The Hartford Wolf Pack went into their dressing room after the first period last night in Hershey with a far bigger concern than anything on the scoreboard.
Forward Anton Blidh required medical attention after returning to the bench following a hit from Hershey defenseman Logan Day with 2:39 remaining in the period. Officials called for an early intermission and sent both teams to their respective rooms.
“The guys were a little worried coming to the dressing room,” Wolf Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch said afterward, “because they didn’t know what they were going to see. Fortunately when we were able to go in the room, he was recovering. He was good. I think just the players seeing him, that he was in good spirits, and he was going to be able to rejoin us pretty much calmed the team down.”
Blidh returned after the intermission and finished the game for Hartford.
“Be ready” is not just an idle phrase thrown around by head coaches.
Hershey forward Henrik Borgstrom had not played since April 14, the Bears’ second-to-last regular season game. But with leading scorer Mike Sgarbossa out of the lineup, head coach Todd Nelson had a major decision to make going into last night’s opener with Hartford.
“I didn’t want to touch the other three lines,” Nelson explained. “The other three lines are playing really well and have good chemistry.”
So in went Borgstrom to center a top line with Mike Vecchione and Ethen Frank. The line had a strong game, Borgstrom eventually delivered the overtime winner.
“Borgy has the skill set to play on that line, plus he’s a big body. Hopefully it gives him some confidence moving forward,” Nelson said of Borgstrom, a 25-year-old forward who was a 2016 first-round pick by Florida. “You can only dress 20 players, and we many good hockey players that are not playing right now.”
Going back into the lineup brought a range of emotions for Borgstrom, who had 21 points (eight goals, 13 assists) in 55 games during the regular season.
“I felt way more nervous before the game,” Borgstrom said. “But once the game starts, it’s all about the adrenaline running right through the veins, and it just takes over the whole game.
“Our team, just the team spirit, the way all the guys hang out, I think it’s huge. I just love being at the rink, and you enjoy being with each other. I feel like that brings a lot of joy, and that keeps us ready, too, the guys who are not in the lineup at the moment.”
Calgary Wranglers head coach Mitch Love made the stakes of Game 2 quite clear for his club.
“We had a good conversation after the game,” Love told reporters following his team’s 6-3 loss to Coachella Valley lasty night. “It was brief. We can be much better. I’m sure they’re going to want to step on our throats a little bit here headed home, so we’re going to have to play one of our better games.”
The challenge for the Wranglers is that they will only have 24 hours to settle themselves down. A loss tonight in Game 2 would force the Wranglers to win three straight on the road in order to take the series.
The good news for Love and his club is that their standard can be much higher than that shown in Game 1.
“I thought they were pretty good,” Love said of the Firebirds. “I didn’t like our game at all. Scoreboard aside, they executed on their game plan, and we didn’t. A lot of stuff we talked about over the last two, three days that they would present to us, they executed on, and nothing really changed. I wasn’t surprised by anything over there.
“I think they just wanted it a little more than our guys, and I thought maybe our guys thought it was going to be a little bit easier than it was. This time of the year you can’t afford to have those nights.”
Riley Barber’s rookie season in 2015-16 featured a trip to the Calder Cup Finals.
Barber and the Hershey Bears fell short that year, but he figured then that there would be many more of those chances.
“I thought that I’d be back every year in the Finals,” Barber said this week, “because I was a rookie, and I was kind of wide-eyed. To be honest, I wasn’t really ready for the intensity.”
Seven years later, the Texas Stars forward is still trying to go that far — and more — again. The Stars open the Central Division finals in Milwaukee tonight, a tough challenge against a team that the Stars battled for first place in the Central Division before ultimately prevailing.
“They’re a really hard-nosed team” Barber said of Milwaukee. “And they got some guys down from Nashville, which always helps. But we’re ready to play. They’re a good team, and we have to realize that we’re a really good team as well. It’s going to take everything from the goalie to the forwards, but I think we match up really well.”
― Patrick Williams
