SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks Split Home And Home With Sunday Afternoon 5-4 Win Over Connecticut

The Worcester Sharks got two goals from John McCarthy, another solid goaltending performance from carter Hutton, and points from ten other players to defeat the Connecticut Whale 5-4 Sunday afternoon at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 4,247 fans.

Connecticut would control the early going, but it would be the WorSharks that would get on the board first when Michael Swift grabbed a failed clearing attempt and threw a pass to Dan DaSilva across the zone to the right wing side. DaSilva skated in deeper and fired a wrist shot from just inside the face-off dot that beat Whale goaltender Cameron Talbot at 5:29 of the opening period.

The Whale would get a puck past Hutton at 12:19 of the period, but a high sticking call against Francis Lemieux that knocked of Hutton’s mask would nullify that score. It would take Worcester only seven seconds of power play time to put the puck in Connecticut’s net. Benn Ferriero, playing the point with the man advantage, picked off a clearing attempt right at the blue line and was just able to get the puck over to Jamie McGinn on the right wing side. McGinn’s pass to Tommy Wingels in the slot had a lot of mustard on it, but the rookie was able to get control and beat Talbot to make it 2-0.

DaSilva would have a golden chance to give the WorSharks a three goal lead when Swift threw a pass between both Whale defenders and sent him in alone on Talbot late in the period, but DaSilva was unable to jam the puck home past the left pad.

Worcester would indeed get that three goal lead, and it happened while killing Mike Moore’s well deserved minor for boarding when McCarthy picked up a loose puck at center ice and head up the right wing side with Jamie McGinn joining the rush through center ice. Once McCarthy got to the top of the circle he fired a hard wrister that beat Talbot cleanly to the low stick side at 1:19 of the second for the unassisted shorthanded tally.

But nothing has come easy for Worcester this season, and the Whale were doing their best to make sure that would hold true on Sunday. Connecticut would get their first of the game at 11:29 when Kelsey Tessier threw a nice, easy pass along the ice to Kris Newbury, who blasted a one timer through a well designed screen that Hutton had no chance on.

Using Ferriero on the point would come back to haunt Worcester when Newbury and Brodie Dupont broke in on an odd man rush against the forward playing defense. Ferriero played it decently enough but Newbury was still able to get a pass over to Dupont, who misfired his shot but was still able to get enough of it to handcuff Hutton and light the lamp at 17:04.

Some hard work by the WorSharks along the boards would give them a two goal lead entering the second intermission. After some protracted time along the right wing boards the puck would end up on the stick of Sean Sullivan. The defenseman would fire the puck back along the boards to Patrick Davis, who could continue the puck along the boards to behind the net. McCarthy gather the puck and wheel sharply to the far post, beating Talbot just inside the post with a backhander at 18:59.

The WorSharks would get their second three goal lead of the game at 1:49 of the third period when a pinball shot from the point beat Talbot. T.J. Trevelyan would start the play with a clean face-off win in the right wing circle back to defenseman Matt Irwin at the blue line. Irwin wasted no time blasting the puck on net, and as the puck homed in on net it hit a Whale player and then Kevin Henderson as it pinballed past Talbot.

With all the troubles Worcester has had in the third period a three goal lead never seems safe, and WorSharks fans had the “here we go again” feeling when Hutton forced Blake Parlett, who had already notched assists on Connecticut’s previous two goals, into a very wide shot by cutting down the angle the defenseman had to shoot at. But the puck rolled across the wide open goal mouth, and despite being literally tackled by WorSharks defenseman Nick Schaus outside the crease Tessier was able to sweep the rolling puck into the yawning net to make the score 5-3 at 14:37.

And a audible groan could be heard throughout the building at 17:48 when Jeremy Williams skated through and around the Worcester defense and beat Hutton off the far post to get the Whale within one. But that’s as close as Connecticut could get despite pulling Talbot for an extra attacker as the WorSharks didn’t allow a legitimate scoring chance the rest of the way. Worcester ended the season series against Hartford/Connecticut with a 3-3-1-1 record, while they have a 5-2-0-1 against the WorSharks.

GAME NOTES
Prior to the start of the game San Jose reassigned Harri Säteri from Tappara Tampere of the SM-liiga to Worcester. When asked if Säteri will be playing for Worcester this season a member of hockey operations said “he probably will play, he’s not here to be a wall flower”. Säteri, along with Jody Pederson and Joe Loprieno, were healthy scratches. Cam MacIntyre has been added to the injury list, although with the AHL’s Clear day roster rules many times hangnails and the sniffles are considered injuries and reasons to be called an injury scratch. Tyson Sexsmith was the back-up netminder.

Linesman Bob Paquette, injured a week ago when he fell backwards into the boards, returned to action Friday in Providence and worked the lines in Sunday’s contest at the DCU center. Sharkspage spoke briefly with Paquette before the game and he said he had suffered a mild concussion in the fall, but was feeling great. He later joked that he was wondering how much damage his head did to the boards when he fell. He was noticeably more careful when skating backwards, but showed no ill effects of his injury during the game.

In another update, this time about Mathieu Perreault’s stick swinging incident last Wednesday against Hershey. While there has been no official announcement from the AHL, Perreault has apparently been fined by the league but will not be suspended.

The win was Carter Hutton’s fourth straight. Tommy Wingels has a three game goal streak (4g), and John McCarthy has a four game point streak (2g,2a). Patrick Davis has been even or better in his last seven games. Brandon Mashinter’s four game point streak came to and.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 7 John McCarthy (2g)
2. WOR – 23 Dan DaSilva (g)
3. CT – 11 Kris Newbury (g,a)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Kevin Henderson.

Even Strength Lines
McGinn/Trevelyan/Henderson
Mashinter/McCarthy/Wingels
Swift/Ferriero/DaSilva
McLaren/Quirk/Davis

Moore/Sullivan
Petrecki/Schaus
Irwin/Landry

Power play lines
Wingels/Trevelyan/McGinn
Mashinter/Swift/DaSilva

Irwin/Ferriero
Sullivan/Landry

Penalty kill lines
McCarthy/Davis
Ferriero/McGinn
Moore(Landry)/Sullivan
Petrecki(Schaus)/Irwin(Schaus)

BOXSCORE
Connecticut 0 2 2 – 4
Worcester 2 2 1 – 5

1st Period-1, Worcester, DaSilva 14 (Swift), 5:29. 2, Worcester, Wingels 15 (McGinn, Ferriero), 12:26 (PP). Penalties-Kundratek Ct (holding), 5:56; Schaus Wor (holding), 8:32; Irwin Wor (hooking), 10:15; Lemieux Ct (high-sticking), 12:19.

2nd Period-3, Worcester, McCarthy 1   1:19 (SH). 4, Connecticut, Newbury 14 (Tessier, Parlett), 11:29. 5, Connecticut, Dupont 14 (Newbury, Parlett), 17:04 (SH). 6, Worcester, McCarthy 2 (Davis, Sullivan), 18:59. Penalties-Moore Wor (boarding), 0:19; Kundratek Ct (interference), 3:01; Mitchell Ct (high-sticking), 12:53; Bickel Ct (cross-checking), 16:01.

3rd Period-7, Worcester, Henderson 7 (Irwin, Trevelyan), 1:49. 8, Connecticut, Tessier 8 (Parlett, Dupont), 14:37. 9, Connecticut, Williams 28 (Kundratek, Grachev), 17:48. Penalties-Petrecki Wor (cross-checking), 4:07; Grachev Ct (hooking), 9:16.

Shots on Goal-Connecticut 12-9-12-33. Worcester 10-13-6-29.
Power Play Opportunities-Connecticut 0/4; Worcester 1/6.
Goalies-Connecticut, Talbot 10-4-2 (29 shots-24 saves). Worcester, Hutton 6-3-2 (33 shots-29 saves).
A-4,247
Referees-Tim Mayer (19). Linesmen-Todd Whittemore (70), Bob Paquette (18).

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