Wolves split weekend games

The Chicago Wolves split their games this weekend, with a road win Saturday at the Carver Center in Peoria and a road loss at the Toyota Center in Houston.

In the win over the Peoria Rivermen, Spencer Machacek had a three point night, including a power play goal, with eight shots on goal. Chicago stopped a Riverman 5:3 advantage for a minute in the second frame and led in shots on goal in each period of play to win the game 4-1. The win went to Robert Gherson with 20 saves, Manny Legace received the loss with 31 saves.

On Sunday afternoon, in Houston, Machacek had a two goal night and Mike Hamilton had five shots on goal. But Houston dominated the first tow periods of play, racking a 3-1 goal advantage. Going into the final period of play, the Wolves scored once on 16 shots on goal. But the Aeros, with just five shots on goal, scored again, to stay ahead.

Corey Locke of the Aeros was credited with a goal and an assist in the game. Kurtis Foster was credited with two points. Ondrej Pavelec received the loss with 29 saves. Barry Brust received the win with 30 saves.

It was a split decision weekend for the Rockford IceHogs also. They played both games at home.

In a Saturday night game at the MetroCentre, the Rochester Americans gave the Hogs a 4-3 win. The Amerks and the IceHogs are both near the bottom of the league with regard to their net special teams goals, from the table I'm presenting at the Chitowndailynews site (Blogger doesn't like tables):



Rockford gave the Amerks two 5:3 opportunities in this game, and the Amerks were unable to score on either. The Amerks dominated in shots on goal until the third period of play, but it was the Hogs who found the back of the net. Mike Brodeur started in net for the Americans, he was drilled out of the net at 1:38 in the second period on the third unanswered goal by the IceHogs. His nine saves were marked for the loss. Tyler Plante took over from there for the Rochester team, with 17 saves. The win went to Corey Crawford with 33 saves.

It seems odd to me that a team floundering in the offense would blame their loss on a goalie, as the Amerks implicitly did on Saturday when they replaced Brodeur. Clearly there is more going wrong, from shots on goal (defense) to a terrible offense. That's all clear in the table above. A goalie isn't going to stand a chance if no one is standing out front with him, throwing their body in front of shots.

Danny Groulx was credited with two points on the night. Pascal Pelletier had six shots on goal, but no points and Jack Skille had five shots on goal but no points.

In the Monday matinée game, the San Antonio Rampage took the IceHogs 4-3 in a hard fought battle. Two fights between bruisers Sean McMorrow and Francis Lessard marked the game. San Antonio took a 3-0 lead in the first frame with two goals by Kyle Turris and a goal by Dylan Reese.

The Hogs came back with a goal by Groulx. But it was answered by Kevin Porter in the early third frame. Rockford pressured the Rampage, putting 13 shots on net in the final 20 minutes, and scoring two goals in the process. But the Rampage were able to hold the Hogs scoreless for the final eleven minutes to win. Crawford was credited with 20 saves in the loss. Josh Tordjman, the game winner, was credited with 27 saves.

Skille racked up seven shots on goal, but came away pointless again. Tim Brent had a three point night with two goals and an assist. Petri Kontiola had two points. Turris had three points for the night, adding an assist to his first period blowout. Porter and Reese had two point nights with a goal and an assist each. David Spina also had a two points for the night.

There were a few other notes from around the league this weekend. Houston went 4/4 on the power play in a game against the Iowa Chops Saturday at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Matt Beaudoin had a hat trick in the game, with four shots on goal.

But even more spectacular was the weekend of Tim Kennedy. He was named the player of the week for his performance. On Saturday, in a wild game between the Providence Bruins and the Portland Pirates, the Baby Bruins accumulated a 4-2 lead at the end of the second period in a game at the Portland County Civic Center of Portland, Maine. The Pirates tied it up with three goals in the period, the last goal with just 1:10 to go. At that point Kennedy, on the Pirates side, had a point in each of the third period goals, a total of four points in the game based on seven shots on goal. AND, on the Baby Bruin side Mikko Lehtonen also had a four point night that included a hat trick with six shots on goal.

Portland was able to go 3/7 on the power play, that and Kennedy brought them back into the game. During the over time, Brad Marchand was called for boarding. The notes for the game say it was a two minute penalty, but most of these penalties are actually a minute in O/T. Portland was unable to use the resulting 4:3 to gain a goal. For Portland 39 shots on goal, for Providence, 35 shots on goal and a tied game after OT of 5-5.

So, the shootout; Portland shoots first and after the first set of skaters, no goals yet. Kennedy gets up and fails to score. But Lehtonen, after his hat trick, does score. After another score by Mark Mancari for the Pirates and Wacey Rabbit for the Bruins, it is a P-Bruins win.

On Sunday, the Pirates traveled to the Paul E Tsongas Arena to battle the Lowell Devils. It turns into another high scoring battle between the two teams. Portland enters the third frame with a 4-3 lead. Lowell has remained in the game on the strength of two power play goals. Although the Pirates had a series of power plays for the first ten minutes or so of the second period, they only came away with a single power play goal.

Lowell tied the game with a power play goal at 12:47 of the third period. Kennedy comes back with the Pirates to get a hat trick and put Portland back into the lead 1:06 later. But Lowell doesn't give up. They pull the goalie and Portland scores again on the empty net with a minute left. Now the lead is 6-4, Portland. Lowell still doesn't give up, scoring twice in the final minute of play to tie the game.

In total Lowell went 4/6 on the power play. Including the OT period, Jeff Frazee stopped 35 shots on goal for the Devils, John DeCaro stopped 44 for the Pirates. OT is scoreless but is dominated by the Pirates. Once again Kennedy isn't able to add to his stats a shootout goal, but the Pirates did win.

In total, among these two games, Kennedy had seven points and 15 shots on goal. In the second game with Lowell, not including Kennedy, there were five players credited with a three point night. Woah Baby!

Wolves in 6-0 shutout of P-Bruins

The Chicago Wolves shelled Tuukka Rask from the net, winning a contest with the Atlantic division leader 6-0 in play this evening at the Allstate Arena.

It was nearly all Chicago Wolves, all night long, as scoring started early and ended late. With a power play to their advantage, the Providence Bruins gave up the puck to Colin Stuart who swept in to score on a P-Bruin goalie who looked out of his depth. Although there were nice body shots by the Bruins, they were unable to prevent numerous shots on goal in the period, with Rask deflecting the shots upward and out of his control.

Boris Valabik was on his game all night, starting with a boomer from the blue line that was deflected in by Junior Lessard through the five hole. Within a minute, Chicago was back with yet another scoring opportunity. A big check sent the puck skittering in front of the net and resulted in a 3:2 breakaway by the Bruins. But they could not convert it as they bungled the effort in front of Ondrej Pavelec.

Then, late in the period, with the teams playing 4:4, Joe Motzko fired a slap shot from the left circle, assisted by Valabik, for the third goal of the period.

The Bruins settled down in the second period, with Kevin Regan replacing Rask in net. Allowing the Wolves just ten shots on goal, they took a number of breakaway opportunities to attack Pavelec, yet failed to score.

In the third period, Motzko pops an easy wrister from center ice. It should have been stopped, but somehow finds the five-hole for another goal. Regan just looks pissed, he should have stopped it and he knows it. Seconds later, Valabik dings the goal posts in a boomer from the blue line. The Wolves are just dominating the Bruins now. A shutout looks likely. Bruins Levi Nelson hammers on the puck, trying to pound it through Pavelec’s leather. But Pavelec kneels on the puck, preventing it from moving.

Then, the Bruins get a man advantage, Pavelec is able to stop their shots in the goalmouth. A second power play follows. Again, Pavelec stops the Bruins. The Wolves are looking tired from all the penalty kills. The second PK is not as well orchestrated. And then a third PP by the Bruins. Pavelec is a wall. Nothing is getting past him.

Now, a breakaway by Matt Anderson. He skates through the right circle on the attack and blows a tire. On one knee, he fires backward toward the side of the goal. The puck finds a hole through the leather of Regan. As he looks around for it, the referee spots it, in the clear, just inside the goal line. The Baby Bruins just can’t get a break tonight.

Now, with just a little over two minutes to play, it is Valabik again. He booms another shot from the left side. He must be taking lessons from Denny. It is now 6-0. The P-Bruins appeared relieved that there are just two minutes to play.

What a change for Valabik. Three points. The score sheet credits him with three shots on goal, but you can read this narrative and see it was at least four shots on goal. Stuart is credited with eight shots on goal and Anderson with five shots on goal. Lessard, Anderson and Motzko receive two points each. Pavelec stops 35 shots for the victory. Both Rask and Regan stopped 15 shots each. I suppose the loss goes to Rask.

AHL top seed out.

Friday saw the elimination of the Providence Bruins from the American Hockey League finals by the Portland Pirates. The Bruins had 117 points in the regular season, winning the regular season championship.

Bruins Western road trip brings new element to race

The first-place Providence Bruins invaded the West Division over the weekend. Friday, the Bruins visited the Milwaukee Admirals. The Admirals dropped the game 3-1 on a faltering offense. Outshot by a ratio of more than 3:2, only a power play goal by Alexander Sulzer was able to keep the MAds from being shutout.

The next team to come under the Bruins guns was the Rockford IceHogs. The Hogs, who have been under playing lately, won a very rough game 5-1. 213 penalty minutes were awarded in this game, generating 9 different power plays. Rockford was able to convert two of the six power plays for goals, while the Bruins were unable to convert any of their advantages to goals.

In fact, the Bruins were almost shutout by the Hogs, scoring with just 14 seconds remaining. The list of penalties given out at the 4:56 mark of the third period is astounding. This was basically a line brawl, with a goalie getting involved: 125 minutes for ten players, creating, sadly, not one, not even one Gordie Howe hat trick. Howe sad.
And, where was the fifth Bruin player in this mayhem? What happened to Mike Brodeur that he didn’t step out to tell Jordan Sigalet to sit down and shut up? Does anyone there want to comment on this?

According to the IceHogs, the 213 penalty minutes is a franchise record for the season. Congratulations!

From Rockford, the beat-up Bruins made their way to Chicago for the showdown with the second-place Chicago Wolves. The Wolves took the Bruins 4-1, with an empty net, power play goal capping the loss for the Bruins.

All three West Division teams are looking at the Bruins as a possible opponent in post-season play. The loss by the MAds was disheartening. This was a game against a fresh Bruins, and the MAds fans got to see the Bruins in a condition as close to what we’ll see in post-season as any team.

For the Hogs and the Wolves, it was an opportunity to dominate an Atlantic division team in a tired state. Particularly for the Wolves, this was a must win game. If the result had been different, serious questions would arise about the post-season Wolves.

At the end of the weekend, Chicago ended tied in points with the Bruins. However an earlier point from a visit to Providence and the dominating game in Chicago should put the Wolves in the lead. In the West Division, the Hogs have sometimes been in first place and sometimes in second. They are now 3-6-1 in their previous ten games. Still effected by call-ups to the Chicago Blackhawks, the best hope for the Hogs is the promise of another early end to the Blackhawks season.

Two points back lie the San Antonio Rampage. The SAR have made a great run for second place in the last few weeks. They are 4-3-3 in the last ten games. A visit from the Wolves last week ended in a split and the Rampage haven’t played since. Their next game is against the Bruins, later this week.

The Milwaukee Admirals took advantage of a Chicago Wolves effort to give Ondrej Pavelec a rest in anticipation of the Bruins game, picking up two points and embarrassing the Wolves at home. However they’ve fallen behind the Peoria Rivermen in points, and the Rivermen, who took four points over the weekend, have a game in hand.

Riverman Martin Kariya, BTW, scored three points in the 4-3 win on Sunday over the IceHogs.

Houston hasn’t played since February 27th. The next game for them is against Providence on Tuesday. They have a nine game home stand, which ends with a trip to SAR, then two more games at home. Almost the entire month of March, in other words, is played at home. The Aeros have 67 points, tied for sixth place and just three points behind the fourth place Rivermen, with three games in hand.

No discussion of the West would be complete with a look at the fourth-place North Division team. As noted before, the fifth-place West Division team may move to the North Division in the playoffs, if the West Division team has more points at the end of the regular season. The Syracuse Crunch are on a three game roll. As a result, the Crunch have made it more difficult for the West Division team to move over. Still, the advantage is with the West. The fifth-place Milwaukee Admirals have two points and a game in hand over the Crunch. The sixth-place Aeros are two points behind the Crunch with five games in hand over the Crunch. Likewise, the seventh-place Flames are two points behind the Crunch with two games in hand.

Predictions are always dicey and interesting. Given the current status, the next few weeks should see the Aeros and the Rampage making a run. The Wolves should solidify their first place position.

In the West, we’ve never seen much of the Atlantic Division teams. They like to stay close to home. The road trips this week of the Hartford Wolf Pack to Texas and the Providence Bruins to the Midwest and Texas will demonstrate their ability to play in the post season.

SLUMP! The Wolves drop three in a row

The Chicago Wolves dropped the third game in a row, and only their sixth loss this season in a 4-3 thriller in Providence, R.I. Friday. The Bruins, ranked first in the American Hockey League, and the Wolves, ranked second, were tied 1-1 through nearly 49 minutes of play when the Bruins broke the game open with three unanswered goals in a 2:13 span.

Although the Wolves put the game back into question with a goal in the last minute, the announcers in Providence were already chirping about the big win.

The chemistry that the Wolves have had through the first quarter of the season was disrupted by the return of Atlanta Thrasher goalie prospect Ondrej Pavelec, the departure of Atlanta Thrasher goalie Kari Lehtonen and the suspension of goalie Fred Brathwaite over a one-week period.

Brathwaite, who took the Wolves to the Calder Cup semi-finals in the 2007 season, was reported by the Daily Herald’s Scott Powers, to be suspended by the Atlanta Thrashers for not making the trip with the team. Cheveldayoff told the Daily Herald that it was his understanding that Brathwaite had accepted an offer to play in the Russian Super League.

The Atlanta Thrasher site, “Do the Thrashers have large talons?” said that foreign papers had confirmed that Brathwaite had broken his NHL contract to return to the Russian league that he had played in for two seasons. Brathwaite, and a number of other Canadian players, had been recruited by the Kazan Ak-bars to play in a bid to win the Russian league championship in 2004 and 2005.

The Russian league is currently the only major league in the world without an agreement with the NHL regarding honoring player contracts. “Do the Thrashers have large talons?” says other leagues are considering terminating their agreements with the NHL, raising the possibility of a worldwide bidding war for players.

Brathwaite had started recently in the Iowa Stars’ 3-2 comeback win over the Wolves December 1st. His 2.5 goals against average and 10-2 record ranked him 14th in the AHL among goalies on Saturday morning.

In addition to the one goal loss Friday against Providence and the one-goal loss against the Stars last Saturday, the Wolves lost a one-goal game, 3-2, versus the Syracuse Crunch at home on Tuesday.

The Syracuse Crunch loss featured Pavelec’s return to net for the Wolves. Pavelec had spent most of October and part of November in net with the Atlanta Thrashers following the injury to lead goalie Lehtonen. While in Atlanta, Pavelec had 3-3 record with a GAA of 3.11. With the departure of Brathwaite, Pavelec is cleared to be the chief net-minder for the Wolves.

Pavelec also lost the game against the Bruins Friday.

Despite the losses, the Wolves retained first place in the Western Conference and second place overall.