SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The American Hockey League today announced the following suspensions:

Hartford Wolf Pack left wing Micheal Haley has been suspended for three (3) games as a consequence of his actions in a game at St. John’s on Apr. 12.

Haley was suspended under the provisions of AHL Rule 28.1 (supplementary discipline) as a consequence of leaving the players’ bench on a legal line change for the purpose of starting an altercation.

Haley will miss Hartford’s games today (Apr. 13) at St. John’s, Friday (Apr. 18) vs. Springfield and Saturday (Apr. 19) vs. Bridgeport.

St. John’s, Newfoundland, April 12, 2014 – J.T. Miller scored twice, and Danny Kristo had a goal and an assist, Saturday night at Mile One Centre, as the Hartford Wolf Pack extended their win streak to seven straight games with a 7-2 victory over the St. John’s IceCaps.

The seven-goal output was the Wolf Pack’s largest of the season, and the five-goal margin of victory is also a season high for Hartford.  St. John’s had won the first two meetings of the year between the two teams by a combined margin of 12-3.

Shawn O’Donnell, Oscar Lindberg, Marek Hrivik and Nick Latta also scored for the Wolf Pack, and Danny Syvret had two assists.  David LeNeveu made 31 saves in goal.  Austen Brassard and Jerome Samson had the St. John’s goals, and Eric Comrie made 23 saves in his first pro start.

“We had a lot of elements tonight,” Wolf Pack coach Ken Gernander said.  “I thought we were decent on our special teams, after their early lead, O’Donnell’s goal was certainly a big goal, and [LeNeveu] was strong in net again.  Just a real good team effort again tonight.

The seven-game win streak is the franchise’s longest in more than five years, since February 20-March 4, 2009.

The Wolf Pack gave up the game’s first goal only 1:39 into the game, but then responded to get the next three.

Brassard gave St. John’s the early advantage at 1:39, with his third goal of the season.  LeNeveu stopped a shot off right wing by Adam Lowry, but Brendan Kichton dove down to get to the rebound and bang it toward the net.  That try went off the post behind LeNeveu, and the carom lay loose in the goal crease for Brassard to bang in.

O’Donnell tied it for the Wolf Pack only 1:51 later, at 3:30.  Justin Vaive made a strong rush down left wing and had his shot stopped by Comrie, but O’Donnell got a whack at the rebound and it trickled through Comrie just over the goal line.

Kristo then put the Wolf Pack in front at 7:21, improving his team-best goal total to 23 with an unassisted tally.  Chris McCarthy’s pass toward T.J. Hensick at the right side of the slot was blocked, but Kristo kept the puck in near the blue line, and buried a snap shot from the left side of the slot past Comrie’s stick side.

The two teams traded goals only 45 seconds apart starting at the 6:24 mark of the second, when Lindberg put the Wolf Pack up 3-1 with a shorthanded goal.  A Conor Allen pass deflected to Lindberg in the middle, and Lindberg backtracked toward the blue line before whirling and snapping a shot past Comrie’s catching glove.

Samson got that one back for St. John’s, though, at 7:09, just six seconds after Miller stepped out of the penalty box after finishing a hooking minor.  A loose puck came to Samson at the right-wing faceoff dot, and Samson blasted a high shot into the net for his 24^th goal of the season.

Hrivik restored the two-goal margin for the Wolf Pack with 1:14 remaining in the period, scoring for a second straight game.  Hensick carried into the St. John’s end down right wing and dropped the puck off to Syvret, who deflected it perfectly to Hrivik at the left side of the slot, and Hrivik hammered a quick shot behind Comrie.

The Wolf Pack then broke the game open with three third-period goals, two by Miller.

Miller made it a 5-2 lead at 9:18 on a power play, intercepting a Kyle MacKinnon pass out of the left-wing corner high in the slot, and beating Comrie high.

Then, at 12:59, Kristo and Miller hooked up on a pretty play to make it 6-2.  Kristo stickhandled across the middle in center ice and headed down the left-wing side the St. John’s zone, before passing to Miller, who was moving across the slot.  Miller deflected the feed perfectly under the crossbar, for his second goal of the night and 15^th of the season.

Latta completed the scoring with 30.9 seconds left in the third, with his first pro goal in eight games.  Latta beat his check down the right side and took a cross-slot pass from Darroll Powe, and banged the puck in behind Comrie for a 7-2 final.

The Wolf Pack had been eliminated from playoff contention by the Albany Devils’ 2-1 win Friday night over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

The Wolf Pack and IceCaps complete a two-game series, and the Wolf Pack finish their road schedule, at Mile One Centre Sunday afternoon.  Faceoff is 2:30 PM, and all of the action can be heard on-line at www.979espn.com.  Video streaming is available at www.ahllive.com.

The Wolf Pack’s next home game is this Friday, April 18, when the Springfield Falcons invade the XL Center for a 7:00 PM game.  That is the last chance this season for fans to enjoy $1 hot dogs and $2 beers through the start of the second period, presented by Marc’s Appliance Warehouse, located at 75 Prospect Ave., Hartford, CT.

Tickets for all Wolf Pack 2013-14 home games are on sale now at the Public Power Ticket Office at the XL Center, on-line at www.hartfordwolfpack.com and by phone at (877) 522-8499.  Wolf Pack tickets start as low as $12 for youth 12 years old or younger.  To speak with a representative about season or group tickets, call (855) 762-6451.

Hartford Wolf Pack 7 at St. John’s IceCaps 2
Saturday, April 12, 2014 – Mile One Centre

Hartford 2 2 3 – 7
St. John’s 1 1 0 – 2

1st Period-1, St. John’s, Brassard 3 (Lowry, Kichton), 1:39. 2, Hartford, O’Donnell 3 (Vaive, Johnson), 3:30. 3, Hartford, Kristo 23   7:21. Penalties-Lindberg Hfd (slashing), 4:55; O’Neill Stj (cross-checking), 9:25.

2nd Period-4, Hartford, Lindberg 17 (Syvret, Allen), 6:24 (SH). 5, St. John’s, Samson 24 (Albert, Morrissey), 7:09. 6, Hartford, Hrivik 12 (Hensick, Syvret), 18:46. Penalties-Lindberg Hfd (high-sticking), 1:31; Schnell Stj (unsportsmanlike conduct), 4:22; Miller Hfd (high-sticking), 5:03; Samson Stj (tripping), 10:47; Allen Hfd (hooking), 12:08; Haley Hfd (roughing, game misconduct – leaving the bench), 19:43; Johnson Hfd (holding, fighting), 19:43; Lipon Stj (roughing, high-sticking, fighting), 19:43.

3rd Period-7, Hartford, Miller 14   9:18 (PP). 8, Hartford, Miller 15 (Kristo), 12:59. 9, Hartford, Latta 1 (Powe), 19:30. Penalties-Lunden Stj (high-sticking), 1:12; Schnell Stj (high-sticking), 9:10; Stamler Hfd (fighting), 13:53; Mouillierat Stj (slashing, fighting), 13:53; MacKinnon Stj (slashing), 16:39.

Shots on Goal-Hartford 9-7-14-30. St. John’s 13-10-10-33.
Power Play Opportunities-Hartford 1 / 7; St. John’s 0 / 4.
Goalies-Hartford, LeNeveu 11-8-0 (33 shots-31 saves). St. John’s, Comrie 0-2-0 (30 shots-23 saves).
A-6,287
Referees-Graham Skilliter (48).
Linesmen-Todd Horwood (34), Joe Maynard (48).

By Bob Crawford

Longevity and continuity are not often hallmarks of pro hockey in general, and the minor pro level in particular.

The Hartford Wolf Pack, however, have largely been an exception to that truism, with General Manager Jim Schoenfeld in his 11^th season with the team, Ken Gernander in his seventh year as head coach, and Assistant Coach Pat Boller in year number seven in that role.

The stability also extends to the training room, with Athletic Trainer Damien Hess having celebrated his 1000^th game in pro hockey this past Wednesday, when the Wolf Pack defeated the Worcester Sharks 2-1 in Worcester.

Hess, who is in his tenth season on the Wolf Pack staff, came to the Pack in 2004, after three years with the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies of the ECHL.  In a conversation Friday in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where the Wolf Pack are on their last road trip of the regular season, Hess chuckled when asked if it seemed like he had been at his job long enough to have chalked up a thousand games.

“Some nights, it really doesn’t,” he said.  “I was thinking about it the other day, I can remember the first game, which happened to be a win, 13 years ago in Atlantic City.

“This is my tenth year here with the organization, they’ve treated me very well and I’m very happy here, and I love being here.”

In terms of what it takes to achieve the type of longevity that Hess has enjoyed with the Wolf Pack organization, he identified maintaining a positive outlook as a major key.

“I really think it comes down to just your approach to the job and your approach with the players, and your willingness to just enjoy every aspect of it,” Hess said.  “I’ve seen guys who just get frustrated with the job, and it leads to them getting out of hockey.  I love what I do, I love coming to the rink every day, I love being around the guys, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else right now.”

Another big positive for Hess has been the way in which the parent New York Rangers run the operation in Hartford, making sure that things get done in an NHL-type fashion, on a number of levels.

“They let me do my job,” was what Hess boiled it down to.  “They give me a little freedom to make the decisions and do the job the way it should be done, but they also take care of the players correctly, and from my perspective, they allow me to do what I need to do to get what the players need, in order to take care of them as well.”

That job of taking care of the players has been made easier by the presence of Mark Cesari, who is the Wolf Pack’s strength and conditioning coach, but also has an athletic training background.

“Mark’s been a huge addition for our staff over the past three years,” Hess said.  “He and I are on the same page every day when it comes to what we do with guys, both from a treatment and rehab perspective.  So it’s very helpful for me, once I have finished my work with a guy, to send him to Mark and know that they’re getting good quality work with him as well.”

Burgeoning technology makes the medical and rehab fields an ever-changing landscape, but according to Hess, the biggest difference in his job now, compared to when he started at the pro level, has nothing directly to do with his hands-on work with athletes.

“The biggest change that I’ve noticed in my tenure is really just from the record-keeping aspect of it,” the York, Pennsylvania native said.  “Back when I started everything was mostly done by hand, and you had to have good files, but now with electronic medical records being the way they are, and needing to be done the way they’re done, that’s probably the biggest change, I find.”

Counting the two games up in St. John’s, the Wolf Pack have only four more games on their regular-season schedule, so the long grind of the AHL season is nearing its end.  Hess sees first-hand the toll that the battle takes on the players, but what of the off-ice staff?  Do Hess, Cesari and equipment mavens Russ Holdredge and Craig Lewis find themselves getting worn down by 70-plus games of helping the players keep themselves ready?

“A little tired,” Hess responded, “we get a little tired as the year winds down, but at the same time, the job is really no different now than it was in September or October when we first started.  You have to really learn to manage your time, and manage yourself, and be able to handle those stresses as they come.”

One of those stresses, for Hess, has been several long-term injury situations that have cropped up this season.  The most prominent of those are the concussion that has felled forward Michael Kantor, and sports hernia surgeries undergone by forward Micheal Haley and blueliner Stu Bickel.

“It’s been a bit of a struggle this year with some of those injuries that we’ve had,” Hess admitted.  “Unfortunately with the concussion that Michael Kantor suffered, it’s a pretty significant one, he’s been out since January.  We’re optimistic that he’ll be fine, but that’s been a long process, and this is the first time we’ve really ever had two guys in the same season with the sports hernia surgery.  So we’ve had a lot of different struggles this year, and it’s funny, I’ve seen it go through phases like that.  My first few years here we had a bunch of guys with shoulder injuries, and then we went through a phase with a bunch of knee injuries.  I think it’s just unfortunate luck, but that’s just the way it is this year.”

And when you have been around an AHL bench and training room as long as Hess has, you see many different phases come and go.  Hess doesn’t spend a lot of time sitting around and thinking about the thousand-game number, but it is a point of some pride for the veteran medical man.

“I think it’s a pretty big milestone,” he said.  “When you think about it, in order to get a thousand games, you’re looking at at least 13 years, regardless of what level you’re working at, and that’s a long time, especially for me, for ten of those years being in one place.  So I look at it as a pretty big milestone, but I’m also looking forward hopefully to another thousand or more.”