As promised, I drove to Portland for the games this weekend, met there by my hockey-loving sister-in-law. The game itself was pretty much in line with what you would expect from two defense-first teams, but as the night wore on and the players wore out, the game opened up. The lines weren’t that different from what we saw in the first two games of the series:
Balej – Larose – Wiseman (starting)
Giroux – Dusablon – Cuthbert
Murray – Gernander – Ortmeyer
Lawson – Moore – Weller
Pushor – Tyutin (starting)
Lampman – Nycholat
Paul – Grenier
LaBarbera
Scratches for the game included Filipowicz (shoulder), Andrews (face), Ulmer (shoulder), MacDonald (knee), Osaer (knee), as well as Kinch, Stals, Cullen, Heerema (all healthy).
Just a few minutes into the game, Garth Murray and Portland’s Zinger traded a few blows in the one fightlette of the evening. Garth got the takedown, so the win goes to him, mild as it was.
Portland’s one goal happened when Fedor Tyutin got caught up behind Portland’s net – a common theme in this series, and indeed whenever the Russian protégé takes the ice. The odd man rush began when Cory Larose dove and didn’t get the call at center ice, springing the 3 on 2 rush. Jamie Pushor (equally guilty in wandering) and Cory hurried back, but Portland was able to beat them in a 3 on 2. 28 seconds later, Benoit Dusablon scored from Alexandre Giroux on a wraparound. After that, both goalies slammed the door shut.
At the end of the first period, Lawrence Nycholat and Colin Forbes (yes, former Ranger Colin Forbes), got their sticks tangled up and slashed at each other, bringing in everyone else but the goalies for both teams. As Jed Ortmeyer skated up, Graham Mink grabbed him in a headlock from behind, pulling Jed’s helmet off. Garth Murray immediately came flying into the rescue. As Jed staggered back to his feet, looking around, Garth and Graham were pried apart and the two teams sent to the lockerroom. End result was that Garth, Lawrence, and Jed started the following period in the box. Garth and Lawrence skated up like old hands to the sin bin, while Jed actually managed to look embarrassed at having to join them there.
In the second period the hitting picked up even more, featuring a Richard Scott style hit from Bryce Lampman as he charged across the blueline at full speed to slam a Pirate into a board. Jamie Pushor also doled out several monster hits, unfortunately not all in our zone. I don’t really mind forechecking from our defensemen, but I do expect that they will hurry back to cover if we lose control of the puck and a rush in the opposite direction is generated.
Grenier also treated us to an asinine penalty as he inexplicably elbowed Emminger in the head away from the play. Then he did an excellent job of riding the player away from the slot on a breakaway, and even delivered the hit of the game as he caught Podkonicky with his head down along the boards and threw him backwards though the air. Shortly after that, he put his stick in the path of a shot on net, causing it to change direction and require Jason to juggle it frantically before tackling it to the ice. I’m not sure what to think of Grenier – he’s kind of like Dale. Right idea, wrong time for the most part. He likes to hurt people, which is good, but he’s a horrific skater and doesn’t choose his moments well to decide to kill someone. Eh, if New York wants a second chance to make Dale into an NHLer, then Grenier would be a suitable project. Just start with the skating lessons, please.
Our other defensemen leave me baffled at times as well. Jeff Paul and Martin Grenier is hardly an inspired pairing, given that both would prefer to cause bloodshed and tears for the other team over keeping the puck out of their own net. Jeff missed a big check and fell down, requiring Jason to come up with a big save – and then tried to make up for it by coming in with a late hit. Lawrence also fell prey to this, choosing to line up a big hit at open ice instead of playing the puck, allowing a Pirate to break in alone. Benny turned on the jets and made it back in time to tie up the player, preventing him from ever getting a clean shot away.
Jozef Balej was breaking out the moves early on, as he deked a Portland defenseman to the ice and then stepped into a shot that nailed Ouellet in the chest. While lined up for a faceoff near the end of the game, Jozef started jostling with Portland’s Laich for position, to the point where to they had to be separated by the linesman holding the puck. While they were both being lectured, Jozef – staring straight back at the linesman and nodding – slapped Laich in the ass with his stick. Later Jozef got his stick knocked out of his hands and pushed the Portland player back as if he had stolen his truck in the sandbox.
At the beginning of this year, I felt that the one area of Jason LaBarbera’s game that still needed work was his stick handling, particularly away from the crease. During the season, he has become much more confident about playing the puck up to his defensemen or even coming out and challenging opponents chasing a loose puck. What has gotten worse, though, is his rebound control, as he would give up nice juicy ones laying right in the slot, and depend on our skaters to clear them out of danger. In this series, though, it seems that things have reversed – Jason fell down out of the net last night, making it necessary for Bryce to yank a Portland player’s legs out from under him to prevent the empty net goal. On the other hand, it looks as though Jason has learned from watching Steve Valiquette in practice as he was confidently directing rebounds out of danger into the corners.
Our penalty kill has definitely been improved by the addition of Jed Ortmeyer and his total disregard for personal safety. The ability of our centers to cleanly win crucial draws can’t be underestimated as well, and Dominic Moore has stepped up in the absence of Layne Ulmer. He also apparently continues to drive the Pirates nuts, as he earned a huge hit from Graham Mink who returned to the Pirates lineup wearing a full cage on his mask. I assumed that Graham’s return was what prompted Grenier’s replacement of Kinch in the lineup – which doesn’t make a lot of sense, given that Mink couldn’t exactly fight in his little cage. Perhaps he is just comforted by the familiar look of life through bars.
Wolfpack fans like Mink about as much as Pirates fans like Grenier. One in particular seemed to only see Grenier last night, as every time he hit the ice this well-lubricated gentleman would hail him with “the big goooooooon!” This guy, who I was blessed with a seat directly in front of, commented eloquently on Grenier’s skating skills (“he can’t skate!”) his presence on the ice (“he’s just a big goon!”) and his absence on the ice (“play the big gooon!”) I am so thrilled at the prospect of getting several more hours of this tomorrow afternoon.
On the injury report, Portland’s Semin got hit hard by Giroux late in the game along the boards, but I am uncertain whether or not that was the cause of Semin’s absence at the end of the bout with an undetermined rib injury. You never want to wish injury on a player, but having him in the stands would free up a lot of attention for Pack players to lavish on other Pirates. Fedor also laid a big Kaspar special on a Pirate late in the game, and was knocked down awkwardly in response. He limped to the bench, but I don’t know how much he played from there on out because we left.
Yes, we left early. We left after the first overtime because the crowd was getting ugly, the players were exhausted, and we had a two and half hour drive before sleep – after driving four hours up in the afternoon. Apparently there isn’t a last call in the Portland arena, and the crowd got drunker and drunker as the game dragged on. We were never harassed as we wandered the arena in our Wolfpack jerseys, but while we were out walking after regulation, a fight broke out just a few rows behind our seats. I figured that if we won, we’d get mugged, and if we lost, we’d get mugged out of joy. Either way, we left.
And spent the next 30 minutes driving around South Portland, which like all parts of cities that have “South” as a prefix, is the kind of place where you get very excited to see a police car. Unfortunately the Portland Pirates lie when they say that their games can be heard on 95.7 FM and 1440 AM. Instead, those stations featured extensive discussion of the Red Sox games that had completed sometime earlier. I had to call Kubera back in Westchester NY and ask him to turn on his computer to listen to the online broadcast (through the Pack site, thank you very much!) and repeat to me what was happening. He humored me for about a minute, then agreed to call me when the game ended and tell me what happened. I was very pleased when I heard that, once again, Balej had scored.
The drive back to Bangor was mostly uneventful with the regimented stop at the Irving station in Augusta for good food and drink. However, once we were north of there, the deer started to swarm the road. They lined the road like sirens calling to the sailors, and we had to drive even slower and resist the call to drive into the ditch so they could maul our lifeless bodies. I think I saw something like that on the Simpsons once, and I know they're capable of it.
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