HARTFORD, Conn. – It was hardly a super goal on Super Bowl Sunday, but the Portland Pirates were more than happy to accept it.
The Connecticut Whale would have been, too.
Instead, defenseman T.J. Brennan picked up a loose puck near the blue line, skated toward the corner and fired a bad-angle shot that hit goalie Chad Johnson, then the post and the keeper’s leg before trickling into the net with 3:12 left to give the Pirates a 3-2 victory over the Whale before 3,458 at the XL Center.
“As I was skating in, I saw two guys (Colin Stuart and Corey Tropp) crashing the net, so I just wanted to get the puck on the net, and that’s what I did,” Brennan said. “When I skated around (the net), I saw the puck was over the goal line because (Johnson) never had control of it. Thank God it counted.”
Much like Derek Whitmore’s power-play goal with 7.5 seconds left that gave the Pirates a 3-2 victory in their previous visit to the XL Center on Jan. 29.
Brennan’s score decided a fifth one-goal game between the teams this season, with the Pirates (30-15-4-1) evening the series at three after blowing an early 2-0 lead. It helped alleviate the pain of a 4-3 loss at home Saturday night, when the Pirates surrendered three one-goal leads. But this time they prevailed and moved within two points of idle Atlantic Division-leading Manchester.
The loss prevented the Whale (24-21-2-5) from passing Worcester for third place in the Atlantic Division, but they remained five points ahead of fifth-place Providence, which lost 4-3 to Charlotte. The Whale have lost five of their last six games at home, fell to 12-13-2-1 overall at home, and are 12 points behind Manchester and 10 back of the Pirates.
No one felt worse about Brennan’s fortuitous goal than Johnson.
“It was just an ugly goal, just a bad goal,” Johnson said. “(Brennan) just came down the wing, hit the post and the puck kind of went on my right pad. I really didn’t get a good look at it, but it was just kind of sitting on my leg. I tried kind of leaning forward because I could feel it kind of rolling down the side of my leg. I didn’t know if it was over the line or not. I heard the whistle, and then I saw the ref coming into the picture and he’s pointing goal, goal, goal.
“It’s a tough goal. There are (three) minutes left in the game, and it was one I probably have to play a lot differently. I felt I was in good position, it just somehow got by me and hit the post. I didn’t really give him anything to shoot at except the post, and it got by me. Then it was a play down by feet, so I just tried to cover up all the holes that I could wherever I thought the puck was, and when I looked behind me, the puck was sitting right over the line a little bit.
“All these games (with the Pirates) seem to come down to the last five minutes, when teams obviously pick it up because it’s kind of like an overtime atmosphere. It’s tough because we had our chances and played good in a back-and-forth game, but it just comes down to a bad goal. I’ve got to have those. This time of year it cost the team getting a point, so it’s just disappointing.”
Pirates coach Kevin Dineen, who saw his share of good and bad goals during his years as a standout right wing and captain with the Hartford Whalers, wasn’t about to complain about his team passing another survival test.
“It wasn’t a masterpiece, but you never critique the two points,” Dineen said. “We were in a game where we got so badly outplayed in one period (the second), but I liked our response in the third. I’m just so respectful of the talent over there that you’re trying to weather the storm sometimes. Some of the play over there, specifically (former Pirates center) Tim Kennedy, who’s NHL-worthy, playing fabulous hockey and making a pretty good career against us, is a credit to their team.
“But we didn’t play a great game, didn’t respond to the amount of effort and pressure they were putting on us. We looked like the team that played three games in three days, but I liked our last seven or eight minutes. There was a lot of emotion that went into that game, and I think we responded well. Their best players were the best players and hardest-working guys this weekend, and I can’t say the same thing about my group. But that’s the nature of the beast. Sometimes your identity comes from your worker-bees, and they certainly got it done for us this weekend.”
After Brennan got the tie-breaker, David Leggio (33 save) made stellar stops on Wade Redden and Evgeny Grachev with 1:43 and 1:32 left. The Whale then pulled Johnson for a sixth attacker, and Leggio preserved the victory when he stopped Jason Williams cruising in off left wing with 1:02 left. After a Whale timeout, Williams’ deflection with eight seconds to go went just wide right.
But fortunately for the Pirates, Brennan’s shot somehow found its way into the net.
“It’s really tough when you feel after those first two goals that you really took control of the game,” said Kennedy, who scored the Whale’s first goal. “It’s just one of those kind of fluke goals that can beat you and leaves a sour taste in your mouth. We didn’t have the best start, but after that, they had their chance here or there, but I thought we really carried the play.
“It’s just a tough loss because we’re trying to catch those guys, and that’s two points that I think we should have.”
As for his success against his former team, Kennedy smiled and said, “I think they (the parent Buffalo Sabres) are still paying me. I’ve definitely had some pretty good games against (the Pirates), but I think that’s just because when you’ve played for a team and are playing against your own friends, you get up a little more for it. We’ve had some pretty good games against them, but it still hurts not to win.”
The Whale might have won if they hadn’t gone without a power play for only the second time in 14 seasons, the other being on Nov. 17, 2007, when they won 3-2 at Lowell. But they were fortunate Johnson was ready at the start as he made a big save off Brian Roloff just 15 seconds into the game and a good right-pad stop on All-Star Luke Adam at 1:32. Leggio then had a right-pad save on Whale All-Star Jeremy Williams at 4:13 before the Pirates scored twice in 2:31.
Justin Bowers broke a scoreless tie at 13:47 when he cruised through the slot and deflected Igor Gongalsky’s shot from the right circle past Johnson. A few shifts later, Adam dropped a pass to NHL veteran Mark Parrish, whose shot from 30 feet in the slot deflected off the stick of Whale center Kris Newbury and past Johnson with 3:42 left in the period.
But just 46 seconds later, Kennedy again haunted his former team. Defenseman Jyri Niemi passed from the left point to the right circle to Kennedy, who maneuvered into position and beat Leggio to the far stick side for his third goal in six games against the Pirates this season. The previous two were overtime game-winners on Dec. 29 and 31.
“It was a nice pass from Jyri, but this time the goalie took away the glove side so I had to go stick side and caught him cheating a little bit,” said Kennedy, named to the AHL all-rookie team in 2008-09 when he led all rookies in assists (49) and points (67) while with the Pirates.
Johnson kept it a one-goal game with glove save on Roloff at 1:36 of the second period, then Leggio denied Chad Kolarik breaking in off right wing at 7:09. The Whale then lost a bid to tie when Kelsey Tessier lost the puck on a breakaway at 9:14.
On the ensuing shift, Johnson robbed Roloff in the slot and redirected the puck to Kolarik, who raced down right wing on a 2-on-1 and took a shot from the top of the circle that beat Leggio to the far stick side at 10:04 for his 20th goal. It was his third goal in two days against the Pirates and fourth in six games against Portland since being acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets and Springfield Falcons for Hartford Wolf Pack captain Dane Byers on Nov. 11.
Johnson, who got his second assist of the season on Kolarik’s goal, kept it tied when he stopped Dennis McCauley in close with 3:26 left in the period before Leggio denied Jason Williams in front with 1:58 to go. A backhander by the Pirates’ Tim Conboy found the net moments after the second-period horn sounded.
Kolarik threatened again off a pass from Kennedy 3:32 into the third period, but Leggio came out to keep the game tied. After the teams sparred for several minutes, Johnson got his shoulder on a right-circle blast with 7:48 left by Mark Mancari, who leads the AHL with 28 goals.
The teams then searched for the slightest opening that might make the difference, and Brennan found it.
“You have two pretty equally matched teams, and your start isn’t up to par and the last shot on goal is one I’m sure Chad would like to have back,” Whale coach Ken Gernander said. “I guess that can be the difference, can’t it?
<:o:p>Story by Bruce Berlet of the Connecticut Whale Comment@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.