SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks earn point in 4-3 OT loss in Portland

The Worcester Sharks offensive woes this season are well documented, but the WorSharks did manage to find the net enough times to overcome both a one and two goal deficit to twice tie the game Saturday night in Portland against the Pirates only to stumble in overtime and drop a 4-3 contest at the Cross Insurance Arena. Micheal Haley, Bryan Lerg, and Adam Burish all scored for Worcester. Troy Grosenick, who looked shaky at times in net, had 19 saves in the loss.

Worcester Sharks captain Bryan Lerg had a goal and an assist in the WorSharks 4-3
overtime loss Saturday in Portland. The goal was Lerg's second on the season, and
first since Veterans Day. He has points in just 7 of 27 games so far this season.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll point folks to AHLlive.com.

It was ‘all hands on deck’ for the WorSharks Saturday night as all 18 healthy skaters took to the ice. Adding Eriah Hayes (left leg) to the injury list after being checked into the Manchester bench door Friday night left the WorSharks with 11 healthy forwards and 7 available defensemen. After Friday’s game against the Monarchs the team went north to Portland and Hayes was sent back to Worcester to recover. He’s already been ruled out for Sunday’s contest at Bridgeport. Taylor Doherty (hand) and Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder) remain on the injured list. Not on the injured list but certainly limited in his role due to an injury is WorSharks enforcer Jimmy Bonneau. Fan favorite Bonneau wasn’t injured in a bout but instead by a non-called high stick Friday night that left quite the mark on Bonneau’s nose. J.P. Anderson was the backup goaltender once again Saturday but good money is betting he’ll play in Bridgeport Sunday afternoon.

Need to get serious here for a moment…you’ll note that this writer has not in any way, shape, or form covered the news of the San Jose Sharks eventual relocation of their AHL franchise to California on this blog. This is intentional, not because of any sort of denial that it won’t happen but because like when the Worcester IceCats left for Peoria ten years ago I am part of a group of people that will once again try and bring AHL hockey back to Worcester. Because I have a vested interest in some of the related issues involved to the currently called “AHL West” movement I’ve decided to not cover any aspect of the story due to what I see as a potential conflict of interest. I do, however, need to get something on the record and this is the time to do so.
     On Thursday of this week WorSharks beat report Bill Ballou of the Worcester Telegram wrote a story about the impending move which contained information not reported elsewhere before; that the San Jose Sharks were thinking of putting their AHL franchise in the SAP Center short term if a suitable home for them couldn’t be found elsewhere. The next day a blog called Mayor’s Manner “broke” the same news, but didn’t give Ballou credit for the story. I know who Ballou got that information from and how solid it is, and I know none of the people involved would speak or have ever spoken to anyone from Mayor’s Manner.
     In my opinion credibility is not just the end result, it’s also how you got there. There are lots of bloggers that are more than happy to give credit where credit is due. Obviously, some do not. You’ll note that here on Sharkspage we always give credit when information comes from outside sources. It doesn’t take too much investigation to see others don’t do the same. Breaking someone else’s news isn’t reporting. I know I’m just a hack but at least I don’t try to fake out readers. I’ll let others decide if that’s what Mayor’s Manner did in this case.

The WorSharks did not have a morning skate Saturday in Portland, deciding instead to have a closed door team meeting. During the radio pregame show Worcester Sharks assistant coach Ryan Mougenel did his best Bill Belichick impersonation and didn’t answer anything about the meeting at all. In a prerecorded intermission interview Bonneau was a little more informative about it, saying it was a real good meeting where some folks got some stuff off their chests about how things are going.

It looked like Daniil Tarasov was headed toward a big game as he had five shots in the first period, including two real nice chances. He ended up with just one shot over the remainder of the game, took a silly penalty in the overtime period, and was on the ice for the extra time goal against. So much for the big game.

There are always complaints about the AHL schedule, and this weekend the Bridgeport Sound Tigers have a right to be unhappy about it. While the WorSharks are bussing back to Worcester after their Saturday game for a night in their own beds the Sound Tigers are on the road from Norfolk, Virginia after a pair against the Admirals. The 3pm EST start Sunday in Bridgeport comes pretty early after that 7.5 hour overnight bus ride.

The three stars of the game were
1. POR – 7 Greg Miller (2g)
2. POR – 2 Dylan Reese (g,a)
3. POR – 56 Mike McKenna (43 saves)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Bryan Lerg.

Even strength lines
Tarasov/Oleksuk/Hamilton
Haley/Burish/Carpenter
Lerg/Trupp/Langlois
Bonneau/(multiple)/Hansen

Abeltshauser/DeMelo
Young/Fedun
Taormina/Jones
Blazek played sparingly with DeMelo

BOX SCORE

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

1st Period-1, Portland, Miller 1 (H. Samuelsson, Reese), 14:53. 2, Worcester, Haley 10 (Lerg, Fedun), 18:14 (PP). Penalties-Campbell Por (interference), 4:24; Lerg Wor (tripping), 9:17; Wathier Por (tripping), 16:42; Martinook Por (tripping), 19:23.

2nd Period-3, Portland, Dziurzynski 5 (Trivino, P. Samuelsson), 3:40. 4, Portland, Miller 2 (Martinook, McKenna), 6:59. 5, Worcester, Lerg 2 (Trupp, Young), 8:49. 6, Worcester, Burish 2 (Carpenter, Hanson), 12:45. Penalties-Wathier Por (goaltender interference), 10:21.

3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Martinook Por (tripping), 1:30; Young Wor (interference), 9:43.

OT Period-7, Portland, Reese 3 (Gaudet, Lessio), 5:45. Penalties-Tarasov Wor (high-sticking), 1:33.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 18-13-12-3-46. Portland 5-7-7-4-23.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 5; Portland 0 / 3.
Goalies-Worcester, Grosenick 7-5-0 (23 shots-19 saves). Portland, McKenna 10-11-0 (46 shots-43 saves).
A-2,442
Referees-Jon McIsaac (45).
Linesmen-Landon Bathe (80), Jeremy Lovett (78).