The Connecticut Whale continued to
ride the wave up the standings with Wednesday night’s 2-1 victory over the
Portland Pirates. The Whale is now a
superb 8-1-0-1 in their last 10 and 10-1-0-1 in the 12 games since the name
change and those marks have moved the Whale into third place in the Atlantic
Division only 1 point behind the Pirates for second. One of the biggest keys for the Whale
resurgence has been that on any given night a different guy could be the hero
and on this night former Portland Pirate Tim Kennedy was that hero. Just 36 seconds into overtime Kennedy would
patiently hold the puck at the right faceoff circle looking for and faking
multiple passes before finally firing the shot that would beat Pirate’s
netminder Jhonas Enroth to the short side high.
The shot had beautiful placement on it, but if not for the patience and
fake passes Enroth probably has a better chance to square up the shot and
possibly save it.
For Kennedy beating his old club has
to add a little something to what has been a tough few months for the 24 year
old who two seasons ago with Portland was on the AHL all-rookie team and led
all first year players with 67 points and 49 helpers. Kennedy would go to the big club, Buffalo
Sabres the following season and have a decent rookie season in which he posted
10 goals and 16 assists in 78 games. All
seemed to be heading in the right direction but then Buffalo walked away from
Kennedy’s arbitration award. Trying to
stay in the NHL Kennedy would sign with the New York Rangers but fail to make
the club and end up back in the AHL this season. Kennedy has had some ups and downs this
season for the Whale but has gotten his game going of late with 1G and 3
assists in the last three contests including the game winner on this night.
As for the rest of the game the first period had no offense
to speak of and as the highlights show the only real entertainment was a huge
hit by Dale Weise in his own zone and then in the two fights that happened
literally within five seconds of each other.
Brodie Dupont took on Tim Conboy and Conboy was in charge early in the
fight, but Dupont would land the biggest punch of the fight to even it out by
the end. In the other fight Justin
Soryal and Dennis McCauley would square off and while McCauley got in some good
shots of his own I think Soryal won the fight overall, but a very good scrap.
While the first had little offense, the second had its share
of chances and if not for strong goaltending by both Chad Johnson and Jhonas
Enroth goals would have come. The best chances
stopped by Johnson were from Derek Whitmore who was left alone in front for a
one-timer on a play from behind the net which Johnson would stop. Then again while the Whale were on the power
play Weise would try a backhand pass to Wade Redden at the point but it would
be Whitmore streaking the other way on a breakaway Johnson would stone with the
pad as Whitmore tried a wrist shot low stick side.
Early in the third while on a 5-on-3 power play it would be
Enroth’s turn to make some big saves as he would stop the initial shot from
Jeremy Williams and then stone Tim Kennedy’s rebound attempt and then Kennedy
would attempt to slide it across the crease to Dale Weise but it would not
connect.
The scoreless tie was finally ended when Ryan McDonagh made
a very smart play at the point when he held the Pirate’s attempted clear in the
zone. McDonagh instead of just playing
the puck to keep it in fired it at the net and with Portland looking to break
out it left three Whale players in front with only one Pirate defender and
Kelsey Tessier would be the beneficiary as he would collect the rebound and
have an open net to shoot at. The Whale
took the lead 1-0 4:58 into the final period.
That lead would be short lived
however as just 1:11 later after Portland barely maintained the zone Colin Stuart
would feed Paul Byron at the top of the left wing circle and he would wind and
fire one by Johnson to make it 1-1.
Following the goal the Whale would
have a few more chances lead by Evgeny Grachev taking a feed from Williams at
the left side faceoff circle and firing a shot that beat Enroth but would then
he the crossbar and stay out. Finally the
Whale would have a power play late in regulation, which would be the same one
Kennedy scored on early in OT, but Chad Kolarik would be denied by Enroth in
the waning seconds.
As most of you know following the
game the Rangers called up Dale
Weise from the Whale and also that the Whale
will be getting Todd White in time for their weekend games. It will be interesting to see how Gernander
handles the lines with Zuccarello and Weise both in New York and where he
incorporates White’s veteran presence in the lineup.
