VERSUS 
Thursday night the Connecticut Whale returned to the playoffs after a one year absence, the first in the team’s history, only to have the first game turn into a microcosm of their entire 2010-2011 season. The Whale didn’t put out a full sixty-minute effort, couldn’t capitalize on their own chances, didn’t get consistent pressure in the offensive zone and penalties from a lack of discipline led to their dropping the first game of the Best-of-Seven series with the Portland Pirates 3-2 in front of 2,171 at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
The Whale have been an up-and-down team all year, looking brilliant at times and outright lost at others. This game was no different.
Just 52 seconds into the game, T.J. Brennan took a slashing call giving the Whale an early power play. However, the first power play unit was completely ineffective and didn’t generate much of anything. The second unit came on and did a bit better, but the power play, which was 5-for-32 (15.6%) against the division winning Pirates went for naught.
Dov Grumet-Morris (0-1-0, 20 saves), once again bailed out the defensive mistakes of his teammates putting a stone wall up to deny both Mark Voakes and Igor Gongalsky in front of the net both within the first five minutes.
And that’s when the trouble started.
The Whale killed off Kris Newbury’s tripping call at 7:28 and 4:30 minutes later, Derek Couture was over zealous in front of the Pirates net and skated into David Leggio (1-0-0, 23 saves) in the crease putting the Whale shorthanded for a second time.
Jared Nightingale attempted to clear the puck from the left corner, but Paul Byron made a great play to keep it in the zone. He sent the puck to defenseman Dennis Persson. The Pirate defenseman, to Grumet-Morris’ left, put it on net. Persson fed the puck to the left side of the crease where the AHL’s Rookie-of-the-Year, Luke Adam, jammed it in under Grumet-Morris’ pad.
“(Paul Byron) made a great play down there trying to pass it to me, and I was trying to stuff it,” Adam said to reporters afterwards. “It hit the post and it squeaked in.”
That was just the start of the Whale brain freeze. It came at 13:47.
58 seconds later another mental lapse and sloppy play with the puck doubled the Whale deficit.
In the neutral zone, Mark Voakes stole the puck and broke in on a 2-on-1 with Corey Tropp who promptly ripped a high shot from the right circle over Grumet-Morris’ blocker side shoulder.
For Voakes, it was the first of two helpers in the game.
Voakes joined the Pirates late in the season after spending the better part of the year in the ECHL. The St. Thomas, Ontario native started his season with the Whale in training camp before he was sent to the team’s ECHL affiliate, the Greenville Road Warriors where he was a teammate of Whale rookie defenseman Blake Parlett.
At 15:08, just 23 seconds after Adam’s goal, Jeremy Williams let his emotions get the better of him and received a slashing call
“Little mistakes aren’t going to be little mistakes,” Whale head coach Ken Gernander said to reporters after the game. “They manifest themselves into big plays throughout the course of the game.
That was certainly the case as left winger Colin Stuart took a pass from Nick Crawford in the left face-off circle and blasted a high shot past Grumet-Morris completing a trifecta of goals all in a span of 2:53.
“We compounded some of our problems by taking some penalties,” Gernander said “When things aren’t going your way, you definitely don’t want to be playing shorthanded. We definitely let them get too much momentum too soon and put ourselves in our own hole.”
The Whale, much like they’ve done all season, came out in the second period and fought back to get into the game.
Just 27 seconds into the period, Newbury had the puck behind the Pirate net and found Brodie Dupont in front. Leggio rose to the occasion and stopped the Whale left winger to maintain the two-goal lead.
Shortly thereafter, after Dale Weise was carrying the puck and knocked down hard, an odd man rush went back the other way and Gongalsky broke between Parlett and his linemate, Pavel Valentenko and came in on Grumet-Morris all alone. The Whale netminder, who was a bit scrambly in the first, rose up to deny the break-in attempt and stop what could have been the backbreaker.
After John Mitchell was denied off a left side rush just over four minutes into the period, the Whale finally found a way to solve Leggio.
Francis Lemieux made a great pass from the left corner in front to the pinching Parlett. The Whale defenseman made a nifty move coming from the right side of the crease to the left and put a nice backhander between Leggio and the left post to make it a two-goal deficit.
The Whale were much stronger in the second period and outshot the Pirates 9-3 in the frame and both teams had 16 each as they went to the third period.
In the third, the Whale wasted no time in pressing for another goal and in the first 30 seconds, Evgeny Grachev had a wide open look from in front of the net, but his shot sailed over the top of the net.
Grachev had another chance for the Whale with Weise in the box on a hooking call. A turnover led to Grachev and John Mitchell rushing up the ice 2-on-1 shorthanded, but the second year Russian forward was stopped easily by Leggio.
After Adam and Matt Ellis had golden opportunities to put the game out of reach, Grumet-Morris gave his team a chance as he has done so well over the second half of a season to earn the team MVP award with his 13-5-1 record matched with a .923% and a 2.12GAA, by keeping the puck out of the net.
With 6:57 to go in regulation, Grachev fell as he was attempting a wraparound shot coming left to right on Leggio. The puck slid up the crease to the hash marks where it was rudely treated by Weise who ripped it past Leggio to make it a one-goal game.
The Whale pressed hard for the equalizer, even after Grumet-Morris was pulled with 35 seconds left, but just could not get it past the Pirate netminder.
“We got ourselves back into the game. We’ll focus on that tomorrow as more along the lines of how we have to play these next 60 minutes, and we’ll build from there,” said Gernander
The two teams meet again on Saturday evening in Portland before the venue changes to Hartford for games three and four on Sunday (6pm) and Tuesday night (7pm).
Brian Ring has the short story for the New York Rangers’ top farm team at CTWhale.com. Paul Betit leads the cheering second for the Pirates at PressHerald.com.
GAME SUMMARY and OFFICIAL SCORERS SHEET
NOTES:
* The Whale finished the season 12th in the AHL in attendance averaging 5,695.
* For the season, the Whale finished 10th on the PP (19.3%) and 14th on the PK (82.4%)
* Kris Newbury won the team’s scoring title at 61 points (17g, 44a) in 69 games. Jeremy Williams led the team in goals with 32.
* The Whale lost six of their last eight prior to Thursday’s game and including game one have now lost three straight.
LINES:
Dupont – Newbury – Weise
Grachev – Mitchell – Couture
Grant – Lemieux – Williams
Soryal – Garlock – Tessier
Redden – Nightingale
Valentenko – Parlett
Bickel – Kundratek
Grumet-Morris
Talbot
(Assistant Captains Bold and Italicized)
SCRATCHES:
Todd White – Concussion – Season
Devin DiDiomete – Hip – Season
Chad Kolarik – Hamstring – Day-to-Day
Michael Del Zotto – Broken Finger – Day-to-Day
Carl Hagelin – Healthy Scratch
Dylan McIlrath – Healthy Scratch
Jason Missiaen – Healthy Scratch
Kale Kerbashian – Healthy Scratch
Andrew Yogan – Healthy Scratch
Shayne Wiebe – Healthy Scratch
Jyri Niemi – Healthy Scratch
THREE STARS:
1. POR – C. Stuart
2. POR – L. Adam
3. POR – M. Voakes
ON ICE OFFICIALS:
Referee:
Chris Brown (86)
Terry Koharski (10)
Linesmen:
Landon Bathe (80)
Jeremy Lovett (78)
NEXT GAME:
The Whale needs to get a win Saturday night in Game Two against the Pirates in Portland. The puck drops at 7pm with Bob Crawford handling the play-by-play. Pregame a half an hour before game time.
To watch the game live, you can purchased it for $9.99 at AHL-live.
For Ticket information for all home games, call (860) 548-2000.
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SCORE-SHEET:
Connecticut Whale 2 at Portland Pirates 3 – Status: Final
Thursday, April 14, 2011 – Cumberland County Civic Center
Connecticut 0 1 1 – 2
Portland 3 0 0 – 3
1st Period-1, Portland, Adam 1 (Byron, Brennan), 13:47 (PP). 2, Portland, Tropp 1 (Voakes), 14:45. 3, Portland, Stuart 1 (Crawford, Voakes), 16:40 (PP). Penalties-Brennan Por (slashing), 0:52; Newbury Ct (tripping), 7:28; Couture Ct (goaltender interference), 12:05; Williams Ct (slashing), 15:08.
2nd Period-4, Connecticut, Parlett 1 (Lemieux, Grant), 5:13. Penalties-Adam Por (slashing), 7:03; Valentenko Ct (interference), 10:05; Whitmore Por (tripping), 16:07.
3rd Period-5, Connecticut, Weise 1 (Grachev, Redden), 13:03. Penalties-Turnbull Por (holding), 3:30; Weise Ct (elbowing), 7:31.
Shots on Goal-Connecticut 7-9-9-25. Portland 13-3-7-23.
Power Play Opportunities-Connecticut 0 / 4; Portland 2 / 5.
Goalies-Connecticut, Grumet-Morris 0-1-0 (23 shots-20 saves). Portland, Leggio 1-0-0 (25 shots-23 saves).
A-2,171
Referees-Chris Brown (86), Terry Koharski (10).
Linesmen-Landon Bathe (80), Jeremy Lovett (78).
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