By BRUCE BERLET, Courant Staff Writer
LOWELL, Mass. -- Wolf Pack coach Ryan McGill started the weekend by calling on his team to improve with each of the three games.
Mission accomplished.
Led by Jed Ortmeyer and Steve Valiquette, the Pack rolled to a 5-1 victory over the Lock Monsters Sunday, moving two points behind Atlantic Division leader Manchester.
Ortmeyer had a goal and two assists, setting up Garth Murray's winner 10 seconds into the second period, then beating Cam Ward high to the glove side at 6:26. Lawrence Nycholat assisted on that goal after missing the first 11 minutes of the game to get six stitches to close a cut on his right cheek.
Ortmeyer also set in motion the coup de grace, a 2-on-1 that Martin Grenier converted from Alexandre Giroux for his first goal in 29 games with the Pack. That came after Dominic Moore lifted a backhander past reliever Brent Krahn at 2:40 of the third, helping ensure the Pack (46-21-3-3) would extend their streak to 5-0-1-1 and finish 5-2-0-1 against Lowell.
"Obviously we'd like to play like that against more teams," said Ortmeyer, who has scored five of his seven goals this season against Lowell. "When their top line [Chuck Kobasew, Eric Staal and Colin Forbes] is out there, everybody is aware of them and gets focused.
"Like with Manchester, if we take time and space away from their skill guys and get them off their games, it's conducive to getting us in the game a little more and getting the offense going. It was one of our best games considering all the penalties and short bench, but this is the time of year we need to start jelling and focus on playing playoff hockey."
McGill said he was most pleased with the Pack's improved thought process in overtime victories against Springfield and Portland on Friday and Saturday and the dominating effort against Lowell. The latter included having only three defensemen for 10 minutes after Grenier and Jeff MacMillan got two of the game's 10 misconducts during a melee with 2:44 left in the second. Thomas Pock already had received one of five game misconducts for being the third man in a fight 6:52 into the period. That forced Ken Gernander to return to defense after doing yeoman work with Ortmeyer and Murray.
"Obviously getting six points was big, but we got better from the start of Friday's game to the end of [Sunday's] game, to a man," McGill said. "Lowell has probably the best transition game in the league, and in order to have success, you have to make good decisions at the offensive blue line, and I thought we did a really good job of that."
It made life easy for Valiquette, who is 5-0-0-1 with a 0.71 goals-against average and has stopped 173 of 177 shots against Lowell this season. Only Mike Zigomanis beat him 7:11 in on a 2-on-1 after Ryan Bayda picked off MacMillan.
Jeff Hamilton scored first for the Pack 4:51 in on the first of two assists by Bryce Lampman, who was plus-5, a team record.
"We have a plan against Lowell and executed it," Valiquette said. "We're an extremely motivated group who wants to catch Manchester, and every game is a playoff minute. With that attitude, we'll go in strong in the playoffs."
Lowell coach Tom Rowe missed the finish as his team matched its worst loss of the season. He got a game misconduct when he yelled at referee Wes McCauley about a Pack line change with 10:40 left. Nine fighting majors also led to 235 penalty minutes, a Lowell record.
"I can't say any more or I'll get fined more," Rowe said of his misconduct. "But we played brutal, and they kicked our [butts] right from the start. They really compete, but they've played like that all year."
