SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks third period collapse puts slim playoff hopes in jeopardy

The Worcester Sharks once again found themselves behind and scoreless after the first period, but unlike Sunday against Manchester their second period offensive onslaught didn’t put away their opponent and the Springfield Falcons came roaring back for three third period goals to defeat the WorSharks 4-2 at the DCU Center in front of a crowd of 4,241. With his goal and an assist in the game Dan DaSilva tied the late Tom Cavanagh as the franchise’s career scoring leader at 138 points.

Worcester Sharks Dan DaSilva had a goal and an assist to move into second place for the
season in team scoring and to tie Tom Cavanagh for most points as a WorSharks player.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll point to AHLlive. It’s too bad it doesn’t show more of the action leading up to the Jimmy Bonneau/Will Weber fight as we’ll have more on that later.

Scratches for Worcester were Sena Acolatse (leg), Mike Pereira, Brodie Reid (foot), Chad Rau (vet limit), Lane Scheidl (concussion), and newly signed ATO forward Adam Schmidt (from Holy Cross). Harri Sateri was the backup goaltender. Word is both Reid and Scheidl are close–if not already ready–to return.

There was some sad news for WorSharks head coach Roy Sommer and his family as they mourn the passing of Roy’s nephew. Roy traveled to California to be with his family and it’s believed Sommer will be back for Saturday’s game. Associate coach David Cunniff took over for Sommer for the night, with Bryan Marchment handling the defensemen and Mike Ricci assisting with the forwards. The standard policy of the AHL is games that head coaches miss under these circumstances count in their game totals/statistics, so he still on target to break the AHL’s all-time games coached record. Sharkspage sends its condolences to Roy and his family during their time of troubles.

As noted above DaSilva is now tied as the all-time scoring leader for the Worcester Sharks, but he is a long way from the top of the Worcester professional hockey list. DaSilva’s (and Cavanagh’s) 138 points ranks them both at 9th on that list. One more point will tie DaSilva with Daniel Corso and Stephane Roy at 139, and both Justin Papineau (143) and Jeff Panzer (146) are in reach. The next three on the list are Eric Boguniecki (155), Marc Brown (160), and Jame Pollock (167). As with most all-time hockey record in Worcester, the highest point total belongs to Terry Virtue at 210.

This writer is very outspoken about how poorly the AHL is officiated, and while the referees didn’t cause the WorSharks to lose they certainly played a small part in it. After the Bonneau/Weber fight referee Dave Lewis somehow decided that Bonneau deserved an extra two minutes. Of course, Springfield scored on that power play to take a 4-2 lead. For more on that, we turn to Worcester Sharks beat writer Bill Ballou:

It wasn’t the goal so much as the power play, which Springfield got when Jimmy Bonneau was given an extra two minutes by referee Dave Lewis for roughing as a result of a fight with Will Weber at 2:32.

“I’m not happy about this,” said Bonneau, who headed directly to the Sharks’ videotape machine at the buzzer. “I have always given respect to the refs and the job they do, but Dave Lewis called the name on the back of the jersey, not the play…it cost us the game.”

Bonneau took an elbow to the head from Weber and skated toward him to ask him to fight. Weber’s gloves were off before Bonneau’s, and Bonneau won the bout easily. It seemed like a standard double major, but Lewis felt differently. The ref told Bonneau he was the instigator and deserved an extra two minutes, but not the full 17 he would have gotten otherwise. “He told me it was for distance traveled, that I went blue line to blue line, and that’s insane,” Bonneau said. Lewis added insult to injury, according to Bonneau, who said the referee told him, “Jimmy, that’s the fastest I’ve seen you skate in five years.”

The reason it’s a shame the highlight video doesn’t show the pre-fight action is that it would show Bonneau didn’t go blue line to blue line, nor did he skate a significant amount of distance to get to Weber. It would show two players known for fighting deciding they were going to fight, and they did. Not only did referee Lewis get the call wrong his comments are out of line. It’s also pure laziness that determined Lewis didn’t call an instigator and not any other reason. Every instigator call results in the referee having to file paperwork with the league. That’s why you see the two for roughing added to a player in the AHL on so many occasions; it’s a lazy referee not wanting to fill out the paperwork.

The WorSharks also got the short of the stick, no pun intended, when Adam Comrie was highsticked late in the third period. As often happens when the whistle blows the two teams scrummed a bit with nothing really happening, but referee Lewis somehow determined that of all the players in that pile Bracken Kearns did something worth two minutes, so the skaters were evened up four on four. With Grosenick puled for an extra attacker Lewis struck again, calling DaSilva for a trip after the Falcons player tripped over his own stick. By that point DaSilva had seen enough and lit into Lewis, who gave in an extra ten minutes misconduct. In reality the AHL should be showing Lewis the door.

EDIT: This video of the Bonneau/Weber fight just surfaced. Note where Bonneau and Weber both start (in front of the WorSharks bench) and where thye fight (the blue line in front of the Falcons bench). They are never more than a stick length apart. So much for referee Dave Lewis’ call.

The three stars of the game were
1. SPR – 17 Sean Collins (g,a)
2. WOR – 22 Dan DaSilva (g,a)
3. SPR – 14 Dana Tyrell (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Bracken Kearns.

Even strength lines
McCarthy/Kearns/DaSilva
Tarasov/Oleksuk/Hamilton
Schwartz/Higgs/Hayes
Bonneau/Viedensky/Pelech

Abeltshauser/Doherty
Davison/DeMelo
Comrie/Bigos

BOXSCORE

Springfield 1 0 3 – 4
Worcester 0 2 0 – 2

1st Period-1, Springfield, Joudrey 11 (Urban, Camper), 3:27 (PP). Penalties-DaSilva Wor (kneeing), 3:20; Hayes Wor (boarding), 13:08; Davison Wor (delay of game), 13:43; Sedlak Spr (interference), 18:42.

2nd Period-2, Worcester, Kearns 6 (DaSilva, McCarthy), 5:44. 3, Worcester, DaSilva 14 (Abeltshauser, Kearns), 18:45 (PP). Penalties-Thompson Spr (goaltender interference), 8:10; Goloubef Spr (cross-checking), 18:13.

3rd Period-4, Springfield, Tyrell 12 (Vogelhuber, Joudrey), 0:22. 5, Springfield, Taormina 8 (Jacques, Collins), 4:18 (PP). 6, Springfield, Collins 13 (Camper, Bass), 11:41. Penalties-Weber Spr (fighting), 2:32; Bonneau Wor (roughing, fighting), 2:32; Hansen Spr (hooking), 7:05; Bass Spr (high-sticking), 14:48; Kearns Wor (roughing), 14:48; DaSilva Wor (tripping, misconduct – abuse of officials), 19:02.

Shots on Goal-Springfield 13-8-9-30. Worcester 7-15-10-32.
Power Play Opportunities-Springfield 2 / 5; Worcester 1 / 4.
Goalies-Springfield, McKenna 20-7-1 (32 shots-30 saves). Worcester, Grosenick 14-11-0 (30 shots-26 saves).
A-4,241
Referees-Dave Lewis (46), Pierre Lambert (39).
Linesmen-Chris Aughe (74), Joe Ross (92).