Portland Beats Hartford 4-2
Published on November 19, 2008 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Connecticut Whale News Release
HARTFORD, Conn. _ Special teams often decide hockey games, as the Hartford Wolf Pack discovered again Wednesday night.
The Portland Pirates scored three power-play goals, the last two on 5-on-3s, in 51/2 minutes of the second period in a 4-2 victory over the Wolf Pack before 2,286 at the XL Center.
Tim Kennedy and Mathieu Darche tallied 1:27 apart on the two-man advantages, as the Pirates (12-1-1-0) won their eighth in a row and are 10-0-1-0 in their last 11, the only blemish a 3-2 overtime loss to the Wolf Pack in the teams' other meeting Oct. 29 at the XL Center.
"We took five straight penalties in the second, so that was the story," Wolf Pack coach Ken Gernander said. "I'm not crazy about giving up power-play goals every game, and I'm not crazy about the penalties we take. But it's not news to us. We continue to address it and work on it."
Defenseman Brian Fahey, who assisted on the Wolf Pack goals by P.A. Parenteau and Tommy Pyatt, said the coaches have talked about penalties since the start of the season, but the 5-on-3s are difficult to defend, especially back-to-back.
"We didn't do a very good job executing the penalty killing, and it's little details and mental errors," Fahey said. "I don't think it's a thing where guys don't understand the concept of what we're doing. Part of it is confidence and guys hesitating. The better penalty kill we get, guys will get more confident going out to the point and getting in shot lanes.
"It's part of the learning curve that's coming a little slower than we want it to. But it's better to have this happen now so in the second half of the season we can shut teams down."
While the Wolf Pack (7-7-0-1) lamented their penalty killing, Pirates coach Kevin Dineen was delighted his power play was 3-for-4 after not scoring in the previous four games.
"It was nice to see the power play win a hockey game," said Dineen, the former Hartford Whalers captain. "It's been a little bit of an eye sore, but it can be a little bit like a heartbeat. Sometimes it's on, and sometimes it's not. But tonight we were fortunate to capitalize."
The Wolf Pack started strong in a scoreless first period, but Adam Dennis (34 saves) made four good stops, including a power-play bid by Patrick Rissmiller, making his XL Center debut after getting three assists in two road games after being loaned by the New York Rangers for conditioning.
The Wolf Pack took a 1-0 lead at 53 seconds of the second period when Fahey picked off a Portland clearing attempt at the right point and fired a shot that was deflected in by Parenteau. It was Parenteau's team-high ninth goal and extended his points streak to seven games.
After Dennis denied Rissmiller's short-handed bid off a 2-on-1 with Mike Ouellette, the Pirates tied it at 7:51 when Chris Butler's shot from the blueline beat Miika Wiikman (25 saves), who was screened by Darche.
The Wolf Pack regained the lead on a power play as Tommy Pyatt took a pass from Artem Anisimov and fired a backhander that went in off Dennis at 10:43.
But penalties then caught up with the Wolf Pack as the Pirates converted on the 5-on-3s. Mark Mancari passed into the left circle to Kennedy, whose shot went in off Wiikman to tie it at 11:49. Kennedy then found Darche alone in front for an easy finish at 13:16.
The Wolf Pack had a territorial edge in the third period but rarely got a quality chance until Dale Weise's point-blank bid in the slot with 3:42 left. Matt Ellis iced it with an empty-net goal with 55 seconds left.
"We had possession in the third period, but they had four guys back, covered well and were pretty disciplined," Gernander said. "We didn't find ways to get pucks through to the net to create scoring chances or force them to draw penalties."
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