The St. John’s IceCaps completed their six-game road trip to start the season with games in Springfield on Saturday and Hartford on Sunday following a tremendous performance by Charlie Lindgren in Providence on Friday. After losing the first three games last week, the IceCaps collected five out of a potential six points to breathe new life into their season, thanks to their AHL-leading special-teams units that are a combined 131% at this point.
On Saturday, the IceCaps played against Tim Bozon and the Springfield Thunderbirds. Within the first five seconds the IceCaps took a penalty courtesy of Jonathan Racine; the man that the IceCaps received in return for Bozon. Neither player has had any sort of impact on their respective teams so far.
The IceCaps scored on a great power-play zone entry to put them up 1-0 when Sven Andrighetto burst into the Thunderbirds’ zone, making a quick pass to a trailing Chris Terry, followed by an off-the-boards pass to Mark Barberio. The defenceman fired the puck to a streaking Charles Hudon, who tipped it past Mike McKenna.
1-0 #IceCaps. Charles Hudon with his third of the season. Nice redirection in the slot: pic.twitter.com/l0JRZFunv4
— Mitch Brown (@MitchLBrown) October 22, 2016
Hudon later added a second power-play goal on a fortuitous bounce off the glass; the second of three power-play goals for the IceCaps in the game.
Newly signed goaltender Yann Danis got his first start for St. John’s. He showed some rust and poor judgement early on when he wandered too far out of his net to play the puck, and former Canadiens tryouts Dryden Hunt scored into an abandoned net to tie the game. Danis had a pretty busy night, making 30 saves on 35 shots, and looked like a good option to be a backup goaltender for the IceCaps down the stretch.
The IceCaps had a two-goal advantage in the third period thanks to goals from Terry and Andrighetto, but the team collapsed in the final ten minutes.
While celebrating his goal, Andrighetto trash-talked the Thunderbirds bench, which appeared to wake up the Springfield team. After hitting the post twice within a minute, the Thunderbirds made it 4-3 when Joel Hanley’s weak backhand effort to dump the puck out of the zone landed right on the stick of Ian McCoshen. He blasted it from the point to bring the ‘Birds within one.
Under a minute later, Philip Samuelsson was easily stripped of the puck deep in the IceCaps’ zone and Hunt scored his second to tie the game up, part of a three-point game for the Thunderbirds’ forward. Only time will tell, but the Canadiens might have missed the boat with Hunt by not signing him after Development Camp this past summer. He currently leads the Thunderbirds in points in his rookie season as part of the Panthers organization.
Hudon almost got the hat trick with four minutes left in the game, but McKenna made a point-blank save with his blocker. The Thunderbirds eventually sealed their come-from-behind win in overtime.
On Sunday, the IceCaps faced the team that beat them in the first game of the season, the Hartford Wolf Pack, but this time the result was quite different.
The game started quickly with Sven Andrighetto scoring within the first thirty seconds. Michael McCarron was back in the lineup after serving his suspensions, and battling for the puck along the boards, easily out-muscling the Wolf Pack defender for the puck and sending it toward Andrighetto. It was one of two assists for McCarron in his return.
Chris Terry added an assist on the goal, as well. Early signs are pointing to Terry being a smart addition to the roster, as he is currently tied for second in the league with eight points.
Michael McCarron -> Chris Terry -> Sven Andrighetto -> Goal pic.twitter.com/lnmngyfcUb
— Mitch Brown (@MitchLBrown) October 23, 2016
Although the Wolfpack responded nearly as quickly to tie the game, a faceoff win by Markus Eisenschmid went to Hudon who fed the puck to Joel Hanley at the point for a one-timer that beat Hartford goaltender MacKenzie Skapski.
The rest of the first period was an endurance exercise for the penalty killers, as the IceCaps took five minor penalties and a total of nine for the game. Discipline was clearly an issue for the IceCaps, but penalty killers Jacob de la Rose, Max Friberg, Bobby Farnham, McCarron, Jeremy Grégoire, Phillip Samuelsson, Barberio, and Josiah Didier certainly merit some recognition for killing all nine penalties.
The IceCaps have the best penalty kill in the AHL at 96.2%, conceding only one goal on 26 opportunities. Farnham even added a short-handed goal for the IceCaps later in the second period to put the IceCaps up 4-1 midway through the game. Jacob de la Rose had an assist on the play for his first point of the season.
Despite all the man-advantage opportunities, the Wolf Pack only beat Lindgren one more time, at regular strength, early in the third period, but in stark contrast to Saturday’s game where the IceCaps were dominated in the third period by the Thunderbirds, it was the IceCaps who set the tone in the final frame, dominating in shots 15 to six.
Grégoire added an empty-net power-play goal at the end of the game, assisted by McCarron and Nikita Scherbak, to give the IceCaps a 5-2 win, and send the IceCaps home on a winning note.
Notes
- The top players for the IceCaps this weekend were all the players you would expect to be among the first call-ups for the Canadiens: Andrighetto (2G, 3A), Hudon (3G, 1A), Terry (1G, 4A), and Barberio (3A)
- Barberio has five points out of the total 11 generated by the IceCaps defencemen in the first six games this season.
- Terry is tied for second in the league with eight points in six games. Hudon is right up there with seven.
- Although the sample size is very small, Charlie Lindgren seems poised to take over starter duties for the IceCaps, having two very solid starts. /
The IceCaps will play their home opener on Friday, October 28th, with special guest Guy Lafleur taking part in the opening ceremonies.
