HARTFORD, Conn. – The celebrations started early and often in the Insurance City and throughout the rest of Connecticut and other parts of the world Saturday on St. Patrick’s Day.
Parades, green beer, shamrocks and lots of merriment and Irish music could be found everywhere, and the Connecticut Whale joined the festive mood Saturday night after registering a crucial 4-2 victory over the Worcester Sharks before 8,011 at the XL Center.
All-Star right wing Jeremy Williams, back after missing four games with an injury, scored two goals, including the winner, to back the 21-save effort of Dov Grumet-Morris as the Whale (33-25-2-6) won their fifth game in six starts to move two points ahead of the Sharks (30-24-4-8) in the battle for the third and final guaranteed playoff spot in the Atlantic Division. The win got the Whale even at home (14-14-2-2) compared to 19-11-0-4 on the road, where they will be Sunday afternoon as they visit the DCU Center in Worcester for a rematch with the Sharks.
The Whale is 5-1-0-1 against the Sharks, including a 7-2 drubbing at Worcester last Sunday that tied their season high for goals. Besides being eliminated from the playoffs two years ago, the Hartford Wolf Pack/Whale is 14-4-0-2 at the DCU Center, including 2-0-1 this season. Last Sunday was the Sharks’ second-worst loss at home to the 7-1 beating they got from the Wolf Pack on Dec. 8, 2007.
Williams’ first goal tied the game and was the first of two quick power-play strikes after defenseman Jared Nightingale came to the aid of teammate John Mitchell, who had been pushed to the ice from behind by Nick Petrecki.
“That’s one of the roles that I think I can bring to this team,” said Nightingale, who became an assistant captain after Tim Kennedy was traded to the Florida Panthers on Feb. 26. “I’ve done it the last two years, and I have no problem doing it. I think there are 19 other guys who would be willing to do the same thing. Sometimes a fight can turn around a game. I’m not going to say that fight turned around the game. I think Dov made some big saves, and we just stuck with it, chipped away and just happened to score after the fight.
“We stuck to the game plan, and after the fight they took some penalties, and our power play won the game for us.”
Williams begged to differ, saying Nightingale’s fight influenced the outcome “big time.”
“Any time you’ve got a guy like Nightie, (Justin Soryal) and (Devin DiDiomete), they can change a game,” Williams said. “Getting a goal or one of our guys getting into a good fight is the same kind of momentum builder. That’s why there’s such a good mix of scoring and toughness. If we’re not scoring, we’ve got guys fighting to get everybody up. Nightie sticks up for Mitchell, and it ignites everybody. Everybody gets a little fired up, and from then on, we were pretty good.”
Grumet-Morris said Nightingale’s effort “had a significant impact on our team.”
“I thought it was the right place, right time,” he said. “Obviously we still maintained our power play because he did initiate a fight that the guy was looking for. I think it gave us a boost, and we obviously scored consecutive power-play goals and that clearly turned the game around.”
It started when defenseman Wade Redden made a terrific play to keep John McCarthy’s clearing attempt in the Sharks zone and got the puck to Williams, who moved into the high slot and fired a 40-foot laser that beat Tyson Sexsmith high to the glove side with 6:40 left.
“It was a pretty heady play,” coach Ken Gernander said of Redden’s effort. “He used his body to block the puck and then have the poise to collar the puck and made a good D-to-D pass when you’re getting forced (by McCarthy).”
Then on the ensuing 5-on-4, Kolarik passed in front to Evgeny Grachev and went to the net to convert the Russian’s rebound for his 21st goal with 5:58 to go.
Williams wasn’t certain how he would perform after being out for 10 days.
“I was a little unsure how I was going to feel,” said Williams, who increased his team-leading goal total to 27. “It was kind of weird because we were playing so many games that it was tough to get into some practices where it was game-like and some battle drills. I pretty much waited until I had no pain and then (the coaches) skated me to get me into shape.
“I felt pretty good to be out there, though there were still a few things that I’m a little rusty on. There were a couple of shots that I would have blocked on both their goals and the guy gets it by me. But overall, I thought our line (with Kolarik and Francis Lemieux) and our defense played good. Our power play struggled at the start, but we got it back going and got some goals and momentum started coming. We all weren’t really on the same page. We weren’t really sure what we were doing.
“We were a little too individual, myself included, but don’t take away anything from them because they’re neutral zone on their penalty kill is really unique because they take away the outside and collapse on you when you go inside. You have to make good plays, and if you’re not ready and not bearing down, it’s going to look like our first two power plays. So I think it was a matter of shaking the rust off because we hadn’t played together for a while.”
The Whale came out with more zip than at the start of a 2-1 loss to Hershey on Friday night, but the Sharks took the lead on a deft play at 8:07 by Tommy Wingels, who scored both Worcester goals. Nick Schaus’ blueline shot was tipped by Brandon Mashinter and picked up by Wingels, who skated behind the net and flipped a shot that ricocheted off Grumet-Morris and into the net.
“I was trying to find the puck and ‘get big,’ but Wingels saw I was off my post because I couldn’t see,” Grumet-Morris said. “He knew what he was doing. That was a purposeful goal and a very skillful goal.”
Grumet-Morris kept it close through the remainder of the period thanks to a nifty glove save on Benn Ferriero on a 2-on-1 at 11:58 and denying Michael Swift breaking in off left wing with 3:52 left.
Sexsmith had to be especially sharp at the start of the second period when Kris Newbury stole the puck 20 feet in front at 35 seconds and Kolarik had two excellent rebound bids at 1:12.
Off of the confrontation with Nightingale, Petrecki got an extra minor for slashing, and after Williams was stopped breaking in off right wing, Schaus was whistled for slashing, giving the Whale a 5-on-3 power play for 48 seconds and changing the fortunes of the game.
After the Whale scored the two power-play goals, Grumet-Morris kept them ahead when he made a good glove stab on T.J. Trevelyan’s shot from 20 feet in the slot with the Sharks on a power play with 2:11 left in the period.
The Whale then made it 3-1 at 1:34 of the third period as Pavel Valentenko passed ahead to defensive partner Blake Parlett, who threaded the puck between Schaus and Petrecki to Williams for a breakaway and shot that beat Sexsmith high to the glove side.
“I looked up, and (Williams) is the first guy I saw,” said Parlett, who has been a strong addition since being called up from Greenville of the ECHL on Feb. 17. “He made a good play to get open, and there’s no one else I’d rather give the puck to than him.”
But the Sharks quickly retaliated as Wingels converted the rebound of Petrecki’s shot from the left point 3:04.
Sexsmith kept the Sharks in it when he gloved Dale Weise’s bid from the doorstep off Newbury’s setup with 5:40 left. But after the Sharks pulled Sexsmith for a sixth attacker with 1:20 left, Weise made them pay when he took a pass from Brodie Dupont and scored into the empty net with 41.2 seconds to go.
“I thought we had a very strong game defensively,” Grumet-Morris said. “We had only 23 shots against, and we had only (22) against (Friday) night. So the consistency of our defensive corps and our team defense has been really good.”
Gernander thought likewise of Grumet-Morris, who is 7-3-1 with a 2.02 goals-against average and .920 save percentage since being recalled from Greenville of the ECHL.
“It has been his MO of late (to make timely saves,” Gernander said. “Lots of nights it’s not the workload you have, it’s the save at the big moment. It’s not the volume of work.”
But now that they’ve protected their home ice, the Whale has to continue to excel on the road, where they’ve won three in a row and were 7-3-0-0 during a recent stretch in which they played 10 of 12 games away from the XL Center.
“It’s a six-period game, especially with this weekend being a potential eight-point swing,” Williams said. “They’re going to be hungry (Sunday), so we’re really going to have to match that. We’re going into their building, and we build off what we did in the third period.”
Nightingale said it’s “a great opportunity to widen the gap.”
“This is the last time that we play Worcester, so we have to go in with a must-win and playoff attitude and really separate ourselves from them,” Nightingale said.
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