"Everybody's Frustrated": Wolf Pack Shut Out by Islanders

After winning their first game of the season on Wednesday night, the Hartford Wolf Pack looked to remain in the win column on Friday. They hosted the Bridgeport Islanders at the PeoplesBank Arena for the first of twelve meetings in the Battle of Connecticut.

However, another bad start for the Wolf Pack ended up as the difference maker. Bridgeport scored three goals in the first 10:07 and Marcus Högberg made 33 saves as the Wolf Pack fell 3-0.

Starting Behind the Eight Ball

The Islanders took a lead they'd never lose just 3:38 into the contest. Joey Larson gained control of the puck and skated into the Hartford zone. Larson cut towards the net and roofed a shot over the shoulder of Dylan Garand to put the Islanders in front.

The Islanders doubled the lead just over eight minutes into the contest. Larson attempted a shot that Garand denied, but the puck took a strange bounce and landed right in front of Matthew Highmore. The veteran forward jammed the puck home to push the lead to two.

Bridgeport capped off the scoring just over the halfway mark in the frame. Sean Day forced a turnover in the Hartford zone and found Gleb Veremyev out in front. Veremyev blasted it home to make it a 3-0 contest.

At that point, Garand was lifted in favor of Talyn Boyko. Boyko would settle things down from there, stopping all 25 shots he faced, but the Wolf Pack offense couldn't solve Högberg, and the contest ended 3-0 in Bridgeport's favor.

"It's frustrating for all of us," Wolf Pack head coach Grant Potulny told Blueshirt Banter when asked about the slow starts after the game. "All of the players, all of the coaches, all of the managers, everybody's frustrated. Nothing is gonna change until we change."

That said, the sky is not falling. It's game five of a 72 game season. Six of the Atlantic Division's eight teams will make the Calder Cup Playoffs. There's plenty of time for Hartford to right the ship, but it's going to take a total team effort. You can't play 40 minutes of a hockey game and expect victory. If the Wolf Pack can turn out 60 minutes of quality hockey, like they did against Springfield on Wednesday, this team will be good. But they can't wait - they need to address it as soon as possible.

Battling in Connecticut

Let me make something clear - these two teams do not like each other at all.

Things got chippy late in the game, with Hartford's frustrations boiling over. Cooper Moore laid a clean hit in the neutral zone midway through the final frame. Veremyev took exception to it and decided to respond by blindsiding Moore. The dangerous hit drew a crowd that spilled into a few brawls.

Moore and Hunter Drew were each sent off with misconducts, while Veremyev sat for interference.

I don't know how Veremyev wasn't given a misconduct. A dangerous blindside hit should be far more than a minor penalty for interference, but I digress.

Because Veremyev remained in the game, another scuffle happened almost immediately after he exited the penalty box, with Casey Fitzgerald, Adam Sýkora, Travis Mitchell, and Luke Rowe each sitting for roughing.

These teams have eleven more games against each other. Tensions will be high for all of them. Buckle up, folks, cause we'll be battling in Connecticut quite a bit this year.

Up Next

The Wolf Pack will visit the Springfield Thunderbirds on Saturday to cap off the weekend. Puck drop is set for 6:05 pm.