SHARKSPAGE

Mental errors hurt WorSharks in 3-2 OT loss in Hartford

The Worcester Sharks have a tendency to fall behind early in games and they did it again Saturday night in Hartford, and while goaltender Harri Sateri kept Team Teal in the game a nice goal by Dan DaSilva and a third period strike by Freddie Hamilton got the WorSharks into extra time where the Wolf Pack converted on another WorSharks mistake. Worcester grabbed a point in the 3-2 overtime loss at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut in front of a crowd humorously listed in the boxscore at 4,724. The loss was the eighth straight for Worcester at the XL Center.

Worcester Sharks forward Dan DaSilva connected on a late first period highlight reel goal,
but mental errors by the WorSharks couldn't be overcome in losing 3-2 in overtime in Hartford
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For highlights, and of course in Hartford they miss most of the ones featuring their opponent, we point to AHLlive.com.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Sena Acolatse, Riley Brace, Nick Petrecki (back), Lane Scheidl (knee), and Sebastian Stalberg. Troy Grosenick was the back-up goaltender. Prior to the start of the game the Worcester Shuttle made a stop on the east coast to pick up Bracken Kearns. It’s expected that Kearns will play for San Jose Sunday night in their game against the Anaheim Ducks.

All three Hartford goals came off of mental mistakes made by the WorSharks. Kyle Beach’s goal just 18 seconds into the game was because Daniil Tarasov turned the puck over at his own blue line, Arron Asham’s goal off a clean faceoff win happened because Eriah Hayes had a brain cramp and iced the puck while under no pressure whatsoever, and in overtime Matt Tennyson let Oscar Lindberg get behind him and Lindberg ended up all alone in front of the net. Those weren’t the only three mistakes Worcester made, but luckily Sateri was able to cover up for his teammates. Unfortunately when Sateri wasn’t able to do that the puck ends up in the net. The WorSharks just aren’t good enough offensively to overcome many mental errors like they made Saturday.

Worcester will practice Monday morning and then made the three-ish hour trek to Glens Falls to take on the Adirondack Phantoms on New Year’s Eve. The Glens Falls Civic Center is one of the great places in the AHL to see a game, and historically the WorSharks have done pretty well in the building, going 2-1-0-1 in four previous visits. The timing of the trip makes it unlikely this writer will be making the trip, although remembrances of a nice sports bar around the corner from the civic center make the effort a little more tempting.

The three stars of the game were
1. HFD – 16 Oscar Lindberg (OT gwg)
2. HFD – 1 Dov Grumet-Morris (34 saves)
3. HFD – 45 Arron Asham (apparently the Hartford folks don’t know how to spell “Harri Sateri”)

The Sharkspage player of the game, because in Hartford there’s only one team on the ice, is Sateri.

There’s no way the lines I’ve jotted down are correct, so we’ll skip them for today.

BOXSCORE

Worcester 1 0 1 0 – 2
Hartford 2 0 0 1 – 3

1st Period-1, Hartford, Kristo 12 (Fast, Hughes), 0:18. 2, Hartford, Asham 1 (Dupont), 13:51. 3, Worcester, DaSilva 2 (Schwartz, Reid), 19:01. Penalties-Beach Hfd (high-sticking), 5:29.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Lindberg Hfd (high-sticking), 3:55; Klassen Hfd (interference), 8:13; Bonneau Wor (interference), 12:00.

3rd Period-4, Worcester, Hamilton 11 (Tarasov, DeMelo), 4:02. Penalties-Reid Wor (high-sticking), 0:39.

OT Period-5, Hartford, Lindberg 7 (Johnson, Nash), 3:15. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Worcester 17-8-11-0-36. Hartford 11-11-7-2-31.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 3; Hartford 0 / 2.
Goalies-Worcester, Sateri 7-10-1 (31 shots-28 saves). Hartford, Grumet-Morris 3-8-3 (36 shots-34 saves).
A-4,724
Referees-Fred Leblanc (30).
Linesmen-Jim Briggs (83), Glen Cooke (6).