Hrivik Scores Twice and Talbot 41 Saves And Another Shutout

Eurohockey.com

The two teams square off in Game 3 at 5:00pm at the XL Center in Hartford tomorrow afternoon.

The Whale scored first after successfully killing off a five on three powerplay the Sound Tigers has as Jonathan Audy-Marchessault intercepted defenseman Jon Landry's  outlet pass and goalie Kevin Poulin made the first save,but Marchessault banged in the rebound for his first of the post season.

"It was a real tight game again tonight Talbot was great again and we limited a lot of the second and third chances and Talbot made big saves on the initial shot and we stayed together. That was big (the five on three ) we stepped up especially on the back end the five on three kill is all about emotion and momentum and things like that," remarked head coach Ken Gernander.

For Sound Tigers head coach Brent Thompson he was blunt in his assessment.

"We approached that five on three too casually. We had an opportunity to set the tone for the game and didn't take advantage of it. Then they score the first goal and were playing catch up again," said Thompson.

The Marchessault goal meant different things to the coaches.

"He was fortunate that there was a turnover there and he capitalized on it." remarked Gernander. Sound Tigers head coach Brent Thompson was charitable in his assessment.

"They didn't have to work too hard to score the first one ."

The defense of the Connecticut Whale was simply superb in Mike Vernace, Russian Pavel Valentenko, Wade Redden, Jared Nightingale, Swede Tim Erixon and former Swiss NLA player Brendan Bell just shutdown the Sound Tigers despite the 41 shots on goal. When rebounds that were out for the taking they swept in an deftly got the puck negating the Sound Tiger forechecking and got the puck out of the zone and that aided Talbot greatly.

"They (the defense) made some great short passes, took some hits to make passes and maintained possession of the puck when they started to forecheck and played a really strong game," remarked Gernander.

Talbot for s second night in a row turned away 40 plus shots (41 exactly) stopping Swedish forward David Ullstrom twice 2:12 mark of third period a day before his 23rd birthday. Talbot left many other Sound Tigers from singing the blues.

Jon Landry at 3:57 of the third period, and in the second period Tony Romano at the 4:15 mark were denied. Shortly after Romano's bid  Micheal Haley alone in the slot 20 feet out thought he had one,but Talbot snatched away a sure red light goal. Then Rhett Rahkashani point blank 35 feet out was left looking skyward.

"I never go into a game saying I'm gonna shut these guys out. I'm gonna give my team a chance to win. Getting the shutout is just a bonus,but getting the win in  the playoffs that's all were really going for right now." said a cautious Talbot clearly following playoff protocol to not antagonize the opposition.

In posting back to back shutouts in the playoffs he became the first goalie in the 15 year franchise history to do so. Some impressive netminders have passed through this team from Dan Cloutier, J.F. Labbe, Swede Johan Holmqvist, Jason Labarbera, Steve Valiquette and Czech Milan Hnilicka.

The Whale staked a 2-0 lead as Slovakian rookie Marek Hrivik drilled a 20 foot snapshot past Poulin off a quick short pass from Casey Wellman. The whole play was made by rookie JT Miller making his AHL debut. Miller, the center for the line was behind the net and outworked two Sound Tigers to get Matt Donovan and Blair Riley and got the puck to Wellman.

The 20 year old was hours from catching a flight back to Slovakia two weeks ago before the call came to head to Connecticut and has been a big surprise for the team.

"I was pretty confident he was gonna make the play and he got it to me and I was happy that it went in," remarked Hrivik who played an overage year with the Moncton Wildcats (QMJHL) this year.

Then Hrivik put the nail in the coffin on the powerplay catching Poulin leaning a bit he fired a perfect shot top shelf over the right shoulder at 14:15 of the third period off the left wing.

"That was a huge PP goal by River that we needed," said Gernander.

Sound Tigers head coach Brent Thompson  was complimentary of the Whale's performance.

"You gotta tip your hat to them and their goalie they played great hockey and worked very hard. I still think were evenly matched and there are some things we need to clean up," said  Thompson.

For Brent Thompson to avoid elimination Sunday afternoon they have one thing to do.

"We gotta find a way to solve Talbot," said Thompson.

Could be a long, sleepless night for the Sound Tigers while the Whale can sleep soundly.

Notes:  Both teams went with same starting lineup except the Sound Tigers added Tony Romano and Landry and the Whale winger JT Miller…Sound Tigers Rhett Rakhshani  caught a puck in the mouth in the second period returned for the third period and shockingly the linesman had to clean up the blood where was the ice crew for this ?...One time Sound Tiger Raffi Torres now with the Phoenix Coyotes was suspended 25 games by NHL Discipline Chief for his hit on Slovakian Marcel Hossa of the Blackhawks. It rivals the 25 game suspension of then Washington Capitals player now head coach Dale Hunter on NY Islanders Pierre Turgeon in the 1993 playoffs, one of the more vicious cheapshots in the history of the game.

 

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