Hellberg holds back Bruin blitz in tough loss
After 20 years in Hockey the Wolf Pack have put forth an AHL season that is quickly forgettable. They lost last night 3-1 to the Providence Bruins in at least what was a somewhat remarkable game. Magnus Hellberg, who has been up and down from callups to the New York Rangers, held the fort down as well as he could making an astounding 46 saves on 49 shots. Hellberg would actually be awarded the game's First Star.
The Wolf Pack got on the board first about 15 minutes into the first period. Recently new arrival forward Taylor Beck scored his 17th goal of the season and gave the Wolf Pack their one and only lead of the game. That lead would not hold for long as the Bruins battled back to tie the score before the end of the period, just four minutes later.
If you attend Wolf Pack games you've seen this all season, one minute left to play in the period, the puck is in the Wolf Pack zone and before the counter can get to 0:00, the Wolf Pack have given up a last second goal. It happened last night, again. (see video attached)
The Bruins took a commanding shot lead going into the second period. Through two periods the Bruins led in shots 41-13, yet the Wolf Pack were only down 2-1. The Bruins added a third goal with only 8 shots in the third and the Pack ended up losing their 21st game at home this season.
The move on though as always and will play the Bridgeport Sound Tigers tonight at the XL Center. With a handful of games left and the Wolf Pack long eliminated from the playoffs it will be good for fans of this team to look forward to next season.
ONE TIMERS:
If you are a Wolf Pack fan you can see the damage that can be done to an AHL franchise when the parent club trades all their high draft picks. The Wolf Pack are lacking a couple up and coming players.
Have you seen a worse AHL season in Hartford? At this point in the season the same errors are made over and over. No Wolf Pack player appears to cover the net when they are in both their offensive and defensive zone. There are just way too many goals late in periods and they allow way too many rebounds. I don't even think I need to mention how anemic the Wolf Pack power play has been as well.
These are the last few remaining games on the Ice Sheet system that Gordie Howe played on, that Bobby Hull played on, that Wayne Gretzky played on, Mario Lemeiux and the Franchise, Ron Francis. This summer an NHL type ready Ice Sheet system will be installed with a flooring that will be able to hold large cranes for the building of the second concourse, should the XL renovations be approved.
