the Wolf Pack. Crawley is in the last year of his contract and will be an RFA (restricted free agent) next season.

Crawley has played twice in the last three weeks in his only back-to-back games (March 25-27). He has played in seven games this season and just 16 in the previous two years.

Crawley has been on the Wolf Pack taxi squad for most of this season and spent most last season with the Pack’s ECHL affiliates, the Maine Mariners.

NOTES

The Wolf Pack has the AHL’s best power play with a 30.5% success rate. They had just one chance for the day.

Ronning held a 36.4% shooting percentage coming into the game.

Igor Shesterkin earned his first NHL shutout stopping the New Jersey Devils 3-0 shutout in The Prudential Center.

Congratulations to Adam Erne (North Branford, CT) for scoring the 20,000th goal in Detroit Red Wings franchise history.

Sadly, more of the COVID-19 collateral damage is that the Memorial Cup has been canceled for the second year in a row.

SOUND TIGERS MOVES

The Sound Tigers loaned forwards Yannick Turcotte, who played just two games against the Wolf Pack, to the South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL), and Brett Neumann, who played four gamers to Allen Americans (ECHL).

Defenseman Mike Cornell made his regular season Sound Tigers debut this afternoon.

ZAC JONES

As expected, the Rangers signed defenseman Zac Jones (Selects Academy at South Kent Prep) from the NCAA national champion UMASS Minutemen (HE) to an entry-level (ELC) deal.

Jones has agreed to a three-year entry-level contract that carries an $832.5K cap hit at the NHL level and will make the standard $70K in the AHL with a $92.5K signing bonus that brings him to the CBA negotiated ceiling of $925K. This season burns off the first year of his deal, according to CapFriendly.com.

Jones is staying in New York and practicing with the Rangers. At this point, Jones will then have 14 games left in the regular season to get some NHL ice time.

There is no sign that Jones will be assigned to Hartford this year. The Rangers now have 21 defensemen organizationally under contract.

JONES HISTORY

Jones, 20, skated in 29 collegiate games with UMass this season, registering nine goals and 15 assists for 24 points, along with a plus-17 rating and eight penalty minutes. He helped UMASS, located in Amherst, MA, win the National Championship this past Saturday in a 5-0 shutout of St. Cloud St.

Jones was named to the NCAA (East) Second All-American Team this season, the Hockey East Second All-Star Team, and the Frozen Four All-Tournament Team, and he also helped UMASS win the Hockey East Championship during the season. He ranked second among NCAA defensemen in goals,

He ranked third among NCAA defensemen in points, tied for third among NCAA

The 5-11, 185-pounder skated in 61 collegiate career games in the two seasons, with UMASS registering 12 goals and 35 assists for 47 points, along with a plus-29 rating and 32 penalty minutes.

Jones was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team as a freshman in 2019-20, as he led NCAA freshmen in assists (20) and shots on goal (89) and ranked third among NCAA freshmen in points (23) during the season.

MORE JONES INFO

The Richmond, Virginia native represented the United States internationally at the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship and recorded two points (one goal, one assist) in five games and helped the United States win a gold medal at the 2018 World Junior A Challenge tournament.

In the third round, Jones was selected by the Rangers, 68th overall, of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and is the 18th player from Hockey East to turn pro so far, among 63 nationally who have signed North American pro contracts and the 25th underclassmen to depart school early.

HARTFORD WOLF PACK

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