NEW PENALTY SUGGESTION..."REFEREE INTERFERENCE"

All sports should be about the players and the competition between them. Apparently AHL referee Shaun Davis doesn't feel that way. Davis called 8 penalties in the first period (4 to each team), was apparently winded in the second when he only able to call two (both to Providence) and then regained his wind to whistle 11 more penalties in the 3rd (to be fair 2 of the calls were multiple calls to the same players) including a call to negate an obvious Wolf Pack power play goal. Later he must have been admiring the scenery or perhaps had an after-game appointment he needed to rush out to get to when he allowed Wolf Pack Goalie, Chris Holt (5-3-0 2.48 GAA .903%) to get run by Providence Bruin Left Wing Chris Collins. The hit on Holt's knees left him unable to continue and in obvious pain. Other than that he had a quiet night. By the way, there was a game played between two teams contending for first place in the Atlantic Division which the Providence Bruins (12-2-1-0) won 3-2 in front of 2,931 over the Wolf Pack (11-7-0-1). The loss dropped the Wolf Pack to third place 1 point behind the Springfield Falcons (10-5-1-3) and 2 behind Providence who also have 4 games in hand on both squads.

For the Wolf Pack coming in were two major story-lines; the health of number one goalie, Al Montoya, (5-4-1 2.54 GAA, .091%) who's back injury has flared up again and the affect of Nigel Dawes return to the team from the NY Rangers. Montoya was unable to go and that necessitated the call-up of Miika Wiikman, (with ECHL Charlotte 1-1-0-2, 2.36 GAA .922%) who arrived at the arena during warm-ups and came to the bench midway through the first period. The second story, Nigel Dawes, wasn't a story at all as apart from a first shift steal and missed shot, was virtually invisible the entire game.

The first period was almost entirely played by the special teams and there was no flow to the game with Davis' constant whistle interruptions on mostly marginal calls while bigger penalties were left uncalled the affect of which leads to tempers flaring which would boil over in the third period.

The Bruins got on the board first when at 17:26 when defensemen Matt Lashoff fed fellow Bruin T.J. Trevelyan with a nice pass that led to a break-in. Trevelyan then beat rookie Michael Sauer and got off a shot the rebound of which landed right in the lap of recently returned from Boston, Center David Krejci who beat Holt giving the Bruins the lead 1-0. When the period came to a close the Baby Bruins had out shot the Pack 10-6.

It didn't take the Bruins long into the second period to get on the board again as Brett Skinner found Matt Hendricks, who would later be named the games' first star, who went around Pack forward, Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau, and fire a shot on goal. Holt made the initial stop but the rebound to the left post found Byron Bitz who was all alone and had no problem putting it home giving the visitors their 2-0 advantage.

At 6:40 Hugh Jessiman's shot hit iron and with the Pack having a 27 second 5 on 3 advantage at 9:30 they were only able to get off a flubbed shot by Dawes and another in a scramble that missed the net entirely. At 10:30 while still on the man-advantage, Andrew Hutchinson bobbled a pass at the left point which was then taken in one-on-one on Holt who made a huge leg save on Martins Karsums keeping the game within reach.

At 14:50 Mike Ouellette found Brodie Dupont, who's game has improved immensely over the last several weeks, who fired a shot which rebounded to Parenteau, who has also been finding his way onto the score sheet a lot lately, who fired the shot past Providence goalie, rookie Mike Brown (3-0-0-0 2.29 GAA .900%) who had no chance on it.

The period ended with the score 2-1 and the Bruins with a 23-19 advantage in shots on goal.

David was the entire story of the third period. With hard and cheap shots all over the ice going unchecked, at 1:03 Dupont lost his composure and severely boarded Adam McQuaid with a hit from behind that drove McQuaid face first into the glass. McQuaid took several minutes before fortunately he was able to get to his feet and be helped from the ice. The hit by Dupont is sure to draw some sort of a suspension. Immediately after the hit Pascal Pelletier charged into Dupont and the two had a lengthy fight that moved all over the ice and lasted what seemed to be an unusually long time. Pelletier was issued 2 minutes for instigating, 5 for fighting and a 10 minute misconduct for the instigation. Dupont was given a 5 minute major for the boarding of McQuaid as well as a 5 minute fighting major and then a 10 minute game misconduct for the boarding incident. This was a very brutal hit from behind that was reminiscent of the one that may well have ended the career of rising Bruin star Patrice Bergeron. The league cannot tolerate this type of hit no matter what team the player represents.

28 seconds after things settled down, Holt gave up what would be the game deciding goal on what might have been the softest goal of the season. An outlet pass by Jonathan Sigalet was sent to Hendricks who then turned and fed Jeff Hoggan who took Hutchinson wide of the left circle fired a soft shot on goal from the bad angle and was initially stopped by Holt between the pads but somehow the puck squirted out from between his legs and rolled into the net giving the Bruins a commanding 3-1 lead.

Holt made a couple of strong saves on Trevelyan on the doorstep when he was 1 on 1 keeping the Pack within a reasonable deficit. 6 minutes later, Jessiman would get another shot at Brown only this one found steel instead of netting.

The play that changed the entire complexion of the game and ruined the Pack's chance at redemption came at 8:27. While on a power play for a Sigalet tripping call, Thomas Pock lateraled a pass to Andrew Hutchinson on the right point. Hutchison unloaded a missile on Brown that Dane Byers screened him on and it found the back of the net. BUT WAIT, according to Davis, Byers had interfered with brown, who replays would show was way out of his crease and didn't get interfered with at all. What would have left the Pack with momentum and trailing by a single goal, left them down two and negated the power play and totally shifted the momentum back to the visiting squad.

What made matters far worse would come at 12:35 when Collins came down right wing and turned in around Pack D-Man Jake Taylor and crashed into Holt knee on knee. Replays showed Holt's knee buckle inward which is a VERY bad sign and could be serious. Despite a crazed reaction by the Pack bench, Davis not only did nothing but ended up rewarding Providence with a power play when Jake Taylor jumped in to defend his fallen goalie with an Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty in addition to the matching roughing penalties to he and Collins. This injury required a goalie switch to the very cold, Wiikman who fortunately only had to make one save the rest of the way.

With Wiikman pulled for an extra attacker, at 19:33 with what should have been the game tying goal, a pass from the circling Jessiman to Hutchinson on the right point ripped through the mass of bodies in front of Brown and found Parenteau who put it home for the 3-2 score. With 8 seconds left in the contest a deflection by Pock went off the post and the Wolf Pack had lost for the 5th consecutive time at home (including last years' play-offs) and broke their winning streak of 4 in a row and 6 of 7.

The Pack finished the game out shot 32-28 but it was a matter of "referee interference" that was clearly the story in the Civic Center Wednesday night.

The three Stars of the game were:

1) Hendricks
2) Parenteau
3) Brown

The Wolf Pack lines were:
Korpikoski - Murphy (who had an exceptionally strong game) - Byers with Potter & Constant
Dupont - Parenteau - Anisimov with Sauer & Hutchinson
Dawes - Jessiman - Ouellette with Pock and Taylor
Lee - Graham

Scratches, all from injuries:
Montoya - Back
Liffiton - Concussion
Bourret - Concussion
Fritz -Shoulder Surgery
Lessard - Knee (A rumor was floating that his knee injury will require season ending surgery...that has NOT been confirmed as of yet)
Pyatt - High Ankle Sprain

Congratulations to Ivan Baranka who in his first game in the NHL received his first NHL point on what turned out to be the game winning goal against Tampa Bay. Greg Moore did not get on the scorer's sheet but had a strong showing.

Funny Line of the season has to go to CRN reporter, Gerry Cantalon who remarked that it was so cold in the building that "the Civic Center is the only arena in the league that has a wind chill factor..."

Find Bruce Berlet's recap at The Hartford Courant. From the Providence point of view you'll find Mike Trocchi's "game report" (what game he was watching is anyone's guess) for the Providence Jounal. Bob Crawford has the game report. Stats from the boxscore and the official scorer's sheet.

The Wolf Pack's next game comes Friday night as they visit Bridgeport to take on the Sound Tigers. A preview will be posted later...

PERSONAL NOTE:

I have a great deal to be thankful for. I have a wonderful family, good friends and you for supporting this site with your time reading this and for your outstanding comments and observations.

From me and my family to you and yours, may you have much to give thanks for this the official start of the holiday season.

Here's a bit of sick, but funny humor for your Thanksgiving holiday...

(Thomas Pock & Shaun Davis, Brodie Dupont & Pascal Pelletier photos courtesy of Chris Rutsch and HartfordWolfPack.com, Sesame Street photo courtesy of xanga.com, Blind Farmer photo courtesy of bigoo.ws, Trial photo courtesy of faculty.winthrop.edu

Comments

[laurie]

On the totally unsubstantiated rumor front, I read somewhere this morning that Holt will be out 4-6 weeks with a knee injury. Guess we'll have to wait and see what Bruce Berlett is able to find out.

Crawford mentioned the pre-game show last night that Pyatt skated hard yesterday morning, and isn't far off and should return soon, which is good news.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

[Mitch Beck]

Holt will be out for a while. It was a pretty nasty hit. Pyatt is skating pretty hard and I'm hearing he's day to day and is still about a week away.