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BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The most pivotal weekend of the Hockey East season will be in Orono, Maine for the UCONN Huskies as they try to elbow their way into a solid playoff position with three weeks left. The Huskies will battle on the road to battle the third place and the 17th ranked nationally Maine Black Bears Friday night at 7 and then on Saturday in a 7:30 pm NESN televised contest. After a week off after sweeping New Hampshire in a home and home and 7-4 at the XL Center with five different Huskies having multiple-point games. UConn returns to the ice this weekend for a two-game series on the road against the No. 17 nationally-ranked Maine Black Bears.  Saturday night's game will be carried live on NESN. The Huskies and Black Bears met back on January 15th, a 3-2 UConn comeback win at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport with Vladislav Firstov scoring the game-winner that ended a Huskies four-game losing streak. Barter Turnbull started the comeback with a goal to make it 2-1. Turnbull who has been scoring key big goals was injured for the last UNH game and is expected to play in the lineup this weekend. The Huskies hold a 6-4-4 lead in the all-time series with Maine with six of those games going to overtime.  The Huskies are 6-2-3 against Maine since becoming a member of Hockey East and UConn is 3-2-2 all-time at venerable Alfond Arena. UConn enters the weekend tied Providence for seventh place in the Hockey East standings with 18 points.  The two are a point behind UNH and Boston University in fifth. The Black Bears, winners of five-straight, are tied for third with Boston College with 20 points. The Huskies freshman Vladislav Firstov is the Huskies' leading scorer with 22 points coming on 11 goals and 11 assists. Firstov was named the Pro-Ambitions Rookie of the Month for January after posting nine points over eight games, scoring five goals and passing out five assists.  He had two game-winners and was a +11. He is currently fifth among league rookies in scoring and his 11 goals are tied for second among freshmen goal scorers in Hockey East. UCONN’s sophomore Jonny Evans (Nanaimo, BC) recorded his second hat-trick this season in the road win at UNH. He also tallied three in a 7-4 win over Vermont at home and has 17 points on the year despite missing time with a broken finger.  Evans is the only player in the country to record a pair of hat-tricks this season. UCONN however still has no scorers in the Top 20 in Hockey East in any offensive category. This is a team that scores by the committee and all four lines will need to produce this weekend. UCONN does have 11 Huskies who have hit double-digits in points with three players hitting the 20-point mark on the year in Firstov tops at 22, Russian Ruslan Iskahkov 21 points and Czech sophomore Jachym Kondelik with 20. On defense senior defenseman senior Wyatt Newpower is riding a career-best five-game point streak (1g/7a).  Newpower matched his career-high with three assists in the home win over UNH and now has a career-best 17 points (three goals/14 assists).  He is tied for eighth among league defenseman in scoring. Husky defensemen junior Adam Karashik and senior Wyatt Newpower are among the top shot blockers in Hockey East this season. Karasik is third in the league with 43 blocks and Newpower is ninth having blocked 35 shots. Huskies center senior Benjamin Freeman, a Falmouth, Maine native is ranked third in Hockey East in face-off percentage, winning .590 (282-196) of his face-offs on the year.  Freeman leads the league with 282 face-off wins. In net Czech sophomore goaltender, Tomas Vomacka came up with 42 saves in the Maine win, stopping 20 in the second and 13 in the third. Vomacka made 38 saves to earn his 11th win on the year against UNH. He has been lights out in net and the reason UCONN is still in the playoff hunt. His numbers at 3.40 GAA that is 12th out of 13 spots among goalies, save percentage .894 which is 11th out of 13 and winning percentage .481 which is 10th out of 13 and his personal record of 11-12-3 playing 26 of 27 games doesn’t tell the whole story of how well he has played. (Portions of a UCONN press release were used in the formation of this section). NOTES: The 14-goal weekend was the most goals posted in consecutive games under head coach Mike Cavanaugh and the most since the Huskies posted 17 in two-straight in wins over Niagara (8-5) and Sacred Heart (9-3) in 2010-11 when they were in the AHA conference. -No surprise that Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon after 17 years (27 overall in college hockey) announced he will be stepping down from the Catamounts head coaching gig at season’s end are currently winless in the conference this season at 0-15-2 and have an overall mark of just 3-20-4. They are also winless for a full year in the conference losing 23 games. -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 and Whaler draft pick Mark were the others all four attended Harvard. Jack Drury, son of ex-Whaler Ted and uncle Wolf Pack GM Chris who 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 Whaler 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). -Five players from CT Division II/III college hockey was among the 30 names placed in consideration for the Joe Concannon Award to the best New England Division III player. Liam Feeney, Tedy Loughborough and Barclay Gammill from Trinity College (Hartford), Walker Harris of Wesleyan University (Middletown) and Connor Rodericks of Connecticut College (New London) were nominated. The award winner is announced before the NCAA Division III Frozen Four at the LECOM Harbor Center in Buffalo, NY and the award presented at the New England College Hockey Writers brunch in May. -The announcement of the University of New Haven Board of Trustees approving in Boca Raton, Florida last week to go to Division I in all sports speculation of hockey returning to the West Haven-based school after a 37-year absence has begun. The Chargers program yielded former LA King GM Dean Lombardi, recently retired University Maine assistant coach Jay Leach and retired Amity HS head coach Gary Lindgren among their prominent hockey alumni. At the program then at the Division II level in the ECAC North conference playing its home games at Bennet Ice Rink in West Haven and the Milford ice Pavilion. was disbanded in 1983. Presently, they have an ACHA Division 2 club program. The collegiate hockey landscape has changed significantly since then and will change more in the next two years, but it's still early in this process to say exactly where they may land, clearly changes are coming. Read the full article

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. 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BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - There has been much activity in the world of the NHL and AHL, especially for the heart of the summer. PLAYER AND COACHING MOVEMENT Former Hartford Wolf Pack and New York Ranger, Marc Savard, who has been doing work as a skills development coach with Petersborough (OHL) was hired as an Assistant Coach by the Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues. Ex-Sound Tiger, Richard Seeley, after the Manchester Monarchs (ECHL), folded following the season, is now the GM of the Ontario Reign. The AHL roster shuffle continues at a slower pace than at the beginning of the month but remains chugging along. Eric Condra heads from Texas to Colorado. Ian McCoshen gets a one-year, two-way deal with Springfield/Florida of $250K-AHL/$700K-NHL and defenseman Julien Melchiori leaves Springfield for Binghamton. Melchiori, is a much younger cousin to former Nighthawk, Daryl Evans, and former Springfield Indian, Vic Venasky. Tyler Gaudet leaves Milwaukee for Toronto Marlies for a one-year, one-way, $700K deal. Cavan Fitzgerald moves from San Jose to Charlotte. Matt Moulson, with almost a 1,000 NHL games, signs an AHL deal with the Hershey Bears. Max McCormick gets a one-year, two-way deal with Charlotte/Carolina paying $100K-AHL/$700K-NHL after splitting last season with Belleville/Colorado. Four more AHL’ers head off to Europe. Ex-Pack Tom Pyatt, who split last season with Utica/Ottawa, signs with Skelleftea AIK (Sweden-SHL). Ex-Pack defenseman, Chris Summers, departs the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins to join his good friend, and ex-Pack, Chris Brown with the Nuremberg Ice Tigers (Germany-DEL) on a two-year contract. He will still be wearing number 55 on his jersey. Kerby Rychel goes from Stockton to Orebro HK (Sweden-SHL). Shane Hanna of Texas heads off to Rungsted IK (Denmark-DHL). Those make 61 AHL’ers who have signed off to Europe or Asia for next season. Hampus Gustafsson of Hershey is on a tryout with Rogle BK (Sweden-SHL). Ex-Pack, Paul Crowder, re-signs with the Fife Flyers (Scotland-EIHL) for the fall and winter hockey season while he is presently playing with the Sydney Ice Dogs (Australia-AIHL). Crowder is their third-leading scorer after playing 12 games (11g-29a-40pts) as the team heads into the final month of the regular season. Crowder's brother Tim is tied for the team lead at 50 points and is third in AIHL scoring of the short season league. Goalie, Jackson Whistle, the nephew of ex-Nighthawk, Rob Whisle, leaves Sheffield (England-EIHL) for Nottingham (England-EIHL) Defenseman Joesph Masonius, a former UCONN Husky signs with Reading (ECHL). He played one game in Wheeling (ECHL) and 12 with now-defunct Manchester (ECHL) last year. Philippe Hudon (Choate Prep) signs an ECHL one-year deal with the Florida Everblades. After finishing his Canadian collegiate career with Concordia University (OUAA) in Montreal, the Hudson, Quebec native played 14 games with Florida and three games with Laval. Karl El-Mir, also from Montreal area, the former UCONN Husky (HE), signs with Indy (ECHL) for next year. Jake Cliffords of Arizona St. (Division 1-Independent) signs with Tulsa (ECHL) and a pair of Division III players sign. Zach Borsoi of Utica College (UCHC) signs with Adirondack (ECHL) while Matt Lippa of Manhattanville College (UCHC) puts his name on a contract with Idaho (ECHL). Three more collegians sign pro deals. Freddy Gerard from Ohio State (Big 10) signs with Idaho (ECHL). Timo Kocer departs Division 3 Finlandia University (NCHA) for his native Slovenia to play for HDD Jesenice (AlpsHL). Peter Crinella of Holy Cross (AHA) signs a deal with Wichita (ECHL) making 184 players from Division I to sign North American pro deals, 22 from Division III, 49 sign European deals, making an overall count of 247 collegians to sign pro deals. Former Quinnipiac Bobcat, and briefly a Sound Tiger defenseman, Mike Dalhuisen, a Dutch-native, leaves EC Bad Nauheim (Germany DEL-2) and signs with HK Dukla Michalovce (Slovakia-SLEL). Travis Culhane, the son of ex-Whaler, Jim Culhane, moves from Western Michigan (NCHC) to Colorado College (NCHC) in the same capacity as Director of Hockey Operations. Besides AHL President Dave Andrews, another hockey honcho will step down following the 2019-20 season. Joe Bertagna, the commissioner of Hockey East after 23 years at the helm will leave the scene, not by his own choice, but the conference directors elected not to renew his contract. He also spent 13 years as the head man for the ECAC before heading up Hockey East in 1997. Bertagna’s name is all over college hockey in the Northeast. Beside commissioning two college conferences, he is an accomplished author of five books on goaltending and was twice the goalie coach for the Boston Bruins (1985-1991 & 1994-95) as well as the 1991 Canada Cup US entry, and the 1994 US Olympic team, that played in Lillehammer, Norway. He was the pioneer in making women’s hockey a Division I sport when he became Harvard’s first head coach of women’s hockey (1977-1979) and actively promoted and developed that side of the college hockey equation. He is already in the Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame and the ECAC Hall of Fame. He played from 1970-1973 at Harvard under three big names of collegiate history in Ralph “Cooney” Weiland, Billy Cleary, and the late, Tim Taylor of Yale, who was an assistant at Harvard. Bertagna, being a starter his last two years, was in an era where freshmen were not allowed to play varsity sports. He played professionally for two years with SG Cortina (Italy-IHL) and Milwaukee (USHL) then a senior hockey league not in its present junior format. UCONN adds another recruit for this fall’s campaign. Forward Jonny Mulera from the Boston Jr. Bruins (NCDC) commits after playing 49 games and scoring 27 goals, getting 27 assists (54 points). The team’s Director of Player Development is ex-Pack, Bobby Butler. The Yale University Bulldogs (ECACHL) snagged another son of a former NHL’er, Will Dineen, the son of Hartford Whaler great, Kevin Dineen, has made a commitment to Yale for 2020-21. He played this past season for the Chicago Mission U-16 (HPHL) and was drafted by two different US junior leagues this spring. He was taken first taken by Omaha Lancers (USHL) 7th round 98th overall then taken by the Odessa (TX) Jackalopes (NAHL).in the 7th round 162nd overall. Now with the commit to Yale looks more than likely he will be in the USHL come the fall. His father Kevin, as previously mentioned, just signed to be the head coach in San Diego (AHL). He is the younger of the Dineens. Two of his uncles, Peter and Shawn, played for the New Haven Nighthawks, and his other uncle, Jerry Dineen, is the Rangers video coach. Two college graduate transfers are heading to Boston University (HE) in the fall. Wilton CT native, goaltender Sam Tucker, who played his prep school hockey at Choate, takes his Yale degree and four years of collegiate hockey to the Terriers. Also joining him from the ECACHL conference is Alex Brink of Brown University taking the 50-minute trip up I-95  to BU’s campus. Ex-Pack, Jeff Finley, is changing scouting addresses. He leaves Detroit, where he was the Chief of Amateur scouting, to go Winnipeg to replace the retiring Marcel Comeau, a one time New Haven Nighthawks head coach. Need some cool thoughts during the hot days of summer? Here is a superb hockey story to keep you cool and get to read about hockey at the southernmost point in the world; HERE The NHL and college hockey should help in the development of hockey here. Dominic Turgeon, nephew of ex-Whaler Sylvain signed a new one year two-way deal with Grand Rapids for a slight AHL increase from $67,500K to $80K and the NHL money is up from $650K to $750K-NHL). Read the full article

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Now that the Bradford pears and forsythias have sprung into bloom and are kicking in, the New York Rangers might want to put a giant set of forsythias in front of the XL Center to obscure the Hartford Wolf Pack after another spring without playoff hockey. The roster for 2019-20 is in the embryonic stage of development, however without a coaching staff, not much will be known until after a new Rangers President is named. That decision isn’t likely to come until mid-to-late May. GM Jeff Gorton is the final hockey authority in the MSG hierarchy and a lot will be ongoing as the presidential search process continues. As of May 1st, this is what the Wolf Pack roster might look like before any trades and the upcoming June draft in Vancouver is done. Goalies: Alexander Georgiev and Adam Huska. The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! Goaltender, Igor Shestyorkin, and forward, Vitali Kravtsov, will finally be coming to New York next season, but there are caveats. Neither has formally signed a contract, but that could be coming soon as both of their KHL contracts concluded on April 30th. Both will be in the Rangers prospects camp at Chelsea Piers in Stamford, CT while their practice facility undergoes renovations.  A report from Larry Brooks of the New York Post says that in Shestyorkin’s deal, there will likely contain a non-Hartford clause roughly along these lines; if he doesn’t make the Rangers he could be reassigned to SKA St. Petersburg, his KHL club. If he does make the Rangers, Shestyorkin would likely need some adjustment period to the North American smaller rinks. It's entirely possible that he could play for Hartford say for a limited period of time at the beginning of the season before being elevated and Georgiev either gets returned to the Pack or traded. It would be similar to the Dustin Tokarski, who is a UFA this summer and Marek Mazanec who rotated this season with Georgiev to get playing time when Henrik Lundqvist was playing long stretches. Brandon Halverson and Chris Nell have their entry-level deals expiring. Neither is likely to be re-signed. Defense: Ryan Lindgren, Libor Hajak, Chris Bigras, Brandon Crawley, Sean Day, Darren Raddysh, and Joey Keane. Except for Keane, a rookie from London (OHL), they are all players returning some coming off season-ending injuries (Lindgren - a concussion, Bigras - ankle, and Hajak-shoulder). Day and Crawley had major struggles this past season. Bigras is an RFA and a player the Pack should re-sign if they are going to have to have some continuity. Leaving: John Gilmour, a Group 6 UFA (Unrestricted free agent) was undrafted and has not played 80 NHL games by his 25th birthday. Because of this unique status as an unrestricted free agent, under the CBA, he should and will likely sign elsewhere. A pro hockey career is a short one. This is a rare financial opportunity and with the Rangers currently having four defensemen making $4 million plus per year, it's not likely to leave much roster room. Defenseman Rob O’Gara, another Group 6 UFA, and one of the assistant captains this year, ended the year with an injury (back spasms). Like Gilmour, with economic freedom, he's likely to take advantage of it. O’Gara was cautious in his exit interview on breakup day. “It's very tough to be a part of something like this, with the season we had and to see how it affects somebody like our coach. You develop a relationship over a season, so when something like this happens, you feel personally responsible, even though we were together as a team. He helped me keep developing my game. Early on in the season, I went to get some mental help for my game (with a sports psychologist) and he also helped me come around on that end. We built that trust early on. It was big. I was trying too hard and not doing the things I do well.” A four-year pro veteran, O'Gara is getting healthy with his back and handling his pending nuptials in Booth Bay Harbor, Maine. In July, he'll marry his high school sweetheart, Isabella Wise, and letting the hockey economics take care of themselves. “You know the first three years between here, Providence, and Boston, I have seen all sides of this business. We (he and his agent) have talked informally, but my priority is to get healthy, get back to normal, plan my wedding, and we'll see what happens for next year,” O’Gara said as he departed with personnel from the locker room still having to carry his bags to his car because his back is still clearly not 100%. Josh Wesley, still Carolina Hurricane property, will likely be cut loose when the Charlotte Checkers end their run likely in June in the Calder Cup Final. Julius Bergman, a late-season acquisition from Ottawa, is an RFA. He is being pursued by several Swedish Hockey League teams and will likely return home. Darren Raddysh, acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks for Peter Holland, was unimpressive during his stay in the Connecticut capitol. He supplied just a lone goal on 23 shots in 22 games. Not sterling numbers for an offensive defenseman to say the least. Add in a minus-10 rating, and he shouldn’t come back even with another year left. Buy him out. It’s a worthy investment. Forwards: Steven Fogarty, Ville Meskanen, Ryan Gropp, Tim Gettinger, Matt Beleskey, Shawn O’ Donnell, Ty Ronning, Jake Elmer, Ryan Dmowski, Patrick Newell, Nick Jones, Shawn McBride Fogarty, a group 6 free agent, has already signed for next year at ($150K-AHL). Boo Nieves is another who was already signed. He would seem to be a logical choice to carry the captain's C next year. Lately, though that has been like having the scarlet letter on your chest and not a badge of courage since the last four captains have all been traded. Gropp must have a breakout year next season. He was better in the second half, but he spent three weeks in Maine in December to jumpstart his game. Matt Beleskey, if he isn’t brought out in the summer or packaged in a trade, will return for just two reasons. First, he has an extremely cap friendly contract of which the Rangers take just a $825K hit when he isn’t in the NHL on his last year of a four-year deal at $1.9 million per season that was originally signed with the Bruins and they need to fill a veteran spot up front. Meskanen, paired with Beleskey and Peter Holland for most of the season, was heading back to his home in Southern Finland to see his girlfriend and his dog. Losing his first pro head coach was not on his bucket list. “That’s not what I was expecting or wanted. I guess they want some fresh (new) blood here maybe it will be a change for the better. I liked both those guys.” The lanky winger showed progress and mental toughness, and he knows he has lots of offseason work ahead. “They were very honest with me about my play. I really liked when they told me what I had to improve on. Playing with Holly (Holland) was very good for me. He helped me (adjust) both on and off the ice and to get used to North American style. I know I have to improve my skating and get stronger to win the one-on-one open battles in the corner, so I’m looking forward to working on that in summer practices. I think I have a better idea of what it's like here and I will be more ready next year. I had no clue when I got here.” Meskanen replied with his sly, dry wit. Shawn O’Donnell provides another veteran presence that they will need, O'die is a good loyal soldier who knows he isn’t NHL material, and he accepts working with the prospects in their development. He is on an AHL deal only. Ty Ronning, who was misused most the season in Hartford and then suffered injuries, will look to play a full season in the American League for his sophomore season. The late-season rookie Elmer, Jones, Dmowski, McBride, and Zerter-Gossage all showed good skill sets and should be in training camp in the fall. The Vitali Kravtsov factor will be interesting if he is sent to Hartford to get quality playing time early a la Filip Chytil two years ago is an unknown. Tim Gettinger had some genuine understanding of what he needs to for next season after a season at minus 20 in his rookie campaign. “I have been more physical consistently in the offensive and defensive zone. It’s a big summer for me personally and everybody in the room to be fully ready for training camp in the fall. It’s gonna be a whole new coaching staff to adjust to, but we have to work harder and try to worry about the things off the ice and concentrate what we do on the ice,” commented the rookie winger while driving back to the Cleveland area for the summer. Leaving: Vinni Lettieri is an RFA (Restricted Free Agent). He just misses Group 6 status by five months, but he has no room in New York. The Rangers don't appear to believe he is top six forward material. He should sign elsewhere and could become the next Jonathan Marchessault, one of the Rangers worst player evaluation mistakes ever. Lias Andersson, shouldn’t be in Hartford. His was a very poor sophomore season in Hartford. He had just three multi-point games, was a minus-24 in 36 games and contributed just 20 points. He didn’t do much in New York either with six points in 42 games. It's too early to toss a 20-year-old aside and label him a bust, but he is a major project next season at either the NHL or AHL levels. He might be here or he might be packaged in a deal at draft time. The Rangers should have left him in Kitchener (OHL) last year where he belonged. Now he is about two years behind his draft class in development and he needs to learn has to go to the game, not thinking the game will come to him. Gabriel Fontaine had 26 points in 72 games and one of the more likable guys in hockey at the end of his three-year entry-level deal. He has one year left on his ELC deal and is really a bubble player for returning, It looks like he might head elsewhere as a buyout or trade. Sadly, Bobby Butler didn’t work out well here at all with a minus-26. He was shuttled on almost every different line and had some strong games, but not enough to make a difference. Butler was a real rental player. He lives at home in Massachusetts and worked his second job as Director of Player Development for a junior hockey team, the Boston Jr. Bruins (NCDC) after practice with his father, John as the team’s assistant coach in the afternoon after practice in Hartford. He and his wife are expecting child number three next month, so retirement as an active player is much more likely to occur. The season left Butler feeling very empty. “The fans were great to us, wished we put a better product out there for them to cheer for. We tried to nip this thing early and every time we get back to a level spot, we got back to where we didn’t want to be it was very frustrating. I hate to lose and there was too much of it this year and it wasn’t like we weren’t trying-people like winners and it's tough coming off a losing season. I hope guys find that hunger for next year when they're in the gym in the summer,” said in his deep Massachusetts accent was genuinely disappointed as he completed his ninth year as a pro. The trade of Cole Schneider sunk the Wolf Pack. It was bittersweet as they lost a captain and gained an old friend, Connor Brickley. “I was happy to see Brick.  He’s a very good dude. We played together our first year in San Antonio and he’s a Boston guy, and once you make friends with a Boston guy, it's for life,“ Butler said with a laugh. The trade of the captain, he acknowledged, hurt the team tremendously, “It’s something you don’t see often except if you're in this organization where it happens every year.” Dawson Leedahl, who played just 29 games, was scratched for eight games and missed 23 of the last 24 games with a shoulder injury. He had zero points. With a year left on his deal, he likely won't be back and if he does it will be in Maine. Shawn St. Amant, who had a nice training camp earned an AHL deal never seem to fit in here. He did well when he was sent to Maine. He's more of an ECHL player and will likely be in Maine or elsewhere, next season. Its gonna be a long, interesting summer in Wolf Pack-land. Read the full article

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The Hartford Wolf Pack scored three goals in the second period and five unanswered goals overall to help them overtake and defeat the Binghamton Devils, 6-2, snapping a six-game losing streak in a Sunday afternoon matinee at the XL Center. Steven Fogarty tallied two goals and an assist. Ryan Gropp scored a goal and had two assists while the four newly-minted rookies earned their first pro points and Lewis-Zerter Gossage, his first pro goal and game-winning goal paced the offense. This was the Pack’s first six-goal output since January 18th against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and only the fourth time this season they achieved that goal plateau. The Pack pulled away in the third period with two goals to seal the win. They increased their record when leading after two periods this season to 19-3-3-2 and conversely when trailing after two periods is an atrocious 3-24-3-0. The Wolf Pack record falls to 29-34-7-3 (67 pts) are off until Friday when they face the Hershey Bears in their regular season home finale before finishing the season with two more road games at Lehigh Valley (Allentown) and Hershey. Nick Jones scored his second AHL goal, by winning a battle for position on the Devils' Ryan Murphy and was able to push Darren Raddysh’s rebound past the Devils goalie Evan Cormier to make it 5-2 at 10:09. Jake Elmer picked up the assist for his first pro point. “Once our lines got a feel for each other we started to generate a little bit of chemistry. We finally started to capitalize on our chances,” said Pack head coach, Keith McCambridge. The scoring closed out an empty-netter which is usually nothing big to celebrate, but Steven Fogarty passed up getting a hat trick and dished the puck to Gropp to finish off his three-point effort. Plays like that don't go unnoticed by a head coach. “To pass up a hat trick with the pass to Ryan, it speaks volumes about a player. Steven Fogarty is a high quality, young man.” The gesture also wasn't ignored by his linemate, Gropp, the recipient of the play. “That’s the kind of guy he is. He plays the right way every night. I'm lucky to have a teammate like that. I really didn’t expect the pass.” The Wolf Pack had two penalty kills, a short five-on-three and a longer four-on-three that was a catalyst that got the team moving. “We got a lot of momentum out of those kills, and we finally found our legs and got going after that,” Gropp stated. The second period seemed to be a ref’s contest to see how many penalties they could call in a 20 minute period the Pack used one of their powerplays to tie the game at two. Fresh back from his NHL recall, John Gilmour started the whole scoring sequence with a sharp pass from the left point to Gropp in the right wing circle. He ripped a shot that Fogarty redirected by a completely screened Devils goalie, Evan Cormier, by the Pack's Tim Gettinger. It sailed over his shoulder into the top shelf on the stick-side at 9:12. It was Fogarty’s 20th of the year making him the third Wolf Pack player to cross the twenty goal plateau this season. “We found some chemistry when we have been together and Keith put us together tonight with Vinni (Lettieri) back (from New York) and those two guys are very reliable and it was a fun game for the three of us,” remarked Gropp. McCambridge was pleased with the efforts of putting his number one line back together. “They all complement each other well, and Ryan has a strong shot. He kept good possession of the puck. Steven created the separation that we needed on his first goal and Vinni has been an offensive catalyst all year. It was just what we needed. That line and the Fontaine line were able to lead for our other two lines to see how they were playing, as they followed them and took the pressure off them,” McCambridge said of his first line that had a combined seven points. For Fogarty familiarity breeds success. “We missed him (Lettieri). He was up there where he should be (in New York) and it was nice to have him back. We have worked well together... the three of us. We had just four shots to start, but once we got those, we two kills. We started to pick up the pace, got a few and that helped us turn this (game) around." The Wolf Pack exploded offensively with two goals in thirty seconds to stake out a two-goal lead. The first came as rookie Shawn McBride worked the puck to fellow first-timer Ryan Dmowski, who got the puck in the left wing circle, corralled the biscuit, turned, and fired a shot with a screen provided by the Binghamton forward checking him and goalie Evan Cormier, who was screened in front by traffic from Lewis Zerter-Gossage, who redirected the puck for his first professional goal. It was the eventual game-winner as Dmowski and Shawn McBride tallied their first pro points with assists. The redirect was so deftly done it took the upstairs off-ice officials to catch it. They did a great job. Zerter-Gossage knew right away it was his, but he was doing the honorable thing when Dmowski was initially given credit for the goal. “I knew right away that I got it. I don’t think Ryan did though,” Gossage said with a big, bright smile. “I tried not to make a big scene about it. First was a great play by everybody. Shawn did some hard work and Ryan made a really smart play and we're just trying to simplify things and get pucks deep and we got rewarded for it. I was just coming here to learn from the older guys to get my first pro goal in my second game, that was the cherry on top.” Fogarty showed the offensive harmony that was missing for the team in the first period, playing catch and go as he sent a quick pass over to Lettieri on the right. He quickly sent it back and while on the left wing, Fogarty buried his second goal in a row for the 4-2 lead at 17:52. Even with three big pieces of the team playing in New York, the Wolf Pack got off to another laisse-faire start to the game. For the ninth time in the last ten games surrendered the game’s first goal. The Devils won a right corner battle among four players and the puck came out to Brandon Gignac. He sent it over from the right wing to defenseman Colton White who was wide-open and he zipped a pass to ex-Pack, Alex Krushelnyski, alone at the right side of the net with an open side to easily deposit his second goal of the season at 2:21. The Wolf Pack offense was at very least, anemic. They didn’t register a quality shot until they scored a goal at 13:09 for the entire period. The Pack got a break when Binghamton’s Nick Lappin’s pass to the left point found nobody and allowed the Pack to break out on an odd-man rush. Gabriel Fontaine on the right wing was on a two-on-one shorthanded break with Tim Gettinger on the right wing was his decoy and as a lefty shot zipped a wrister over the glove of Devils goalie Evan Cormier for his 11th goal and the Pack had some life tied at one. It didn’t last long as the Devils cashed in on their next powerplay with a Charlotte Checkersesque four of five players touching the puck inside the Wolf Pack zone by the AHL’s second-worst team record wise. Nick Lappin was able to feed Ryan Schmelzer who curled and peeled down into the right wing circle sent a short pass to Eric Tangredi at the goal line who sent it right back out to Blake Pietila who snapped his 19th into the net at  14:54 and a 2-1 lead. Pietila now has seven points in his last eight games. NOTES: Gilmour’s assist gives him 54 points, four ahead of Rochester’s Zach Redmond for the top spot among defensemen's scoring, which is ten shy of the Wolf Pack team record of 64, held by Andrew Hutchison set in 2007-2008 where he was third in team scoring behind PA Parenteau and Greg Moore. Wolf Pack fan jersey of the night a pair of ex-CT Whale, players Michael Del Zotto’s number 2 who is on his third NHL team this season with St. Louis. #10 Tommy Grant who played senior league hockey in British Columbia with Quesnel (CIHL). The Wolf Pack jerseys were #17 Brandon Dubinsky and #15, Greg Moore. SCRATCHES: Matt Beleskey (lower body, out) Dawson Leedahl (lower body, out) Rob O’Gara (lower body, out) Bobby Butler (healthy) Matt Register (healthy) Julius Bergman (healthy) Shawn St. Amant (healthy) Shawn O’Donnell (healthy) LINES Fogarty-Lettieri-Gropp Fontaine-Meskanen-Gettinger Ryan Dmowski-Shawn McBride-Zerter-Gossage Jake Elmer-Patrick Newell-Nick Jones Gilmour-Lindgren Day-Raddysh Wesley-Crawley Read the full article

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Two ex-Hartford Wolf Pack players lead the Utica Comets to a 4-0 shutout victory over their former team before an announced crowd of 3,980 at the XL Center on Saturday night. Tom Pyatt paced the win with a goal and an assist ex-Pack goalie Marek Mazanec recording his first shutout of the season in his eighth game for Utica. It was also the fourth time the Wolf Pack have been held scoreless this season and the Comets scored via even strength, powerplay, and a shorthanded goal. The Comets outplayed, a clearly youthful, professionally inexperienced Wolf Pack squad with half their forwards lacing their skates up with less than four games under their belt Saturday night at the XL Center. “We didn’t have the puck very much tonight. I think they had a majority of the play the first half of the game. Tough to play when you're down 3-0. We worked and got a better slice of the game in the third, but we weren’t able to play a 200-foot game most of the night,” remarked Pack head coach, Keith McCambridge. For Utica, the win snapped a four-game losing streak and was just their second win in eleven games. The win boosted their record to the .500 mark at 32-32-6-2 (72 points) and seventh place in the North Division. The Comets play in Providence against the Bruins tomorrow afternoon. The Wolf Pack record falls to 28-34-7-3 (65 points) for eighth place in the Atlantic division and have lost five-in-a-row with four games left in the season, one of which comes Sunday afternoon against the Binghamton Devils at 3 pm. The Comets were launching shots like a meteor shower throughout the first period in which they outshot the Wolf Pack, 17-8. Utica scored early. Jonah Gajdovich had inside position on the Wolf Pack defenseman. Gajdovich took a cross-ice feed from Lukas Jasek that was tipped in the air. The Czech finished for the third time of the season at 2:15. The entire scoring sequence came about as the Comets Brendan Gaunce was at the left point and got a wraparound cleared by Josh Wesley and sent it back to Jasek at the goal line on the left wing side. Wesley peeled back chased him up the right wing boards creating the mismatch that Gajdovitch took advantage of. “We just didn’t get another good start and you fall behind it's not easy to fight back from. We battled back in spurts, but we just didn’t do enough to win the game,” remarked Ryan Gropp. The Pack, as they did early in the week against Springfield, surrendered another shorthanded goal. Matt Register got knocked off the puck and lost his stick in the process. Reid Boucher created the turnover along the lower right wing boards and then sent a crisp short pass to Pyatt, who wasted little time and snapped his fifth goal past Pack starter Adam Huska at 9:16. “It felt really good. I haven’t scored one in a while,“ Pyatt said. "Credit to Reid. He did all the work on that play to get the puck first and made a perfect pass.” Pyatt played for the Wolf Pack ten years ago. The Wolf Pack’s best chance of the period came late with 3:05 remaining. The Pack had just four shots but just two quality shots. One of those quality shots came from rookie Patrick Newall, who got a good lead pass from Gropp, his linemate, with a clean chance on the right wing and Mazanec, made a glove save, his toughest save of the entire game. “You can see the skill set he has, the vision, the speed, and with time and more play his play will evolve and surely get better. We just need more of that from all parts of the lineup, “ said McCambridge. Gropp was duly impressed with his play. “Newsy certainly has a shot and really good speed and if we get more time he will do pretty good here.” The Comets tallied their third goal in the second period again courtesy of sloppy play in their own end of the ice by Hartford. Pyatt fired the pass to Zach MacEwan who put a one-timer on net that Huska stopped, but the rebound was in the crease area and Cam Darcy got his stick on it before a Wolf Pack defenseman and swept his tenth of the season into the back of the net at 10:02. Huska made a great breakaway stop on MacEwan with 38.4 seconds left the second period MacEwan closed out the scoring with an empty-netter with 52.3 seconds left in the contest for his 21st goal, a minute after the Wolf Pack took a timeout to try to ruin Mazanec’s bid for a shutout to no avail. “It would have been better if we kept things simpler, got more bodies at the net, but we shied away from that too much and we just were never able to generate enough offense,” said Gropp. NOTES: Huska played his first back-to-back pair of games in his brief pro career. Brandon Halverson will start tomorrow against Binghamton Bobby Butler and Brandon Crawley wore A’s for the first time. Stratford native, and former Fairfield Prep and Salisbury Prep high school player, Jamie Sifers was in the starting lineup for Utica. Rangers won their regular season finale 4-3 in overtime over Pittsburgh. Ryan Lindgren played, but John Gilmour and Vinni Lettieri did not. There was no word if any of three will be reassigned to Hartford for tomorrow’s game. Wolf Pack fan jersey of the night: #39 Nik Latta playing hockey in the German DEL league and a real golden oldie #2 Burke Henry now retired working in real estate in Florida. SCRATCHES: Dawson Leedal (Upper Body) Shawn O’Donnell (Healthy) Matt Beleskey (Lower Body, likely out for the rest of the season) Rob O’Gara (Lower Body, out for tomorrow) Shawn St. Amant (Healthy) Chris Bigras (Ankle, done for the season) LINES: Fogarty-Gropp-Newell Fontaine-Meskanen-Gettinger Butler-Dmowski-Shawn McBride Jones-Jake Elmer-Lewis Zerter-Gossage Day-Raddysh Wesley-Crawley Bergman-Register Read the full article

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - In their first home game in two weeks, the Hartford Wolf Pack saw the Charlotte Checkers continue their season-long dominance over the New York Rangers' AHL affiliates in a 4-1 win. The loss sent the Wolf Pack to their third straight defeat despite scoring three goals in the final ten minutes of the game. After losing their first game against Hartford this season, the Checkers swept the next seven. All of their wins came in regulation. The Wolf Pack (28-32-6-3) challenge the Belleville Senators in one of their last four home games of the season. Charlotte (46-15-7-1) hit the 100-point mark for tops in the AHL tomorrow in Bridgeport against the Sound Tigers in another Atlantic Division matchup and what could possibly be a division final playoff series. “I like our first two periods," Pack head coach Keith McCambridge said. "We kept it close. The third period we stopped moving our feet; stop making plays, and they made us pay. I don’t care what team you're playing. I didn’t like that third period at all.” The third period started out with some action. A big hit on Aleksi Saarela by Brandon Crawley, followed a shot by the Checkers' Jake Bean trickled through and beat Brendan Halverson, and Ryan Lindgren dove for the puck along with a Charlotte player and covered it with his hand leading to a penalty shot that came at 2:43. For the penalty shot, the Checkers selected rookie, Stelio Mattheos, who went for the left leg back kick, but Halverson didn’t bite and slid over to make the save and keep the game tied at one. It could have been a momentum shifter for the Pack, but it wasn’t. The penalty shot was Halverson's fourth of his career and his third since his recall from Maine. The team record of five held by Chad Johnson. The Checkers as they always did the season found a way to score. Ross McKeown was at the left point and quickly wheeled Morgan Geekie’s pass to Saarela, who was alone in the right-wing circle. He fell down on his one-timer, but the shot hit at the point where the crossbar and post meet and made a distinctive ping. The puck laid behind Halverson and Andrew Poturlarski seemingly pushed it over the goal line turning the red light went on. Poturlarski pointed to Saarela immediately. The video review by the off-ice officials confirmed that it was the original shot by Saarela that went in for his team-leading 25th goal of the season. “He has a bomb of a shot, and to be honest, I wish he would use it more,” Charlotte head coach Mike Vellucci said. It says quite a bit about the depth of the team when the team's leading goal scorer doesn’t shoot enough. The AHL‘s fourth-leading scorer, Poturlarski, helped put the icing on the cake. He took a terrific lead pass from Haydn Fleury, came in off the left wing and received too much space from Pack defenders and took a forehanded shot that Halverson saved, but Morgan Geekie got his stick on it for his 17th at 16:25. Julien Gauthier then deposited his 21st into an empty net just 19 seconds later to end the Wolf Pack's night, securing the Charlotte win. “I’m very proud of this group. With the exception of one stretch, we have been very consistent and that shows the team commitment this year. It’s a mark they should all be proud of,” said Vellucci. For the Wolf Pack, it was another third-period collapse, one of many they have suffered this season. “We have had problems finishing out games all season. We did well in the first two periods, but the third? I don’t know what to say,” said Sean Day. Despite just seven shots, the Wolf Pack exited the second period tied at one with a goal in the last minute of the period. Just after Tim Gettinger was stopped on the sixth shot, the puck came up the wall. Ryan Lindgren grabbed it and fed Day at the right point. Gettinger stayed down low as a screen as Day’s shot beat former Pack netminder, Dustin Tokarski, to the short-side with 22.3 seconds left. “It was a real good heads up play by Gettinger and a really good shot by Sean. It's one of the few offensive zone pressures we put on them. We just didn’t put enough pucks on net to make them work hard though we played a good two periods of keeping them wide, but, again the third period can’t have that,” said McCambridge. This play came after a near net gaffe with just under minute to play. Gropp crossed in front of the net and Mattheos knocked the puck off his stick and it just went wide on a startled Halverson. No surprise Charlotte scored the game’s first goal. The Checkers' Steven Lorentz, who has spent most of the season with the Florida Everblades (ECHL), intercepted an outlet pass by Bobby Butler off the right wing boards at the blue line. He quickly fed Mattheos, playing his third game out of Brandon (WHL), and he got behind Darren Raddysh. The right-handed shooter was on the left wing and beat Halverson low, to the glove side at 3:03 for his first professional goal. “He had a very strong night and he has played very well since he got here. It seems he has been here all season. He has quickly picked up the systems and he was involved all night,” said Vellucci. The Pack offense was few and far in-between registering four shots on goal. The first came from rookie Nick Jones who was trying to stuff one in on the right wing side of the net. It was the only shot in the first ten-and-a-half minutes of the period. Day had a good left point drive stopped by Tokarski, who was loaned out to Charlotte on February 12th. The other solid chance was Gabriel Fontaine sporting full face cage off the left wing. NOTES: Defenseman Rob O’Gara returned to the lineup after missing 21 games with a lower body injury and resume wearing the A. The Pack now have a three game losing streak and dip below .500 in their last 11 at 5-6-0-0 Charlotte goalie, Alex Nedejlkovic, is tops in the AHL among goalies in minutes played, wins and fourth in saves and tied with three others with four shutouts. Charlotte’s Andrew Poturlarski in his second AHL season is fourth in overall in scoring with 65 points in 69 games with 23 goals and 41 assists. He led the season series between the two teams in scoring with (2-8-10) and former Ranger draft pick Alexsei Saarela was tops in goals with five and nine points. Ryan Lindgren leads AHL rookies in PM with 92. Rookies Ryan Dmowski (East Lyme/Gunnery Prep) wears jersey #10 and Nick Jones #17. Dmowski played at Gunnery a year after the Pack’s Terrence Wallin graduated from there. Greg Chase wore #9 and Matt Register #6. SCRATCHES: Matt Beleskey (Day-to-Day - Lower body) Chris Bigras (Ankle - Done for the year) Josh Wesley (Healthy) Dawson Leedahl (Upper-body, Week-To-Week) Shawn O’Donnell (Healthy) Julius Bergman (Healthy) Gabriel Fontaine is playing with a full face cage. He was hurt in Syracuse and suffered some teeth loss and big cut near lip area when hit by the puck. LINES: Fontaine-Chase-Gettinger Fogarty-Gropp-Meskanen Butler-Jones-Ronning Wallin-Dmowski-St. Amant Lindgren-Raddysh Day-Crawley O’Gara-Register Wolf Pack fan jersey of the night: #27 Jesper Fast and a real golden oldie #30 Dan Blackburn. Read the full article

  BY: Bob Crawford, Hartford Wolf Pack Utica, NY, March 16, 2019 – Ryan Gropp scored twice, and Adam Huska made 25 saves for his first professional win Saturday night at the Adirondack Bank Center, as the Hartford Wolf Pack defeated the Utica Comets, 5-3. Ville Meskanen had the game-winning goal and an assist, and Sean Day had two assists.  Jesse Graham had a goal and an assist for the Comets. “I liked our game, the response coming off of last night (a 3-2 loss at Syracuse), as a group us understanding that wasn’t our best,” Wolf Pack head coach Keith McCambridge said.  “Nice to see Ryan Gropp continue to have success and put the puck in the net, and for Adam, getting his first pro win.  I thought he was really solid for us back there.” The Comets outshot the Wolf Pack 11-5 in the first period, but the teams came out of the first 20 minutes tied at one. Both clubs scored on a Comet power play after Brandon Crawley was assessed a major penalty for checking from behind and a game misconduct for a hit on Lukas Jasek at 9:54. Only five seconds thereafter, at 9:59, Tanner Kero opened the scoring for Utica with his 22nd goal of the season.  Cam Darcy passed from the left-wing circle, just past the stick of Hartford defenseman Ryan Lindgren, to Kero in the slot, and he lifted the puck past the stick side of Huska. Bobby Butler evened things up at 12:36, with the Wolf Pack’s 11th shorthanded goal of the season.  After a Zack MacEwen pass went off of Jesse Graham’s stick, Butler broke out on a 2-on-1 with Tim Gettinger.  Butler kept the puck and wired a shot from the left-wing side, his off wing, past Utica starting netminder Marek Mazanec to his left. “I thought we did a good job,” McCambridge said.  “Having to kill the five-minute penalty was tough, but it was nice that it got evened up, and that was a huge goal by Bobby Butler. The Wolf Pack would strike for three goals in the second period, including two in the first 3:35. Shawn St. Amant gave Hartford its first lead of the game at the 1:54 mark.  Sent in alone by a pass from the right-wing side by Terrence Wallin, St. Amant beat Mazanec with a shot to the glove side. The Wolf Pack then chased their ex-teammate Mazanec from the game with a power-play goal 1:41 later, at 3:35.  Gropp and Day exchanged the puck on the right-wing side, and Gropp moved into the circle before firing a shot into the net, again past Mazanec’s catching glove. Mazanec was replaced at that point by Michael Leighton, and Meskanen put the puck past him at 14:01 to make it a 4-1 Wolf Pack lead.  Matt Beleskey passed the puck out of the left-wing corner to Mazanec at the left side of the slot, and his shot to the glove side went off the post and in behind Leighton. Gropp scored his second of the game at 6:14 of the third period to make it 5-1, set up by a beautiful pass from Steven Fogarty.  Vinni Lettieri cleared the puck off the glass on the right side, and Fogarty moved into the Utica end and spun near the goal line, threading a feed through two Utica defenders to Gropp at the left side of the goal mouth. The Comets stopped a run of five straight Wolf Pack goals with a marker by Graham at 13:28.  He had an initial shot blocked but got the puck back, and snapped a shot from the right point that deflected past Huska. Carter Bancks then cut the margin to two at 16:45, with a shorthanded goal.  With Brendan Woods in the box for slashing, Stefan LeBlanc sent a pass to Bancks in the slot, and he lifted a backhander past Huska’s catching glove. Utica could get no closer though, and the Wolf Pack came away with their fifth win in the last seven games, and the third in their last four on the road. “I thought there were some really nice plays made, and some well-executed a-to-b passes, enabling us to get it into the back of the net,” said McCambridge. “Top to bottom, I thought we had contributions from all four lines, whether it was offensive production or playing a solid 200-foot game.” The next action for the Wolf Pack is next Saturday night, March 23, the first of back-to-back games in Charlotte, NC against the Checkers.  Faceoff is 6:00 PM and all of the action can be heard live on News Radio 1410 AM, and 100.9 FM, WPOP, and online at newsradio1410.com and iHeartRadio.  Video streaming is available at theahl.com/AHLTV. The Wolf Pack’s next home game is Friday, March 29, also against the Checkers, a 7:15 PM faceoff.  As at all Friday-night Wolf Pack home games, fans can enjoy $1 hot dogs, and $2 beers and fountain sodas, through the start of the second period, presented by Nomads Adventure Quest. Tickets for all 2018-19 Wolf Pack home games are on sale now at the Agera Energy Ticket Office at the XL Center, online at hartfordwolfpack.com and by phone at (877) 522-8499.  Tickets purchased in advance for kids 12 or younger start at just $13 each, and all tickets will have a $3 day-of-game increase. Season ticket information for the Wolf Pack’s 2018-19 AHL season can be found online at hartfordwolfpack.com.  To speak with a representative about all of the Wolf Pack’s many attractive ticketing options, call (855) 762-6451, or click here to request more info. Hartford Wolf Pack 5 at Utica Comets 3  Saturday, March 16, 2019 - Adirondack Bank Center Hartford   1 3 1 - 5 Utica         1 0 2 - 3 1st Period-1, Utica, Kero 22 (Darcy, Graham), 9:59 (PP). 2, Hartford, Butler 8   12:36 (SH). Penalties-Lind Uti (tripping), 1:29; O'Donnell Hfd (fighting), 4:17; Stevenson Uti (fighting), 4:17; Crawley Hfd (major - checking from behind, game misconduct), 9:54; Lind Uti (high-sticking), 13:06. 2nd Period-3, Hartford, St. Amant 2 (Wallin, Day), 1:54. 4, Hartford, Gropp 9 (Day, Meskanen), 3:35 (PP). 5, Hartford, Meskanen 11 (Beleskey), 14:01. Penalties-LeBlanc Uti (high-sticking), 2:18; Beleskey Hfd (delay of game), 6:33; Arseneau Uti (boarding), 10:08. 3rd Period-6, Hartford, Gropp 10 (Fogarty, Lettieri), 6:14. 7, Utica, Graham 4 (Anselmini, Darcy), 13:28. 8, Utica, Bancks 4 (LeBlanc, Gaunce), 16:45 (SH). Penalties-Chase Hfd (roughing), 8:33; LeBlanc Uti (cross-checking, unsportsmanlike conduct), 8:33; Woods Uti (slashing), 16:21; Jasek Uti (interference), 19:09; MacEwen Uti (cross-checking), 19:48. Shots on Goal-Hartford 5-9-6-20. Utica 11-8-9-28. Power Play Opportunities-Hartford 1 / 8; Utica 1 / 3. Goalies-Hartford, Huska 1-1-0 (28 shots-25 saves). Utica, Mazanec 7-11-4 (8 shots-5 saves); Leighton 8-7-1 (12 shots-10 saves). A-3,917 Referees-Mitch Dunning (43), Mathieu Menniti (30). Linesmen-Neil Frederickson (68), Tory Carissimo (54). Read the full article