Wolf Pack Beat Bruins 2-0

December 10, 2008 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Connecticut Whale News Release


HARTFORD, Conn. _ The depleted Hartford Wolf Pack gave 10 New York Rangers scouts and 2,079 fans at the XL Center plenty of discipline and grit to watch Wednesday night.

Despite being without their top two defensemen, the Wolf Pack allowed a season-low 15 shots and Miika Wiikman notched his first shutout of the season in a 2-0 victory over the Providence Bruins.

Defenseman Jared Nightingale, recalled from Charlotte of the ECHL earlier in the day, got the winner with his first goal of the season on his first shot as a Wolf Pack 7:04 into the second period. Greg Moore added an empty-net, power-play goal with 21.9 seconds left to assure the Wolf Pack (11-11-1-2) would end a two-game losing streak and escape the Atlantic Division cellar.

The Bruins (15-9-1-0) were coming off a 45-shot effort in a 5-1 rout of Springfield Sunday, but the Wolf Pack throttled them with tenacious team defense and Wiikman's stop of Jeremy Reich's breakaway with 3:32 left in the second period.

"I was real happy with just about every aspect of the game," Wolf Pack coach Ken Gernander said. "It was real hard working and disciplined. It's a lot easier for the first player to do his job if he knows the second player is backing him up. When guys are in position, there generally aren't breakdowns."

Wiikman was fortunate that Byron Bitz hit the post at 7:15 of the second period and Peter Schaefer's deflection hit the crossbar with 5:26 left in the game. But those were rare quality scoring chances for the Bruins, who were outshot 33-15.

"We played a really solid game all over the ice, and that certainly helped me," Wiikman said. "We had three guys back all the time, and having only two penalties helped keep them out of our end for almost the whole game."

As for stopping Reich's breakaway, Wiikman said, "Sometimes you've got to make those saves. Maybe that was the lucky break we needed to win this game."

The Wolf Pack dominated from the start with the game's first five shots and nine of the first 10. But the dominance didn't pay off until Nightingale took a pass from Jordan Owens and beat a screened Tuukka Rask (31 saves) from the blueline. Nightingale was recalled because Corey Potter had been called up by the Rangers on Saturday, when Brian Fahey sustained a concussion in a 4-2 loss at Hershey. Nightingale had had six assists in 21 games with the Checkers.

"It was nice to get scoring my first goal off my back in the first game," said Nightingale, who didn't arrive in town until 51/2 hours before the opening faceoff. "It was a good play where the guys were cycling the puck for a while. And it's a good example when you have bodies in front of the net and shoot the puck, good things can happen."

Nightingale said getting the call-up got his adrenalin going. And he was familiar with several players from training camp and two games with the Wolf Pack last season.

"It's easy to feel comfortable when everybody plays well," Nightingale said. "Miika played great, the forwards helped out the defense and holding them under 20 shots is a good job."



American Hockey League Stories from December 10, 2008


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