By Bruce Berlet
HARTFORD, Conn. – A parade and rally to celebrate the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team’s third national title forced the start of Game 3 of the Connecticut Whale’s first-round playoff matchup with the Portland Pirates to be pushed back several hours.
After a second disheartening one-goal loss in Maine on Saturday night, one had to wonder how the Whale would react at a critical juncture of the Atlantic Division semifinal. Would they fight off the demons of several unfortunate breaks and more penalties to get back into the best-of-seven series or go onto life support with another loss?
Well, the Whale had a revamped look as coach Ken Gernander shuffled all four of his lines. And Pirates coach Kevin Dineen, the former Hartford Whalers standout right wing and captain whose No. 11 hangs in the XL Center rafters, had three reinforcements in his lineup, including All-AHL right wing Mark Mancari and defenseman Dennis Persson, reassigned by the parent Buffalo Sabres. That came three days after center/captain Matt Ellis returned from Buffalo for Game 1.
Despite facing the added firepower, the Whale competed to the nth degree, got a goal and an assist from John Mitchell and Derek Couture, countless minutes from veteran defenseman Wade Redden and Dov Grumet-Morris’ 29 saves, including on NHL veteran Mark Parrish’s penalty shot with 5:38 left, to carve out a 3-1 victory before 3,102 at the XL Center.
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“In any game there’s an ebb and flow, and obviously we took a lot of minor penalties (10),” Grumet-Morris said. “But when that happened, the penalty killers were able to step up and do everything that they could do in their powers to kind of bail the guy out. Everyone – and I mean every single athlete at every level in any sport – makes a mistake. It happens. That’s why this is a team sport, and your teammates have to help you.
“If you don’t want to do that, then you play an individual sport. You play golf or you play tennis, something of that nature. We’re a very good team here when we play together, and obviously Portland is as well, and we just came out a little bit ahead. But usually that’s what happens in the playoffs. Usually you don’t see 7-1 games.”
Gernander concurred after the Whale went 8-for-8 on the penalty kill after a 7-for-7 showing in a 3-2 overtime loss in Portland on Saturday night.
“It was a good effort by a lot of guys,” said Gernander, whose team is 18-for-20 in the series while a man short. “Our defensemen were good on the penalty kill, Dov was good in net and the forwards logged a lot of minutes killing penalties. It was a real good team effort and more and more we’ve used a lot more personnel to try to spread out the penalty killing. And everybody has been pretty productive in that regard. That’s good to have, but you don’t want to rely on it, and I think we could do ourselves a big favor by staying out of the (penalty) box.”
The victory got the Whale to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series that continues Tuesday night at 7 at the XL Center and will have at least a Game 5 on Thursday night in Portland, Maine.
“It was a very close game that definitely went back and forth,” Grumet-Morris said. “Our power play, which has been much maligned, really came up huge for us in the third period, and that was the difference in the game. We got a couple of bounces and they didn’t, but certainly Portland could have won the game very easily. But now it’s 2-1 and a new ballgame.”
And that can be traced directly to Grumet-Morris stacking his pads to stop the penalty shot by Parrish, who skated right to try to get a better angle on the Whale goalie. Parrish got the chance after Whale defenseman Pavel Valentenko blocked AHL Rookie of the Year Luke Adam’s rebound blast from point-blank range with Grumet-Morris out of position during the Pirates’ eighth power play. Valentenko keeled over from the shock of the shot to his stomach, falling on the puck in the crease. Despite Valentenko being temporarily disabled, referee Jamie Koharski awarded the Pirates a penalty shot.
“(Koharski) obviously felt he tried to freeze the puck himself in the crease,” Gernander said.
But as he has done most of the season since joining the Whale from Greenville of the ECHL, Grumet-Morris bailed out a teammate.
“I could hear Koharski, so I knew right away it was going to be a penalty shot,” Grumet-Morris said. “From his perspective, it looked liked our man was on top of the puck. I would have to look at the replay to see if (Valentenko) was covering it or it was just lying next to him. Either way, the ref is just trying to make the best call he can make. I’ve known him for 10 years, so I don’t question his integrity. The call was the right call, and luckily we came out a little bit ahead on that play.
“I didn’t know what he was going to do ahead of time, but essentially there’s three things you can do. You can come hard down the middle, come from the right or come from the left. He came from my left, and luckily I was able to get a piece of it when he shot the puck.”
The Whale again took an early lead when left wing Tommy Grant, one of seven recent college/junior signees, passed to Ryan Garlock, who rushed into the right circle and flipped a backhand centering pass that hit off Grant’s skate and past David Leggio at 3:03 for his first pro playoff goal.
“Tommy got us a big goal off the start to get us going,” Gernander said.
Leggio (19 saves) denied All-Star Jeremy Williams’ rush off right wing at 5:00 and again in front at 12:50. Given those reprieves, the Pirates tied it when Parrish’s rebound bounded past Kris Newbury to Mark Voakes, who sled the puck past Grumet-Morris with 52.6 seconds left in the period.
Grumet-Morris then kept the Whale ahead with a left-pad stop on Igor Gongalsky’s bid off a 3-on-1 at 2:52 of the second period. Leggio, who had been 5-1-1 against the Whale, then stopped a semi-breakaway by Brodie Dupont at 5:18 after he left the penalty box.
Grumet-Morris made another stellar save on Colin Stuart, who had maneuvered around Stu Bickel in front of the Whale net with 8:19 left in the period.
The Whale then reclaimed the lead for good as Couture outmaneuvered Persson in front and backhanded in a rebound of Redden’s 40-foot shot from the slot off a nice setup by Mitchell with 3:37 to go.
“Mitch was on the forecheck and was strong on the puck and got it back to Reds, who let go a nice veteran shot low,” Couture said. “I screened the goalie, the rebound came out and just put it in. … It’s hard to say the difference from the first two games, but Dover played a helluva game, the power play got a goal and guys worked hard, though guys were working hard in Portland as well. You don’t know how it’s going to go down, so you’ve got to keep playing the same way.”
The Pirates nearly tied it again, but Derek Whitmore, the hero of Game 2 with the tying and winning goal in overtime, hit the far post with 2:08 left. The Whale nearly took a two-goal lead at 3:05 of the third period, but Leggio stopped Newbury’s deflection and dove to deflect Williams’ rebound bid.
The Whale then took their first two-goal lead of the series when Dale Weise’s shot deflected off Persson’s skate to Mitchell, whose bad-angle shot went in off Leggio at 9:22.
After Grumet-Morris stopped Parrish’s penalty shot, the Pirates pulled Leggio with 42 seconds left but got only one shot on goal as the Whale franchise ended a six-game playoff losing streak to Portland dating to 2008 and a six-game postseason slide overall since the then Hartford Wolf Pack took a 2-0 series lead in the first round against the Worcester Sharks in 2009.
“I think the first two games we had a few moments in certain periods where we kind of fell asleep, and that cost us,” Mitchell said. “In the playoffs, you can’t take any shifts off because if you do, they’re going to pounce all over you. And they did, especially in Game 1 when they got up 3-0 in a quick span in the first period. Then we brought it back and had a good game.
“And unfortunately in Game 2, they’re last two goals they got were a little bit of sloppy play for an instant, and before you knew it the puck was in the back of our net. We addressed those things, and this was obviously a must-win for our team, and we came in and put in a solid effort. There are plenty of teams that go on the road and not win either of the games, but we knew we had home ice and had to take advantage of it. We have a series, but now Game 4 is just as important as tonight’s game was.”
Meanwhile, the Pirates had a two-game playoff winning streak stopped after losing eight consecutive games since Game 1 of the 2009 division semifinals at Providence on April 15, 2009. The Pirates went on to lose the next four games of that series and were swept in the first round by Manchester last year.
“In the second period we ended up losing the period, but I was really very happy with the way the period went,” Dineen said. “We had good assertive play. We had some confidence and we made a good push. We started the third period on the power play, and that didn’t go so well and we started to lose momentum there. That was a little bit of a turning point in the game.”
Along with Grumet-Morris’ penalty shot save that assured it wouldn’t be the ninth one-goal game in the 11 meetings between the teams this season, including five at the XL Center.
“A lot of times goaltending and their whole body of work comes down to the big save you made or the save you didn’t make,” Gernander said. “I think obviously that was a big save that he made there.”
SAME SCRATCHES FOR WHALE
The Whale again scratched goalie Jason Missiaen, defensemen Jyri Niemi, Dylan McIlrath and injured Michael Del Zotto and forwards Justin Soryal, Kale Kerbashian, Shayne Wiebe, Andrew Yogan and injured Chad Kolarik, Devin DiDiomete and Todd White.
But Gernander changed his lines as newcomer Carl Hagelin moved alongside veterans Newbury and Williams, Weise shifted alongside Mitchell and Evgeny Grachev, Dupont skated with Francis Lemieux and Kelsey Tessier and Grant moved alongside Garlock and Couture.
“We wanted to spread out the work load a little bit,” Gernander said. “I don’t know that we had a ton of chemistry in the games in Portland, so we just made some changes.”
Meanwhile, the Pirates had Mancari (32 goals, 32 assists in 56 games) with Brian Roloff and Whitmore. Persson replaced Jeff Dimmen and was paired with Alex Biega. Mancari replaced Jacob Lagace, and Dineen also inserted Maxime Lagace for Travis Turnbull. The Pirates also scratched defensemen Brian O’Hanley and Drew Schiestel and forwards Joe Whitney and Shawn Szydlowski. … Wing Mats Zuccarello, on recall from the Whale, was scratched again Sunday by the Rangers, who beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 on former Wolf Pack wing Brandon Dubinsky’s goal with 1:39 left.… Hagelin must have felt as if it was déjà vu Saturday night at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland. A week earlier, an overtime goal gave Minnesota-Duluth a 3-2 victory over the University of Michigan, captained by Hagelin, and its first NCAA hockey title. Saturday night, Whitmore’s overtime goal gave the Pirates a 3-2 victory. But unlike seven days earlier, the Whale lived on to play another day. Hagelin said it might take until summer to completely get over the loss in the NCAA title game. And who can blame him? … Not surprisingly, Whitmore was named the No. 1 star in the AHL on Saturday, though his tying goal was quite fortunate as it went into virtually an open net after Grant inadvertently ran into Grumet-Morris and knocked him off balance. Grumet-Morris, who had 33 saves in another tough-luck loss, was named the game’s No. 3 star, but he earned plenty more stars for how he handled the situation, refusing to toss Grant under the bus in any matter. “It was inadvertent, but that’s hockey and it happens,” Grumet-Morris said. “It’s a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. I make mistakes all the time. I’ll blame myself first before anyone.” It was another classic/classy reason why Grumet-Morris was named Whale MVP by his teammates. … The Whale franchise has lost seven consecutive road playoff games and six straight in Portland.
SUNDAY MEMORABLE DATE IN WOLF PACK/WHALE HISTORY
Sunday was the 13th anniversary of one of the greatest comebacks in hockey history.
Marc Savard, whose career is in jeopardy after a cheap shot by the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Matt Cooke set off concussion problems on March 7, 2010, had two goals and three assists in a seven-goal third period as the Wolf Pack rallied for a 7-4 victory over the Beast of New Haven in the Wolf Pack’s first playoff game.
Savard played one season and the start of a second with the Wolf Pack before rejoining the Rangers and then being traded June 26, 1999, with the Rangers’ first-round pick, to the Calgary Flames for the rights to Jan Hlavac, the Flames’ first-round pick, which became Jamie Lundmark, and a third-round pick that was later traded back to Calgary.
Savard put up solid numbers with the Flames, Atlanta Thrashers and Boston Bruins, but unfortunately the crafty center remains home in Ontario for the second straight postseason with no chance to make a triumphant return. Cooke’s blind-side hit sidelined Savard for the remainder of the regular season and the first-round series with Buffalo in 2010 before he returned and scored the winner in Game 1 against Philadelphia last year. But that was the high point for Savard, who obviously wasn’t himself the rest of the series, which the Flyers rallied to win.
A recurrence of post-concussion symptoms followed during the summer, delaying his debut this season until December. His season ended after only 25 games because of another concussion sustained when he was hit by former Bruin Matt Hunwick of the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 22. Savard remains in contact with the Bruins, but little has changed with his condition.
“I’ve kept in contact with Savvy every week or so,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said before his team met the Montreal Canadiens. “We communicate, and things haven’t changed in his case, and it’s unfortunate for him. I’m sure he’s going to be sitting at home and watching these games and wishing he could be part of it because as a player, that part of you will never leave. And this is the most exciting time of the year, and I know he loved the times that he was in the playoffs.”
ADMIRALS SMARTER THAN MANY THOUGHT; DAWES GETS WINNER
Some AHL observers wondered why the Norfolk Admirals played so well and so hard in the regular-season finale against the Whale. A loss would have given the Admirals a first-round matchup with Atlantic Division runner-up Manchester. But a 6-3 victory moved the Admirals past idle Binghamton and into fourth place in the East Division, meaning they would have to face Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, which finished the AHL’s best record (58-21-0-1).
But the Admirals obviously knew what they were doing. Paul Szczechura scored with 7.6 seconds left in the second period Saturday night and Dustin Tokarski made 27 saves as the Admirals shut down the high-powered Penguins for the second straight night in a 2-0 victory. The Admirals then headed home to Virginia with a 2-0 series lead and the next three games scheduled at the Scope Arena, starting Tuesday night.
Tokarski, the first star in both wins, has allowed one goal on 60 shots. After Szczechura’s goal, the Admirals defense stifled Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before former Penguin Marc-Antoine Pouliot clinched the win with an empty-net goal with 5.3 seconds left in the game.
All-AHL goalie Brad Thiessen made 25 saves but has now suffered his first back-to-back losses of the season. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, which set franchise records with 58 wins and 117 points, is the first AHL regular-season points champion since Buffalo in 1968-69 to fall behind 0-2 in its first playoff series. But seven teams in AHL history have won a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games at home, including the Penguins against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in 2006. … Former Wolf Pack wing Nigel Dawes scored on a power play at 1:03 of the second period to break a tie, and the Hamilton Bulldogs went on to beat the Oklahoma City Barons 2-1 for a 2-0 lead in their North Division semifinal series. Wethersfield native Colin McDonald, son of former Hartford Whalers defenseman Gerry McDonald who led the AHL in goals with 42, set up Brad Moran’s first-period score that gave the Barons a 1-0 lead. But Andreas Engqvist scored with only 2.9 seconds left in the first period, and then Dawes, who finished one goal behind McDonald for the scoring title, got the winner early in the second. The Bulldogs’ Drew MacIntyre made 38 saves, stopping all 27 shots he faced in the final two periods. … Former Wolf Pack wing Matthew Ford scored twice in his AHL playoff debut as the Lake Erie Monsters tallied three times in the second period and held off Manitoba 6-4 in Game 1 of their North Division semifinal series Saturday afternoon. A crowd of 7,908 at Quicken Loans Arena watched the first AHL playoff game since 2004 in Cleveland, which has a storied history with the nine-time Calder Cup champion Barons from 1936-72. Manitoba evened the series Sunday when Rick Rypien scored at 8:03 of overtime for a 3-2 victory.
QUICK CONTINUES STELLAR PLAY INTO THE PLAYOFFS
The stout play of Hamden native and former Avon Old Farms standout Jonathan Quick during the regular season has continued into the postseason for the Los Angeles Kings goalie.
After a tough 3-2 overtime loss in Game 1 against the homestanding San Jose Sharks Thursday night, Quick made 34 saves in a 4-0 victory Saturday night that was the first shutout for a Kings goalie since Felix Potvin blanked Colorado 5-0 in Game 5 of a first-round series in 2002.
Quick was strongly supported by defenseman Drew Doughty, 21, a Norris Trophy finalist last year who had two goals and assisted on the others by defenseman Jack Johnson and Kyle Clifford. Doughty, the second overall pick in 2008, tied the franchise playoff record by a defenseman set by Paul Coffey in 1992. He already has five goals and six assists in only eight career playoff games.
“We had a lot of adversity before this game with two of our top centers out,” said Doughty, referring to Anze Kopitar, who sustained a season-ending broken ankle March 26, and Jarret Stoll, suspended for a check from behind on defenseman Ian White in Game 1. “I guess a lot of people probably didn’t think we had a chance tonight, so I guess we showed those people wrong.”
So the Kings relied heavily on Quick, a defense corps that had three, four assists and 11 blocked shots and an effective power play (2-for-6) to tie the Western Conference quarterfinal series at 1. Games 3 and 4 are in Los Angeles on Tuesday and Thursday nights.
“The right guys stepped up and produced at the right time,” Kings coach Terry Murray said.
“Guys dug in,” Quick said. “We had a big effort from everyone in the locker room. At the end of the day, it’s just one win. We need three more to move on. We’re looking forward to Game 3 and looking forward to getting the same result.”
Quick is 1-1 in his first playoffs with a 2.40 goals-against average and .933 save percentage after going 35-22-3, 2.24, .918 save percentage with six shutouts in the regular season.
“For us to have a chance, Quick is going to have to be our best player and our defense is going to have to play like it has most of the year, and that includes our forwards, too,” defenseman Rob Scuderi told ESPN.com. “I thought everybody came back and it was a total team effort.”
WHALE 3, PIRATES 1
Portland 1 0 0 – 1
Connecticut 1 1 1 – 3
First period: 1. Conn, Grant 1 (Garlock, Couture), 3:03. 2. Port, Voakes 1 (Parrish), 19:07. Penalties: Gongalsky, Por (goaltender interference), 3:36; Bickel, Ct (interference), 8:06; Gongalsky, Por (unsportsmanlike conduct), 14:11; Legault, Por (boarding, roughing), 14:11; Couture, Ct (cross-checking), 14:11; Garlock, Ct (unsportsmanlike conduct), 14:11; Weise, Ct (roughing), 16:11.
Second period: 3. Conn, Couture 1 (Redden, Mitchell), 16:23. Penalties: Dupont, Ct (roughing), 3:10; Crawford, Por (tripping), 5:18; Valentenko, Ct (hooking), 19:42.
Third period: 4. Conn, Mitchell 2 (Weise, Redden), 9:22 (pp). Penalties: Valentenko, Ct (holding), 3:20; Stuart, Por (tripping), 8:36; Lemieux, Ct (holding), 9:59; Brennan, Por (interference), 10:08; Williams, Ct (hooking), 11:39; Weise, Ct (interference), 13:23.
Shots on goal: Portland 8-13-9-30. Connecticut 10-5-7-22; Power-play opportunities: Portland 0 of 8; Connecticut 1 of 4; Goalies: Portland, Leggio 2-1-0 (22 shots-19 saves). Connecticut, Grumet-Morris 1-2-0 (30-29); A: 3,102; Referees: Ryan Fraser, Jamie Koharski; Linesmen: Jim Briggs, Paul Simeon.
7-8
4-10
