The Hartford Wolf Pack are a loose bunch right now.
They made the trip to Hershey on Tuesday, settled in and staged a practice at Giant Center yesterday, and are ready to take another crack at the Hershey Bears in the best-of-five Atlantic Division Finals beginning with Game 1 tonight.
It’s a bit of déjà vu for the Wolf Pack. For the second postseason in a row, Hartford defeated Providence in four games to set up a meeting with Hershey. Last year, the Bears swept the Wolf Pack in three straight.
Interim head coach Steve Smith, an assistant with the club last season, says his players are ready for what awaits them with the always-vocal, raucous Hershey crowd. The Bears were 29-7-0-0 at home during the regular season – outscoring visiting opponents, 112-60 – and won both home games against Lehigh Valley last round.
“I find it very exciting to be in a hockey environment where the fans are [intense], the fans are excited,” Smith said. “We look forward to the challenge.”
Goaltender Dylan Garand, who is 0-4 in four career starts at Giant Center, knows what it can be like to face the Bears when the home crowd gets behind them.
“They’re really loud,” Garand said. “They always sell out the building, so it’s real fun to play here. It’s good to have that experience.”
One player sure to draw attention from the partisan crowd is Wolf Pack rookie forward Brennan Othmann, who plays a disruptive, physical game and is a key part of the Hartford attack. But Othmann has the experience of having been on some of hockey’s biggest stages at the IIHF World Junior Championship and the Memorial Cup.
“I love this energy,” Othmann said. “I love the momentum, and I love when fans are with you or against you. I think it gets me going, gets me fired up. I know the guys are looking forward to it.”
Having played one game in the last 11 days, the Syracuse Crunch are ready to open the North Division Finals against Cleveland tonight.
The Crunch had six days between the final two games of their division semifinal against Rochester, regrouping from seeing a three-goal third-period lead disappear at home in Game 4 to eliminate the Amerks on the road in Game 5. It has now been six days since that victory.
“We had a really good week of practice,” head coach Joël Bouchard said of the time leading into the clincher against Rochester. “We did everything we could to get the best performance during the week, and the guys delivered.”
They did more than practice, too. Bouchard recalled there was a lot of open discussion about how his players felt following the Game 4 loss.
“It’s easy for us on video, behind the bench and in the stands to have an opinion. But I always like to see how the players…feel it or see it.”
Getting past Rochester has given the Crunch some of the necessary early-round battle scars needed as the demands of the Calder Cup Playoffs continue to intensify.
“Now we’ve got to get even more going after what’s in front of you, handling the situation, breakdowns, and all those kinds of things,” Bouchard said. “We’re a different team today.”
Jet Greaves has earned praise from head coach Trent Vogelhuber for his intensity, leadership, and off-ice preparation skills. Those abilities came in handy in a tough, demanding division semifinal series against Belleville in which three of the four games were one-goal decisions.
Next up is Syracuse.
“We’ve got a lot of respect for them,” Greaves said of the Crunch. “They play really hard. We know they forecheck well and they’ve got some really good skill players. It’s just going to be about matching that intensity, and I think it’s going to be a competitive series.”
Vogelhuber was glad to see his players tested by a stubborn Belleville team. The division champion Monsters had a first-round bye and a lengthy break before the series against the Senators started.
“They were really, really hard to play against,” Vogelhuber said. “I think just coming off [a long break], you’re not quite sure as a coach what to expect. Are we going to be there? But I think it’s as well as we’ve played as far as a commitment from everybody. It just tells me these guys are in it. They really want to win.
“They’ve grown confidence They know what they are. They know what they need to do to win, and I think they have faith that everybody’s on the same page and willing to do it.”
― with files from Patrick Williams
