SPECIAL TEAMS COST WHALE STANDINGS POINT

       VERSUS     

(We apologize as we’re unavailable for our normal direct CTWhale coverage for the next couple of games due to scheduling conflicts…)

BY: Brian Ring

The Connecticut Whale were defeated by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, 4-3 in overtime, Sunday afternoon at the Webster Bank Arena. Matt Donovan scored the game-winning goal for Bridgeport with two seconds left in overtime with the Sound Tigers on the power-play.

Andre Deveaux, Mike Vernace and Tommy Grant each scored for Connecticut.

“It’s obviously getting a little redundant, pretty frustrating to come in after games and say your margin of error is going to be so slim and they’re going to be one-goal games, you’ve got to do a little better job securing the puck,” said Whale head coach Ken Gernander.

WHALE BRUIN TROUBLE

      VERSUS     

(We apologize as we’re unavailable for our normal direct CTWhale coverage for the next couple of games due to scheduling conflicts…)

BY:  Brian Ring

The Connecticut Whale were defeated by the Providence Bruins, 3-2, Saturday night at the XL Center before a crowd of 5,794. Craig Cunningham had a goal and an assist and Josh Hennessy had two assists to lead the Bruins in scoring, with Zach Trotman providing the game-winner.

Jonathan Audy-Marchessault and Kris Newbury both scored and had an assist for Connecticut, which lost its fourth straight game to the Bruins.

DESPERATE PIRATES FILET WHALE

      VERSUS     

BY: Bruce Berlet

The Portland Pirates, involved in a wild, multi-team chase for the final Eastern Conference playoff spots, parlayed goals from four different players and 29 saves from Peter Mannino into a 4-1 victory Friday over the Whale at the XL Center.

“If there was a loose-puck race, more times than not, they came up with it,” Whale head coach Ken Gernander said. “I thought we had some poor decisions where we turned pucks over and paid the price. A couple of times we go to check, they move the puck and we don’t maintain our defensive position and allow them to get the rebound.”

The victory moved the Pirates (30-28-3-4) into a tie for 10^th place with Worcester and Albany with 67 points, one behind Syracuse and Springfield, which each won Friday night and share the eighth and final playoff berth. Meanwhile, the Whale (33-22-5-5) saw their lead in the Northeast Division sliced to three points over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, who lost 3-2 in a shootout at Springfield. The Whale had been 14-5-1-0 in their previous 20 games and were an AHL-best 19-6-2-4 at home, including the three wins over the Pirates.

REDEMPTION

      VERSUS    

(I feel like I need to apologize to the readers of Howlings. I haven’t written my normal stories for the games on Friday and last night. This is as some of you may or may not know, started as a hobby for me but has progressed to the point where it has become a non-paying — and actually I pay quite a bit of money for all of it — part-time job. Well the job that does pay me, my employment agency Crossroads Consulting, has had an explosion of business the past three days and frankly it was difficult to find the time to even get to the games at all. I am also having incredible computer problems that are messing up both “jobs” so I haven’t had the time to dedicate to this as I should. So for that I apologize. We’ll get it right again this coming week…once again, I apologize.)

BY: Bruce Berlet

After being shut out by the Springfield Falcons at home for the first time in 15 seasons on Saturday night, Connecticut Whale coach Ken Gernander almost completely shuffled his deck Sunday afternoon.

Gernander changed all four lines, two of the three defensive pairings and started Cam Talbot in goal for the first time in 11 games since Feb. 19.

THE ROAD AHEAD

      VERSUS   

The Connecticut Whale currently sit in the third position in the AHL standings. How they’re doing that is a testament to the character of this team, because based upon the way they played at the XL Center Saturday night in a 3-0 loss to the Springfield Falcons, a team fighting just to make it into the post-season, you’d have thought it was the other way around.

“We didn’t give much, I thought and that’s disappointing.  We never really got anything going,” team captain Wade Redden said in his post game assessment. “We had a couple power plays in the first (period) that we didn’t do anything on, didn’t get a spark.

“You guard against (emotional let downs)…it just seemed like we were flat. We had a big win (Friday) night, we just weren’t making plays. We were just a little slower to pucks than them. They just played harder than us…We just put this behind us and get ready for tomorrow.”

TWO POINTS ARE TWO POINTS

      VERSUS     

The Connecticut Whale should be happy they came away with the two points they got for the 5-3 win Sunday afternoon in Manchester when they faced the Monarchs at the Verizon Wireless Arena, because they certainly weren’t going to be getting any style points – if there was such a thing.

“It’s going to be a grind, with a short night and travel last night,”  Whale head coach Ken Gernander told Brian Ring afterwards. “But the guys stuck with  it, got a big goal by Casey [Wellman], and we were able to get our two points.”

CLASH OF THE TITANS

      VERSUS      

It doesn’t get more exciting than that!

The Connecticut Whale came from behind three separate times capped by Kris Newbury’s goal off a fluke bounce with 4.9 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime and then after a thrilling extended period went three-for-three in the shootout defeating their franchise and intra-state rivals, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in front of a crowd of 3,245 at the XL Center Friday night.

The win also pulled the Whale within one point the Sound Tigers for first place in the division.

SPOTLIGHT: “PAPA” REDDEN, THE CAPTAIN

BY: Bruce Berlet

When the Connecticut Whale gathered for a team meal Saturday night in Manchester, N.H., coach Ken Gernander had a surprise, especially for veteran defenseman Wade Redden.

After the Whale had been without a captain for nearly 16 months, Gernander announced he and assistants J.J. Daigneault and Pat Boller had decided the man affectionately known as “Papa” would be wearing the “C” for the first time in his illustrious career. Redden had been an assistant captain several times, including since he arrived in Hartford last season, but never was the official leader of the pack.

CLEAR DAY LIST IS PUBLIC

Here is your CTWhale clear day list.

This is the team that the Whale management gives them the best chance to win the rest of the way and to compete in the Calder Cup playoffs.

No real surprises but one question answered and that is that Sean Avery will NOT be playing for the Whale for the rest of the season. For whatever reason, and neither he nor the team have gone public with the reason why, but Avery has just not availed himself to be a part of this group and therefore won’t be playing with the Whale.

The interesting question that DOES come of this, is surrounding Avery’s future, as in, “Does he even have one in the NHL going forward?” That question will get answered this coming summer when Avery becomes an unrestricted free agent.

WHALE WEEKLY: March 5 – 11, 2012

BY: Bob Crawford, Voice of the CTWhale

The Whale won two out of three games this past week, starting with a thrilling 2-1 shootout win over the Worcester Sharks Tuesday at the XL Center. The Whale would see a third-period lead slip away Friday, as they lost, 3-2, in Portland, but Connecticut would recover with a rousing 3-2 road victory over the Manchester Monarchs on Sunday afternoon. Wade Redden would score his first goal of the year in Friday’s contest, and Saturday he was named the sixth captain in franchise history. Kris Newbury would crack the 20-goal barrier with his score on Sunday, reaching that mark for the second time in his AHL career.

This week:

The Whale face a tough three-games-in-three-days run against teams in the Eastern Conference playoff hunt, beginning with a GEICO Connecticut Cup contest vs. the Bridgeport Sound Tigers Friday night at the XL Center (7:00 PM faceoff). The conference-leading Norfolk Admirals come to town on Saturday on Connecticut Hockey Hall of Fame night (7:00), before the Whale finishes out the weekend with another road tilt with the Manchester Monarchs on Sunday (3:00).