Un-Talon-ted

The red light means you feel shame (Photo: Pack Attack)

There's almost nothing better than following your team on the road when they go into someone else's building and stomp the other team, and the Wolf Pack did just that yesterday, scoring 4 goals in the second period-- including two by Nigel Dawes-- in rolling over the Springfield Falcons in Springfield yesterday, 6-3.

Two short-handed goals-- in the first period by Lauri Korpikoski, and on an empty net by Dwight Helminen in the waning seconds of the third period-- book-ended the four-goal second period by the Wolf Pack, during which they out-shot the Falcons, 22-4. Both of Dawes' goals in the second period came on screaming, laser-like wrist shots, which even the Falcons' play-by-play guy called "a major-league shot". After a bit of a slow start since being sent down by the Rangers in mid-November, Dawes now has 5 goals in his past six games, and I find it almost hard to believe that there isn't an NHL team that could make good use of Dawes' shot right now.


Hartford L-to-R: Callahan, Dubinsky, Byers (Photo: Pack Attack)

Brad Isbister and Dane Byers scored the other two second-period goals for the Wolf Pack. Byers now has 3 goals in his last 3 games, and Isbister has 9 points (3g, 6a) in his last 8 games.

The Wolf Pack were opportunistic most of the night, doing a good job of keeping pressure on the Falcons and (as Pack Attack pointed out during the game, when he wasn't touting Bruce Graham) winning a lot of the puck-possesion battles, which led to a good amount of mini-breakaways and other scoring chances for the Pack as the game wore on.

Steve Valiquette was not at his best in net, although he was only asked to face 16 shots all night. I thought that only one or two of the saves he made showed any kind of quick reaction, though in listening to Sean Burke after the game, Burke said that Valiquette was doing what he was supposed to do: use his size and positioning to his advantage, stay deep in the net, and let the pucks hit him.


Ivan Baranka gets stoned on a breakaway (Chris Rutsch photo)

Bruce Graham was called up from Charlotte of the ECHL earlier in the day (Mark Lee ended up sitting), assisting on Dawes' first goal. Graham has 32 points (22g, 11a) in 32 games with the Checkers so far this season, and looks to be well ahead of where he was in his 25 games with the Pack last season.

With Lowell and Worcester losing each of their games, and with the division standings bunched tight, the 2 points the Pack earned last night allowed them to move up a couple of spots to fourth place in the division, only two points behind the next two teams ahead of them (Portland and Springfield).

Help A Brother Out

Chris Rutsch photo

The Hartford Wolf Pack peppered Manchester's Jason LaBarbera with 61 shots last night, nearly half of that total in the third period alone, but couldn't get him to crack, as the Monarchs downed the Wolf Pack in overtime, 3-2.


cripes
The Monarchs have now opened up a 6-point lead over everyone else in the Atlantic, in what is still a close race where every team in the division is over .500 except for Providence, who have lost 8 of their last 10.

Al Montoya took the loss for the Wolf Pack, ending his 5-game win streak. Neither the Monarchs' first goal or the overtime winner were completely Al's fault, as both came on back door-type plays that would've been nearly impossible for him stop. Al was also the victim of some crappy defensive plays along the way, and although the Wolf Pack played as tight defensively in the first period as I've seen them play all year, that sorta went away towards the second period.


Dane Byers usin the ol' elbow (Chris Rutsch photo)
Dan Girardi, the Wolf Pack's top-scoring defenseman with 19 assists, finally got his first goal of the season, on a muffin that slipped under LaBarbera's pads and trickled into the net. Dane Byers scored the other Wolf Pack goal, which tied the game up at 2-2 with 7 minutes left in the third period and sent the game into overtime. Byers had yet another good game (a goal and an assist, 7 shots on goal), and you can expect the Dane Bandwagon to start very soon among Rangers fans, if it hasn't already.

Francis Lessard fought the Monarchs' Mike Hoffman in the first period, and I seem to remember the two of them fighting in pre-season training camp as well, when both of them were trying out for the Rangers. Anyway, Lessard tore Hoffman apart in this one, popping him in the head a few times and then slamming him down to the ice for good measure.


Ryan Callahan mixing it up with Noah Clarke (Heather Rutsch photo)
Ryan Callahan also picked a fight in this game, duking it out with Noah Clarke near the Monarchs' crease early in the second period after Clarke had wacked Callahan with his stick and gave him a shove to keep him away from LaBarbera. Callahan might also have been reacting to all of the extra defensive attention he's been getting lately, a result of him having 22 goals before anyone else on the team had even reached seven.


In all-important celebrity and entertainment news, Rob Zombie was at the game, sitting on the glass with his wife a couple of sections over from where I was. I totally owned "Pig Heaven" (first press, even) and "Psycho-Head Blowout", but that's about as much as I'll admit to.