□ Home □ Hockey □ Wolf*Pack □ Link to Story □ Back		Giroux, Balej Lift Wolf Pack Over Rampage March 6, 2005 By TIM PRICE, Special To The Courant SAN ANTONIO -- A Giroux was one of the big reasons the Wolf Pack lost Friday at Houston. A different Giroux made a big impact one night later, this time with the Wolf Pack winning a 2-0 decision over the San Antonio Rampage at SBC Center. Jozef Balej scored two goals Saturday, both set up by center Alexandre Giroux in the second period. The victory put the Wolf Pack in a tie atop the Atlantic Division with Manchester. Hartford lost 3-1 to Houston Friday after Aeros defensman Ray Giroux, no relation to the Pack's Giroux, opened the scoring. Hartford is 38-19-2-2 for 80 points through 61 games. Manchester has played 59 games. The Pack's big second period followed an opening 20 minutes that included four fights and 42 minutes of penalties. The Pack built an 8-4 advantage in shots midway through the second period before Balej scored. Balej's first goal came from in front. Dominic Moore brought the puck into the Rampage zone past Joel Kwiatkowski. Giroux picked it up and advanced it around defenseman Jeremy Swanson toward goalie Travis Scott where Balej was waiting. "I was going to shoot, but at the last second I saw [Balej]," Giroux said. "It was that quick." Balej scored his second with 8 seconds left in the period. Giroux picked up a loose puck near the Wolf Pack blue line and skated down the left side, flipping the puck past Kwiatkoski again for Balej's goal. "I was going to go back and I heard my center [Moore] calling for me," Giroux said. "When I turned to look I saw [Balej] driving. I put it front of Kwiatkowski and put it in the spot for Jozef." The Pack were slow to get started. In fact, they got mixed up in more incidents along the boards and fights than they had shots on goal in the opening 17 minutes. After Ryan Hollweg laid face down on the ice for about five minutes after getting hit into the boards from behind by San Antonio's Juraj Kolnik five minutes into the game, players from both teams paired off. Kolnik was not penalized and Hollweg returned before the end of the period. It was one hard hit and four fights, but only four shots on goal for the Wolf Pack until Kwiatkowski was called for holding. The best scoring opportunity came when Bryce Lampman's wide shot somehow got behind Scott and rolled through the crease to Layne Ulmer. Scott made the stop.