HARTFORD, Conn. – There were no John Wayne heroics or SportsCenter Top 10-worthy plays for the Connecticut Whale Saturday night at the XL Center.
Instead, “Howe Family Night” resembled Fight Night as the Whale and Bridgeport Sound Tigers engaged in five rounds of fisticuffs, all in the first 28 minutes.
After a solid start that helped produce an early lead, the Whale took a series of bad penalties that led to three Sound Tigers power-play goals in a 5-1 victory before 9,276 who celebrated the appearance of “Mr. Hockey” and his two hockey-playing sons, Mark and Marty.
The Sound Tigers (25-36-4-7) wiped out their early deficit on power-play goals by David Ullstrom and Jeremy Colliton 70 seconds apart midway through the first period as they extended their points streak to seven games (4-0-1-2) after a 3-22-2-3 slide to start 2011 that dropped them into the Atlantic Division cellar with the AHL’s worst record. They also won 5-1 Friday night at division-leading Portland.
Meanwhile, the Whale (38-27-2-6) had a five-game winning streak ended, though they got some unexpected help from the Springfield Falcons, who beat the host Worcester Sharks 7-2 to end a 0-11-1-0 slide since Feb. 27. The Whale, who had won 10 of 12 games, remained six points ahead of the Sharks (33-28-4-8) in the battle for the third and final guaranteed playoff berth in the Atlantic Division.
But the Whale fell one point behind Binghamton (39-27-3-4), which beat visiting Providence 4-1 and is fifth in the East Division in the fight for a possible crossover playoff berth. The crossover rule says the top four teams in the East Division and the top three in the Atlantic Division qualify for the playoffs, and the conference’s eighth and final spot will go to whichever has more points between the East’s fifth-place team and the Atlantic’s fourth-place club.
Things started well for the Whale when Derek Couture scored on a rebound at 6:57 after Jeremy Colliton’s clearing attempt went off Blake Parlett and Kelsey Tessier. The Whale nearly made it 2-0 on Brodie Dupont’s one-timer at 8:12, but Devin DiDiomete, back after missing two games with an injury, then turned the tide for the Sound Tigers when he received a five-minute major for boarding on Phil Ginand at 9:04. That led to the game’s first fight between the Whale’s Justin Soryal and Tigers’ Benn Olson, with DiDiomete getting an extra minor for roughing and being benched.
“One of the few things that we addressed in the meeting before the game is they have a good power play and don’t want to give them unnecessary opportunities,” said Whale head coach Ken Gernander. “I tried to commend for the games we beat Charlotte and Manchester where we had one penalty kill in each of them. So it was most certainly addressed, and for the most part I thought the penalties were pretty selfish. They had no bearing on the play.
“It’s a fickle game, and you can’t take shortcuts, can’t cheat in any aspect of the game and think you’re going to get away with it for extended period of time. So if you can’t be disciplined, you’re going to take penalties against a good power play and put yourself behind the eight-ball.”
The Whale lost Couture at 7:43 of the second period when he was injured in a fight with Art Bidlevskii, so they played short for more than 32 minutes.
What irked Gernander most is he was even considering finding other players after the Whale climbed back into playoff position with more disciplined play.
“Why look to all these external players when we were playing well here,” Gernander said. “The fact of the matter is we made decisions that took us out of the game. We would use other guys if they were available, but I don’t think we have to go and search and grasp at straws to find enough players to win games. There are enough players here to win games, but you have to play our style of hockey, be disciplined and outwork your opponent. A lot of it is the guys’ hands as far as how they respond tomorrow (at Providence).
“We won five in a row, but you obviously have to get your message across because if it doesn’t work in the regular season, it won’t work in the playoffs either. And with Worcester losing and Binghamton winning, it’s a big two points lost. But we’re not looking for outside help. We should be able to take matters into our own hands, play our best hockey and take control of our destiny, but not the way we played tonight.”
The Sound Tigers took advantage of the Whale’s early penalties to score the two quick goals for a lead they never relinquished. On a 4-on-3 power play, Ullstrom took a pass from Mark Katic in the left corner, maneuvered around Pavel Valentenko and beat Cam Talbot to the glove side at 10:27. Then on a 5-on-3 man advantage, Ullstrom got the puck in front to a wide-open Jeremy Colliton for a quick finish at 11:37.
Soryal and Olson had their personal Round 2 with 1:38 left in the period, and then Kris Newbury scored a takedown on former Hartford Wolf Pack defenseman Dylan Reese during their fight with 57 seconds to go.
The Sound Tigers made it 3-1 at 4:55 of the second period as Joe Pereira passed to the left corner to Rob Hisey, who maneuvered around Valentenko and Tessier and slipped the puck past Talbot.
After Couture’s battle with Bidlevskii, the Whale’s Jared Nightingale fought Brian Day at 8:05. The Whale then had an opportunity to get back in the game when Valentenko was bloodied when high-sticked by Tony Romano at 12:58. But Jeremy Williams took a holding penalty at 13:20 and Grachev a hooking penalty a minute later.
The Whale’s Tomas Kundratek thought he scored with 3:06 left, but referee Chris Brown ruled the puck didn’t cross the goal line. After Talbot stopped Romano’s partial breakaway with 2:51 to go, the Sound Tigers made it 4-1 as Colliton whiffed on Hisey’s pass from the right corner, but the puck went to Aaron Ness, who beat Talbot to the glove side with 16.3 seconds left.
It went to 5-1 at 6:26 of the third period as Day passed to Hisey, who got position on Nightingale and beat Talbot high to the glove side.
The teams then played out the final 131/2 minutes, with Hisey firing high and wide on his bid for a hat trick off a 2-on-1 with 28 seconds left. The Whale fell to 5-2-0-1 in the GEICO Connecticut Cup against their intrastate rival, who were 3-for-8 on the power play.
“It just felt like we didn’t have a whole lot of jump, and then we took some penalties that maybe we shouldn’t have taken,” Newbury said. “So we put ourselves behind the eight-ball early, ran out of gas and didn’t have anything left.
“I thought our emotion level before the game was really good, but they played us pretty good in the first period. They didn’t give us a lot of room in the offensive zone to make plays so give them some credit. But we know we can be a lot better, so that’s the good news coming out of the game. We just have to find a way to be more disciplined and stay more focused in the game. The good thing is we can put it behind us real quick and get after it again tomorrow afternoon.”
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