Crawford's Pack Report: Road, Sweet Road...

Monday, December 15, 2008 - 8:44 PM

Although it hasn’t gotten to the point where Ken Gernander might book rooms for the team at the Hilton Hartford for home games and try to convince them they are actually on the road, the gulf between the Wolf Pack’s home and road records got wider this past week, as the team swept three games on its longest bus trip of the year. After having gone winless in five straight home contests, the Pack went down to Norfolk and took a pair of tight games from the last-place Admirals, 4-2 and 3-2, and then traveled on to Hershey and hung a 3-1 loss on a Bear team that had won six straight in their own barn.

The Wolf Pack now sport a jaunty .750 winning percentage on enemy ice, 14-4-0-2, have won four straight and six out of seven on the road, and have at least a point 11 of their last 12 road games (10-1-0-1).

It was a “good news/bad news” situation roster-wise for Ken Gernander & Co. as they hit the road. They were without their two all-stars, and two of their top three point-scorers, with Greg Moore and Nigel Dawes both up with the Rangers, but they got a great player back down in Ryan Callahan, and also welcomed Artem Anisimov back from his World Junior expedition to the Czech Republic with Team Russia.

As it turned out, the good outweighed the bad as far as the roster shakeup goes. Callahan slid right back onto a line with Dane Byers, with whom he’d had good success last season, and Anisimov was put at center between those two, generating good results. Byers and Callahan combined for five points in Friday’s 4-2 win at Norfolk, Callahan scored again Saturday, and Anisimov had the game-winning power-play goal in Sunday’s victory.

It’s hard for me to fathom how Callahan could have been held to only one goal in 24 games, even at the NHL level. Right from his first shift Friday, he looked just like the Ryan Callahan of last year. He was skating, finishing checks, working the boards well, and shooting the puck with extreme authority. He scored two great goals on an NHL goaltender in Marc Denis down in Norfolk, the first one, on Friday night, a sizzling laser off the rush, into the top corner over the glove and the second, on Saturday, a perfect deflection of a bomb of a point shot by Andrew Hutchinson.

Callahan and Byers really work well together, too, because as skilled as Callahan is, he really goes hard in the tough areas of the ice and forechecks and works the boards well, and as good of a “lunch-pail” guy as Byers is, with his banging and crashing and physical play, he can really make some good skill plays also, especially when he is out there with players like Callahan and Anisimov. The goal that Callahan scored on Friday was as nice a three-way play as I have seen all year, with Anisimov one-touching the puck to Byers to create a two-on-one and Byers finding Callahan with a sweet pass for the top-corner finish.

Lauri Korpikoski had a real strong weekend as well, scoring the goals that opened the scoring both Saturday and Sunday, both on special teams. Korpikoski beat Denis with a long shot for a shorthanded goal early in the second period on Saturday, after the Admirals had dictated play for much of the early going, and he flicked in a power-play rebound in Sunday’s first period to put the Wolf Pack on the board, putting the first dent in the armor of Bear goaltender Frederic Cassivi, who had authored a hot start to his first game back in the AHL after a three-week stint with parent-club Washington. Those two lamplighters gave Korpikoski 10 on the year, one short of the 11 he tallied all of last season.

And speaking of goaltenders, both Wolf Pack backstops showed well on the trip, after struggling through somewhat of a, by their standards, mediocre three-game homestand the week before. Al Montoya won both games in Norfolk, both of them contests in which the Wolf Pack built a lead and then seemed to lose some oomph against the last-place Admirals, who are having a hard time buying a win at this point in their season.

Montoya seemed steady and in control throughout the two games, allowing a total of only four goals on 60 shots, even while battling the challenge of not being able to see the markings on the pink-dyed “Pink in the Rink” ice surface Saturday (the night was dedicated to raising funds and awareness for the cause of battling breast cancer).

Miika Wiikman, meanwhile, snapped a personal 0-2-1 streak Sunday, in what might have been his steadiest performance in the AHL to date. The Wolf Pack controlled a lot of the play and Wiikman didn’t have to be spectacular, but he was called upon to deny a couple of high-quality scoring chances at key times, and he did so calmly and reassuringly.

So, we’re 40 games in now, halfway through season 11 of Wolf Pack hockey in Hartford. They go by faster every year! And if the second half is anywhere near as good as the first half, it promises to be another great success for the Pack franchise, as the Wolf Pack currently find themselves 12 games above .500 and on pace for 104 points.

Now to bring in some thoughts from our great readership…

Steve Taylor from Charlotte, NC writes, “Mark Lee was hurt in Charlotte prior to Christmas. What was his injury and will he be back in Charlotte for rehab? Do you see Jordan Owens spending the rest of the season in Hartford?”

Steve, I believe it was a knee injury that Mark suffered, and he is not in Hartford, so I assume he must be doing his rehab with the Checkers’ medical and training staffs. As for Jordan Owens, I’ve thought he has been solid for the Wolf Pack since he has been back up, using his speed and playing a little more “in your face” hockey. I think his status with the Pack depends largely on what the Rangers do with Nigel Dawes and Greg Moore. If those guys stay up with the big club, I would give Jordan a good chance of keeping his spot with the Wolf Pack. If Moore or Dawes comes back, though, there might not be enough ice time for Jordan in Hartford to foster his development.

David Wedge of Lakeland, FL writes, “New York keeps calling up Dawes and Moore. Is P.A. Parenteau ever going to be called up, or is he just a good AHL player? Will he be traded?”

I think P.A. is more than just a good AHL player, David. It’s that old numbers game, though. P.A. is an offensive-minded skill player, and the Rangers have so many of those, I think it’s tough for the Rangers to see a slot where they could put him where he wouldn’t be a square peg in a round hole, so to speak. I sure think, however, that given the chance to play some significant minutes and play his game, he would be a productive player at that level.

Victoria from East Haddam, CT asks, “Where has Ivan Baranka gone to? I haven't seen him on the ice or anywhere else in the arena. Has he had an injury?”

Victoria, Ivan actually returned to action this past weekend, and had assists in two of the three Pack wins, after missing the previous five games due to an injury that he suffered in the Wolf Pack’s very physical 3-2 win in Springfield December 28th.

Chris from Wethersfield, CT asks, “Any insight on player reactions to being selected for the All-Star game? Dawes and Moore received well deserved calls but I'm a bit surprised not seeing Andrew Hutchinson selected. He's not the most physical of defensemen and wouldn't be labeled a "prospect", but he's been as steady on the blue line as any D-Man I've seen in Hartford recently. With that said, let's get the power play going at home like we do on the road!”

I thought Andrew might be a good candidate for the Planet USA squad too, Chris, but there is a pretty darned strong crop of non-Canadian defensemen out there, with guys like Brian Salcido and Peter Harrold right up there with Hutchinson among the top point-producing blueliners in the league.

There’s no doubt that “Hutch” adds a key element to the Wolf Pack team, with the way he moves the puck and shoots it on the power play. He’s a real steadying veteran presence back there.

I think he, and any other player, would have loved the honor of being selected to the All-Star Classic, but he has a young family, so I would imagine that having a couple of days off here in the dog days of the season isn’t a heartbreaker either.

The power play certainly came up with some key goals during the road trip, which is what you need your man-advantage unit to do, and hopefully they can carry over the momentum from the two goals that they generated in Sunday’s game. The guys on the PP seem a little bit more relaxed on the road for whatever reason, but you’d think the tools of guys like Hutchinson, Pöck, Parenteau, et al. should work just as well on the home front.

Chris from West Hartford, CT writes, “Providence, although totally dominant through almost the first half of the season, recently lost two games in a row, being outscored 7-0 in those games. Do you think they’re losing an edge? I sure hope so because in the next 10-15 days or so the Wolf Pack have got two games against them. The way the P-Bruins played the first half of season, you could call them the USSR.”

I don’t know if I’d go that far, Chris, they have much nicer equipment and, generally speaking, shorter names.

All kidding aside, the Bruins have indeed put together one heck of a run this year, even with their recent 0-2-0-1 “drought”. I would highly doubt that they have lost their edge, although they did lose a real good player a couple of weeks ago, when David Krejci was recalled to Boston. All along this year, I’ve thought the Bruins’ whole was greater than the sum of their parts, and I’ve been impressed with the fact that their team concept has withstood the instability they had in their goal crease when Tuukka Rask was up in the Show, as well as extended recall absences of the likes of Vladimir Sobotka, Petteri Nokelainen and Matt Hunwick.

I don’t imagine they will be able to continue playing nearly .800 hockey throughout the entire season, but even if they do hit a skid, they’ve built up such a lead that teams like the Wolf Pack and Portland are really going to have to play out of this world to catch them.

And Dina from New Rochelle, NY asks, “Are Greg and Dominic Moore brothers? There does seem to be a resemblance, to me anyway, both in their looks and their styles of play. I know that Dominic did have another brother playing hockey besides Steve, and my best wishes go out to Steve for a nice recovery.”

Dina, Greg and Dominic are not related. Greg grew up in Lisbon, Maine, and Dominic and his family are from the Toronto area. Dominic’s other older brother, who also played at Harvard as Dominic and Steve did, is named Mark. Mark Moore was drafted by Pittsburgh and played two seasons of pro hockey, but unfortunately had to retire due to concussion problems, which I think made Steve’s concussion-related, and other, injuries hit the family even a little bit harder. I’m not sure what the latest is on Steve’s recovery, but I echo your best wishes on that.

Thanks for the questions and I’ll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can put together enough material!