Zuccarello Scores Late Game Winner

Eurohockey.com

The winning play came about as Swedish forward for the Whale Andreas Thuresson got the puck on net with the puck in the left wing corner below the goal line Zuccarello saw Taylor cheating a bit and fired the puck off his right skate and it went into the next.

"I tried to just get it toward the net, " said Zuccarello who then conceded there was  a little skill involved in his bankshot approach.

"I saw he was out (of the net) a little bit and just shot and hope for the best.” Remarked the forward on his third goal in two games. 

Whale head coach ken germander was quick to praise him.

"It was awesome,” said Whale head coach Ken Gernander. "He's (Zuccarello) been a big time player for us in just the short two games he's been with us, but he's pretty good at generating offense for us.”

He nearly wasn't around to take the shot as at the 3:10 mark of the third period he was drilled in the head by the Falcons Adam Mair (former veteran of the Buffalo Sabres), as Zuccarello crossed into the Falcons offensive zone he dished off a pass to his right wing and Mair coming over from his right wing hit Zuccarello high and hard leaving him momentarily dazed and on the ice.

Defenseman Blake Parlatt came to his aid though Mair a far more accomplished fighter got the better of the exchange the gesture, by Parlatt was not forgotten by Zuccarello.

"I really appreciate my teammate Blake Parlatt coming over” remarked Zuccarello.

Whale head coach Ken germander wasn't hiding his displeasure over neither a major penalty or very least a minor for elbowing being called on Mair.

"It was disgusting, uncalled for. I wasn't happy with any aspects of that play or the (lack of a) call.” He was anxiously awaiting to see a league official regarding the matter, but was told there was no AHL Supervisor of Officials on duty for the game.

Gernander was happy with goaltender second year pro Cam Talbot who turned in another sharp performance 33 of 34 shots.

"He was sharp again for us, especially in the second period when they had the majority of the play, but the three saves on that ones equence in the third was huge.”

At 14:08 veteran Martin St. Pierre was replied by Talbot on a  shot the from the LW faceoff circle, then Nick Drazenovic hit the post and Cam Atkinson the sniper from Greenwich, CT who played at Avon Old Farms prep school was denied by Talbot off the shot off the post.

Atkinson was stopped from the left wing faceoff circle. Clearly Talbot was getting help from the goal post.

"You have to have some help from your friends on either side,” he laughed.

He also has shown a very strong glove hand early in the season.

"I felt really well coming off the shutout last night (a 5-0 home win over the Manchester Monarchs), and again the boys played well in front of me and blocked a lot of shots,” said Talbot. "They just kept throwing pucks at the net, pucks were bouncing off of everything and I tried to control my rebounds the best I could.  Sometimes you need to get help from the post and other times you need to get help from your defensemen, and I got a lot of help from both tonight.”

Taylor was equal as well in the net despite the poor goal that was the game winner.

Just before the game winner he stop the Whale's Wade Redden and Andre Deveaux on the primary shot and rebound attempt by Deveaux.

At 8:18 of the second period the Whale's Chris McKelvie was stopped on a shorthanded breakaway bid after a successful kill of a 5 on three power play chance.

The Falcons Wade MacLeod opened the scoring converting Atkinsons pass up the right wing boards was able to walk out of the right wing corner and backhand a shot for his first pro goal at 5:49mof the second period.

The Whale rookie Jonathan Audy-Marchessault snagged his first professional tally alone on the left wing side of the net burying are bound Czech defenseman Tomas Kundratek's shot at 2:41 of the second period. 

The two team square off again at 3pm on Sunday afternoon at XL Center in Hartford, CT.

Game Notes: Springfield demoted local product via UMASS-Amherst goalie Paul Dainton to the Chicago Express (ECHL)…Former Whale Tim Kennedy scored the game winner in Florida's win over NY Islanders…Former Wolf Pack and Falcon Boyd Kane scored for Hershey…Falcons have now lost 4 in a row at home all by one goal…Former AHL New Haven Nighthawk Larry Huras was fired for SC Bern in Switzerland this week…Former Wolf pack forward Tomas Zaborsky of Ässät Pori in the Finnish Elite league was Eurohockey.com first player of the month winner.

 

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