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Sound Tigers Drop Wolf Pack 4-1
Hartford winless streak goes to Nine
Wolf Pack Winless Streak Reaches Nine
By Gerry Cantlon
Eurohockey.net
BRIDGEPORT,CT-You know your in a losing streak when you lose a game like this.
The Hartford Wolf Pack dropped their ninth straight game without a win losing 4-1 to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers before 5,049 fans at the Arena at Harbor Yard.
The Pack saw two of the four goals allowed in disputed fashion after seeing two Friday night in Manchester deflect off a shin guard (Jeremy Williams) and a glove (Ryan Garlock).
The first score of the game veteran Jon Sim recently sent down to Bridgeport for a second tour of duty to help a young team got a few extra whacks at the puck at 15:49 on Wolf Pack rookie Cam Talbot making his second start of the year after injuring his groin in a win over Providence was making his first start after three weeks on disabled list.
“I’d like to have seen a quicker whistle. They got several whacks at it when I thought Cam was holding the post,” remarked a clearly perturbed Hartford head coach Ken Gernander.
Talbot clearly felt he had total control of the puck,but referee Jeff Smith felt otherwise.
“I had that right up against the post, and those guys just kept whacking away at it,” Talbot said. “The ref was on the other side of the net and said he could see the puck, but there wasn’t any way he could (have). I thought I had it covered up, and our guys were battling hard so I thought there should have been a whistle.”
The goal also came just 14 seconds into a powerplay when captain Dane Byers was assessed an extra roughing call standing up for Russian defenseman Pavel Valentenko who got drilled in the boards on the right wing side at the Sound Tigers blue line.
Sim bagged the second one as Hartford defenseman Jared Nightingale’s clearing attempt got intercepted by former DEL player Rob Hisey whp wheeled around off the right wing boards and drilled a nice, low shot deflected by Talbot just 45 seconds into the period.
Sim now has 5 goals in 3 games since his reassignment.
The Sound Tigers goal was the most controversial as a wraparound attempt by Tony Romano at 4:10 was ruled a goal though the red light never went on and video replays clearly show the net up on its moorings not completely off and the puck slid under the elevated cage.
Referee Jeff Smith ruled otherwise.
“The net was off. I wanted (the officials) to go ask the goal judge, and nobody wanted to ask him. I couldn’t ask him, so what do you want me to go?”, said a glaring Ken Gernander obviously disappointed with the outcome and another poor call.
Across the hall Bridgeport head caoch Jack Capuano was sympathetic.
"We had two called back last night (in Providence) that were clearly goals, those things like you said equal out over the season. We came in and after our worst game of the year told our guys to relax and we got good play from Kevin Poulin."
The Wolf Pack (3-8-2-1) mired in a franchise worst nine game winless streak did have moments to score,but rookie Kevin Poulin turned away 28 shots fueling their mounting frustration.
He rejected Brodie Dupont on a 2 on 1 in the second period and then Kris Newbury with 6:57 that left him punching the glass in frustration. Then Jeremy Williams was denied off a beautiful three way passing play with Byers and Newbury.
The Sound Tigers (5-6-0-0) travel to Hartford Sunday afternoon to close out the weekend. The Wolf Pack have scored just 10 goals during the 0-7-0-2 stretch.
“I don’t remember going nine games without winning. I’ve been a part of losing streaks, and you can see the fine line between winning and losing. It’s a play, not being sharp for 60 minutes, so as bad as it’s going now, it can turn around in a hurry. We’ve just got to realize those little things that we have to correct,” said 14 year veteran Wade Redden.
The Wolf Pack head coach was very direct how his team can handle this adverse chapter in a young season.
“It’s certainly tough, but there’s no one who’s going to change this except the guys in the room,” Gernander said. “We’ve got to get wins. There are no consolations.”
NOTES; Hartford sat rookie Kelsey Tessier for the first time and dressed Tyler Donati last years ECHL scoring champ….Jeremy Williams had a team high this season 8 shots on goal…Bridgeport scored on their only powerplay chance….Hartford goalie Chad Johnson was in post game conversation with goalie coach Benoit Allaire he will likely start on Sunday….Wolf Pack defenseman Ryan McDonagh suffered either a right knee or ankle injury because of icing situation and having former Swedish Elite league player Jeremy Colliton take his skates out from under him. Any severity was not known after the game.
Story added on 7th November 2010 at 21:06 GMT
Story submitted by: Gerry Cantlon.
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