Defenseman Darren Raddysh scored his first goal of the season 2:25 into overtime Sunday at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, CT, as the Wolf Pack beat the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 2-1, for a sweep of a home-and-home series between the two teams.
The Wolf Pack won the front end of the set Saturday night at the XL Center, 4-1.
On the winning play Sunday, Danny O’Regan and Matt Beleskey combined to battle the puck out of the left-wing corner in the Bridgeport zone, and Beleskey passed across the middle. Raddysh, who had come off the bench on a player change, charged down the right side of the slot to pick up the feed, and fired a shot past Bridgeport goaltender Jared Coreau (28 saves) on the glove side.
“I think we’ve been doing a heck of a job winning battles,” Wolf Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch said, “and the OT winner came on a puck that was up for grabs, and probably was in their favor to come out with it. But we persevered and ended up stealing it, and Raddysh found the open ice and snuck in behind.”
The win improved the Wolf Pack’s record on the season to 8-0-0-1, and four of the wins have been in overtime, including three in the last four games.
“We’ve had a lot of success in the 3-on-3, and I think it’s probably because we have so many guys,” said Knoblauch. “It’s not just one or two. We’ve got probably five groups that could go out there and be dangerous, and each night it’s been a different set.”
The two teams played nearly 35 scoreless minutes before combining for two goals in less than a minute late in the second period.
The Sound Tigers finally broke the 0-0 tie at 14:40, off of a faceoff. John Stevens won a draw from the Wolf Pack’s Danny O’Regan to the right of Hartford goaltender Igor Shesterkin (29 saves), and the puck came to Grant Hutton at the left point. His shot hit a stick and deflected past Shesterkin on the glove side.
The Wolf Pack equalized only 56 seconds later, though, at 15:36, on Steven Fogarty’s first goal of the year. After the puck was knocked away form David Quenneville deep the Bridgeport zone, Boo Nieves played it to Vinni Lettieri, whose pass found Fogarty’s stick to the left of Coreau for a tap-in.
After that spurt, the offenses went quiet again, with no further scoring through the rest of regulation. Both teams were playing their third games of the weekend, but Knoblauch was pleased with the quality of play.
“I was really surprised, the first two periods, at how intense it was, back and forth, and I thought both teams put in a really good effort,” he said. “In the third period, you could see the tempo starting to fade, but both teams persevered and made it quite a hockey game.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.