SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks defenseless in 5-3 loss to Hartford

The Worcester Sharks have enough troubles winning in Hartford without their defense disappearing at critical times, so when that happened on numerous occasions Friday night the result was pretty much what you’d expect to happen as the WorSharks dropped a 5-3 contest to the Wolf Pack at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Daniil Tarasov, Adam Burish, and Micheal Haley all scored for Worcester while obviously rusty goaltender Troy Grosenick had 23 saves in returning to action after a head injury.

Worcester Sharks goaltender Troy Grosenick returned to action for the first time since an
injury suffered during a morning skate sidelined him in San Jose just after Thanksgiving.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll have to link to Senndtonews.com. For some reason the Hartford Wolf Pack put post game interviews up on YouTube but no game highlights.

With all the recalls by San Jose lately the Worcester Sharks had no healthy scratches. Both Taylor Doherty (hand) and Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder) are still on the injured list. Both have had recent surgery, and word is Emanuelsson won’t be returning until March. The WorSharks had no official word on how long Doherty is out, and wouldn’t even confirm if his hand was actually broken. It is indeed broken, and Doherty appeared at the Worcester Sharks Booster Club holiday party wearing a very impressive brace on his left hand.

With Grosenick returning J.P Anderson was the backup goaltender. In other transactions goaltender Aaron Dell was reassigned to the Allen Americans (ECHL) and defenseman Nick Jones was returned to the Indy Fuel (ECHL). Forward Melker Karlsson was recalled to San Jose just after the WorSharks trip last weekend, and in news first broken on twitter by this writer Matt Tennyson and Chris Tierney were recalled to San Jose on Wednesday.

With all the comings and goings one transaction that didn’t appear started to stick out a little–PTO defenseman Andrew Blazek was still on the roster despite not appearing in a game. When he arrived from the Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL) word was Blazek was a solid defenseman that likely had AHL level talent so his being kept around wasn’t that odd, except for the fact the WorSharks reassigned a player they already held the rights to back to the ECHL in Jones. Because you can’t release injured players from try out contracts it was thought Blazek may have been injured in a practice, but it turns out hockey operations in Worcester was really impressed with him and they decided to keep him around to work him out as the extra defenseman. Tennyson’s recall put Blazek into the lineup for the first time Friday and the Robert Morris looked decent out there. Oddly, there has been a recent ECHL transaction for Blazek–his ECHL rights were just traded from Cincy to the South Carolina Stingrays.

The seventeen seconds between the Tarasov and Burish goals is, while pretty fast, not a team record. The WorSharks team record for the two fastest goals remains 12 seconds, set by Garrett Stafford and Tomas Plihal on February 2, 2007 against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. For many years those two goals were also part of the fastest three goals for the Worcester Sharks when Dan Spang added a third for three in 1:32, but a Benn Ferriero/Dan DaSilva/Brandon Mashinter flurry of goals in 1:26 at Springfield on February 11, 2011 erased that mark.

Hartford defensemen Michael Kostka and Conor Allen both finished Friday night’s contest with +4 ratings for the game. There isn’t a single player on the WorSharks roster that’s +4 on the season. That speaks volumes. Excluding Matt Nieto’s +5 in two games last season you have to go back to the 2012-2013 season to find Worcester players that finished better than +4 on the season. That’s inexcusable.

The three stars of the game were
1. HFD – 17 Chris Bourque (g,a)
2. HFD – 28 Michael Kostka (g,a)
3. HFD – 15 Marek Hrivik (2a)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Daniil Tarasov.

Even strength lines
Tarasov/Oleksuk/Langlois
Lerg/Hamilton/Burish
Haley/Trupp/Carpenter
Bonneau/Schwartz/Hayes

Abeltshauser/DeMelo
Young/Fedun
Blazek/Taormina

BOX SCORE

Worcester 0 3 0 – 3
Hartford 1 2 2 – 5

1st Period-1, Hartford, Allen 4 (Kostka), 19:01. Penalties-Lindberg Hfd (tripping), 19:54.

2nd Period-2, Worcester, Tarasov 6 (DeMelo, Langlois), 9:43. 3, Worcester, Burish 1 (Hamilton, Abeltshauser), 10:00. 4, Hartford, Kostka 2 (C. Bourque, Hrivik), 10:19. 5, Hartford, C. Bourque 12 (Hrivik, Malone), 13:35. 6, Worcester, Haley 8 (Trupp), 14:05. Penalties-R. Bourque Hfd (tripping), 3:12.

3rd Period-7, Hartford, Haggerty 6 0:37. 8, Hartford, Lindberg 9 (Crabb, Vaive), 5:07. Penalties-Allen Hfd (interference), 9:20; DeMelo Wor (hooking), 14:20.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 12-14-12-38. Hartford 12-8-8-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 3; Hartford 0 / 1.
Goalies-Worcester, Grosenick 7-3-0 (28 shots-23 saves). Hartford, Malcolm 1-0-0 (38 shots-35 saves).
A-3,516
Referees-Evgeny Romasko (6), Olivier Gouin (66).
Linesmen-Luke Galvin (2), Paul Simeon (66).

Trupp scores earliest WorSharks goal ever in 3-2 loss to IceCaps

The Worcester Sharks jumped out to their earliest lead ever in franchise history when Evan Trupp scored just 22 seconds into Saturday night’s rematch against the St John’s IceCaps, but then they gave up that lead almost as quickly. By the end of the first period Worcester had regained and lost the lead yet again, and it was the IceCaps with the last goal of the game to give the WorSharks a 3-2 loss as the two teams split their two game set at Mile One Centre in St John’s, Newfoundland.

Worcester Sharks forward Melker Karlsson celebrates his first period power play
goal that gave the WorSharks a 2-1 lead. The St John's IceCaps would have the
next two goals of the game to send Worcester home 3-2 losers Saturday night
Photo courtesy of the ST JOHN'S ICECAPS

For video highlights once again we’ll use the IceCaps YouTube channel and for the last time until next February we get to enjoy one of the best voices in minor league hockey as St John’s broadcaster Brian Rogers has the call.

Worcester Sharks head coach Roy Sommer went with the same lineup as Friday night, with Andrew Blazek, Jimmy Bonneau, Taylor Doherty (hand), Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Nick Jones, and Rylan Schwartz all scratches and J.P. Anderson being the back-up goaltender.

Trupp’s early goal set a team record that had stood for a couple season, breaking Curt Gogol’s record of 28 seconds set on March 9, 2012 against the Portland Pirates. The WorSharks won that game 6-4 after giving up a couple of leads. History had a chance to repeat itself as the WorSharks had more than a handful of great chances Saturday night, but former UMass-Lowell and current IceCaps goaltender Connor Hellebuyck looked like a sheet of plywood out there. Hellebuyck had a pretty good weekend for St John’s, stopping 82 of 85 shots for a .965 save percentage and a goals against of 1.52. WorSharks goalie Aaron Dell had almost as impressive a two game set by going .929 and 1.51, with a shutout Friday.

It was an interesting game for Trupp. After he scoring the record setting goal as later on in the first period he was accidentally highsticked by the IceCaps defender Julian Melchiori. Trupp missed the remainder of the first period and when the second stanza began Trupp was wearing a full face shield. Worcester was unable to capitalize on the double minor to Melchiori. Also going down in the opening period was Ryan Carpenter after the rookie forward crashed awkwardly into the end boards. Carpenter eventually got up and to the bench under his own power and after being tended to did finish the game.

Rookie defenseman Gus Young, a graduate of Yale University, got into his first pro fight Saturday night when he took on the IceCaps JC Lipon. Young must have gotten some advice from the likes of Jimmy Bonneau or Micheal Haley because he looked real good, something that doesn’t usually happen with college players. For those interested in the fisticuffs you can check out this video from hockeyfights-video.com.

The three stars of the game were
1. STJ – 27 Will O’Neill (2g)
2. STJ – 37 Connor Hellebuyck (41 saves)
3. WOR – 13 Evan Trupp (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Melker Karlsson.

Same players as Friday, so same even strength lines as Friday:
Tarasov/Tierney/Karlsson
Haley/Hamilton/Hayes
Trupp/Oleksuk/Carpenter
Lerg/Burish/Langlois

Taormina/Tennyson
Abeltshauser/DeMelo
Young/Fedun

BOX SCORE

Worcester 2 0 0 – 2
St. John’s 2 1 0 – 3

1st Period-1, Worcester, Trupp 6 (Oleksuk, Fedun), 0:22. 2, St. John’s, Brassard 1 (Blanchard, Olsen), 1:35. 3, Worcester, Karlsson 5 (Tarasov, Taormina), 8:41 (PP). 4, St. John’s, O’Neill 5 (Cornell, Cormier), 11:13 (PP). Penalties-Brassard Stj (holding), 8:14; Langlois Wor (tripping), 9:57; Melchiori Stj (double minor – high-sticking), 12:56.

2nd Period-5, St. John’s, O’Neill 6 (Kosmachuk, O’Dell), 5:31 (PP). Penalties-Young Wor (tripping), 4:38; Young Wor (fighting), 7:59; Lipon Stj (fighting), 7:59; Olsen Stj (boarding), 15:27.

3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Worcester 20-13-10-43. St. John’s 11-9-2-22.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 4; St. John’s 2 / 2.
Goalies-Worcester, Dell 1-2-0 (22 shots-19 saves). St. John’s, Hellebuyck 10-6-0 (43 shots-41 saves).
A-5,747
Referees-Trevor Hanson (47).
Linesmen-Sheldon Keough (63), Joe Maynard (24).

Dell, WorSharks blank IceCaps 1-0 as Tarasov scores lone goal of game

The Worcester Sharks are still having a bit of an issue putting the puck in the net, and after dropping a 4-2 contest in Portland Tuesday night made their way up to St. John’s, Newfoundland and in the first of a two game set on The Rock managed to score just one goal when Daniil Tarasov knocked home a lose puck, but rookie goaltender Aaron Dell made that goal stand up with several huge saves down the stretch as the WorSharks defeated the IceCaps 1-0 at Mile One Centre on Friday night.

Worcester Sharks forward Daniil Tarasov got credit for the game's only goal scored just a
split second after this picture was taken in the WorSharks 1-0 win at St. John's. The puck
can be seen laying on the ice between the legs of IceCaps goaltender Connor Hellebuyck.
SHARKSPAGE photo via video capture

For video highlights we’ll use the IceCaps YouTube channel and we get to enjoy one of the best voices in minor league hockey as St John’s broadcaster Brian Rogers has the call.

Scratches for Worcester were Andrew Blazek, Jimmy Bonneau, Taylor Doherty (hand), Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Nick Jones, and Rylan Schwartz. J.P. Anderson was the back-up goaltender. During the week San Jose reassigned Matt Tennyson to the WorSharks, making the PTO signing of Andrew Blazek likely unnecessary. Word on the street is Blazek, who like fellow defenseman Nick Jones is a graduate of Robert Morris University, has the skill level to play in the AHL, so hopefully the Worcester coaching staff is taking a good look at him while he’s here.

Getting injury disclosure from the Worcester Sharks is not usually an easy thing, so to get any definitive information on Doherty’s left hand while the team is so far away is virtually impossible. Available evidence seems to point at it being broken, but early next week is likely the earliest we’ll know more. That being said, getting an injury status from San Jose is akin to getting blood from a stone, so there’s been no word at all on the injury to goaltender Troy Grosenick beyond the usual “upper body” designation, and obviously no word on when he’ll be returned to Worcester. As injured players can’t be assigned to the minor leagues he’ll have to be very close to playing before he can be sent down.

Currently the only goal of the game is listed as Tarasov from Taylor Fedun and Chris Tierney, but that will likely change as Ryan Carpenter touched the puck between those two players.

If you think the WorSharks scoring woes are bad, try being an IceCaps fan. St John’s has lost three consecutive games by a 1-0 score and hasn’t scored a regulation goal since November 26th in Binghamton. They’ve gone 199:08 without scoring a regulation or overtime goal. They did have a shootout goal in Binghamton, so some would consider their scoreless streak at just 180 minutes. Let’s just say this writer–and IceCaps beat writer Robin Short–disagrees with that assessment.

I’m not a fan of the referees calling Diving/Embellishment on top of another penalty. Either the play was a foul or it wasn’t. If a player was legitimately hooked or tripped, the “embellishment” is meaningless. If it wasn’t a penalty, call the dive. Referee Trevor Hanson, who anecdotally calls them the most, whistled IceCaps winger Ben Walker for a hook and WorSharks defenseman Dylan Demelo for diving. Having the advantage of watching the video multiple times it wasn’t clear that Walker hooked DeMelo nor that DeMelo dove. At least neither team got a power play out of the deal.

And speaking of video review, Referee Hanson used video review on the Tarasov goal. Unlike the NHL where the reason for the review is announced it’s not the practice of the AHL to do so. It would have been nice to know what Hanson was looking at. The highlight video doesn’t show anything that appears to be reviewable. We’ll just add this to one of the long list of AHL mysteries.

The three stars of the game were
1. STJ – 37 Connor Hellebuyck (41 saves in losing effort)
2. WOR – 19 Daniil Tarasov (gwg)
3. WOR – 15 Melker Karlsson (your guess as to why is as good as mine)

Well, that mess of a three stars listing from St John’s makes our pick for the Sharkspage player of the game pretty easy, Aaron Dell.

Even strength lines
Tarasov/Tierney/Karlsson
Haley/Hamilton/Hayes
Trupp/Oleksuk/Carpenter
Lerg/Burish/Langlois

Taormina/Tennyson
Abeltshauser/DeMelo
Young/Fedun

BOX SCORE

Worcester 0 0 1 – 1
St. John’s 0 0 0 – 0

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Trupp Wor (holding), 0:53; Melchiori Stj (tripping), 3:18; Walker Stj (hooking), 10:19; Kichton Stj (interference), 15:12; DeMelo Wor (interference), 15:25.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-DeMelo Wor (diving/embellishment), 12:48; Walker Stj (hooking), 12:48; Tennyson Wor (high-sticking), 15:08.

3rd Period-1, Worcester, Tarasov 5 (Fedun, Tierney), 3:12. Penalties-Haley Wor (tripping), 4:20; Burish Wor (roughing), 9:50; Cornell Stj (roughing), 9:50; Cornell Stj (interference), 13:09.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 15-16-11-42. St. John’s 6-4-10-20.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 4; St. John’s 0 / 4.
Goalies-Worcester, Dell 1-1-0 (20 shots-20 saves). St. John’s, Hellebuyck 9-6-0 (42 shots-41 saves).
A-5,673
Referees-Trevor Hanson (47).
Linesmen-Jim Vail (75), Joe Maynard (24).

WorSharks offense finally awakens in 5-2 thrashing of Providence

The Worcester Sharks, who have had recent issues with putting the puck in the next, exploded for four second period goals Saturday night at the DCU Center against the Providence Bruins en route to a 5-2 thrashing of their Atlantic Division rivals in front of a crowd of 5,251. Thirteen of the 18 WorSharks skaters registered points, including multiple point nights from Evan Trupp and Ryan Carpenter. Goaltender J.P. Anderson had 22 saves in his first home win on the season.

Worcester Sharks rookie Evan Trupp continues to climb up the lists in every offensive
team category with a goal and an assist Saturday night against Providence. Trupp is
in the top 3 of nearly every category, and leads the team in plus/minus at +5.
Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights were once again use the Worcester Sharks YouTube channel.

Worcester Sharks head coach Roy Sommer used the same lineup Saturday night as he went with in Friday night’s 3-2 overtime loss to Springfield, with Jimmy Bonneau, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Nick Jones, and Rylan Schwartz all scratches for Worcester. Aaron Dell was the back-up goaltender. The WorSharks injury list, which at least officially is just Emanuelsson, might have an addition after defenseman Taylor Doherty blocked a shot with his left hand late in the second period. He skated to the bench in obvious pain, and after getting some preliminary treatment from trainer Matt White on the bench skated off to the dressing room. Doherty did not return to the bench to start the third period.

One thing that irks this writer about the two referee system is many times the referee closest to the action decides something isn’t a penalty while the referee outside the zone decides it is. It happened again in the later portion of the first period during a break into the Providence zone by Travis Oleksuk. The PBruins defender played it well, and Oleksuk was unable to get a shot off and fell to the ice crashing into Providence goaltender Malcolm Subban. Referee Gino Binda had a great view of the play from about 20 feet away and didn’t call anything. AHL rookie referee Ben Moser, who was 150 feet away from the action, decided that Oleksuk was guilty of goaltender interference. Of course, Providence scored on the power play to take a 2-1 lead. Video clearly shows Binda made the right call by not calling anything.

Lots of heads up plays never make it into the boxscore, or into press accounts, but WorSharks goaltender J.P. Anderson had one that very few fans probably noticed. In the third period PBruins winger Matt Lindblad was called for tripping, but a clock malfunction didn’t put the penalty time on the scoreboard. When Lindblad and the penalty box attendant stood to get ready to open the door to let Linblad back on the ice Anderson noticed this and started banging his stick on the ice to warn his teammates.

A couple of special teams streaks for Worcester ended Saturday night. With Providence scoring a power play goal the WorSharks streak of 17 straight kills, going back to the second portion of Taylor Doherty’s double minor on November 14 against Manchester, came to an end. What also ended was Worcester’s power play futility that had gone 27 chances in a row with scoring, going back to that same November 14th game against Manchester.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 13 Evan Trupp (gwg,a)
2. WOR – 20 Matt Taormina (g)
3. WOR – 21 Travis Oleksuk (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Ryan Carpenter.

Even strength lines
Tarasov/Tierney/Karlsson
Lerg/Burish/Hamilton
Trupp/Oleksuk/Carpenter
Haley/Langlois/Hayes

Taormina/Doherty
Abeltshauser/DeMelo
Young/Fedun

BOX SCORE

Providence 2 0 0 – 2
Worcester 1 4 0 – 5

1st Period-1, Providence, Ferlin 4 (Khokhlachev, Caron), 0:11. 2, Worcester, Langlois 4 (Burish, Doherty), 8:41. 3, Providence, Caron 7 (Cunningham, Spooner), 16:37 (PP). Penalties-Khokhlachev Pro (hooking), 6:15; Oleksuk Wor (goaltender interference), 14:45.

2nd Period-4, Worcester, Oleksuk 1 (Carpenter, Trupp), 1:52. 5, Worcester, Trupp 5 (Carpenter, Abeltshauser), 3:49 (PP). 6, Worcester, Taormina 3 (Fedun, Tarasov), 10:09 (PP). 7, Worcester, Haley 6 (Tierney, Hayes), 18:33. Penalties-Caron Pro (holding), 2:47; Simonelli Pro (high-sticking), 10:00; Karlsson Wor (roughing), 13:34.

3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Lindblad Pro (tripping), 8:21.

Shots on Goal-Providence 14-4-6-24. Worcester 8-20-4-32.
Power Play Opportunities-Providence 1 / 2; Worcester 2 / 4.
Goalies-Providence, Subban 4-4-0 (32 shots-27 saves). Worcester, Anderson 2-5-0 (24 shots-22 saves).
A-5,251
Referees-Geno Binda (22), Ben Moser (3).
Linesmen-Ed Boyle (81), Alex Stagnone (7).

WorSharks end record scoreless streak, still lose 3-2 to Springfield in OT

The Worcester Sharks entered Friday night’s contest at the DCU Center against the Springfield Falcons on a 150:29 goalless streak after being blanked in two games during their brief Pennsylvania trip last weekend, and after Evan Trupp’s goal early in the second period ended the streak at a franchise record 172:56 Melker Karlsson’s goal on the opening shift of the third period gave the WorSharks a lead for the first time in 340:26 minutes of play. It unfortunately took just 35 seconds for Worcester lose that lead, but the WorSharks earned a point by getting the game into overtime before losing 3-2.

Worcester Sharks center Melker Karlsson's third period goal, set up on a nice feed by
Chris Tierney, gave the WorSharks their first lead in over five full games. Worcester
was unable to hold that lead and settled for a point in a 3-2 OT loss to Springfield.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlight we use the Worcester Sharks YouTube channel. Watch for Springfield’s Sean Collins’ “accidental” pick of Worcester defenseman Taylor Doherty that sets up the overtime game winner for the Falcons.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Jimmy Bonneau, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Nick Jones, and Rylan Schwartz. J.P. Anderson was the back-up goaltender. Jones was recalled from the Indy Fuel (ECHL) earlier this week when Matt Tennyson was recalled to San Jose. Schwartz was a scratch for newcomer Adam Burish, who cleared waivers before Thanksgiving and was assigned to Worcester. Goaltender Troy Grosenick, at least as of yesterday, remains in San Jose after being injured in practice while replacing an also injured Alex Stalock. Injured players can’t be sent to the minor leagues, so now that Stalock is healthy one would guess that once Grosenick is ready to play he’s headed back to Worcester.

One of the reasons the WorSharks have had issues putting the puck in the net is, well, their goal scorers aren’t putting the puck into the net. Last season’s leading scorer Freddie Hamilton hasn’t had a goal in almost a month, Daniil Tarasov hasn’t had one in almost as long, and Travis Oleksuk still doesn’t have one. The only other returnee from last season with double digit goals is Eriah Hayes, and he hasn’t scored in three weeks. One has to wonder if San Jose had brought back Dan DaSilva, who is 9-9-18 with the Augsburg Panthers of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (Germany), would they be in the midst of this goal drought. Apropos of nothing, DaSilva is joined on the Panther’s roster by former WorSharks forwards T.J. Trevelyan and Mike Connolly, and former Worcester IceCats forwards Ivan Ciernik and Arvids Rekis.

A few seasons ago I moved from my traditional perch from high up in the DCU Center down to seats in the lower section on the redline exactly halfway between the press box and the ice surface. In those few seasons only three times has a puck gone out of play anywhere close to me, and all three of those occasions happened in a five game span a couple seasons ago. Last night was the closest I’ve ever seen anyone in my area almost get seriously injured by a puck when a Springfield clearing attempt was fired off in our direction. It hit the top of the glass, just a couple inches away from clearing it, and at the speed it was going there’s no way anyone could have gotten out of the way. Later on in the period longtime Sharkspage minion Stan Hosmer was struck in the head with a puck, but it had been flipped toward the glass and after being deflected had almost no momentum, so the puck was luckily undamaged.

Not a great night for linesmen Scott and Todd Whittemore, who are brothers and frequent on-ice officials at the DCU Center. Both are usually pretty good, but each made several noticeable errors on icing and offside calls, and both squads got away with too many men penalties despite it clearly happening in front of the linesmen. Luckily neither team was scored upon because of the mistakes. It’s only mentionable because while the refereeing in the AHL is wildly inconsistent the linesmen in the league do a great job night in and night out. Here’s to hoping the Whittemore brothers were suffering with a bit of turkey hangover.

For anyone that missed it, the pre-Thanksgiving snowstorm here in the New England region caused last Wednesday’s game at the Portland Pirates to be postponed until Tuesday, December 2nd.

The three stars of the game were
1. SPR – 20 Nathan Oystrick (OT gwg)
2. WOR – 15 Melker Karlsson (g)
3. SPR – 10 Marko Dano (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Evan Trupp.

Even strength lines
Tarasov/Tierney/Karlsson
Lerg/Burish/Hamilton
Trupp/Oleksuk/Carpenter
Haley/Langlois/Hayes

Taormina/Doherty
Abeltshauser/DeMelo
Young/Fedun

BOX SCORE

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

1st Period-1, Springfield, Gagnon 1 (Cowick), 3:17. Penalties-Gagnon Spr (fighting), 11:37; Haley Wor (fighting), 11:37.

2nd Period-2, Worcester, Trupp 4 (Young, Fedun), 2:27. Penalties-Collins Spr (high-sticking), 0:23; Sifers Spr (interference), 4:53; Dano Spr (interference), 11:53; Craig Spr (hooking), 17:53.

3rd Period-3, Worcester, Karlsson 4 (Tierney, Taormina), 0:26. 4, Springfield, Dano 2 (Madaisky), 1:01. Penalties-Forsberg Spr (delay of game), 3:15.

OT Period-5, Springfield, Oystrick 1 (Tynan, Collins), 2:42. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Springfield 5-7-12-1-25. Worcester 11-13-8-3-35.
Power Play Opportunities-Springfield 0 / 0; Worcester 0 / 5.
Goalies-Springfield, Forsberg 8-2-0 (35 shots-33 saves). Worcester, Dell 0-1-0 (25 shots-22 saves).
A-2,639
Referees-Kendrick Nicholson (44).
Linesmen-Scott Whittemore (96), Todd Whittemore (70).

WorSharks sleepwalk through morning game, lose 5-1 in Manchester

The Worcester Sharks schedule had them playing Wednesday morning in Manchester, but based on their performance it was as if the WorSharks missed their wakeup call as they were thoroughly outplayed by the Monarchs in a 5-1 loss at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire in front of a crowd of 8,296 that included thousands of screaming students. Evan Trupp had the only goal for Worcester, and J.P. Anderson had 35 saves in the losing effort.

Evan Trupp had the Worcester Sharks lone goal in a 5-1 loss to the Manchester
Monarchs Wednesday morning in New Hampshire. File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights, such as they are, we’ll use the Monarchs YouTube channel.

Scratches for Worcester were Jimmy Bonneau, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), and Gus Young. Aaron Dell was in his customary spot as backup goaltender. Word from Bill Ballou of the Telegram is Emanuelsson underwent surgery earlier this week and will miss up to four months.

With the 10am local start this writer was not around to cover the game and after watching the “highlights” has no intention of wasting his time in doing it in the future. We’ll just chalk it up to “one of those games” and move on to Friday’s contest in Allentown, PA against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. If folks are truly interested in the specifics they can check out Ballou’s game story, and both the WorSharks and Monarchs have their takes on the game.

The three stars of the game were
1. MCH – 22 Brian O’Neill (2g,a)
2. MCH – 10 Zach O’Brien (g,a)
3. MCH – 37 Nick Shore (2a)

Looking at the box score this one is easy, the Sharkspage player of the game is Evan Trupp

Even strength lines, courtesy of Sharkspage minion Tyler Lowell:
Tarasov/Hamilton/Langlois
Haley/Karlsson/Hayes
Lerg/Tierney/Carpenter
Schwartz/Oleksuk/Trupp

Taormina/Tennyson
Abeltshauser/Fedun
DeMelo/Doherty

BOX SCORE

Worcester 0 1 0 – 1
Manchester 1 2 2 – 5

1st Period-1, Manchester, O’Brien 1 (Shore, O’Neill), 10:47. Penalties-Karlsson Wor (tripping), 0:25; Langlois Wor (tripping), 11:20; Crescenzi Mch (goaltender interference), 14:30.

2nd Period-2, Manchester, O’Neill 5 7:58 (SH). 3, Worcester, Trupp 3 (Schwartz, Tierney), 9:31. 4, Manchester, O’Neill 6 (Shore, O’Brien), 10:15. Penalties-Schwartz Wor (high-sticking), 4:04; Forbort Mch (holding), 6:59; Hayes Wor (hooking), 11:52; Hayes Wor (roughing), 14:30; Forbort Mch (roughing), 14:30.

3rd Period-5, Manchester, Miller 5 (Auger, Weal), 5:59. 6, Manchester, Gravel 1 (Sabourin), 19:45. Penalties-Tierney Wor (delay of game), 2:36; Crescenzi Mch (roughing), 6:24; Doherty Wor (fighting), 8:53; Sabourin Mch (fighting), 8:53.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 6-10-7-23. Manchester 18-12-10-40.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 3; Manchester 0 / 5.
Goalies-Worcester, Anderson 1-4-0 (40 shots-35 saves). Manchester, Berube 8-3-0 (23 shots-22 saves).
A-8,296
Referees-Ryan Hersey (8), Geoff Miller (28).
Linesmen-Pat Turcotte (75), Alex Stagnone (7).

WorSharks blanked by Falcons as great effort by Anderson wasted

The Worcester Sharks surrendered a penalty shot goal for the first time since last February, and while WorSharks rookie goaltender J.P. Anderson did everything he could to keep that the only goal against the Worcester skaters were unable to solve Springfield Falcons goaltender Anton Forsberg as the WorSharks lost 1-0 to the Falcons at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts Saturday night. It was the first time in 20 years of AHL hockey in the city the only goal of the game was on a penalty shot, and just the third time in WorSharks franchise history the team has lost 1-0.

Worcester Sharks rookie goaltender J.P. Anderson, pictured from Tuesday's 4-2
win over Springfield, had several nice saves on Saturday night against those
same Falcons but was a hard luck 1-0 loser. Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll use the WorSharks YouTube channel. There is one highlight missing, which we’ll discuss below.

Scratches for Worcester were Jimmy Bonneau, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), and Gus Young. Aaron Dell was the backup goaltender. Bonneau was listed as a healthy scratch, but perhaps “banged up” may have been a better term as Bonneau cut his hand pretty badly in his bout Friday night against Manchester tough guy Josh Gratton. Considering what Gratton looked like after the fight perhaps he’s lucky that Bonneau did hurt his hand or it could have been much worse for him.

The penalty shot against for Worcester was the first since February 8, 2014 when John Albert of St. John’s beat Harri Sateri. Worcester has allowed three penalty shot goals in the last three attempts against them, but is still a very respectable seven for 12 in saves over the last nine plus seasons.

The WorSharks do a great job of putting together their highlight package, so when they miss one it really does stick out like a sore thumb. That’s the case for Saturday’s game as the video doesn’t include a two-on-none breakaway save by Anderson when T.J. Tynan and former Worcester defenseman Denny Urban broke in all alone on the rookie netminder as time was winding down in the first period. Anderson never committed to either player, and as the puck got closer he went low to the ice hoping a crossing pass or shot would hit him. Tynan’s attempt to tap the puck home was stuffed by Anderson’s right pad.

It wasn’t a great first half of the game for WorSharks defenseman Matt Tennyson. He was the player that hooked Springfield’s Sean Collins for the penalty shot against, and earlier in the game Tennyson got caught breaking one of the easiest rules not to: playing with a broken stick. Just before Anderson’s two-on-none save Worcester was on the power play with a faceoff down in the Falcons end. It was a clean win back to Tennyson, who wound up to blast a slapshot on Springfield goaltender Anton Forsberg. The blade of the stick went streaking toward the net, the puck barely moved. In a total brain cramp Tennyson held on to the broken shaft and tried to kick the puck away not once but twice. Referee Jamie Koharski quickly put his arm up to correctly call Tennyson for playing with a broken stick.

One of the things that annoys hockey fans took place at the DCU Center Saturday night. Referee Chris Brown, who is known for “letting the boys play”, was teamed with Koharski, who is known for calling everything in the book. The two issued ten power plays in the first 40 minutes of the game and none in the last 20. What are the odds there was no penalties in the third period? If it’s a penalty in the early part of the game it needs to be a penalty in the late part of the game. And you can trust this writer, there were many borderline calls in the first two periods that weren’t as clear as the ones let go in the third.

The three stars of the game were
1. SPR – 35 Anton Forsberg (33 save shutout)
2. SPR – 17 Sean Collins (penalty shot game winner)
3. WOR – 34 J.P. Anderson (15 saves)

The Sharkspage player of the game was J.P. Anderson.

Even strength lines
Tarasov/Hamilton/Langlois
Haley/Karlsson/Hayes
Lerg/Tierney/Carpenter
Schwartz/Oleksuk/Trupp

Taormina/Tennyson
Abeltshauser/Fedun
DeMelo/Doherty

BOX SCORE

Springfield 0 1 0 – 1
Worcester 0 0 0 – 0

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Ponich Spr (cross-checking, fighting), 5:58; Doherty Wor (fighting), 5:58; Tarasov Wor (slashing), 7:22; Carpenter Wor (hooking), 12:59; Sifers Spr (interference), 18:47; Tennyson Wor (broken stick), 19:06; Rychel Spr (hooking), 20:00.

2nd Period-1, Springfield, Collins 5 8:08 (PS). Penalties-McCarthy Spr (interference), 3:23; Ponich Spr (fighting, game misconduct – third major/second fight), 12:51; Rychel Spr (roughing, roughing), 12:51; Haley Wor (fighting), 12:51; Hayes Wor (roughing), 12:51; Fedun Wor (tripping), 13:47; Craig Spr (slashing), 19:50.

3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Springfield 8-4-4-16. Worcester 8-9-16-33.
Power Play Opportunities-Springfield 0 / 4; Worcester 0 / 6.
Goalies-Springfield, Forsberg 1-0-0 (33 shots-33 saves). Worcester, Anderson 1-3-0 (16 shots-15 saves).
A-3,385
Referees-Chris Brown (86), Jamie Koharski (84).
Linesmen-Ed Boyle (81), Todd Whittemore (70).

WorSharks slow start costs them in long run as they lose 5-2 to Manchester

The Worcester Sharks have gotten into the habit lately of starting off slowly and finishing with a bang, but Friday night at the DCU Center against the Manchester Monarchs the WorSharks couldn’t make up the ground they lost early in the game and saw their modest three game winning streak grind to a halt after losing 5-2 to their division rivals from New Hampshire. Matt Tennyson and Matt Taormina each scored a goal for Worcester, while Jordan Weal paced the Monarchs with two goals and an assist. The teams will play again Sunday afternoon in Manchester.

Worcester Sharks rookie goaltender J.P. Anderson made his first home start of the season
for the WorSharks and despite not playing poorly allowed three goals on 33 shots in a 5-2
loss to Manchester. The Monarchs final two goals were into an empty net.
Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we once again use the WorSharks YouTube channel.

Scratches for Worcester were Konrad Abeltshauser, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), and Rylan Schwartz. With Troy Grosenick getting the call to replace an injured Al Stalock in San Jose the WorSharks recalled goaltender Aaron Dell from the Allen Americans, the Sharks ECHL affiliate. Dell played six AHL games last season for Abbotsford and his numbers (2.29/.922) were respectable. In three games with the Americans this season Dell’s numbers are not quite so good (4.46/.831).

Prior to the game the WorSharks announced that Bryan Lerg will serve at the team’s seventh captain in franchise history. It was predicted by many, including Yours truly, when he was signed over the summer. Lerg joins Graham Mink (2007-08), Ryan Vesce (2008-10), Jay Leach (2010-11), Mike Moore (2011-12), John McCarthy (2012-13), and Rob Davison (2013-14) in wearing the “C”.

The official scorers at the DCU Center usually do a great job in awarding assists, but they missed one on Tennyson’s first period goal. The video is pretty clear that Dylan DeMelo should get one for his pass to Freddie Hamilton.

Streaking WorSharks: Tennyson has points in four straight games (2g,2a), and Hamilton a two game streak (2a).

Bobby Howard of the Power Play Post Show has been tracking the statistics for the AHL’s new overtime rules, where they play seven minutes and after the first whistle beyond the three minute mark switch from four-on-four to three-on-three. Just looking at his numbers it’s a safe bet that not only will it be in the AHL to stay but the NHL will undoubtedly be adopting it for next season. Through 177 games played, this season there have been 36 games that have gone into OT and just six continued on to the shootout. Compared to last season over the same total of games played there was 45 OT games with 29 going on to a shootout. The numbers prove that the new rules do work in reducing shootout games.

The three stars of the game were:
1. MCH – 19 Jordan Weal (2g,a)
2. MCH – 35 Jean-Francois Berube (win,29 saves)
3. WOR – 5 Matt Tennyson (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Matt Taormina.

Even strength lines
Langlois/Hamilton/Tarasov
Haley/Karlsson/Carpenter
Lerg/Tierney/Hayes
Bonneau/Oleksuk/Trupp

Tennyson/Taormina
Fedun/DeMelo
Young/Doherty

BOX SCORE

Manchester 3 0 2 – 5
Worcester 1 0 1 – 2

1st Period-1, Manchester, Van der Gulik 3 (Miller, Backman), 1:08. 2, Manchester, Weal 4 (Sabourin), 13:00. 3, Manchester, Weal 5 (Miller, Dowd), 15:33 (PP). 4, Worcester, Tennyson 3 (Hamilton), 18:23 (PP). Penalties-Gratton Mch (fighting), 3:28; Bonneau Wor (fighting), 3:28; Crescenzi Mch (tripping), 6:45; Doherty Wor (roughing, unsportsmanlike conduct), 15:24; Miller Mch (double minor – high-sticking), 18:10.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Crescenzi Mch (hooking), 9:17; Horvat Mch (tripping), 15:18.

3rd Period-5, Worcester, Taormina 2 17:47. 6, Manchester, Backman 4 (Weal), 18:35 (EN). 7, Manchester, Shore 6 (Auger, O’Neill), 19:15 (EN). Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Manchester 15-8-12-35. Worcester 12-11-8-31.
Power Play Opportunities-Manchester 1 / 2; Worcester 1 / 5.
Goalies-Manchester, Berube 6-3-0 (31 shots-29 saves). Worcester, Anderson 1-2-0 (33 shots-30 saves).
A-2,805
Referees-Jarrod Ragusin (2).
Linesmen-Ed Boyle (81), Frank Murphy (29).

WorSharks with another third period comeback in 4-2 win over Springfield

The Worcester Sharks went into Tuesday’s Veterans Day matchup against the Springfield Falcons with the AHL’s best record when trailing after two periods already in their pocket, and after finding themselves down a goal heading into the third period the WorSharks put up a four spot to once again come from behind to defeat the Falcons 4-2 at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. The win was the first in the AHL for rookie goaltender J.P. Anderson.

Worcester Sharks forward Chris Tierney, pictured from Saturday's 4-2 win
over Providence, had two assists Tuesday against Springfield to give him
five points in two games with the WorSharks.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll be using the Springfield Falcons YouTube channel.

Scratches for Worcester were Jimmy Bonneau, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), and Gus Young. Troy Grosenick was the back-up goaltender. On Monday the WorSharks released Tyler Shattock from his PTO. Shattock had no points and two fights in three games for Worcester. Just as Tuesday’s game ended the Allen Americans announced goaltender Aaron Dell was recalled to Worcester. No word as to the reason. Travis Oleksuk returned to the lineup after missing six games due to a shoulder injury and had the primary assist on Evan Trupp’s goal that put Worcester ahead to stay.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 11 Bryan Lerg (gwg)
2. WOR – 34 J.P. Anderson (30 save win)
3. SPR – 12 Ryan Craig (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Chris Tierney.

Even strength Lines, courtesy of Sharkspage minion Tyler Lowell…
Langlois/Hamilton/Tarasov
Lerg/Tierney/Hayes
Haley/Karlsson/Carpenter
Trupp/Oleksuk/Schwartz

Tennyson/Taormina
Fedun/DeMelo
Abeltshauser/Doherty

BOX SCORE

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

1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Collins Spr (closing hand on puck), 3:19; Haley Wor (hooking), 6:54; Doherty Wor (delay of game), 10:20.

2nd Period-1, Springfield, Collins 4 (Tynan, Madaisky), 9:04. Penalties-Carpenter Wor (tripping), 2:42; Cherniwchan Spr (high-sticking), 11:04.

3rd Period-2, Worcester, Tennyson 2 (Tarasov, Hamilton), 0:51. 3, Worcester, Trupp 2 (Oleksuk, Abeltshauser), 2:21. 4, Worcester, Lerg 1 (Tierney), 6:59. 5, Springfield, Craig 7 (Madaisky, Tynan), 11:12 (PP). 6, Worcester, Langlois 3 (Tierney, Haley), 19:19 (EN). Penalties-Sifers Spr (hooking), 2:35; Carpenter Wor (high-sticking), 7:52; Tennyson Wor (cross-checking), 10:31; Schwartz Wor (hooking), 15:21.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 11-3-10-24. Springfield 10-15-7-32.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 3; Springfield 1 / 6.
Goalies-Worcester, Anderson 1-1-0 (32 shots-30 saves). Springfield, Dansk 4-3-0 (23 shots-20 saves).
A-2,009
Referees-Jon McIsaac (45), Terry Koharski (10).
Linesmen-Frank Murphy (29), Luke Galvin (2).

WorSharks stun Providence with third period comeback, win 4-2

The Worcester Sharks knew they were getting a pretty good player when Chris Tierney was reassigned to the team from the NHL by San Jose, but few expected a three point night from the rookie as Tierney’s goal and two assists help propel the WorSharks into first place in the AHL’s Atlantic Division after their 4-2 win over the Providence Bruins Saturday night at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of a crowd of 5,310. Eriah Hayes and Melker Karlsson both had a goal and an assist in the contest, while Ryan Carpenter added a late insurance goal to give Worcester some breathing room.

Worcester Sharks forward Chris Tierney, pictured while with the San Jose Sharks,
had his first professional goal Saturday night in a 4-2 win over the Providence
Bruins. Tierney also had two assists in the contest.

For video highlights we once again get to use the WorSharks YouTube channel.

Scratches for Worcester were Jimmy Bonneau, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Travis Oleksuk (shoulder), and Tyler Shattock. J.P. Anderson was the back-up goaltender. With Tierney being sent down from the big club San Jose also reassigned Chris Crane to the Missouri Mavericks (ECHL). Crane has just a single assist in 11 AHL games since leaving Ohio State (NCAA) in 2012-13. The word on Oleksuk’s injury is pretty good as he has started practicing with the team, so his return is likely now measured in days as opposed to weeks. The word on Emanuelsson’s injury is the exact opposite as the import from Sweden faces surgery and a likely long absence from the lineup.

To say Tierney looked good would be a massive understatement. The rookie center is in Worcester only because of the number of healthy forwards in San Jose is growing and they can’t keep everyone they have on the NHL roster. While Tierney is here he’ll get to work on his face-offs, which appear to be the only major flaw in his game. This writer didn’t keep track of the numbers, but to call them “abysmal” would likely be correct. The good thing is taking face-offs is a very teachable skill, so hopefully Tierney can pick up on it rapidly.

WorSharks fans got a scare when early in the third period when Daniil Tarasov blocked a booming slapshot from the point by a Providence defenseman with his left hand. Tarasov quickly dropped his stick and shed his glove as he headed to the bench as the play rushed up into the Bruins end. In the end Tarasov, discounting the power play Worcester had to kill, didn’t miss a shift.

Saturday was another of those “advantage” games the WorSharks have in the schedule as Providence played Friday night against Portland. The third period was where that advantage was evident as while Worcester outplayed the PBruins for most the game the WorSharks speed visibly wore down Providence to the point where the speedier Worcester forwards were able to get to loose pucks to develop scoring chances. In four “advantage” games the WorSharks are 3-1-0. Worcester will have its first “disadvantage” game in a couple weeks in Hershey.

You don’t often see mistakes on the opening faceoff a period by the officials, but comically it happened to begin both the second and third period. In the second period with the teams lined up apparently no one checked the clock as before it wound down to the horn to end the first intermission referee Evgeny Romasko dropped the puck. Worcester “won” the faceoff that was quickly called back and the clock set to 20:00. To begin the third period somehow the puck slipped out of the hand of referee Mark Lemelin before anyone was ready. Worcester “won” that draw too–only because the PBruins center was hardly even bent over–but order was quickly restored and this time Providence won the official opening faceoff.

Worcester’s next game is Veterans Day as they head to Springfield for a 3pm EST start. We won’t be live tweeting the game but should have our usual post-game coverage soon after. The game will be aired live on AHLlive.com, and will be on tape delay on WTAG at 7pm.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 50 Chris Tierney (g,a)
2. WOR – 7 Eriah Hayes (g,a)
3. WOR – 11 Bryan Lerg (2a)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Melker Karlsson.

Even strength lines
Langlois/Hamilton/Tarasov
Haley/Karlsson/Carpenter
Lerg/Tierney/Hayes
Trupp/Schwartz/(everyone)

Tennyson/Taormina
Fedun/DeMelo
Abeltshauser/Doherty
(Young mixed in throughout the pairings)

BOX SCORE

Providence 1 1 0 – 2
Worcester 1 0 3 – 4

1st Period-1, Worcester, Karlsson 3 (Lerg, Tierney), 5:50 (PP). 2, Providence, Kane 1 (Casto, MacKenzie), 14:50. Penalties-Carpenter Wor (hooking), 1:24; Knight Pro (slashing), 1:51; Florek Pro (kneeing), 3:57; Knight Pro (boarding), 8:20; Cross Pro (roughing, roughing), 16:20; Hayes Wor (roughing), 16:20.

2nd Period-3, Providence, Khokhlachev 5 (Eminger), 19:28 (PP). Penalties-Ferlin Pro (hooking), 12:57; Doherty Wor (hooking), 19:23.

3rd Period-4, Worcester, Tierney 1 (Hayes, Taormina), 7:09. 5, Worcester, Hayes 2 (Tierney, Lerg), 10:19. 6, Worcester, Carpenter 4 (Karlsson, Tennyson), 17:21. Penalties-Trupp Wor (hooking), 2:39; Randell Pro (roughing), 16:05; Abeltshauser Wor (roughing), 16:05; Taormina Wor (tripping), 18:43.

Shots on Goal-Providence 10-6-9-25. Worcester 14-16-11-41.
Power Play Opportunities-Providence 1 / 4; Worcester 1 / 5.
Goalies-Providence, Subban 3-2-0 (41 shots-37 saves). Worcester, Grosenick 7-2-0 (25 shots-23 saves).
A-5,310
Referees-Mark Lemelin (41), Evgeny Romasko (6).
Linesmen-Alex Stagnone (7), Todd Whittemore (70).

WorSharks not spooked by Phantoms, beat Lehigh Valley 4-3

The Worcester Sharks got two goals from rookie Jeremy Langlois, a shorthanded goal by Ryan Carpenter, and multiple point night from Freddie Hamilton and Matt Taormina, along with a 32 save performance from goaltender Troy Grosenick to defeat the Lehigh Valley Phantoms 4-3 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. The win was Grosenick’s sixth on the season, which leads the American Hockey League.

Worcester Sharks forward Daniil Tarasov lifts a backhander over Lehigh Valley
Phantoms goaltender Anthony Stolarz to tie the game 3-3. Ryan Carpenter would
add a shorthanded goal 61 seconds later to give the WorSharks a 4-3 victory.
Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlight we once again get to use the WorSharks YouTube channel.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Chris Crane, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Travis Oleksuk (shoulder), and Tyler Shattock. J.P. Anderson returned to his usual spot as backup goaltender. During the week there was a stop of the Worcester Shuttle as Tyler Kennedy was recalled from his conditioning loan by the San Jose Sharks. Just before posting time it was announced that San Jose had loaned Chris Tierney to Worcester. Tierney will wear #50 for Worcester, the first time a WorSharks player has worn that number.

Determining scratches for the game is usually easy, they’re listed pregame for the media. The last couple games Worcester head coach Roy Sommer has had this writer (and the team’s social media person) scrambling to figure out who was scratched because he changes his mind after warm-ups. In the case of last night defenseman Gus Young was listed as a scratch but played. Because of the early power play against it was difficult to determine who the last scratch for the WorSharks was. After three different players showed up on Worcester’s fourth line with Jimmy Bonneau and Rylan Schwartz it became obvious the last scratch was Shattock.

The end of the game was marred by two incidents, one involving the officials and one involving a check to the head of Melker Karlsson. The first was while Worcester was on a late game power play and Lehigh Valley pulled goaltender Anthony Stolarz for a fifth skater. The Phantoms had control of the puck in the WorSharks end and Worcester was forced to ice the puck with a 19 seconds remaining. Only neither linesman blew the whistle as each apparently thought it was Worcester that was shorthanded. It took five extra seconds off the clock until it was figured out and the ensuing faceoff by rule was at center ice instead of in the Worcester zone, costing Lehigh Valley a legitimate chance to tie the game. After the final horn Darroll Powe threw a late, high hit on Karlsson, connecting the head area with his stick. After a conference the referees gave Powe a match penalty, and he is automatically suspended until a review of the incident by the AHL. Karlsson skated off under his own power.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 28 Jeremy Langlois (2g)
2. WOR – 12 Freddie Hamilton (2a)
3. LV – 24 Petr Straka (g,a)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Ryan Carpenter.

Even strength lines
Langlois/Hamilton/Tarasov
Haley/Karlsson/Carpenter
Lerg/Trupp/Hayes
Bonneau/Schwartz/(many)

Tennyson/Taormina
Fedun/DeMelo
Abeltshauser/Doherty
(Young mixed in throughout the pairings)

BOX SCORE

Lehigh Valley 1 1 1 – 3
Worcester 1 1 2 – 4

1st Period-1, Lehigh Valley, Leier 2 (Straka, Gostisbehere), 5:10 (PP). 2, Worcester, Langlois 1 (Hamilton, Taormina), 17:14. Penalties-Doherty Wor (slashing), 3:19; Powe Lv (holding), 9:24; Doherty Wor (roughing), 15:12; Hagg Lv (slashing), 18:03.

2nd Period-3, Worcester, Langlois 2 (Fedun, Taormina), 11:15 (PP). 4, Lehigh Valley, Straka 3 (Pettersson, Hagg), 18:39. Penalties-Doherty Wor (high-sticking), 6:39; Stortini Lv (interference), 8:25; Manning Lv (cross-checking), 11:05.

3rd Period-5, Lehigh Valley, Alderson 2 (Goumas, Lamarche), 8:02. 6, Worcester, Tarasov 3 (Tennyson, Hamilton), 8:51. 7, Worcester, Carpenter 3 (Schwartz), 9:52 (SH). Penalties-Trupp Wor (tripping), 9:08; Goumas Lv (slashing), 17:46; Powe Lv (match – check to the head), 20:00.

Shots on Goal-Lehigh Valley 12-9-14-35. Worcester 10-9-16-35.
Power Play Opportunities-Lehigh Valley 1 / 4; Worcester 1 / 5.
Goalies-Lehigh Valley, Stolarz 0-3-0 (35 shots-31 saves). Worcester, Grosenick 6-2-0 (35 shots-32 saves).
A-1,585
Referees-Geoff Miller (28), Jake Brenk (15).
Linesmen-Alex Stagnone (7), Scott Whittemore (96).

WorSharks dig hole too big to climb out of, lose 4-3 to Hartford

The Worcester Sharks gave up three first period goals and when Hartford added a fourth early in the third period the WorSharks looked down and out, but three quick strikes in the final stanza got Worcester within one but that was as close as they would get in a 4-3 loss to the Wolf Pack Sunday afternoon at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Rookie netminder J.P. Anderson took the loss in his first career AHL start.

Worcester Sharks forward Tyler Kennedy, on a conditioning loan from
the San Jose Sharks, had a goal and an assist plus a diving play to
help set up another goal in the WorSharks 4-3 loss to Hartford.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

After several games of being spoiled by highlights on the WorSharks YouTube channel for the road games we’ll have to go back to pointing at AHLlive’s highlight video package.

The only line-up change from Saturday’s win over Hershey was Anderson in net instead of Troy Grosenick. Scratches for Worcester were Jimmy Bonneau, Chris Crane, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder), Travis Oleksuk (shoulder) and Gus Young.

With his start Anderson becomes just the second right-catching goaltender in WorSharks history, with Nolan Schaefer being the first early in the 2006-07 season. In what would be called a silly stat Anderson is now in second place in all time Worcester pro hockey starts by a right catching goaltender. The Worcester IceCats only had one right catching goaltender in 11 years of play, Alex Westlund, and his entire IceCats career consisted of 7:35 worth of action at the end of a 7-6 victory in Springfield on March 23, 2001. Westlund came into the game after Brent Johnson received a serious skate cut on his back, and gave up a goal on four shots against in the relief appearance.

There were two fights in the contest, the first was Micheal Haley taking on Wolf Pack enforcer Nick Tarnasky after Tarnasty threw a big hit on a WorSharks player after the whistle blew. Tarnasky had the early edge, but Haley came on at the end and cut Tarnasky with a vicious right that sent him to the ice and then off to the dressing room for repairs. The second battle was WorSharks PTO’er Tyler Shattock fighting Steve Spinell in an even fight brought on after a high hit by Spinell, who received a minor for checking the head on the play. All such penalties are reviewed by the AHL, so potentially more on that later.

For the first time this season the Worcester Sharks lost a game where they had a potential scheduling advantage. While Worcester only had to make an hour trip to Hartford the Wolf Pack had to make a mad dash from Allentown, Pennsylvania after taking on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms Saturday night. The three goal opening period outburst by Hartford shows that long bus rides may not be as big a hindrance as one would think.

The three stars of the game were
1. HFD – 30 Cedrick Desjardins (36 saves)
2. HFD – 10 J.T. Miller (g,a)
3. HFD – 17 Chris Bourque (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Tyler Kennedy.

Even strength lines
Haley/Karlsson/Hayes
Langlois/Hamilton/Tarasov
Lerg/Kennedy/Carpenter
Trupp/Schwartz/Shattock

Tennyson/Taormina
Fedun/DeMelo
Abeltshauser/Doherty

BOX SCORE

Worcester 0 0 3 – 3
Hartford 3 0 1 – 4

1st Period-1, Hartford, Bourque 3 (Bourque, Miller), 8:46 (PP). 2, Hartford, Miller 3 (Bodie), 11:24. 3, Hartford, Kristo 3 (Vaive, Lindberg), 14:05. Penalties-Langlois Wor (hooking), 7:34; DeMelo Wor (holding), 12:05; Tarnasky Hfd (interference), 15:54; Spinell Hfd (cross-checking), 18:03.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Lindberg Hfd (tripping), 0:38; Potulny Hfd (slashing), 1:46; Haley Wor (roughing, fighting), 9:23; Tarnasky Hfd (fighting), 9:23; Tennyson Wor (cross-checking), 15:28.

3rd Period-4, Hartford, Fast 1 (Bodie, Lindberg), 0:29. 5, Worcester, Carpenter 2 (Kennedy, DeMelo), 11:52. 6, Worcester, Hamilton 5 (Tarasov, Abeltshauser), 16:47 (PP). 7, Worcester, Kennedy 2 (Lerg, DeMelo), 18:48. Penalties-Kristo Hfd (hooking), 2:46; Shattock Wor (fighting), 5:53; Spinell Hfd (checking to the head, fighting), 5:53; Fedun Wor (hooking), 13:12; Jackson Hfd (slashing), 16:03.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 12-13-14-39. Hartford 7-7-4-18.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 7; Hartford 1 / 5.
Goalies-Worcester, Anderson 0-1-0 (18 shots-14 saves). Hartford, Desjardins 3-0-0 (39 shots-36 saves).
A-2,443
Referees-Cameron Voss (78), Keith Kaval (40).
Linesmen-Brent Colby (7), Paul Simeon (66).

WorSharks end home stand on up note with 5-4 win over Hershey

The Worcester Sharks went into Saturday night’s contest with something to prove after their lackluster performance against Portland on Wednesday, and behind multiple point nights by Daniil Tarasov, Konrad Abeltshauser, Jeremy Langlois, and Matt Taormina, and with 11 different players on the score sheet the WorSharks defeated the Hershey Bears 5-4 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts to finish their six game home stand with a 3-2-1 record. Worcester now takes to the road for a Sunday matinee in Hartford against the Wolf Pack.

Worcester Sharks forward Danill Tarasov, pictured from Wednesday's loss to
Portland, scored his first two goals of the season to help the WorSharks
defeat the Hershey Bears 5-4. Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For the video highlights we once again use the WorSharks YouTube channel.

Scratches for Worcester were Jimmy Bonneau, Chris Crane, Petter Emanuelsson (shoulder),Travis Oleksuk (shoulder) and Gus Young. Word is Oleksuk’s shoulder injury wasn’t as serious as first though and he may be ready sooner than later. Emanuelsson’s injury is the same one he had in camp and there’s no definitive word as to how long he’ll be out. J.P. Anderson was in his usual spot as back-up goaltender, but if all goes according to plan he will be making his AHL debut Sunday in Hartford.

Tyler Kennedy, down in Worcester on an injury rehab stint from San Jose, really looks like the NHL forward that he is. Word was Kennedy was fast, but he’s leaving other players behind after just a couple of strides. As you can see from the highlight video his backhander goal was exactly the kind of thing a confident NHLer can do that many AHLers still are learning. Despite his having just a single goal in two games his leaving, which will be at most in a week or so, will impact the WorSharks significantly offensively.

Saturday was one of those “advantage” game for Worcester as they had Friday night off and Hershey had to play in Manchester. The WorSharks are a perfect 2-0 in those “advantage” games. Sunday is another “advantage” for Worcester as they only have to go an hour south to get to Hartford while the Wolf Pack has to make a mad dash from Allentown, Pennsylvania after taking on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

In an odd occurrence, the WorSharks have no captain but Hershey has two from Worcester. Former Worcester Sharks captain Mike Moore plays for the Bears, and former IceCats captain Bryan Helmer is an assistant coach with Hershey. The Bears also have another former Worcester player on their roster, forward Tim Kennedy.

There was one fight in the contest, and it’s one we’ve seen before albeit from a different angle as former WorSharks defenseman Moore did battle with Worcester’s Micheal Haley. The two have had some memorable bouts going back through the years, including an epic battle on March 18, 2012 when Haley played for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Both players got into a fight and were sent to the penalty boxes. Despite several attempts from the penalty box attendants and PA booth to warn the linesmen it was going to happen as soon as the penalty box doors opened to let the two out Moore charged right at Haley and the two went at it in a long brawl that earned them the rest of the night off. On Saturday Haley dropped the gloves and helmet–which is now an additional penalty in the AHL and NHL–while Moore just dropped the gloves. After Haley taunted him Moore finally took off the lid. He probably wished he’d kept it on as Haley won decisively.

Hershey’s goaltender, Pheonix Copley entered the game with a very impressive stat line, being 3-0 with a 0.64 goals against average and a save percentage of .971. After giving up five goals in 28 shots to Worcester he dropped to 1.71GAA and .927S%. Still great numbers, but it shows what one game can do to stats early in the season. Copley is from North Pole, Alaska, which would be a lot more impressive in it wasn’t located in the middle of the state.

The WorSharks will never say this, but we sure can: last night was an embarrassment for referee Kendrick Nicholson. It wasn’t just the more than half dozen easy calls he missed, it was also the ones he did make. Of the five non-automatic minors he did call only two were legitimate penalties, with the other three being beyond terrible calls. The boarding call against Hershey’s Chandler Stephenson very weak, with Stephenson riding a WorSharks defender into the side boards in about as non-violent a fashion as a body check can legitimately be called. Nicholson later called Haley for interference despite Haley checking–and he barely did that–the puck carrier. To exacerbate the issue when Haley complained Nicholson gave Haley an additional two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct when the rules call for a 10 minute misconduct.

In all, Worcester had 11 penalty minutes called against them, and all were against Haley. He had a fighting major, and unsportsmanlike conduct minor for taking his helmet off while fighting, a terrible interference minor, and another unsportsmanlike conduct minor for letting referee Nicholson know about his displeasure. With a goal, the game winner by the way, Haley was just an assist short of a Gordie Howe hat trick. In a fact that’s almost hard to believe Haley has never had one of those in the AHL. And while we’re talking about it, can someone please change the name of the penalty for taking your helmet off while fighting to something other than “unsportsmanlike conduct”? Seriously, is there anything more “sportsmanlike” than removing your helmet so your opponent doesn’t risk breaking his hand?

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 19 Daniil Tarasov (2g)
2. WOR – 10 Konrad Abeltshauser (2a)
3. WOR – 20 Matt Taormina (2a)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Jeremy Langlois.

Even strength lines
Haley/Karlsson/Hayes
Langlois/Hamilton/Tarasov
Lerg/Kennedy/Carpenter
Trupp/Schwartz/Shattock

Tennyson/Taormina
Fedun/DeMelo
Abeltshauser/Doherty

BOX SCORE

Hershey 1 1 2 – 4
Worcester 2 2 1 – 5

1st Period-1, Worcester, Tarasov 1 (Langlois, Abeltshauser), 1:50. 2, Hershey, Broda 2 (Gazley, Kundratek), 2:04. 3, Worcester, Kennedy 1 (Lerg, Taormina), 8:57. Penalties-No Penalties

2nd Period-4, Hershey, Schilling 1 (Burgdoerfer, Kennedy), 5:15. 5, Worcester, Hamilton 4 (Langlois, Abeltshauser), 6:17. 6, Worcester, Tarasov 2 (Hayes, Karlsson), 16:30. Penalties-Oleksy Her (cross-checking), 2:57; Moore Her (unsportsmanlike conduct, fighting), 10:35; Haley Wor (unsportsmanlike conduct, fighting), 10:35.

3rd Period-7, Worcester, Haley 5 (Fedun, Taormina), 2:00 (PP). 8, Hershey, Newbury 5 (Kundratek, Byers), 4:46. 9, Hershey, Oleksy 3 (Gazley, Newbury), 18:44. Penalties-Stephenson Her (boarding), 0:27; Haley Wor (interference, unsportsmanlike conduct), 8:04; Burgdoerfer Her (cross-checking), 15:24.

Shots on Goal-Hershey 11-5-7-23. Worcester 10-11-7-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Hershey 0 / 2; Worcester 1 / 3.
Goalies-Hershey, Copley 3-1-0 (28 shots-23 saves). Worcester, Grosenick 5-2-0 (23 shots-19 saves).
A-3,263
Referees-Kendrick Nicholson (44).
Linesmen-Alex Stagnone (7), Joe Ross (92).

Hamilton’s third period natural hat trick lifts WorSharks over Pirates 4-1

The Worcester Sharks entered the third period of Sunday’s DCU Center matinee against the Portland Pirates trailing by a goal, but Freddie Hamilton and Daniil Tarasov took care of that all by themselves with Tarasov assisting on all three of Hamilton’s third period goals as the WorSharks cruised to a 4-1 win in front of a crowd listed at 2,559. The win may have come at a significant cost as Petter Emanuelsson went off late in the opening period with an upper body injury and did not return. The two teams will have a rematch Wednesday at the DCU Center.

Freddie Hamilton, shown playing against the Portland Pirates last season, set the
Worcester Sharks team record for fastest three goals by a single player at 5:12
during the WorSharks 4-1 win over Portland on Sunday at the DCU Center.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For the highlights we once again look to the WorSharks YouTube channel.

Scratches for Worcester were Chris Crane, Jeremy Langlois, and Travis Oleksuk (shoulder). The WorSharks went with seven defensemen as Gus Young made his pro debut. J.P. Anderson was in his usual spot as the backup goaltender. Prior to the game it was indicated that Taylor Doherty was going to be scratched, but head coach Roy Sommer must have changed his mind after warm-ups and inserted the 6’8″ defenseman into the line-up.

The third goal by Hamilton was originally credited to Konrad Abeltshauser, although the fans at the DCU Center knew it was Hamilton’s right away as several hats rained on to the ice. With his third period natural hat trick Hamilton sets the WorSharks team record for quickest three goals by a single player at 5:12, breaking linemate Tarasov’s previous record of 19:38. That record was set in Springfield exactly on year ago Sunday, on October 26, 2013. It’s also the first WorSharks hat trick at the DCU Center since P.J. Fenton had one on February 28, 2009 in Worcester’s 7-3 victory over Springfield.

Sunday was the first time the WorSharks had four goals in a period since March 16, 2014, a 5-1 win over Manchester.

In another scoring change, as expected Petter Emanuelsson was given the goal originally credited to Micheal Haley on Friday night.

Just before the season started we took at look at the WorSharks schedule and indicated that there would be some games where Worcester held an advantage (or a disadvantage) based on the opponent’s schedule. This was one of those games, and the check mark was in the WorSharks column. Getting the two points in that instance is one of the things that will help propel the team into the playoffs, and right now the team is off on the right foot in that circumstance. Next Saturday is another one of those “advantage” games as the WorSharks have the previous night off while Hershey plays in Manchester.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 12 Freddie Hamilton (hat trick)
2. WOR – 19 Daniil Tarasov (3a)
3. WOR – 1 Troy Grosenick (28 saves)

The rule of thumb here at Sharkspage is the #1 and #2 stars of the game aren’t eligible for Sharkspage player of the game, but in this case how can it not be Hamilton for record breaking night?

With seven defensemen dressed and Emanuelsson injured the even strength lines were all over the place, so we’ll skip them for today.

BOXSCORE

Portland 1 0 0 – 1
Worcester 0 0 4 – 4

1st Period-1, Portland, Oberg 1 (Shinnimin), 4:16. Penalties-Louis Por (unsportsmanlike conduct, fighting), 8:56; Bonneau Wor (unsportsmanlike conduct, fighting), 8:56.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Martinook Por (hooking), 0:28; Haley Wor (holding), 6:17; Hayes Wor (roughing), 18:57.

3rd Period-2, Worcester, Hamilton 1 (Tarasov, Trupp), 2:41. 3, Worcester, Hamilton 2 (Tarasov, Trupp), 6:48 (PP). 4, Worcester, Hamilton 3 (Abeltshauser, Tarasov), 7:53. 5, Worcester, Trupp 1 (Schwartz, Lerg), 18:33 (EN). Penalties-Gormley Por (tripping), 5:20.

Shots on Goal-Portland 11-8-10-29. Worcester 9-11-15-35.
Power Play Opportunities-Portland 0 / 2; Worcester 1 / 2.
Goalies-Portland, McKenna 1-4-0 (34 shots-31 saves). Worcester, Grosenick 4-1-0 (29 shots-28 saves).
A-2,559
Referees-Geno Binda (22), Fred Leblanc (30).
Linesmen-Bob Bernard (42), Scott Whittemore (96).

Travis Oleksuk injured in WorSharks 3-2 OT loss to Syracuse

The Worcester Sharks managed to get their Friday night contest at the DCU Center against the Syracuse Crunch game into overtime with an extra attacker goal after being outplayed for most of the early parts of the contest, but for the first time this season couldn’t capitalize on the open ice of the new three on three extra session in the AHL and instead found themselves having to kill a penalty. A little bad luck resulted in a Crunch goal, but some worse luck in the opening period may have some longer term effects as Travis Oleksuk appears to be lost for some time with a right shoulder injury after crashing into the boards during the first period.

Worcester Sharks goaltender Troy Grosenick made 33 saves Friday night against
the Syracuse Crunch, some certainly of the 'highlight' variety, but that was
not enough as the WorSharks lost 3-2 in overtime.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we once again take a look at the WorSharks YouTube channel.

Scratches for the Worcester Sharks were Chris Crane and Gus Young. Eriah Hayes was assigned to the WorSharks before the game but wasn’t expected to arrive in the Bay State until late Friday evening. J.P. Anderson was once again the back up goaltender.

Looking at Worcester’s upcoming schedule barring an injury to Troy Grosenick it’s anyone’s guess as to when Anderson will see his first action in the AHL. The WorSharks don’t have a three-in-three until mid-December, which is usually an automatic two goaltender weekend. November 2nd at Hartford might be the day as that Sunday afternoon roadie comes after a Saturday night home game for Worcester, but many times previously Sommer has stayed with the same goaltender on occasions like that. The team record for consecutive starts to begin a season is nine, with both Thomas Greiss (2008-2009) and Alex Stalock (2011-2012) tying the mark. That Hartford game would be the WorSharks eighth game, so if Anderson doesn’t start that game it’s possible Grosenick will shatter the old mark.

There’s a good chance Friday’s loss will have some significant longer term consequences after Travis Oleksuk was forced to leave the game in the first period after crashing awkwardly into the boards deep in the Syracuse end. Oleksuk got up and off under his own power as the play moved into the WorSharks zone, but after sitting on the bench for a few moments was quickly ushered into the Worcester dressing room by trainer Matt White. Oleksuk did not return to action and was seen by many after the game with his right arm in a sling. There was no official work of the extent of Oleksuk’s injury, although WorSharks head coach Roy Sommer guessed to T&G reporter Bill Ballou that it was a “shoulder-separation” type injury.

The Worcester Sharks have given up 14 goals in five games this season, and Taylor Doherty has been on the ice for more than half of them. Presuming there are no late fixes to box scores (and this writer doesn’t expect any in this area) Doherty has been on the ice for eight goals against. The rest of the defensive corps and their goals against are Dylan DeMelo (6), Konrad Abeltshauser (5), Matt Taormina (4), Matt Tennyson (3), and Taylor Fedun (2).

Funny aside about the Syracuse Crunch. Generally in AHL arenas teams are listed on the scoreboard by their nickname instead of their city/location name. That is, predictably, also the case in Hershey where the Bears play. The exception in Hershey is for when the Crunch are in town, where they are shown on the in-arena scoreboards as Syracuse as they refuse to use the word “Crunch” in the building. The reason? The Hershey Company, which nearly everyone knows as the makers of various candies, makes a chocolate bar made of milk chocolate with crisped rice mixed in called “Krackle”. Their prime competition in the US market for chocolate bars is Nestlé, whose version of that candy bar is called the Nestlé Crunch.

The three stars of the game were
1. SYR – 89 Nikita Nesterov (gwg)
2. WOR – 18 Micheal Haley (gtg)
3. SYR – 33 Dalton Smith (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Troy Grosenick.

Even strength lines
Haley/Karlsson/Carpenter
Lerg/Oleksuk/Emanuelsson
Trupp/Hamilton/Langlois
Bonneau/Schwartz/Tarasov

Taormina/Tennyson
Fedun/DeMelo
Abeltshauser/Doherty

BOX SCORE

Syracuse 1 1 0 1 – 3
Worcester 1 0 1 0 – 2

1st Period-1, Worcester, Abeltshauser 1 (Hamilton, Trupp), 7:54 (PP). 2, Syracuse, Smith 1 (Samson), 8:27. Penalties-Vermin Syr (boarding), 1:45; Blujus Syr (tripping), 6:53.

2nd Period-3, Syracuse, Angelidis 1 (Paradis), 9:54. Penalties-Witkowski Syr (fighting), 4:13; Haley Wor (fighting), 4:13; Richard Syr (roughing), 4:58; Smith Syr (fighting), 4:58; Bonneau Wor (fighting), 4:58.

3rd Period-4, Worcester, Haley 4 (Emanuelsson, Carpenter), 18:49. Penalties-Tarasov Wor (high-sticking), 0:28; Corrente Syr (tripping), 11:13.

OT Period-5, Syracuse, Nesterov 1 (Marchessault), 5:08 (PP). Penalties-Trupp Wor (tripping), 4:01.

Shots on Goal-Syracuse 12-12-6-3-33. Worcester 9-3-16-0-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Syracuse 1 / 2; Worcester 1 / 4.
Goalies-Syracuse, Gudlevskis 2-1-0 (28 shots-26 saves). Worcester, Grosenick 3-1-0 (33 shots-30 saves).
A-2,198
Referees-Garrett Rank (48).
Linesmen-Frank Murphy (29), Todd Whittemore (70).

Turnovers and mental mistakes cost WorSharks in 5-4 loss to Hartford

The Worcester Sharks found themselves down a couple goals early in the third period due to their inability to keep possession of the puck, but two quick strikes got them back to even and when it seemed the contest was bound for overtime a huge mental mistake on a line change resulted in a Hartford Wolf Pack goal with just 18 seconds remaining in regulation to send the sparse crowd home unhappy after a 5-4 loss Tuesday night at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was the WorSharks first loss of the season.

Worcester Sharks forward Melker Karlsson had a goal and two assists
Tuesday night, but it wasn't enough as the WorSharks caused their own
demise with poor play in a 5-4 loss to the Hartford Wolf Pack.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For the highlight video we once again turn to the Worcester Sharks YouTube channel.

Scratches for Worcester were Daniil Tarasov and Gus Young. J.P. Anderson was the backup goaltender. On Sunday the San Jose Sharks recalled James Sheppard from his rehab assignment, and with head coach Roy Sommer sending an early season message to Tarasov that allowed spaces for fan favorite Jimmy Bonneau and rookie Chris Crane to get into the lineup. Bonneau hadn’t played since opening night in Binghamton, while Tuesday was Crane’s first action of the season. That just leaves Young as the last roster player yet to suit up for the WorSharks.

Despite being just four games into the 2014-15 season turnovers are already a big issue. Nearly every goal scored against the WorSharks this season has come off a turnover. There are two notable exception; on Saturday Dylan DeMelo fanned on a clearing attempt that led to Providence tying the game, and on Tuesday veteran Micheal Haley missed a line change that allowed Hartford to have a five skater on four advantage. By the time Haley could get into the play it was all but over for Worcester. If the WorSharks can cut down on the senseless turnovers and mindless errors they could be a very good team.

Well traveled netminder Cedrick Desjardins started the game for the Wolf Pack, but after twice having Worcester players crashed into him by his defenseman he had to leave the game at 7:54 of the middle period with what looked like an arm injury. Six foot eight inch Jason Missiaen, the tallest goaltender in pro hockey, took over for Desjardins and earned the win.

The WorSharks had two goals disallowed by the referee tandem of Geoff Miller and Olivier Gouin, with one each happening on both ends of the rink. In the first period Worcester had a goal waved off because while the puck was under Desjardins and in the net it appeared the WorSharks forwards may have pushed Desjardins into the net, which is a no-no. The second time, in the middle period, the puck was clearly in the net but the goal disallowed because the referee claimed it was “frozen” by Desjardins. Let’s just say this writer disagrees with the second call, and from my perch just in front of the press box it was clear the puck was loose and not covered by the goaltender.

In the last four periods of regulation hockey Worcester has allowed a goal in the last minute three times. If that turns into a trend it will undoubtedly turn into more losses.

Streaking WorSharks: Melker Karlsson (2g,2a), Haley (2g,a), Taylor Fedun (g,a), Ryan Carpenter (2a), Jeremy Langlois (2a), and Travis Oleksuk (2a) have points in two straight. Fedun is the only player with a shot on goal in each of the four Worcester games.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 15 Melker Karlsson (g,2a)
2. WOR – 18 Micheal Haley (g,a)
3. HFD – 29 Danny Kristo (g,2a)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Taylor Fedun.

Even strength lines
Haley/Karlsson/Carpenter
Lerg/Oleksuk/Emanuelsson
Trupp/Hamilton/Langlois
Bonneau/Schwartz/Crane

Taormina/Tennyson
Fedun/DeMelo
Abeltshauser/Doherty

BOXSCORE

Hartford 2 1 2 – 5
Worcester 1 1 2 – 4

1st Period-1, Worcester, Emanuelsson 3 (Oleksuk), 2:05. 2, Hartford, Allen 1 (Kristo), 11:30. 3, Hartford, Lindberg 3 (Haggerty, Vaive), 19:15. Penalties-Fedun Wor (cross-checking), 6:26; Miller Hfd (tripping), 8:14; Spinell Hfd (interference), 15:32.

2nd Period-4, Worcester, Karlsson 2 (Tennyson, Langlois), 7:54 (PP). 5, Hartford, Kristo 1 (Tarnasky), 11:39. Penalties-Crabb Hfd (hooking), 5:27; Potulny Hfd (hooking), 6:47; Noreau Hfd (holding), 12:23; Haley Wor (slashing), 17:37.

3rd Period-6, Hartford, Bourque 1 (Miller, Haggerty), 1:52 (PP). 7, Worcester, Haley 3 (Karlsson, Carpenter), 2:30. 8, Worcester, Fedun 1 (Haley, Karlsson), 4:25. 9, Hartford, Bodie 1 (Hughes, Kristo), 19:42. Penalties-Hamilton Wor (high-sticking), 0:51; served by Vaive Hfd (bench minor – too many men), 5:30; Trupp Wor (goaltender interference), 6:06; Oleksuk Wor (hooking), 10:09.

Shots on Goal-Hartford 8-11-8-27. Worcester 11-14-11-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Hartford 1 / 5; Worcester 1 / 6.
Goalies-Hartford, Desjardins 2-0-0 (19 shots-17 saves); Missiaen 1-0-0 (17 shots-15 saves). Worcester, Grosenick 3-1-0 (27 shots-22 saves).
A-1,488
Referees-Geoff Miller (28), Olivier Gouin (66).
Linesmen-Alex Stagnone (7), Robert St. Lawrence (10).

DeMelo strikes in OT as WorSharks defeat Providence 4-3

The Worcester Sharks had regulation goals by Taylor Doherty, Melker Karlsson, and Micheal Haley, and another outstanding performance in goal by Troy Grosenick put the WorSharks in a great position to beat the Providence Bruins but two late failed clearing attempts allowed the PBruins to tie it with just 4.7 seconds remaining in the third period. In what is hopefully going to be a trend Worcester capitalized on the open ice of the new three-on-three portion of overtime and Dylan DeMelo sent the home town fans home happy on a wrist shot laser over the glove of Providence goaltender Malcolm Subban with just 26.8 seconds left in the extra session for a 4-3 WorSharks win Saturday night at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts in front of 5,809 fans.

Worcester Sharks defenseman Dylan DeMelo celebrates his game winning
OT goal Saturday night in the WorSharks 4-3 victory over the Providence
Bruins at the DCU Center in Worcester.
Photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

The WorSharks have uploaded the game highlight to YouTube, and since they went to all that trouble we may as well give them a shoutout for doing it and then use the video here.

Scratches for the Worcester Sharks were Jimmy Bonneau, Chris Crane, and Gus Young. Prior to the game Eriah Hayes was recalled by San Jose to New Jersey where the Sharks were taking on the Devils. Hayes was didn’t have a point in 7:38 of action and had three shots on goal for the big club. The backup goaltender for the WorSharks was J.P. Anderson.

Before the start of the game the WorSharks raised a banner commemorating the 20th season of AHL hockey in the city of Worcester. Among the banner raisers was the standard group of city officials, DCU Center general manager Sandy Dunn, some San Jose Sharks brass, WorSharks Booster Club president Rich Lundin, former IceCats Shawn Heaphy and Shayne Toporowski, and current WorSharks player Jimmy Bonneau. Lundin also played another role in the celebrations, although few outside section 108 knew about it. Skating out of the Sharks’ head at the Zamboni entrance were youth hockey players wearing a jersey from each of the 20 AHL seasons. All those jerseys, which were all game worn, are owned by Lundin.

DeMelo’s overtime goal, officially at 6:33, is the second latest regular season OT game winner in AHL history. The earliest OT game winner was the first scored in the AHL’s new three-on-three format, by the WorSharks Matt Taormina at 6:34 October 11th in Binghamton. I don’t think it should be overlooked that both of Worcester’s three-on-three goals have been scored by defenseman. That’s going to be a key in the new OT format, and the WorSharks have five blueliners that should excel at it.

Speaking of the new OT format, which is in place to reduce shootouts, it’s hard to call it anything but a success. Through 12 overtime games this season in the AHL there have been five four-on-four goals, six three-on-three goals, and just a single game went to the shootout. Having watched several of the three-on-three sessions via streaming video and now last night’s at the DCU center I can tell you the fans are really in to it. I have no doubt the NHL will adopt the rule for next season.

More on DeMelo’s overtime game winner…that makes two overtime wins on the season for the WorSharks, already surpassing last season’s single extra session game winner and ties the mark of the 2012-13 squad. The WorSharks team record for overtime goals is seven set in the 2008-09 season, where Ryan Vesce also set the individual team record with four on the season. Both records are likely in jeopardy under the new overtime format.

The WorSharks are now 3-0-0 on the young 2014-2015 season, their best start since Worcester started with four straight wins to start the 2007-08 campaign. The win in their home opener improves the WorSharks record to 4-3-1-1 in their first game at the DCU Center of the season. It was the third time Worcester entertained Providence in the home opener during the Sharks era, and amazingly enough all three games have been decided in overtime. The first was won by Worcester on a Ryan Vesce OT game winner to begin the 2007-2008 campaign, and Providence won the WorSharks 2010-2011 home opener on a Martin St. Pierre OT goal.

Had a brief conversation during a pregame VIP gathering with WorSharks Vice-President Jon Gustafson and GM Joe Will. I did ask one “on the record” question, and although it was a little tongue-in-cheek their answer was worth mentioning. Knowing that neither would give any insight about a lease extension at the DCU Center I asked if San Jose chose the Allen Americans as their ECHL affiliate because the Americans have the best looking logo in that league. Both laughed and agreed it was one of the best minor league hockey logos out there, but then went on about how great an operation the folks down there have going on, how good the facilities are, and overall gave the organization in Allen huge kudos. And it wasn’t like they were just spouting PR-type answers, both were legitimately excited with the affiliation. When you consider how good the San Jose folks are at dodging question to get such a positive reply from two ranking members of the organization is really saying something about the Allen Americans.

Just a note for history’s sake: during the off season the AHL introduced a player safety rule that requires players who lose their helmets during the course of play to either immediately return to their team bench or to retrieve and replace their helmet–chin strap included–before returning to the play. Saturday night saw the first called violation of the rule when Oklahoma City’s Steve Pinizzotto was assessed a minor for “helmet violation”.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 2 Dylan DeMelo (game winning OT goal)
2. PRO – 13 Alexander Khokhlachev (g,2a)
3. WOR – 4 Taylor Doherty (g,a)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Troy Grosenick.

Even strength lines
Tarasov/Oleksuk/Hamilton
Schwartz/Sheppard/Emanuelsson
Haley/Carpenter/Karlsson
Lerg/Trupp/Langlois

Abeltshauser/Doherty
Taormina/Tennyson
Fedun/DeMelo

BOXSCORE

Providence 1 1 1 0 – 3
Worcester 2 1 0 1 – 4

1st Period-1, Worcester, Doherty 1 (Tarasov, Oleksuk), 3:08. 2, Worcester, Karlsson 1 (Carpenter, Abeltshauser), 9:14. 3, Providence, Pastrnak 2 (Khokhlachev, Youds), 15:43. Penalties-Fallstrom Pro (hooking), 5:34; Knight Pro (elbowing), 16:46.

2nd Period-4, Providence, Caron 1 (Pastrnak, Khokhlachev), 4:56. 5, Worcester, Haley 2 (Hamilton, Doherty), 13:17. Penalties-Tennyson Wor (holding), 17:01; Pastrnak Pro (high-sticking), 17:41.

3rd Period-6, Providence, Khokhlachev 1 (Pastrnak, Trotman), 19:55. Penalties-Warsofsky Pro (holding), 3:51.

OT Period-7, Worcester, DeMelo 1 (Fedun, Langlois), 6:33. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Providence 9-12-8-1-30. Worcester 11-7-7-6-31.
Power Play Opportunities-Providence 0 / 1; Worcester 0 / 4.
Goalies-Providence, Subban 1-1-0 (31 shots-27 saves). Worcester, Grosenick 3-0-0 (30 shots-27 saves).
A-5,809
Referees-Mark Lemelin (41).
Linesmen-Brian MacDonald (72), Alex Stagnone (7).

Petter Emanuelsson nets both goals in WorSharks 2-1 victory over Providence

The Worcester Sharks got two first period goals from newcomer Petter Emanuelsson and 33 saves from goaltender Troy Grosenick to defeat the Providence Bruins 2-1 Friday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island in front of 8,311 fans. Rylan Schwartz assisted on both WorSharks goals while James Sheppard had an official assist on the first Emanuelsson tally and an unofficial one on the second. The two teams meet again Saturday night at the DCU Center in Worcester’s home opener.

Worcester Sharks winger Petter Emanuelsson (#41 in teal) from the top of the crease
deflecting Rylan Schwartz's cross ice pass past PBruins' goaltender Malcolm Subban
while David Warsofsky (#5 in gold) attempts to get back into the play
Photo credit: Video capture for Sharkspage

For video we point to SendToNews.com as AHLLive seems to be lagging way behind in the posting of highlights. There’s no announcer sound on the tape, but the video quality is very good. WorSharks at Providence video highlights.

Scratches for Worcester were Jimmy Bonneau, Chris Crane, Melker Karlsson (day to day, undisclosed injury), and Gus Young. Before the game the WorSharks had a couple transactions, with forward Derek DeBlois being released from his PTO and James Sheppard heading to Worcester on a conditioning assignment. It was a little odd that Worcester released DeBlois as many hockey operations people, including head coach Roy Sommer in a pregame interview on WTAG, referred to DeBlois as “a young Andrew Desjardins”. Considering how he turned out how is DeBlois not worth an AHL contract? J.P. Anderson was the backup goaltender.

Video replay could have been an issue in Providence last night, and the Pbruins may have shot themselves in the foot because of it. After a wild goal mouth scramble in front of Providence goaltender Malcolm Subban referee Ryan Hersey went to go look at the video to determine when the puck crossed the line. Only the replay equipment wasn’t working. Later in the game when a potential Pbruins was scored into a net that was off the goal pegs the video was working but Hersey correctly–because it was unavailable for Worcester–refused to view it. Providence then violated AHL rules by showing the video to the crowd in attendance.

With the WorSharks in their standard teal road jerseys and Providence in their Friday gold sweaters we had another color on color game between the two clubs. We’re entering dead horse territory when I mention once again the AHL should do what it can to make sure more of these type of games happen.

We’re only two games into the season and already we’ve gotten a scoring change, although an expected one. Bryan Lerg was indeed credited with a “plus” on Matt Taormina’s overtime game winner last Saturday. There’s an outside chance we might have another on Emanuelsson’s second goal, but the video isn’t clear that Sheppard touched the puck before it went to the left wing half boards to Schwartz.

The San Jose Sharks and Worcester Sharks have signed an affiliation agreement with the Allen Americans of the ECHL. The Americans were one of the CHL clubs that merged with the ECHL–technically called an expansion team by the league–and Worcester already has a player on the squad in goaltender Aaron Dell. There probably won’t be too many Sharks players assigned to Allen, but they have a pretty cool logo so that’s worth something. The Americans have also done something that has never happened in the Sharks organization: won a championship. Allen is the two time defending Ray Miron President’s Cup champion, and with the CHL folding they may hold on to that trophy for some time.

Speaking of the ECHL. with their rosters finalized–or more correctly, as finalized as an ECHL roster can be–we’ll look at the former WorSharks playing at the AA level. As of yesterday it was Chad Costello (ALN), Riley Gill (ALN), Jim McKenzie (BAK), Jason Pitton (BRM), Brodie Reid (ELM), Nathan Moon (EVN), Ty Wishart (EVN), Mikael Tam (FW), Mike Banwell (GRN), James McEwan (GWI), James Livingston (IDH), Lane Scheidl (KAL), Nathan Longpre (KAL), Sacha Guimond (KAL), Brock Higgs (REA), David Marshall (REA), Adam Comrie (REA), Jeff Jakaitis (SC), Garet Hunt (STK), Mike Pereira (STK), Peter Sivak (STK), Michael Pelech (UTA), Riley Brace (WHL), Erick Lizon (WIC), Alex Bourret (WIC).

As noted previously, the WorSharks have a few players signed to AHL deals assigned to ECHL clubs: Goaltender Aaron Dell (ALN) that was mentioned above, defensemen Kyle Bigos (ONT), Brendan Ellis (SC), and Nick Jones (IND).

The three stars of the game were:
1. WOR – 41 Petter Emanuelsson (2g)
2. WOR – 1 Troy Grosenick (33 saves)
3. PRO – 47 Malcolm Subban (30 saves)

The Sharkspage player of the game is Rylan Schwartz. It still being early in the season we neglected to mention the Sharkspage player of the game for last Saturday in Binghamton, and it was Troy Grosenick.

Even strength lines
Tarasov/Oleksuk/Hamilton
Schwartz/Sheppard/Emanuelsson
Haley/Carpenter/Hayes
Lerg/Trupp/Langlois

Abeltshauser/Doherty
Taormina/Tennyson
Fedun/DeMelo

BOXSCORE

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

1st Period-1, Worcester, Emanuelsson 1 (Sheppard, Schwartz), 3:50. 2, Providence, Florek 1 (Ferlin ), 9:41. 3, Worcester, Emanuelsson 2 (Schwartz), 17:14. Penalties-served by Sheppard Wor (bench minor – too many men), 10:18; served by Khokhlachev Pro (bench minor – too many men), 19:17.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Doherty Wor (roughing), 3:17; Robins Pro (roughing), 3:17; Werek Pro (holding), 5:59; Carpenter Wor (hooking), 8:36; Carpenter Wor (slashing), 17:37.

3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Pastrnak Pro (tripping), 9:50; Haley Wor (goaltender interference), 16:22.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 13-9-10-32. Providence 8-12-14-34.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 3; Providence 0 / 4.
Goalies-Worcester, Grosenick 2-0-0 (34 shots-33 saves). Providence, Subban 1-1-0 (32 shots-30 saves).
A-8,311
Referees-Ryan Hersey (8).
Linesmen-Chris Millea (33), Jack Millea (23).

WorSharks use record setting goal by Matt Taormina to defeat Binghamton 3-2 in OT

The Worcester Sharks jumped out to two single goal leads on tallies by Ryan Carpenter and Michael Haley but twice Binghamton Senators forward Ryan Dzingel turned WorSharks turnovers into goals to send the two teams into overtime, where Worcester defenseman Matt Taormina converted in the new three on three portion of the extra stanza to give the WorSharks a 3-2 win in their 2014-2015 season debut. Eriah Hayes and Taylor Fedun both had two assist for Worcester while Troy Grosenick turned aside 41 of 43 Senators shots.

Worcester Sharks defenseman Matt Taormina (#20) with the overtime game winner
to give the WorSharks a 3-2 victory. At 6:34 of OT it is currently the latest
regulation OT goal scored in American Hockey League history.
Photo credit: Video capture for Sharkspage

For video highlights we usually point at AHLlive, but there doesn’t seem to be any at all from last night there. Hopefully that’s not something new. So for highlights we’ll link to SendToNews.com. They are embeddable but because they autoplay we’ll just link to them. It’s broken into three videos, for the other two just look for “additional clips” on that page. WorSharks vs Senators video highlights.

Scratches for the WorSharks were Chris Crane, Derek DeBlois, Melker Karlsson (upper body injury, didn’t make the trip to Binghamton), and Gus Young. J.P. Anderson was the back-up netminder. Before Worcester’s season even started there was a visit from the Worcester Shuttle as Eriah Hayes cleared waivers and was sent down by San Jose. Hayes took the red eye into Syracuse, New York but the cross country trip didn’t seem to bother him as Hayes assisted on both WorSharks goals in regulation.

Dylan Demelo, Travis Oleksuk, and Taylor Fedun all wore the “A” on their jerseys as no captain has been named as of yet. Apparently the plan is to have three alternate captains on the road and three different alternate captains at home. There’s been no press release from the WorSharks about the situation so we’ll just have to wait and see who will be wearing “A”s next Saturday at home against Providence. Worcester has named a captain every season except 2006-2007, the WorSharks first in the city.

The WorSharks set a franchise record for most shots in a season opener with their 48 last night. The previous record was 43, set in the opener of the 2007-08 season in a 6-4 loss to the Lowell Devils. Oddly enough Worcester just had a single shot in overtime, Taormina game winner. The 43 shots they surrendered to Binghamton is also a record for shots against in a season opener.

For a franchise that has a hard time scoring Carpenter’s goal at 8:15 of the first is just the fifth fastest to open a season for the WorSharks. The fastest goal to start a season was in 2009-10 in Worcester’s 3-2 win over Adirondack. Andrew Desjardins scored at 3:08 of the opening period, assisted by “Crazed Rats” linemate Dan DaSilva and eventual Eddie Shore Award (AHL best defenseman) winner Danny Groulx.

A scoring oddity may have bitten the official scorer in Binghamton. The overtime game winner is listed as giving Evan Trupp and Fedun assists on Taormina’s game winner and all three players are listed as having a “plus” on the play. The problem is in the picture shown above, taken straight from the game highlight video, the WorSharks player shown to the left of Senators goaltender Andrew Hammond is Bryan Lerg (#11). While the assist may belong to Fedun the plus belongs to Lerg. Worcester Sharks play by play and PR man Eric Lindquist is very good at straightening out those things, so we’ll pay attention to see what scoring changes are made by the AHL.

Turnovers were a big issue for the WorSharks last season and it appears that issue hasn’t been fixed. Both of Ryan Dzingel’s goals were a direct result of a Worcester defensive turnover. It could have been worse as Troy Grosenick bailed out Taormina when his turnover sent the Senators Max McCormick in all alone shorthanded late in the middle period. Grosenick did it again in the three on three portion of overtime when a Tennyson turnover sent Matt Puempel in all alone in a long breakaway.

A quick search of AHL rosters on opening night shows 15 former WorSharks players still playing in the AHL. They are Sena Acolatse (ADK), Steve Bernier (ALB), John McCarthy (CHI), Nathan Longpre (CHI), Brennan Evans (GR), Tim Kennedy (HER), Mike Moore (HER), Curt Gogol (IWA), Nick Petrecki (RCH), Denny Urban (SPR), Yanni Gourde (SYR), Kevin Henderson (TEX), William Wrenn (TEX), Frazer McLaren (TOR), Bobby Farnham (WBS). We’ll run down the ECHL rosters once their regular season starts.

Even Strength Lines
Tarasov/Oleksuk/Hamilton
Haley/Carpenter/Hayes
Lerg/Trupp/Langlois
Bonneau/Schwartz/Emanuelsson

Taormina/Tennyson
Fedun/DeMelo
Abeltshauser/Doherty

BOXSCORE

Worcester 2 0 0 1 – 3
Binghamton 1 1 0 0 – 2

1st Period-1, Worcester, Carpenter 1 (Hayes, Fedun), 8:15. 2, Binghamton, Dzingel 1 (Thompson, McCormick), 14:34. 3, Worcester, Haley 1 (Doherty, Hayes), 18:06. Penalties-Doherty Wor (hooking), 4:24.

2nd Period-4, Binghamton, Dzingel 2 (Grant), 16:37. Penalties-Doherty Wor (hooking), 5:00; Johnson Bng (interference), 6:03; Grant Bng (holding), 11:33; Robinson Bng (hooking), 18:19.

3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Pageau Bng (cross-checking), 8:39; Tarasov Wor (holding), 9:03; Trupp Wor (holding), 12:23.

OT Period-5, Worcester, Taormina 1 (Trupp, Fedun), 6:34. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Worcester 19-15-13-1-48. Binghamton 12-9-16-6-43.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 4; Binghamton 0 / 4.
Goalies-Worcester, Grosenick 1-0-0 (43 shots-41 saves). Binghamton, Hammond 0-0-0 (48 shots-45 saves).
A-3,878
Referees-Darcy Burchell (42), Ryan Fraser (14).
Linesmen-John Everett (82), Francis Trempe (85).

A closer look at the WorSharks 2014-15 schedule

Never let it be said I wouldn’t steal a blogging idea to help Worcester Sharks fans get a better understanding of what the team faces in the upcoming season. Good friend Michael Fornabaio over at the Connecticut Post wrote a blog post where he looked at the number of three-in-three weekends the Bridgeport Sound Tigers have this season and the road the Sound Tigers and that Sunday afternoon opponent would take get to that game. Noticing that the WorSharks made Fornabaio’s list I was curious to see how such a list would look for Worcester. I took it one step further and added any game where one team could have an advantage over the other due to travel.

This list makes a couple of presumptions. It presumes that teams will be traveling the day before to games that are more then three and a half hours (give or take) away if possible. That would seem to negate the traveling disadvantage the road team would have. It also doesn’t take into account the “outpost” franchises of St John’s or Norfolk that spend larger amounts of time away from home, and conversely, longer home streaks. Just their previous couple games are taken into account.

Sun, Oct 26, 2014 Portland at Worcester
WorSharks have Saturday off while Portland plays at Manchester Friday and home vs Syracuse Saturday. Advantage: Worcester

Sat, Nov 1, 2014 Hershey at Worcester
WorSharks are off Friday night while Hershey plays at Manchester. Advantage: Worcester

Sun, Nov 2, 2014 Worcester at Hartford
WorSharks play at home Saturday night while Hartford has to make a mad dash from Lehigh Valley for Sunday’s game. Advantage: Worcester

Sat, Nov 8, 2014 Providence at Worcester
WorSharks are off Friday while Providence hosts Portland. Advantage: Worcester

Sat, Nov 22, 2014 Worcester at Hershey
WorSharks play at Lehigh Valley Friday while Hershey is idle. Advantage: Hershey

Fri, Dec 12, 2014 Worcester at Hartford
WorSharks idle Thursday while Hartford hosts Albany. Advantage: Worcester

Sun, Dec 14, 2014 Portland at Worcester
Three-in-three for both. WorSharks play at Hartford and then host Manchester. Portland hosts Manchester and then at Providence. Advantage: Push

Sun, Dec 21, 2014 Worcester at Bridgeport
Three-in-three for both. WorSharks play at Manchester and Portland while Bridgeport has a pair in Norfolk and then has to make a long trek home. Advantage: Worcester

Sat, Dec 27, 2014 Worcester at Syracuse
WorSharks host Manchester and then has to make a mad dash to Syracuse, who are at home vs Albany on Friday. Advantage: Syracuse

Sun, Jan 4, 2015 Worcester at Providence
Three-in-three for both. WorSharks host Manchester and then at Springfield, Providence hosts Bridgeport and then plays at Portland. Advantage: Push

Sat, Jan 17, 2015 W-B/Scranton at Worcester
WorSharks host Manchester while Wilkes-Barre has Friday night off. Advantage: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton

Sun, Jan 18, 2015 Worcester at Manchester
Three-in-three for both. WorSharks host Manchester and Wilkes-Barre while Manchester plays at Worcester and then hosts Providence. Advantage: Push

Sun, Feb 22, 2015 Worcester at Manchester
Three-in-three for both. WorSharks host Norfolk twice. Manchester hosts two for St John’s. Advantage: Push

Sun, Mar 1, 2015 Worcester at Manchester
Three-in-three for both. WorSharks host St John’s for a pair. Manchester hosts Hartford and then goes to Portland. Advantage: Push

Sun, Mar 8, 2015 Worcester at Providence
Three-in-three for both. WorSharks host Hartford and Bridgeport. Providence hosts Hershey and Springfield. Advantage: Push

Sun, Mar 29, 2015 Springfield at Worcester
Three-in-three for both. WorSharks play at Springfield and then host St. John’s while Springfield hosts Worcester and Hartford. Advantage: Push

Sun, Apr 12, 2015 Albany at Worcester
Three-in-three for both. WorSharks are home and home vs Providence while Albany is at Binghamton and Hartford. Advantage: Worcester

Sun, Apr 19, 2015 Portland at Worcester
Three-in-three for both. WorSharks are at Providence and Manchester while Portland is at Manchester and hosts Providence. Advantage: Push

My totally subjective count has the WorSharks with the scheduling advantage seven times while their opponents have it on just three occasions. Eight times, all being three-in-threes, both teams have it pretty much equal with the scheduling. It will be interesting to look back this spring to see how Worcester did in each of these games.