SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks back to even after 3-1 win over Portland

The Worcester Sharks finally won a game the way they drew it up on paper after taking a two goal lead on tallies by Bracken Kearns and James Livingston and then holding on to take a 3-1 decision over the Portland Pirates Friday night at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston, Maine in front of a crowd of 2,793. The WorSharks win puts them at .500 (8-8-1-0) for the first time this season.

Worcester forward Dan DaSilva is stoned by Portland goaltender Mark Visentin
during Friday's 3-1 WorSharks victory over the Pirates.
Photo courtesy of the PORTLAND PIRATES

For video highlights of the game we once again look to AHLlive.com

Scratches for the WorSharks were Konrad Abeltshauser, Sena Acolatse (lower body), Curt Gogol (unknown injury), Brodie Reid, Lane Scheidl (knee), and Marek Viedensky (unknown injury). Troy Grosenick was the backup goaltender. The Worcester Shuttle made a stop on the east coast to pick up Matt Pelech and drop off Matt Nieto. The Pelech recall is expected to be temporary but the Nieto assignment will be for the foreseeable future as San Jose begins to get some of the longer-term injured players back. Worcester coaches Roy Sommer and David Cunniff were joined by scout Bryan Marchment behind the bench.

The win on Black Friday moved the WorSharks to 5-2-1 on the day after Thanksgiving, and have points in five straight (4-0-1). All of those games have been on the road. Another plus for Worcester, the WorSharks record with Jimmy Bonneau in the line-up this season is 5-2-0. Without him Worcester is 3-6-1. Not bad for a guy with no points on the campaign, although Bonneau isn’t out there to be Mario Lemieux.

Another stat, although an unofficial one: during Taylor Doherty’s second period holding minor Freddie Hamilton and Nieto had more odd man rushes while shorthanded (two) than Worcester had the entirety of their game last Sunday against Manchester, in which they didn’t have any.

Every WorSharks forward had at least one shot in the game with only defensemen Doherty, Nick Petrecki, and Adam Comrie not having one in the contest. Hamilton led Worcester with five shots. It’s the first time this season Comrie was held without a shot.

The NHL and AHL have instituted a new rule this season to protect players engaging in fisticuffs by making it an additional two minute minor for removing their helmets while fighting. All this rule has done is added two minutes in penalties to players because we’re seeing many “established” enforcers continuing to remove their helmets before they engage. We can add this rule to the unfortunately ever growing list of dumb rules that needs to be taken out of the game. Oh, one other silly thing about the rule–it’s listed as “unsportsmanlike conduct”. Can you think of anything more “sportsmanlike” than making sure your opponent doesn’t break his hand on your helmet?

It wasn’t a good night for the men in stripes in Lewiston last night as the linesmen made more than a handful of errors on offside and icing calls. The vast majority of times linesmen get those right, so the errors stand out a lot. All you need to know about the night referee Ryan Hersey comes in matching penalties he handed out at 11:08 of the third period: WorSharks captain Rob Davison got two minutes for elbowing and Pirates winger Darian Dziurzynski received two minutes for being elbowed (officially “embellishment”). Davison got his two minutes worth; Dziurzynski, not so much.

Previously on twitter this writer erroneously stated the last time the Worcester Sharks had taken five out of six points in a game was the end of the calendar year 2012. That factoid was fixed for Sharkspage but apparently the fix wasn’t noticed by another blogger who used my tweeted stat in their blog. This time we have it right: the WorSharks win Friday it gives them their first three game winning streak since, you guessed it, the end of the 2012 calendar year.

Speaking of twitter, my followers yesterday were inundated with tweets about Holy Cross College (located just a couple miles from the DCU Center) and their shocking 5-4 upset over national power house Boston College, on the Eagle’s home ice no less. It was just the second win in 17 tries for the Crusaders over BC, the first coming in 1946 when ice hockey wasn’t even an official NCAA varsity sport. WorSharks head coach Sommer’s son Castan plays for Holy Cross, who had a goal and an assist for the Crusaders in the game.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 16 Bracken Kearns (g)
2. POR – 24 Brett Hextall (g)
3. WOR – 3 Rob Davison (a, great defensive game)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Harri Sateri.

WorSharks even strength lines
Schwartz/Kearns/DaSilva
Tarasov/Hamilton/Nieto
Stalberg/Oleksuk/Livingston
Bonneau/Brace/Hayes

Davison/Tennyson
Comrie/Doherty
Petrecki/Demelo

BOXSCORE

Worcester 0 2 1 – 3
Portland 0 0 1 – 1

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Tarasov Wor (goaltender interference), 3:39; Lessio Por (high-sticking), 6:11; Bonneau Wor (unsportsmanlike conduct, fighting), 9:41; Hagel Por (unsportsmanlike conduct, fighting), 9:41; Brace Wor (fighting), 12:47; Miele Por (fighting), 12:47; Tarasov Wor (fighting), 13:25; Brown Por (fighting), 13:25; McMillan Por (hooking), 18:03.

2nd Period-1, Worcester, Kearns 4 (DaSilva, Davison), 3:55. 2, Worcester, Livingston 3 (Stalberg, Demelo), 9:04. Penalties-Doherty Wor (holding), 14:04.

3rd Period-3, Portland, Hextall 3 (Shinnimin, Martinook), 5:55. 4, Worcester, Hamilton 4 (Tennyson), 18:10 (EN). Penalties-Hayes Wor (interference), 2:57; Davison Wor (elbowing), 11:08; Dziurzynski Por (diving/embellishment), 11:08.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 15-8-11-34. Portland 9-7-10-26.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 2; Portland 0 / 3.
Goalies-Worcester, Sateri 4-7-0 (26 shots-25 saves). Portland, Visentin 6-6-1 (33 shots-31 saves).
A-2,793
Referees-Ryan Hersey (8).
Linesmen-Landon Bathe (80), Joe Andrews (32).