Binghamton, NY, – The Hartford Wolf Pack suffered their first loss of the new season, in their first road game of the year, falling 5-3 to the Binghamton Devils Wednesday night at the Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena.
The Wolf Pack, who had won their first two games of the year at home, battled back from a 3-1 deficit to the tie Wednesday’s contest, with second-period goals by Steven Fogarty, Ryan Gropp and Tim Gettinger, but a third-period Devil tally by Joey Anderson proved to be the game-winner, and Yegor Sharangovich iced the game with an empty-net goal.
“I thought the guys did a really good job of drawing back into that game,” Wolf Pack head coach Keith McCambridge said. “We showed some good characteristics with regard to our habits, and not laying off the gas, but they got a lucky one in the third period, it’s off a skate and in the back of our net. Overall we feel that there’s chances that we passed up to put more pucks to the net, to test their goaltender, a little bit on the perimeter too much, there’s some adjustments that we’ll need to make to our forecheck. Overall, I credit the guys for battling back, but we just didn’t have enough players going tonight.”
The Wolf Pack fell behind 2-0 in the first period, despite a 12-8 shots advantage over the Devils, who scored in both the first minute and the last minute of the frame.
Eric Tangradi put Binghamton in front on the game’s first shot, only 28 seconds in. Yegor Yakovlev played the puck toward the middle from the left-wing circle, and Tangradi deflected it past Wolf Pack goaltender Marek Mazanec (18 saves) from in front.
Then, with time winding down, after some strong Wolf Pack pressure, Marian Studenic broke into the Wolf Pack zone, with only Hartford defenseman Libor Hajek back. Moving down left wing, Studenic snapped a perfectly-place shot past Mazanec’s stick side, with 13.1 seconds left.
The Wolf Pack turned the tables in the second period, duplicating the Devils’ first-period feat of scoring early and late.
Fogarty got Hartford on the board only 14 seconds after the opening faceoff of the period. He broke up a Devil feed in center ice and moved into the Binghamton end, before ripping a shot high into the net behind goaltender Cam Johnson (23 saves).
The Devils got that one back at 13:52, on the second goal of the year by Nick Lappin. On a 3-on-2 break, Brett Seney handed the puck from the left side to Lappin in the slot, and he beat Mazanec through the legs from close range.
The Wolf Pack would come back with a pair of goals in the last 3:09 of the period, though, to tie the score.
Gropp scored his first of the year on a power play at 16:51, with Michael McLeod off for slashing. Lias Andersson passed the puck toward the net from the left side, and Gropp, crashing the net, was knocked down and fell into the net, and the puck slid into the goal underneath him.
Gettinger then tied the game with 44.8 seconds remaining in the period, with his second in three games. He intercepted a blind pass by Devil defenseman Michael Kapla on the right-wing side in the Binghamton end, and ripped a shot through Johnson’s five-hole from the faceoff dot.
The Devils took the lead for good, though, 6:26 into the third period, on Anderson’s first pro goal. Kapla prevented a Michael Lindqvist clearing attempt and dropped the puck to John Ramage at the right point. He threw it towards the net, and it deflected off of Anderson and past Mazanec.
The Wolf Pack got Mazanec to the bench for an extra attacker with over two minutes left and had some good chances to tie the game again, but Johnson held strong, and Sharangovich scored his first North American pro goal with 21.7 seconds left for the final margin.
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