SHARKSPAGE

Blanking WorSharks, Providence wins 3-0

The Worcester Sharks, hampered by injures and recalls and forced to dress 8 defensemen, played most of the game like 18 guys that would rather have been somewhere else and it showed on the ice as the Providence Bruins easily defeated the WorSharks 3-0 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island in front of 8996 fans. The WorSharks wasted another good effort by rookie goaltender Troy Grosenick, who made 27 saves on 30 shots against while being alone on the ice most of the night.

Prior to the start of Friday's Worcester Sharks game Eriah Hayes was recalled by San Jose.
Hayes is expected to make his NHL debut Saturday in Colorado against the Avalanche.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

No idea why anyone would want to watch the highlights, but for those that are bored you can head over to AHLlive.com and kill a couple of minutes.

Scratches for Worcester were Jimmy Bonneau, Lane Scheidl (knee), and Daniil Tarasov (foot). Harri Sateri was the back-up goaltender. Just prior to game time Eriah Hayes was recalled to San Jose–technically to Colorado where he’ll meet up with the Sharks–because Tyler Kennedy has the flu and didn’t travel with the team. Hayes wore sweater number 76 in preseason, so one could expect him to have that number on Saturday.

With Bonneau having more goals, one, than four of the skaters for the WorSharks Friday night one has to wonder why WorSharks head coach Roy Sommer went to eight defensemen. Riley Brace, Rob Davison, Dylan DeMelo, and Sebastian Stalberg all have none on the season, and while all have better offensive skills than Bonneau I would think that perhaps he’s a better choice than a couple that were out there.

Should Worcester dip into the ECHL for a forward, they have one under contract with the San Francisco Bulls in Chris Crane. The Ohio State University alum isn’t considered a goal scorer, notching just seven in 32 games this season. Crane is known more for his grinding style, meaning he’ll fit right in here in Worcester in working hard and having nothing to show for it. The WorSharks could also sign any free agent player out of the ECHL they chose (that’s how they got Dan DaSilva), so it seems most likely that if they were to sign a forward or two it would be from ECHL teams a little closer to New England.

The WorSharks scoreless streak against Providence has reached 138:33, which after some recalculations of this writer’s spreadsheet to track thinks like that makes it the longest such streak against a single opponent in franchise history, breaking the previous record of 120:43 set against the Lowell Devils at the tail end of the 2008-09 season and going briefly, 43 seconds worth, into the 09-10 season. Friday night was just the second time in franchise history the Worcester Sharks were shutout in consecutive meetings by the same opponent, the first being against the aforementioned Devils.

The Nor’easter that struck New England Thursday and Friday not only caused some issues for the WorSharks–they had no morning skate and left the DCU Center far earlier than usual for the normal one hour trek south down route 146–it also played havoc with the AHL’s on-ice officials. Referee Jean-Philippe Sylvain was supposed to work the game alone, but because Jarrod Ragusin couldn’t get to Hartford for the Penguins/Wolf Pack tilt he was reassigned to the PBruins/Worcester game. On Saturday both the WorSharks and Sylvain are headed to Hartford, although likely in different vehicles. Ragusin is supposed to be in Adirondack for the Devils/Phantoms game, but who knows where he’ll ultimately land.

As occasionally happens in Providence, the Baby-Bs were in their gold third jerseys and Worcester was in their standard teal road jersey for a color-on-color game. Other than indicating teams should wear contrasting colors the AHL plays no role in determining what colors teams wear in games–believe it or not that’s generally up to each teams equipment manager–but it would be nice if it were possible to have more teams play with dark jerseys on. They key, so they say, is the helmet color. Providence wears gold helmets with their gold jerseys while Worcester wears black. If more teams have combinations of dark jerseys and light helmets it would take nothing to have more color-on-color games.

The three stars of the game were
1. PRO – 47 Malcolm Subban (shutout win)
2. PRO – 32 Nick Johnson (g,a)
3. PRO – 13 Alexander Khokhlachev (g,a)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Troy Grosenick.

BOXSCORE

Worcester 0 0 0 – 0
Providence 1 2 0 – 3

1st Period-1, Providence, Johnson 12 (Khokhlachev, Warsofsky), 16:42. Penalties-Pelech Wor (interference, fighting), 13:42; Robins Pro (fighting), 13:42.

2nd Period-2, Providence, Khokhlachev 7 (Johnson, Cunningham), 1:11. 3, Providence, Florek 9 (Camper, Knight), 13:12. Penalties-Robins Pro (cross-checking), 7:36.

3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Khokhlachev Pro (hooking), 4:29; Viedensky Wor (tripping), 13:19; Gogol Wor (misconduct – unsportsmanlike conduct), 18:09; Viedensky Wor (hooking), 18:09.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 10-7-8-25. Providence 14-10-6-30.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 2; Providence 0 / 3.
Goalies-Worcester, Grosenick 6-5-0 (30 shots-27 saves). Providence, Subban 5-6-2 (25 shots-25 saves).
A-8,996
Referees-Jean-Philippe Sylvain (16), Jarrod Ragusin (54).
Linesmen-Brian MacDonald (72), Todd Whittemore (70).