Portland, ME, February 5, 2011 – Despite trailing for much of the game, the Connecticut Whale pulled out a 4-3 win over the Portland Pirates Saturday night at the Cumberland County Civic Center, making a power-play goal by Kris Newbury at 2:40 of the third period stand up as the game-winner.
The Whale were down 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 before prevailing for their second straight post-All-Star break victory, after they went into the break with three straight losses. A line of Chad Kolarik, Tim Kennedy and Evgeny Grachev combined for six points, including a pair of Kolarik goals, and Jason Williams had a goal and an assist. Dov Grumet-Morris made 22 saves to get his first Whale win, in just his second start in a Connecticut uniform.
Dennis McCauley had a goal and an assist for Portland, which also got goals from Mark Mancari and Justin Bowers.
Mancari, the AHL’s leading goal-scorer, gave Portland the game’s first lead with his 28th goal of the season at 9:12 of the first period, with Portland shorthanded. A pass by Newbury went off of Jeremy Williams’ skate at the middle of the Portland blue line right to Mancari, and he had a breakaway all the way in and beat Grumet-Morris with a low shot. The goal was Mancari’s 10th in his last eight games and 14th in his last 15.
After that shorthanded score, only the second given up by the Whale in 51 games on the season, Connecticut very nearly got a shorthander in its first man-down situation, but a shot off left wing by Kolarik that beat Jhonas Enroth’s catching glove went off the crossbar at 16:15.
Following that relatively quiet first frame, the two teams would combine for five goals in the second period, the first three in a span of only 2:25.
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Jason Williams scored his fourth goal in 15 games with the Whale at 5:22, just one second after a Whale power-play ended. Williams and Brodie Dupont (two assists) were both screening Enroth, and Williams deflected in a shot from the right point by Tomas Kundratek.
Portland restored the lead just 1:29 later at 6:51, on the first of two goals in the period by a line of Justin Bowers, McCauley and Igor Gongalsky. Bowers put Portland up 2-1 on a goal from the left-wing side of the goalmouth, after McCauley centered the puck past Whale defenseman Jared Nightingale.
Kolarik scored the first of his two goals to tie it back up only 56 seconds after that, at 7:47. Kolarik buried a second rebound from between the hash marks, after Enroth (25 saves) stopped shots by both Kennedy and Grachev.
The Pirates jumped back on top at 12:37 on the ninth of the year by McCauley, who connected on a shot from the right side of the slot. Nick Crawford started the play by stickhandling down from his left point position and working his way up the slot.
Once again the Whale fought back though, and the Kennedy line would click a second time with 1:20 left in the period. It was Kolarik finishing the play again, this time on a pass from left to right across the slot by Grachev. Kolarik had Crawford in his way, but was able to flip the puck past Enroth before he could slide far enough to his left.
After that late goal in the second, Newbury would strike for his seventh of the season, and second in as many games, just 2:40 into the third, with Marc-Andre Gragnani in the box for slashing. Jason Williams and Dupont exchanged the puck on the right-wing side and found Newbury open along the goal line. The left-handed-shooting Newbury was able to get enough of a shooting angle to rip the puck off of Enroth’s pads and into the net.
That goal gave the Whale its first lead of the game and, as it would turn out, would be enough for the victory.
The Whale have now won two of their three visits on the year to Portland, and the Pirates came into the game with the best home winning percentage in the AHL (.792), at 17-3-3-1. Fourth-place Connecticut improved to 24-20-2-5 for 55 points on the season and remained one point behind third-place Worcester in the Atlantic Division, after the Sharks shut out Providence at home, 2-0.
The Whale and Pirates have a rematch Sunday at 3 p.m. at the XL Center in Hartford. There will be 2,000 Whale headbands given away compliments of XFINITY of Comcast. It’s the Whale’s last game at the XL Center until March 2, when they face Springfield. Then the Whale won’t be home again until March 11 against the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears, meaning after Sunday, they play 10 of their next 12 games on the road, including their only trips to Toronto, Hamilton, Ontario, and Charlotte, N.C. But they do play 10 of their last 16 games at the XL Center.
HARVEST-PROPERTIES HOCKEY FEST 2011 STARTS THIS WEEK
The historic “Harvest-Properties.com Whalers Hockey Fest 2011” is scheduled to begin Friday at Rentschler Field in East Hartford with a game between the girls teams from Hotchkiss School (Lakeville) and Cushing Academy (Ashburnham, Mass.) at 4 p.m., the opener of a tripleheader.
The featured attraction of the event that runs through Feb. 23 is the Harvest-Properties.com “Whale Bowl” on Feb. 19 in which the Hartford Whalers legends play the Boston Bruins legends at 4 p.m., followed by the Whale and Providence Bruins at 7 p.m. Celebrities also will participate in the legends game, which will follow a game between Army and AIC at 1 p.m. In case of bad weather, the Whale-Bruins game will be played Feb. 20.
Hall of Fame defensemen Brian Leetch, a Cheshire native, and Brad Park headline the Bruins legends team. Other commitments are Enfield native Craig Janney, former captain Rick Middleton, who played 12 seasons in Boston and with the Rangers, Reggie Lemelin, Ken Hodge, Don Marcotte, Rick Smith, Bob Sweeney, Lyndon Byers, Cleon Daskalakis, Jay Miller, Bob Miller (no relation) and Ken “The Rat” Linseman, who was a member of the Whalers for a few moments as he passed through in a multi-player trade with Philadelphia and Edmonton that included Mark Howe leaving Hartford for the Flyers. Derek Sanderson will coach the Bruins team.
Commitments for the Whalers team are WHA Hall of Famer Andre Lacroix, John McKenzie, whose No. 19 is retired in the XL Center rafters, Blaine Stoughton, Pat Verbeek, John Anderson, Garry Swain, Bob Crawford, Chris Kotsopoulos, Jim Dorey, Jordy Douglas, Ray Neufeld, Gordie Roberts, Darren Turcotte, Nelson Emerson, Mark Janssens, Bill Bennett, Jeff Brubaker, Fred O’Donnell, Terry Yake, Scott Daniels and the Babych brothers, Dave and Wayne. Emile “The Cat” Francis, a coach and general manager with the Rangers and Whalers, will be back behind the bench again, and Norm Barnes and former captain Russ Anderson will be assistant coaches.
Celebrities scheduled to play with one of the legends teams include Michael Keaton, Alan Thicke and David E. Kelley, son of New England and Hartford Whalers coach and general manager Jack Kelley and the writer of the 1999 hit film “Mystery, Alaska,” which was produced by Whalers Sports and Entertainment president and CEO Howard Baldwin and his wife, Karen. “Mystery, Alaska” cast members slated to appear are Michael Buie, Scott Richard Grimes, Jason Gray-Stanford and Cameron Bancroft, along with Neal McDonough, Kevin Zegers, Bobby Farrelly, David Henrie and the Hanson brothers – Steve, Jeff and Dave – who were the comedic linchpins of the classic movie “Slap Shot.”
Tickets ($20 to $85) for the doubleheader can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com and the Bushnell box office in Hartford on Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. or by calling the Whale at 860-728-3366. They also can be purchased online and printed immediately at Ticketmaster.com.
The official charity of the Harvest-Properties.com Whalers Hockey Fest 2011 is “Sam’s Race for a Place,” a fund-raising effort spearheaded by West Hartford resident Samantha Udolf that benefits the Ronald McDonald House. Since Udolf, a successful competitive skier, founded Sam’s Race for a Place in June of 2008, it has generated donations of more than $43,500.
The Ronald McDonald House is a non-profit charity operating since 1991 that helps hundreds of families and children enjoy the comforts of home while they await treatment at area medical facilities. Udolf became familiar with Ronald McDonald House and its good works while volunteering there, and she conceived Sam’s Race for a Place after learning it is independently-funded and depends on grass-roots campaigns for nearly all of its support.
For more information about Sam’s Race for a Place, visit www.samsraceforaplace.com. Donations also can be made through that web address. Besides the games, the Hockey Fest will include “Whale Town” featuring exhibitors, games and the Whalers Mobile Hall of Fame.
Connecticut Whale 4 at Portland Pirates 3
Saturday, February 5, 2011 – Cumberland County Civic Center
Connecticut 0 3 1 – 4
Portland 1 2 0 – 3
1st Period-1, Portland, Mancari 28 9:12 (SH). Penalties-McCauley Por (hooking), 7:18; Redden Ct (tripping), 14:37.
2nd Period-2, Connecticut, Williams 4 (Dupont, Kundratek), 5:22. 3, Portland, Bowers 3 (McCauley, Ellis), 6:51. 4, Connecticut, Kolarik 18 (Grachev, Kennedy), 7:47. 5, Portland, McCauley 9 (Crawford, Gongalsky), 12:37. 6, Connecticut, Kolarik 19 (Grachev, Kennedy), 18:40. Penalties-Conboy Por (interference), 3:21; Redden Ct (interference), 10:03; O’Hanley Por (tripping), 13:33.
3rd Period-7, Connecticut, Newbury 7 (Dupont, Williams), 2:40 (PP). Penalties-Gragnani Por (slashing), 1:51; Williams Ct (interference), 14:22.
Shots on Goal-Connecticut 8-14-7-29. Portland 5-12-8-25.
Power Play Opportunities-Connecticut 1 / 4; Portland 0 / 3.
Goalies-Connecticut, Grumet-Morris 1-1-0 (25 shots-22 saves). Portland, Enroth 16-14-1 (29 shots-25 saves).
A-5,709
Referees-Francis Charron (46).
Linesmen-Landon Bathe (80), Joe Ross (92).
