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(hartfordwolfpack.com) — Brandon Hynes scored two goals, and fellow rookie Michael St. Croix had a goal and an assist, to lead the Hartford Wolf Pack to a 5-2 win over the Worcester Sharks Wednesday night at Champions Skating Center in Cromwell, Conn., in the preseason opener for both teams.
Former Yale Eli Jeff Malcolm stopped 27 out of 29 shots in net for the Wolf Pack, and Brodie Dupont and Tyler Gjurich also scored Hartford goals. Josh Kidd and Marek Viedensky scored for Worcester, and Christian Ouellet had two assists.
The Wolf Pack were outshot 13-7 in the first period, but came out of the frame with a 2-1 lead.
The Sharks opened the scoring on the game’s first power play at 10:12 of the first, with Hartford’s Jason Wilson in the penalty box for cross-checking. Kidd beat Malcolm with a snap shot from the right point.
That lead was short-lived, however, as the Wolf Pack turned the tables with a pair of goals in a span of 56 seconds, starting only 47 seconds after Kidd’s goal.
On the Wolf Pack’s first power play, created by a delay-of-game penalty against Marc Zanette, Dupont banged the puck in from the left side of the slot on a rebound to tie the score at 10:59. Gjurich then put the puck past Shark netminder Tyler Beskorowany (28 saves) from in close at 11:55, giving the Pack a 2-1 advantage.
The only scoring of the second period came at the 4:06 mark, when Hynes gave the Wolf Pack a 3-1 lead. Hynes used Josh Nicholls as a decoy on a two-on-one and fired a shot past Beskorowany from the right-wing side.
Hynes struck again early in the third period to make it 4-1 Wolf Pack, beating Beskorowany with a sharp-angle shot from the goaltender’s right. Viedensky got that goal back only 49 seconds later, though, with a delayed-penalty goal at 1:57. Viedensky had the puck go off of his stick as he moved across the slot, but the loose puck slid between Malcolm’s legs and into the net.
Malcolm held the Sharks at bay the rest of the way, and St. Croix created the final margin with an empty-net goal at 19:21.
