By Bruce Berlet
HARTFORD, Conn. – It was the classic “trap game.”
On one side, a team rolling along with seven victories in nine games, capped by stirring, one-goal wins over division rivals the previous two nights.
On the other side, a team suffering through a 10-game winless streak since losing two of their major components at the trade deadline that didn’t get home until 2 a.m. Sunday after being shut out in Binghamton, N.Y.
Yes, the surging Connecticut Whale had to guard against a major letdown in a matinee matchup with the Springfield Falcons at the XL Center. Not to mention goalie Cam Talbot wanting to atone for a rare off-day in a loss at Worcester a week earlier and keep pace with Dov Grumet-Morris, who backstopped the victories over Atlantic Division-leading Manchester and archrival Providence on Friday and Saturday nights.
The Whale was sluggish and a step behind through the first half of the game while killing a series of penalties but escaped with a tie thanks to several key Talbot saves and then put together enough offense to get goals from Dale Weise and Pavel Valentenko for a 3-1 victory before 4,985.
“I didn’t think we had a very good start, but once again our goaltender held us in the game and we did what we had to do to win the game,” Weise said. “At the beginning of the season, we were finding ways to lose games like that, but the past few weeks we’ve been finding ways to win games like that.
“Going in the final stretch and eventually into the playoffs, it’s key that you’ll able to come back in the third period, have some offense in your team and know we’re never out of a game. That’s the attitude that we have. Whether we’re down or up in the third period, we’re pretty confident, and that’s real big coming down the stretch.”
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The Whale’s 18 shots tied a season low, but they won their third game in less than 48 hours to improve their high-water mark of the season to 10 games over .500. The Whale (36-26-2-6) remained four points ahead of Worcester (32-26-4-8), which won 3-2 at Manchester, in the battle for the third and final guaranteed spot in the division playoff race. They also remained one point ahead of the Binghamton Senators (36-27-3-4), who are in fifth place in the East Division in the battle for a possible crossover playoff spot after a 4-3 overtime victory over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, who are 2-0-1-2 in their last five games.
“We’re not going to thumb our nose at any win at this point in time,” Whale coach Ken Gernander said. “We’re happy with the two points in a pretty good grind of a weekend of three games in three days. The Sunday ones are maybe a little bit tough, but the guys got through it.
“It’s that time of year when those things take their toll on you, so you have to manage your game a little bit. And it’s not always equal footing. You have a guy who does extra on special teams and is a physical, bigger guy and he really has to pay the price to maintain that pace for two nights as opposed to maybe a guy who floated around for two nights on the perimeter and plays a little bit different role. It affects each guy differently, but I think our guys played hard, and most importantly got the win.”
Talbot rebounded from a sub-par effort a week earlier that he blamed for a 5-4 loss.
“You have to put (a poor game) behind you and move on,” said Talbot, who had 22 saves as he improved to 11-5-2 with a 2.42 goals-against average, .917 save percentage and two shutouts. “You can’t let one game affect the next one, so you have to come mentally prepared like the last game never happened and just focus on (Sunday).”
Time with Rangers goaltenders coach Benoit Allaire during the week also was beneficial.
“Working with Bennie helps every time,” Talbot said. “Basically he said stop the puck and don’t worry about anything. If you let up a rebound, you just have to be in position for the next save. I was seeing the puck a lot better. I was seeing through screens a lot better and we blocked a lot of big shots, especially Jared Nightingale and Pavel Valentenko, who’s like having three goalies.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good goalie tandem right now. There are not too many games where we’re losing because of goaltending, that’s for sure. Then again, we haven’t lost that much at all lately. Any time you can keep the opposing team to one or two goals, you know our team is going to fire in at least three. The guys have been playing great, and they came out in the third period and really kept the shots to the outside. They got a few inside on the power play, but the guys did a good job of clogging up the middle and let me see all the shots.
“Guys are really buying into the system in the offensive and defensive zone. We’ve been working the puck down low and getting the third man high, so we’ve been limiting the odd-man rushes. Anytime you can limit odd-man rushes, they have to dump it in and then we have the first guys back making good outlet passes. Every game this time of year is obviously a playoff game, so there aren’t going to be many scoring chances, and it’s going to be tight games from here on out.”
The only shot to beat Talbot was Ben Guite’s deflection of a David Savard power-play point drive that the goalie couldn’t see while being screened by Trevor Smith at 10:25. That came after the Whale had taken a 1-0 lead when Evgeny Grachev pushed the puck ahead to Jeremy Williams, who skated into the right circle and beat former Hartford Wolf Pack goalie David LeNeveu to the far stick side at 9:35 for his team-leading 29th goal.
The Whale was outshot 7-3 in the first period, matching their low shot total for a period this season, but escaped with the tie despite committing four penalties, capped by a minor for too many men on the ice. The Whale killed the carryover infraction, but Jared Nightingale’s slashing penalty at 1:43 of the second period gave the Falcons a fifth power play. The Whale didn’t have as many shots as penalties until Weise’s good bid from the right circle at 7:40 of the second.
But that’s as close as the Falcons (30-36-2-3) would get as they went to 0-10-1-0 since the loss of rugged wings Tom Sestito and former Wolf Pack captain Dane Byers via deals at the trade deadline. They were challenging for their first playoff berth since 2005 before the freefall since a 4-1 victory over Portland on Feb. 26. Their only point since then came March 5 in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Whale, who are 5-1-1-1 and have won five in a row against their I-91 rival.
The Whale finally showed some serious life midway through the second period with hard-luck Derek Couture being robbed by LeNeveu at 9:45 off a 2-on-1 with Francis Lemieux. But 90 seconds later, Tomas Kundratek cleared the puck into the right corner to Kris Newbury, whose blind back pass into the right circle found Weise, who got inside Falcons defenseman Cody Goloubef and one-timed a shot past LeNeveu’s stick side for his third winner of the season.
The Whale caught a break as LeNeveu had lost his stick and borrowed one from a defenseman. When LeNeveu put the stick down to stop Weise’s shot with his paddle, there was no paddle.
“We had a set play off the faceoff, and Tomas hit me up high and I just put it on net looking for a tip,” Weise said. “I find the soft areas pretty well, and Newbs knows where I am so I gave a quick holler. He made a great pass, and I got it off quick. I saw LeNeveu didn’t have his stick, so I tried to keep it low and get it in his feet somewhere. There wasn’t much (LeNeveu) could do.”
Gustaf Wesslau replaced LeNeveu at the start of the third period and kept the Falcons close with strong saves off Weise at 5:35 and Ryan Garlock at 6:59. But the Whale got the insurance they needed when Kelsey Tessier got the puck to Couture, who found defenseman Pavel Valentenko at the left point for a laser that went off Wesslau’s stick and in the net at 9:07.
“Valentenko has a good shot that he has to make sure gets through,” Gernander said. “Obviously that was a big goal for us, so that was much-needed offense from a source that’s not typical of some of our power-play guys.”
Tessier thought he had tipped Valentenko’s laser but settled for an assist.
“We didn’t shoot much the first period, but we hung in there and started to play a lot better,” Tessier said. “We had a better third man high and made sure we helped out our defense a little more. Talbot played really well, and we just had to work harder than them at the end of the game.
“Lately our third period has always been the best the last 10 to 12 games and we want to keep that going but make sure we’re ahead when we’re going into the third period. It was three (games) in three (nights), so you have to grind it out. You can’t get too fancy. It’s a dump-and-chase game pretty much, and when you have the opportunity to bring it to the net, you have to. We didn’t have as many as we wanted in the first period, but we came back hard in the second and third and proved we can get a few more goals.”
The Falcons had two more power plays, including a 6-on-4 for the final 1:42 after pulling Wesslau for an extra attacker. But Talbot & Co. sealed the deal without any difficulty, though there was a scuffle near the benches after the final horn assured the Whale would improve to 21-1-0-3 when leading after two periods.
The nastiness was a warm-up to a rematch Wednesday night at the XL Center.
“I think (the scuffle) just added a little more motivation for Wednesday, and I think our team thrives on that,” Weise said. “We’re real team tough. We don’t any real super heavyweight. We play together and stand up for each other. If they want to play games like that, we’re perfectly OK with a physical brand of hockey.
WHALE SCRATCHES SAME FIVESOME
The Whale again scratched forwards Todd White, Chris McKelvie and former Falcons right wing Chad Kolarik and defensemen Michael Del Zotto and Jyri Niemi. The Falcons scratched forwards Kyle Wilson, Chris D’Alvise, Mike Blunden and Nikita Filatov and defensemen Mike Commodore and Anton Blomqvist.
… After the rematch with the Falcons, the first-year Charlotte Checkers, the Whale’s former ECHL affiliate, make their second Hartford appearance on Friday night and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers visit Saturday night to end the homestand. The Whale then plays successive games at Providence on Sunday and April 1. … Wilkes-Barre/Scranton clinched the first spot in the Calder Cup playoffs with a come-from-behind 5-3 victory over visiting Worcester on Saturday night. The Penguins, who lost in the finals in 2001, 2004, and 2008, have punched their ninth consecutive postseason berth. Tim Wallace scored twice in the final 8:44 to break a 3-3 tie, and former Wolf Pack defenseman Corey Potter had one of the Penguins’ other three goals. Goalie Brad Thiessen, a leading contender for AHL goalie of the year, made 19 saves to earn his league-leading 30th win (30-7-1). He got No. 31 Sunday with 25 saves in a 2-1 victory over Charlotte as the Penguins (50-18-0-1) won their fourth in a row and became the first team to reach 50 wins and surpass 100 points. … Wethersfield native Colin McDonald, son of former Hartford Whalers defenseman Gerry McDonald, moved into a share of second in the AHL in goal with his 32nd of the season in Oklahoma City’s 4-3 road win over the Chicago Wolves on Saturday night. But McDonald and the rest of the Barons were stymied Sunday as Edward Pasquale made 34 saves and Jason Krog had two goals and an assist in the Wolves’ 4-0 victory.
WHALE TO HONOR HOWE FAMILY NEXT SATURDAY
The Whale will host “Howe Family Night” when the Sound Tigers visit Saturday. The No. 9 of “Mr. Hockey,” one of seven numbers in the XL Center rafters, will be lowered and then raised and re-retired as he and his sons, Mark and Marty, whom he played with for seven seasons in Houston and Hartford, look on. The matriarch of the family, Colleen Howe, who died in 2009, will be honored as a new banner saluting the Howes, hockey’s first family, will also be raised to the rafters. There will be highlight film of the Howe shown on the video screen as area fans can salute the Howes for their contributions to hockey in general and the Hartford market in particular.
“I really hope people come out in droves to see the ‘Babe Ruth of Hockey’ and the first family of hockey,” said Whalers Sports and Entertainment chairman and CEO Howard Baldwin, who helped negotiate the deal to get the Howes to come to Hartford from Houston. “The Howes came here in 1977, and the next year the (Hartford Civic Center) roof collapsed. I’m not saying the Howes were solely responsible for getting the building rebuilt, but who knows what would have if they weren’t here.”
Prior to the game, fans can meet Gordie and get a personalized autographed book and photo by purchasing a copy of the colorful 185-page book “Howe No. 9.” The book sells for $70, and he will sign copies starting at 5:30 p.m. in the XL Center atrium. The first 2,000 fans will receive a free commemorative 36-page Gordie Howe tribute program full of color photos and stories, and there will be a video tribute to the Howes during a pregame ceremony.
Howe’s No. 9 is in the rafters with the Whalers’ No. 2 (Rick Ley), 5 (Ulf Samuelsson), 10 (Ron Francis), 11 (Kevin Dineen) and 19 (John McKenzie). Gernander’s No. 12 is the only number to be retired in the 14-year history of the AHL team.
“I think the next test of this market will be on Howe Family Night,” WSE president and COO Howard Baldwin Jr. said. “People should come out and show Gordie the respect that he deserves. It’s one of the biggest nights of the season, and I agree with (Hartford Courant sports columnist) Jeff Jacobs that it’s the time when the tire meets the road. It’s a big game on our schedule, and we don’t have a lot of games left. I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t have 10,000 people.”
The Howes played together for the first time with the Houston Aeros in 1973 before coming to Hartford and signing with the World Hockey Association’s New England Whalers in 1977. Howe ended his legendary 32-year career in the Whalers’ first NHL season (1979-80), when he had 15 goals and 26 assists and was named a NHL All-Star for the 23rd time while helping the Whalers make the playoffs at 52 years old.
Tickets for all Whale games are available at the XL Center box office, through Ticketmaster Charge-by-Phone at 1-800-745-3000 and on-line at www.ctwhale.com. Tickets start at $7 at the XL Center ticket office on game day. Fans who did not attend the Whale’s outdoor game against Providence because of the frigid weather can redeem their tickets for one to “Howe Family Night” or another game of their choice. If fans want to redeem a ticket, they should contact Baldwin Jr. at hlb@whalerssports.com.
HOCKEY MINISTRIES NIGHT AT WHALE GAME
Hockey Ministries International Northeast is sponsoring 2011 Faith & Family Night at the game against Charlotte. Upper bowl seats are $10, and Scarlet Fade will perform a postgame concert.
To order tickets, contact AHL Chapel Coordinator Rick Mitera at 860-817-6440 or rmitera@hockeyministries.org. When someone buys a ticket through Hockey Ministries, they receive a $2 coupon for parking. For more information on Hockey Ministries, visit www.hockeyministriesnortheast.org.
FIRST TEE OF CONNECTICUT DAY ON APRIL 3
The Whale will host First Tee of Connecticut Day on April 3, when the Portland Pirates are at the XL Center at 3 p.m.
Level 200 tickets are $12, with the First Tee of Connecticut receiving $5 from each ticket sold. To purchase tickets and help local youngsters interested in improving their golf game and life skills, contact Nick Criscuolo at 860-728-3366 or ncriscuolo@whalerssports.com.
CONGRATULATIONS, JARED DEMICHIEL
Congratulations to Avon native Jared DeMichiel on being named the Rochester Press-Radio Club’s PAXCHEX Male College Athlete of the Year for 2010 after leading the surprising Rochester Institute of Technology to the NCAA Frozen Four last year. He will be recognized at the organization’s awards dinner May 24, when the featured speaker will be former Detroit Lions quarterback Clay Matthews.
In his senior year at RIT, DeMichiel was 27-10-1 with a 2.09 goals-against average, .921 save percentage and six shutouts, capped by victories over top-seeded Denver University and the University of New Hampshire to give the school a record for wins in a season and its first berth in the Frozen Four before an 8-1 loss in the semifinals to Wisconsin, led by Rangers center Derek Stepan and defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who began the season with the Whale. Wisconsin lost 5-0 in the championship game to Boston College, led by right wing Chris Kreider, the Rangers’ top prospect after being a first-round pick (19th overall) in 2009.
His stellar senior year earned DeMichiel an AHL contract with the Hershey Bears, but he started this season with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, where he was 14-10-0, 2.66, .913 with two shutouts in 26 games before being traded on March 11 to the Elmira Jackals for the rights to forward Brock McBride, who was with the Milwaukee Admirals. DeMichiel is 1-0-1, 3.37, .909 in two games with the Jackals, losing 3-2 to the Trenton Devils in a shootout despite making 49 saves. He’s also 2-1-0, 3.65, .873 in five games with the Bears.
WHALE 3, FALCONS 1
Springfield 1 0 0 — 1
Connecticut 1 1 1 — 3
First period: 1. Conn, Williams 29 (Grachev), 9:35. 2. Spr, Guite 14 (Savard, Kubalik), 10:25 (pp). Penalties: Nightingale, Ct (interference), 5:11; Kundratek, Ct (interference), 10:16; Ruth, Spr (interference), 11:56; Tessier, Ct (tripping), 14:45; served by DiDiomete, Ct (bench minor – too many men), 19:40.
Second period: 3. Conn, Weise 15 (Newbury, Kundratek), 11:15. Penalties: Nightingale, Ct (slashing), 1:43; Sigalet, Spr (tripping), 12:47; Moore, Spr (delay of game), 14:28.
Third period: 4. Conn, Valentenko 3 (Couture, Tessier), 9:07. Penalties: Holden, Spr (holding the stick), 3:44; Kana, Spr (game misconduct-third man in), 6:59; Moore, Spr (fighting), 6:59; Smith, Spr (slashing), 6:59; DiDiomete, Ct (fighting), 6:59; Soryal, Ct (slashing), 6:59; served by Soryal Ct (bench minor-too many men), 11:11; Parlett, Ct (cross-checking), 18:18; Neuber, Spr (slashing), 20:00; DiDiomete. Ct (slashing), 20:00.
Shots on goal: Springfield 7-7-9-23. Connecticut 3-9-6-18; Power-play opportunities: Springfield 1 of 7; Connecticut 0 of 4; Goalies: Springfield, LeNeveu 16-20-2 (12 shots-10 saves); Wesslau (6-5). Connecticut, Talbot 11-5-2 (23-22); A: 4,985; Referees: Chris Cozzan, Mark Lemelin; Linesmen: Kevin Redding, Chris Low.
