Whale Knock off Bears 3-1

27 Oct 2012 | By Gerry Cantlon

HARTFORD,CT- CT Whale executed a strong tight checking effort for a 3-1 win over the Hershey Bears Friday night at the XL Center before an announced crowd of 3,041.

Whale who two weeks ago as their season began had their difficulties in initiating plays jumped all over the traditional AHL powerhouse Hershey Bears scoring twice in a two minute span.

The Whale jumped out to a 1-0 lead as Slovak winger Marek Hrivik along the deep end of the left wing boards fired a perfect pass to red hot Brandon Segal standing on the doorstep who banged in his 4th of the season and third in two games at 4:25.

"Segals’s been great the past couple of weeks you look for big guys to make big plays. Go back to the Norfolk game he got two big goals for us (a 5-4 OT loss). Then were down 1-0 in the Albany game and we were playing much better. He makes the big play took a lot of courage to go the net on the goal to tie it for us. Tonight he comes out and gets the first one for us and hey he’s playing with two talented kids (Kyle Jean and Hrivik) and with their enthusiasm and their skill level its been a pretty good combo for us," said head coach Ken Gernander

Then two minutes later Whale defenseman Logan Pyett effectively put the puck off the sideboards and through the legs of Hershey defenseman one time Hartford Wolf Pack player Julien Brouliette that found winger Christian Thomas who raced up the right wing on defenseman Brouilliette and found a wide open Tommy Grant who found the open lane and put in the pass for his second of the young season and a 2-0 Whale lead.

"We had a really strong start and one of things we were so upset about early on that we weren’t dictating the play early on or (were) assertive enough. If you are competing and win one on one battles. If they were there were adjustments or corrections you can teach them, but first and foremost you have to compete," said Gernander.

The night was a solid team effort as the Whale forwards and defenseman were marking their checks not allowing the Bears to have either odd man rushes or significant traffic in front of goalie Cam Talbot playing in his first game since last spring, five months ago- against Norfolk because of an off season left foot injury suffered five weeks before the season started.

Talbot was able to make 26 saves because of the play of defensemen Mike Vernace and Sam Klassen who did a fine job taking either the man in front out or clearing the puck effectively and let him see the shot or making the shot come from the perimeter.

"Felt great to be out there for sure. Its been a long road since I broke my foot in August. It made it all worth it to come up with a big win for the guys. I had a few jitters, the guys did a great job keeping them off the shot clock for the first five or six minutes and it allowed me to get into the game," remarked the 6’3 netminder.

His best in close save came on former college hockey standout at national champion Boston College Barry Almeida with 9:12 left in the third stretching out and kicking away the opportunity to the corner. Talbot made quality stops on one time Hartford Wolf Pack Jeff Taffe and right Garnett Mitchell to keep the Bears scoreless as the quality chances were few and far between for Hershey.

Hershey made it interesting at 2-1 at 13:25 remaining with an all European goal. On the powerplay Russian Dmitri Orlov took a pass from Czech rearguard Tomas Kundratek off a pass from Swedish forward Tomas Sjogren and from the right point drilled high hard shot that Talbot never saw with a perfect screen in front by captain Boyd Kane with nobody checking and it seemed to have deflected off Kane,but the goal was credited to Orlov.

Ryan Bourque sealed the win for the Whale with an empty net goal with 1:25 left in the game.

NOTES: the Whale play Providence tomorrow night at home at 7pm who lost to Springfield at Mass Mutual Center…The Bears featured four ex-Hartford players in Boyd Kane, Jeff Taffe, Tomas Kundratek, Brouillette and two players with Connecticut ties David Marshall who was scratched (Quinnipiac) and Jon DiSalvatore (South Windsor,CT) and for good measure former Bridgeport Sound Tiger Steve Oleksy…Congrats to former Hartford Wolf Pack assistant coach Mike Busniuk who was named interim head coach in his native Thunder Bay,Ontario at Lakehead University Thunderwolves of the Ontario University Athletic Association (OUAA) after head coach coach Joel Scherban was let go. He was a long assistant with Hartford and Binghamton.

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