Portland, ME, December 31, 2010: The Connecticut Whale’s Tim Kennedy, a former Portland Pirate, scored a power-play overtime game-winner for a second straight game against his former team, in a 5-4 Whale win Friday night at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
Kennedy also haunted his old club in a 2-1 overtime victory for the Whale Wednesday night at the XL Center. He became the first player in franchise history to score overtime goals in back-to-back games.
The victory, the Whale’s third straight, moved the club into a second-place tie with the Pirates in the Atlantic Division. The Whale is now a season-best five games over the .500 mark, at 17-12-2-5 for 41 points.
NHL veterans Todd White and Jason Williams had a goal and an assist each in their first games with the Whale, and Chad Kolarik also added a goal and an assist. Kris Newbury also scored, and Wade Redden had three assists, tying a Whale season high. Paul Byron tallied a goal and an assist for the Pirates, who also got goals from Mark Mancari, Justin Bowers and Colin Stuart.
Portland got the first four power plays of the game, and then referee Ryan Hersey awarded four straight to the Whale in the last 6:03 of regulation. The Whale were unable to score on a pair of two-man advantages, one of 56 seconds and another of 19 seconds, but the last of the four calls, a delay-of-game penalty at 19:18 against Tim Conboy for shooting the puck over the glass, carried over into overtime, and it took the Whale only 24 seconds to convert.
To continue reading, click on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.
Redden, who has assisted on all of the Whale’s league-high four overtime goals, played the puck from the blue line to Kennedy in the right circle, and Kennedy moved into the slot. From nearly the same spot from which he scored in Wednesday’s win, Kennedy fired a shot that Portland goaltender Jhonas Enroth appeared to stop, but trickled underneath the Pirate backstop and just over the goal line.
That came after a third period that saw the teams battle back and forth, splitting four goals inside the first half of the session.
Newbury scored a shorthanded goal to give the Whale a 3-2 lead just 23 seconds into the third, the Whale’s first shorthander in 36 games on the year after the team led the AHL in shorthanded tallies last season with 18. Redden worked the puck to Brodie Dupont behind the net, and Dupont centered to Newbury, who banged the puck in off the post to Enroth’s right.
Bowers scored his first Pirate goal exactly five minutes later, at 5:23, to knot the score at two, shoving the puck inside the post to the right of Whale goaltender Chad Johnson (24 saves) off of a cross-slot feed from Maxime Legault.
Williams put the Whale back in front 1:57 later with his first goal in a Whale uniform, a shot from the top of the circles that beat Enroth to the stick side. The Pirates responded quickly again, however, on Stuart’s seventh of the year just 2:13 later at 9:33. Stuart played the puck into the goal crease from the left-wing side, and it hit Johnson’s skates and trickled across the line.
Enroth (26 saves) would make several big stops under the power-play pressure from the Whale the rest of the period, but had no answer for Kennedy’s overtime bid.
The Pirates controlled the early action in the first period, getting nine of the game’s first 12 shots, and opened the scoring at 6:19 on Mancari’s 14th goal of the season. Mancari cashed in a second rebound, after Johnson made strong saves on bang-bang shots by Drew Schiestel and Matt Ellis.
The Whale picked up their game after that and had several threatening chances, but could not put anything past Enroth, whose best save came on a Jeremy Williams chance from right on top of the net, set up by Kennedy. Jason Williams (no relation to Jeremy), who joined the Whale a Professional Tryout agreement Sunday, then hit the goalpost with a shot later in the period.
The Whale were able to solve Enroth only 2:43 into the second though, on an unassisted goal by Kolarik. A shot by Bowers went wide right of the Connecticut net, and the rebound carried all the way toward the Pirate end and Kolarik was the first to it. Kolarik got a step on the Portland defense and was able to bury a shot off the left side, his off-wing, over Enroth’s catching glove.
White, a 15th-year pro assigned to the Whale by the parent New York Rangers Wednesday, finished a pretty play for his first Whale goal at 11:18. Jason Williams brought the puck into the zone before feeding to Kolarik in the right circle. Kolarik slid a perfect pass to the left-shooting White coming up the middle, and White was easily able to deflect it in behind Enroth.
The Whale had strong momentum at that point, but Byron got the Pirates back into a tie when he converted a penalty shot at 14:48. Byron split the Whale defensive pairing of Tomas Kundratek and Pavel Valentenko and was knocked down from behind as he shoved the puck on net, bringing the penalty shot call from referee Hersey. Byron then beat Johnson through the five-hole on the penalty shot opportunity.
It was the second penalty shot called against the Whale on the year, and both have resulted in goals, both against Johnson.
The overtime game was the Whale’s league-high 13th of the season, and fourth in their last six games. They are now 4-2-7 in overtime on the year. The Whale now have at least a standings point in 14 of their last 15 games (11-1-0-3) and 16 of their last 18 (13-2-0-3), and are unbeaten in regulation in ten straight divisional games (8-0-0-2). With the win, Johnson is now over .500 personally on the year, at 12-11-3, and is 9-1-2 in his last 12 decisions.
Connecticut Whale 5 (OT) at Portland Pirates 4
Friday, December 31, 2010 – Cumberland County Civic Center
Connecticut 0 2 2 1 – 5
Portland 1 1 2 0 – 4
1st Period-1, Portland, Mancari 14 (Ellis, Schiestel), 6:19. Penalties-DiDiomete Ct (roughing, fighting), 8:08; Conboy Por (fighting), 8:08.
2nd Period-2, Connecticut, Kolarik 15 2:43. 3, Connecticut, White 1 (Kolarik, Williams), 11:18. 4, Portland, Byron 12 14:48 (TXT_PS). Penalties-McDonagh Ct (interference), 6:43; Nightingale Ct (fighting), 18:12; Tropp Por (fighting), 18:12; Williams Ct (hooking), 18:56.
3rd Period-5, Connecticut, Newbury 5 (Dupont, Redden), 0:23 (SH). 6, Portland, Bowers 1 (Legault, Biega), 5:23. 7, Connecticut, Williams 1 (Redden, White), 7:20. 8, Portland, Stuart 7 (Tropp, Byron), 9:33. Penalties-Williams Ct (hooking), 11:32; Biega Por (high-sticking), 13:57; Biega Por (holding), 16:33; Gragnani Por (tripping), 17:37; Conboy Por (delay of game), 19:18.
OT Period-9, Connecticut, Kennedy 6 (Redden), 0:24 (PP). Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Connecticut 7-11-12-1-31. Portland 10-10-8-0-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Connecticut 1 / 4; Portland 0 / 4.
Goalies-Connecticut, Johnson 12-11-3 (28 shots-24 saves). Portland, Enroth 9-10-1 (31 shots-26 saves).
A-6,733
Referees-Ryan Hersey (46).
Linesmen-Landon Bathe (80), Jeremy Lovett (78).
