WORCESTER, Mass – The fourth game, as the cliché goes, is the tipping point. Up two to one in games over the Worcester Sharks the Hartford Wolfpack were looking to solidify their standing in the series and try to win it back on home ice.
For 40 minutes or so the Wolfpack and Sharks played like the game was important. Power play chances were at a premium (the Sharks had one all night) and the Wolfpack had only three. Kyle McLaren had scored early in the first period and got the Sharks’ crowd into the game. The slim lead held all the way into the final period, but then the situation would change–drastically.
For 41 minutes the game was tight checking, tense affair and then the house fell on the Wolfpack at 1:23 of the third. Logan Couture picked up his first goal of the series and made the score 2-0.
The six minutes following Couture’s goal were a nightmare for Hartford. The Sharks seemed on a parade to the center ice dot for one face-off after another as they built a 5-0 lead.
TJ Fox iced the game with a so-what marker at 19:13 that seemed to rub salt in the wounded Wolfpack.
Matt Zaba absorbed the loss and made 21 saves on the night. Thomas Greiss picked up the shutout and win in making 30 saves.
It’s time for Hartford to regroup and lick their wounds and figure out what happened to an otherwise series that looking so easy just a few days ago.
Contact lm.davis@prohockeynews.com
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