HARTFORD, Conn. – Something had to change for the Connecticut Whale and Providence Bruins on Saturday night.
The teams entered the XL Center coming off shutout losses 24 hours earlier while missing key personnel via call-ups and injuries.
The Whale continued to have plenty of difficulty finding the net until a wild, final 21/2 minutes and dropped a 3-2 decision to the Bruins before 9,118, the Whale’s second-largest home crowd of the season.
Stellar goaltending by Matt Dalton (34 saves), and Maxime Sauve’s two goals, put the Bruins in command before the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Brian McGrattan received a 5-minute major and a double game misconduct for an illegal check to the head of 5-9, 177-pound Kelsey Tessier with 4:14 left.
“It was a cheap shot,” Whale coach Ken Gernander said.
Justin Soryal, upset with McGrattan’s reaction to Tessier lying on the ice, came to Tessier’s defense and received a double game misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct and leaving the bench.
“I didn’t see him coming, not at all,” Tessier said. “I passed the puck to (Ryan) Garlock and wanted to go back to the bench because it was a long shift, but, boom, he came from that (blind) side a couple of seconds late, for sure. I’m lucky that I didn’t get anything wrong and didn’t get a concussion or didn’t get hurt.
“Those are the situations that have been going on in the NHL, the hits to the head that are a couple of seconds late like that.”
Bruins coach Rob Murray didn’t see anything wrong with the hit by McGrattan.
“Tessier didn’t miss a shift and assisted on the (Whale’s first) goal,” Murray said.
Tessier got revenge when he set up Oren Eizenman’s tap-in goal with 2:30 to go, then the Whale got to 3-2 when Brodie Dupont converted a give-and-go with Michael Del Zotto on a 6-on-3 power play with 6.9 seconds left after the Whale pulled goalie Chad Johnson (15 saves).
But it was too late for the Whale (20-16-2-5) to atone for a 3-0 loss at Portland on Friday night thanks largely to Dalton, who made a series of spectacular saves through the first 571/2 minutes. The strong work earned Dalton the No. 1 star and enabled the Bruins (16-19-3-1) to end a 0-2-1-0 slide that had dropped them into the Atlantic Division cellar, six points behind the Springfield Falcons, who lost 6-3 to the Albany Devils.
Meanwhile, the Whale (20-16-2-5) lost two in a row for the first time since No. 21 and 26 and the first time in regulation since Nov. 5-6. The Whale dropped 10 points behind first-place Manchester, a 4-3 winner over Binghamton, and four points back of Portland, which beat Worcester 8-3. The Whale had won the previous three meetings with the Bruins, including 6-2 at the XL Center on Jan. 1. But the Bruins are 11-6-2-0 on the road.
“We had our chances, but we have to bear down,” said Eizenman, who assisted on Dupont’s goal. “You can’t let teams hang around in this league because they’ll make you pay. They made good plays for their goals, and we couldn’t get one until it was too little too late.
“A game like that is a little frustrating because they capitalized on their chances, and we didn’t. It’s one of those kinds that makes you want to scratch your head, but they’ll even out hopefully at some point, so you just have to keep working hard. You can’t get down over a game like that because the bounces even out in the end. It’s the team that’s willing to stick to their guns and try to get those chances and create those breaks that ends up doing well. That’s why it’s an 80-game season. In one or two games, anything can happen, but over an 80-game season, things usually even out.”
The Whale had most of the quality scoring chances in the first period but trailed off a bad turnover. Matt Dalton stopped Dupont off a 2-on-1 at 2:48, then Del Zotto’s shot from the right point hit the far post at 4:21.
Moments later, Whale defenseman Stu Bickel’s clearing attempt went off Tim Kennedy’s stick to Maxime Sauve, who broke in alone and put a backhander between Chad Johnson’s legs at 4:57.
But the Whale continued to press, and Dalton had to be sharp to get his glove on Chad Kolarik’s 30-foot shot in the slot off a pass from Jason Williams at 6:29, then 26 seconds later, defenseman Jared Nightingale scored a narrow decision over Lane MacDermid, the son of former Hartford Whalers right wing Paul MacDermid.
Dalton then sprawled to stop a rebound stuff by Devin DiDiomete. Dalton capped his stellar period with a left-pad save off Soryal, set up at the left post with 3:39 left on a diagonal pass from Chris Chappell, playing his second game since being called up from the ECHL’s Greenville Road Warriors.
Moments later, MacDermid got into his second fight, earning a draw with Soryal with 3:25 left in the period.
Johnson kept the Whale close through the midpoint of the second period, making bang-bang saves on Jamie Arniel and Sauve’s rebound bid at 4:57 and then denying Joe Colborne’s rebound stuff attempt at 10:28. Johnson and the Whale got fortunate when Jordan Caron hit the post on a power play with 7:34 left in the period, then 20 seconds later, Dalton stopped Evgeny Grachev’s point-blank, shorthanded bid off left wing off a perfect feed from Jason Williams.
With the Bruins on their third power play, the Whale got lucky again when Zach Hamill hit the post with 4:04 left. Dalton then denied two of the Whale’s sharpshooters in the final minute with glove saves off All-Star Jeremy Williams’ shot from the right circle with 51 seconds to go and Kolarik’s shot from the left circle with 14.4 seconds left.
Given those reprieves, Providence took a 2-0 lead early in the third period as Caron passed ahead to Hamill, whose shot was blocked by Bickel but rebounded to the Bruins center for a backhander that beat Johnson to the stick side at 1:33.
Then with the sides skating four a side, a possible Whale comeback turned dramatically when Dalton denied Tomas Kundratek’s close-in rebound at 6:05. Arniel immediately got the puck to Sauve, who raced around center Jason Williams, covering for Kundratek, and put home a forehand for his second goal of the game and what turned out to be the winner at 6:13.
The Whale and their followers then had to know it wasn’t their night when Grachev took a perfect lead pass on a 2-on-1 with Kolarik but missed the net from 20 feet in the slot at not-so-lucky 7:11.
The Whale then got their big chance after McGrattan’s hit on Tessier but couldn’t complete the comeback.
“I don’t think we were as sharp at the start as we were at the end,” Gernander said. “I think there seemed to be more desperation with that heightened sense of emotion. I thought we were a little crisper and more successful.”
Jeremy Williams agreed it was a matter of bearing down on shots.
“I thought we did a good job of getting our opportunities but not second chances where you get a rebound or really tire out the goalie,” Williams said. “If you just keep shooting out wide and just have to make one save, it’s not going to tire him out so he’s going to be able to play better.
“He made some good stops, but when we did get good shots from the slot, myself and others missed the net. It’s not like guys aren’t trying to hit the net, and it’s not like we didn’t play well as a team. We held onto the puck, got in the forecheck a bit, but when you get quick breaks and don’t score, you have to get some greasy goals, and that’s by getting guys to the net.”
Johnson had a hard time explaining how the Whale could have a 36-18 shot advantage and many more quality chances and still not be in the game until the final few minutes.
“It was just one of those nights where everything was kind of hitting (Dalton),” Johnson said. “He made some good saves because he was in good position, but we have guys who can put the puck in the net. We had corners but kept just missing the net. It’s deflating to be working hard and then just make a couple of mistakes.
“And I felt I was in position on all the goals, but it seemed like when they had chances they were just sniping on me. They just found ways to score, and that’s just how it going for me now. Shots are finding holes, so it’s not going my way right now.”
Story by Bruce Berlet of the Connecticut Whale
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