SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks defeat Pirates 4-3 for six point weekend

The Worcester Sharks new look offense continued on their latest hot streak, but unlike Friday and Saturday’s wins Sunday’s contest came down to the final horn as Worcester defeated the Portland Pirates 4-3 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 3,558 fans. Ten different WorSharks players recorded points and both Troy Grosenick and Harri Sateri saw action in net for Worcester in the full team effort. The six point weekend moves the WorSharks to fourth in the AHL’s Atlantic Division and they are now just four points out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Worcester Sharks forward Yanni Gourde, pictured from Saturday's game vs Norfolk where he
had a goal and two assists, continued his scoring streak with a second period shorthanded
goal Sunday against Portland. The WorSharks went on to win 4-3.
Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For highlights, and like the last two games they’re certainly worth watching, we once again point to AHLlive.com.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Sena Acolatse, Jimmy Bonneau, and Matt Pelech (hand). Curt Gogol was originally listed as a scratch but just prior to game time he was inserted into the line-up for Bonneau. The WorSharks had Bonneau listed as a healthy scratch, but in his fight Saturday against Norfolk’s Zack Stortini Bonneau mashed up his hand a bit, which might account for his post-warmups scratch.

On a more worrisome note, at the 7:39 mark of the second period WorSharks starting goaltender Troy Grosenick went down with a right knee injury after making a save at the near post and then getting accidentally bumped with his leg pinned awkwardly under him. As the play headed toward the Pirates zone the trailing referee, Terry Koharski, said something to Grosenick and the netminder replied shaking his head. Koharski then blew the whistle to stop play. After a few moments of being tended to by trainer Matt White Grosenick was helped off the ice. Word after the game, and reported by Bill Ballou this morning in the Worcester T&G, is it’s a sprain and not considered serious. Hopefully for Worcester that turns out to be correct.

With the San Jose Sharks hockey operational meetings taking place in Worcester there was a fairly large contingent of Sharks brass in attendance, and once the final horn went off to give the WorSharks the 4-3 win to a man they were all high-fiving and congratulating each other. And as it was all weekend, both Mark Ricci and Bryan Marchment joined coaches Roy Sommer and David Cunniff for the game behind the bench.

The game winning goal was the first in defenseman Taylor Doherty’s 141 game AHL career. In a statistical oddity, all three of Doherty’s goals this season have been four on four tallies, and are the only times the WorSharks have scored in that situation this season.

The most surprising thing in the box score is Daniil Tarasov’s line of goose eggs. Not only was it the first time this season Tarasov went shotless in a game, it’s the first time in his 67 game AHL career he didn’t have one, which sets the WorSharks team record for consecutive games with a shot on goal. It was still a pretty good weekend for the Moscow, Russia native as he finished the three game set with two goals and two assists. To complete the record, the longest “active” streak of consecutive games with a shot belongs to Logan Couture at 41 in a row. It’s a good bet that unless something odd happens that streak won’t come close to Tarasov’s. The current longest streak for roster players belongs to Rylan Schwartz at 21 games.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 4 Taylor Doherty (gwg)
2. WOR – 11 Lane Scheidl (g)
3. POR – 18 Jordan Martinook (g,a)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Yanni Gourde.

Even strength lines
Gron/Hamilton/Tarasov
Gourde/Oleksuk/DaSilva
Scheidl/Viedensky/Livingston
Gogol/Schwartz/Reid

Davison/DeMelo
Abeltshauser/Petrecki
Comrie/Doherty

BOXSCORE

Portland 1 0 2 – 3
Worcester 2 1 1 – 4

1st Period-1, Worcester, Scheidl 1 (DeMelo, Viedensky), 5:18. 2, Worcester, Oleksuk 5 (DaSilva), 8:21 (PP). 3, Portland, Brodeur 1 (Hextall, Martinook), 18:24. Penalties-Gormley Por (holding), 7:18; Comrie Wor (cross-checking), 15:18.

2nd Period-4, Worcester, Gourde 2 (Hamilton), 3:57 (SH). Penalties-DeMelo Wor (interference), 2:21; Gourde Wor (tripping), 4:48; Jones Por (roughing), 9:06.

3rd Period-5, Portland, Martinook 6 (Jones, Brown), 3:36. 6, Worcester, Doherty 3 (Livingston, Schwartz), 8:11. 7, Portland, Brown 6 (Todd, Gormley), 10:56. Penalties-Gogol Wor (goaltender interference), 6:32; Todd Por (tripping), 7:59; DaSilva Wor (slashing), 13:41.

Shots on Goal-Portland 6-10-12-28. Worcester 15-15-12-42.
Power Play Opportunities-Portland 0 / 5; Worcester 1 / 3.
Goalies-Portland, Visentin 9-12-3 (42 shots-38 saves). Worcester, Grosenick 8-5-0 (8 shots-7 saves); Sateri 9-12-1 (20 shots-18 saves).
A-3,558
Referees-Geoff Miller (28), Terry Koharski (10).
Linesmen-Todd Whittemore (70), Robert St. Lawrence (10).