Crawford's Pack Report: Week in Review
Monday, March 17, 2008 - 4:23 PM
Add up a couple of hard-working good soldiers combining for some key offense, and perhaps the Wolf Pack’s most important player returning, at least for one game, and you get two Wolf Pack wins in three games.
The two triumphs this past week lifted the Pack to within eight points of clinching a playoff spot, and gave the franchise its fifth straight 40-win season, and ninth in the team’s 11-year history.
With Dane Byers missing the weekend due to an AHL suspension, the Wolf Pack were a depleted team up front, and the likes of Mike Ouellette and Jordan Owens came up big, aiding the offense at levels they had not previously achieved.
Since joining the Wolf Pack from Charlotte of the ECHL in early November, Ouellette had regularly generated nice scoring chances, but for the most part seemed snakebit in terms of finishing them. His specialty seemed to be game-clinching empty-net goals, into which category two of his first five AHL tallies had fallen.
In Friday-night’s get-together with San Antonio, though, Ouellette contributed a pair of goals to the Wolf Pack attack, in a game that the Pack would win by a score of 4-0. And far from being glorious chances for pretty goals, both of his scores resulted from Ouellette stopping in front of the net and hacking and whacking away at loose pucks. There are a number of hockey adjectives to describe that kind of goal, with “greasy” and “ugly” being foremost among them, and they tend to be the type of scores that successful teams get a lot of.
With guys like P.A. Parenteau, Greg Moore and Lauri Korpikoski seeing some very close checking, having Ouellette generate half of the offense in a four-goal win was a definite boon, adding to a resume that has featured consistent contribution by the former Dartmouth Big Green stalwart in a number of the less-noticeable areas that help teams win games. He is arguably the Pack’s best faceoff man, an ace penalty-killer and excels in puck battles along the walls.
The goals by Ouellette seemed to be the crowning touch of a team-wide workmanlike effort in Friday’s game. They were facing a San Antonio club that features a pretty darned good work ethic of its own, and a balanced offense, and the Wolf Pack allowed the Rampage a minimal level of scoring threats.
David LeNeveu came up with a second straight strong effort against his former team, this time being rewarded with his first shutout in a Pack uniform, and the Rampage were able to test him with only 10 total shots through the first period, and 18 for the game.
The Pack’s other win on the weekend, a 4-1 victory at Worcester on Sunday, was keyed by another AHL rookie who is not among the Wolf Pack’s players who have big numbers next to their names, Jordan Owens.
Owens had served notice the night before that he had a bit of an offensive touch working, as he scored the only goal in a 3-1 loss at home to Manchester, the Pack’s second straight defeat in the season series with the Monarchs after they had won four in a row.
The Wolf Pack were down to nine forwards going into Sunday’s tilt, with Brodie Dupont having been felled by an intestinal bug, and that meant a lot of ice time for everybody up front. Owens took full advantage, denting the Worcester net only 1:23 in and scoring a huge insurance goal in the third period, after the Sharks had controlled long stretches of the game. That made it points in a career-high three straight games for Owens, as he had also assisted on Ouellette’s first tally of Friday’s game, a goal that eventually turned out to be the game-winner.
So some unaccustomed sources of offense came to the forefront, but a consistent producer also returned to prominence, as captain Andrew Hutchinson got back in the lineup with a bang on Sunday after missing the previous four contests. Hutchinson set up both of Owens’ goals and also assisted on Ouellette’s power-play score, helping to resurrect a PP unit that had struggled to an 0/21 in the previous five games and had gone 1/28 in the preceding six.
Hutchinson’s production over the past month or so has bordered on scary, as he came out of Sunday’s game with nine points in his last four games, 18 in a span of 10 and 23 in 14. It’s not too often that a defenseman puts together a season of better than a point-per-game, but the Pack’s captain has a shot at it, and as we get closer and closer to the playoffs, it’s amazing to watch what an effect he has when he is in the lineup as opposed to when he’s out. The team had plenty of opportunity to panic when Worcester started to pour it on in Sunday’s second period and they never did, and I ascribe a lot of that poise to Hutchinson’s influence.
Not to be forgotten when analyzing important trends surrounding the Wolf Pack lately are the performances of the two goaltenders.
Even having allowed three goals on 22 shots in the loss to Manchester on Saturday, LeNeveu has still let only seven pucks get by him on 117 total shots in five appearances with the Pack, a stellar goals-against average of 1.42 and a save percentage of 94.0. He’s had the misfortune of getting precious little offensive support in at least four of his five starts, so his Wolf Pack record is only 2-3-0, but LeNeveu has been every bit as sharp so far as I remember him being for Springfield back in his rookie year of 2003-04.
Miika Wiikman, meanwhile, hadn’t played in two weeks before getting the call in Sunday’s contest, and he had to be feeling some pressure, with how well LeNeveu had shown in starting four straight and five out of six. And if he felt pressure, he certainly responded positively, as Wiikman fairly stoned a Shark club that was desperate for playoff points. The Sharks outshot the Pack 40-30 in the game, including 18-6 in the second period, but could only get one try by Wiikman, and that was a bit of a fluky one, with Dennis Packard’s heave off the left-wing boards hitting Brad Staubitz, who was cruising through the slot, in front and sneaking just past Wiikman’s left skate. A good eight or ten of Wiikman’s 39 stops were above-average saves on high-quality chances, and he deservedly earned the First-Star nod in the Pack’s seventh win in as many tries against the Sharks.
Now to riff on a couple of missives from our beloved readership…
Chris from West Hartford, CT asks, “Is the ECHL season shorter than the AHL? I wondered because when I was looking at team standings for that league at the 50-60 game mark, some teams already had an ‘X’ next to them, meaning that they had qualified for the playoffs.”
Chris, the season is shorter in the ECHL. While AHL teams play an 80-game regular-season schedule, the regular year is 72 games long for ECHL clubs.
Brittany Walsh from Wethersfield, CT asks, “Why hasn't Hartford gotten the All-Star game? Its arena is a lot nicer than Worcester. Also, I read that Alex Bourret fought Brian Boyle of Manchester. Brian was my cousin's camp counselor a few years ago. He is huge. What was Alex thinking? And how did he do?”
The host arena for the All-Star Classic is chosen from among those cities that put in a bid, Brittany. And a lot of different factors have to be considered when determining whether to bid for the event, most prominently whether it makes sense from a cost perspective.
While it is entertaining, surprising and somewhat comical to envision the 5-11 (in his shoes, on a good day) Bourret scrapping with the 6-7 Brian Boyle, it did not actually happen. Bourret’s opponent in that encounter was initially listed as Boyle in the scoring summary, but that was due to a mistaken computer entry. It was actually Joe Piskula who fought Bourret, and that has since been corrected.
And I would imagine that big Brian probably made for a pretty good camp counselor. I can’t imagine there was too much monkeying around or rule-breaking on his watch. I interviewed him before one of the games the Pack played in Manchester, and his hand is the size of my head.
David McLeod of Willimantic, CT writes, “Some very tight games and some recent wins against Bridgeport and Providence and some unexpected losses to Lowell and Manchester... I guess it just goes to show how competitive this division can be despite what the standings might suggest. At this point in the season, has there been anything significant that has surprised you with how the Atlantic Division has come along this season? I should think the big surprise this year would be the play of the Springfield Falcons and their climb towards playoff contention. Despite the Pack's record with them, couldn't they be a surprise come potential playoffs?”
I definitely agree that the Falcons wouldn’t be an easy draw in the postseason, David. Goaltender Jeff Deslauriers has shown the potential to have some red-hot stretches in the action we’ve seen between the Pack and Springfield, and they are not a team you can shut down just by stopping one line or one or two individuals.
I don’t know if I’d call their record a surprise, what with the affiliation having changed from the non-playoff teams of the last few years, the number of good young players the Oilers have and the hard-driving style that a coach like Kelly Buchberger demands. To me the biggest surprise in the division has been the consistent dominance exerted by Providence. They do have a solid team, but looking down their roster and judging by how the games in the season series with the Wolf Pack have unfolded, I am amazed that their record is as good as it is. It’s a real credit to their team concept, I keep waiting for them to have a real slump that brings them back to the rest of the division, but it’s never happened. And it’s not like they haven’t had to fight through some pretty key recalls and injuries, either…one heck of a year.
Eric from Avon, CT asks, “Now that David LeNeveu has the number 32, what number will the exciting Manitoba native Ryan Constant be sporting on the back of his jersey? I haven't seen him since his call up.”
Eric, I imagine that by now you have seen Ryan wearing his new #49 jersey. It seems to have suited him well, as he has given the Pack some real quality minutes in the five games he has played since returning from Charlotte, going +2 and even helping out by playing some forward in Sunday’s game, with the Pack severely shorthanded up front.
Kristen from Cheshire, CT writes, “My dad says that since Nigel Dawes has been playing so well and is a wiz in the shootout, he is ready for an NHL contract with the Rangers. Do you think he will finally be able to be a full Ranger?”
Your dad is a sharp observer, Kristen, I would say that Nigel has solidly earned his spot with the big club. Not only has he shown a hot hand in shootouts recently, but prior to being held off the scoresheet in both games of the Rangers’ unsuccessful Florida junket this past weekend, Nigel was scoring at a point-per-game pace over a span of eight games.
And Walter Carter of Houston, TX says, “In the March 8th game at Houston, there was an incident with 11 seconds to go in the game where Dane Byers inflicted punishment on Benoit Pouliot of the Aeros. What was your take on what occurred? Houston TV did not capture the entire encounter, and what was shown was Byers pounding on the back of Pouliot's head and trying to smash his face into the ice as he was ‘turtled’ down on his knees. I understand Pouliot lost several teeth and has a broken nose, but have seen nothing about Byers being suspended. Whassup? What got Pouliot to his knees to begin with....a punch? Maybe Byers was so upset because he ‘turtled’, but it was ugly and I can't believe he didn't get suspended.”
Actually, he did get suspended, Walter. He played the next game after that, in San Antonio, but then had to sit out the three games this past weekend as a result of the incident you reference.
Dane is an emotional player, and he clearly let his emotions get the better of him in that instance. He admitted as much, and apologized to the team in his quotes to the media after the game.
All I really saw is what you saw on television, Dane going after Pouliot and Pouliot declining to fight. Dane told me after the game that he had asked Pouliot to fight in the scrum in front of the net, after Pouliot had reacted to Dane shoving with goaltender Barry Brust, and that Pouliot had said no. After that, Dane claims, he turned back toward Brust and Pouliot punched him from behind. That part wasn’t shown on the replay, as you pointed out, and I didn’t see it so I don’t know if that’s true or not. Either way, it doesn’t excuse Dane losing his cool and working Pouliot over like he did. On the other hand, Dane did own up to it, and he certainly did not escape supplementary punishment from the league.
Thanks for the questions and I’ll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can put together enough material!
