SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks end disappointing season on up note with 2-0 whitewashing of Providence

The Worcester Sharks were hoping to play spoiler in Saturday night’s game against the Providence Bruins, but with all the AHL’s Eastern Conference playoff teams determined on Friday all the WorSharks were doing was playing for pride, and they showed lots of it after Troy Grosenick’s 23 saves and Eriah Hayes and Travis Oleksuk lit the lamp to defeat the Baby-Bs 2-0 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 6,470 fans. The WorSharks end the season in 11th in the East, 13 points out of the final playoff spot.

The Worcester Sharks salute the crowd after their 2-0 season finale win over
the Providence Bruins. The WorSharks finished the 2013-14 season 36-34-4-2
and missed the post season for the fourth consecutive season.
SHARKSPAGE photo

For video highlights for the final time this season we’ll point to AHLlive.com. Note the Freddie Hamilton disallowed goal in the package and see if you agree it was a terrible call.

Scratches for Worcester were Jimmy Bonneau (“unavailable”), Konrad Abeltshauser (knee), John McCarthy (hand), Brodie Reid (upper body) and Marek Viedensky (groin). Harri Sateri was the back-up goaltender. With Reid being out and Bonneau “unavailable”–note the quotes–the WorSharks used 11 forwards and 17 skaters, one short of the usual 12/18.

Interesting note on Bonneau. By being scratched for the last six regular season contests the three year Worcester enforcer and fan favorite now sits at 320 AHL games, which still qualifies him as a “development player”. AHL teams must dress at least 12 players that have played in 260 or fewer professional games (including AHL, NHL and European elite leagues), and one must have played in 320 or fewer professional games. All calculations for development status are based on regular-season totals as of the start of the season. Bonneau sits right at the max for the 13th player. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more on that later.

With the WorSharks doing a “jerseys of their backs” auction Worcester wore their road teal jerseys and Providence decided on their gold third jerseys for the night. A color vs color game is a great thing to watch, and while the AHL plays virtually no role in determining what jerseys teams wear (the edict ‘white at home’ is generally followed but not strictly enforced) they should encourage teams that have the opportunity to go color vs color to do so. The big issue is, apparently, helmet color. Teams don’t want their players wearing the same color helmets because on the fly it can cause issues. The WorSharks had black helmets, the PBruins gold. No issues there.

Worcester announced their team awards during the game, with Freddie Hamilton being named team MVP, Travis Oleksuk earning the Unsung Hero Award, Dan DaSilva receiving this season’s Three Stars Award, and goaltender Troy Grosenick named the Rookie of the Year Award. Sharkspage will be announcing our “210 Awards” later on this month.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 1 Troy Grosenick (23 save shutout)
2. WOR – 21 Travis Oleksuk (g,a)
3. WOR – 18 Eriah Hayes (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Freddie Hamilton.

Even strength lines
Hamilton/Oleksuk/Hayes
Tarasov/Carpenter/DaSilva
Schwartz/Rau/Schmidt
Reid/Higgs/Pelech

Davison/Acolatse
Comrie/Doherty
DeMelo/Mueller

BOXSCORE

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

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Oleksuk Wor (slashing), 15:17; Lindblad Pro (hooking), 18:00.

2nd Period-1, Worcester, Hayes 12 (Davison, Oleksuk), 5:47. Penalties-Carpenter Wor (hooking), 1:11; Khokhlachev Pro (slashing), 8:07; Acolatse Wor (cross-checking), 19:08.

3rd Period-2, Worcester, Oleksuk 19 (DaSilva, Acolatse), 8:50 (PP). Penalties-Doherty Wor (roughing), 6:13; Subban Pro (delay of game), 7:50; Cross Pro (holding), 8:06; Hayes Wor (tripping), 14:01.

Shots on Goal-Providence 9-9-5-23. Worcester 6-9-12-27.
Power Play Opportunities-Providence 0 / 5; Worcester 1 / 4.
Goalies-Providence, Subban 15-10-5 (27 shots-25 saves). Worcester, Grosenick 18-14-0 (23 shots-23 saves).
A-6,470
Referees-Tom Chmielewski (43), Tim Mayer (19).
Linesmen-Bob Bernard (42), Jack Millea (23).