By BRUCE BERLET, Courant Staff Writer
LOWELL, Mass -- Too many no-shows and bad penalties can spell doom in the playoffs.
It did for the Wolf Pack Tuesday night.
Several of the Pack's skill players barely broke a sweat, and an ill-timed penalty by Jamie Lundmark late in the first period led to two of Lowell's three power-play goals in a 3-2 victory before 1,305 that evened the Atlantic Division semifinals at 2.
Game 5 in the best-of-seven series is Thursday in Hartford.
"I thought he might be going to the goalie [Steve Valiquette], so I decided to put my stick out, and it was a stupid penalty that cost us a few goals," Lundmark said of his slash to Mike Zigomanis' chest that gave Lowell a 5-on-3. "You can't do that this time of year. It wasn't a bad call, it was a bad decision by me. We reacted well the last two periods, but it's playoff hockey and you have to be ready to play for 60 minutes."
Lundmark's penalty led to two Zigomanis goals, the first off Richie Regehr's rebound at 16:33 and the second while diving to convert Allan Rourke's rebound 1:47 later as Lundmark left the penalty box to a glare from coach Ryan McGill.
"We talked before the game about being disciplined. It was a dumb penalty," McGill said.
Zigomanis' second goal gave Lowell a 15-1 shot advantage that reached 17-1 before Jeff Hamilton broke in alone with 1:23 left in the period. And the Pack had two of the first three power plays, with Valiquette (29 saves) stopping Rourke's partial breakaway and Chuck Kobasew on a 2-on-1 with Eric Staal during the second man advantage.
"We weren't ready to play," McGill said. "We knew that team was going to be desperate, and we let their skill players dictate the game. They outmatched us physically, and our skill players didn't show up. They thought it was going to be easy, then it was too late at the end. The usual guys, like [Garth] Murray, [Ken] Gernander, [Jed] Ortmeyer, [Ryan] Hollweg and [Craig] Weller finished checks, but the power play was brutal [1-for-10]."
And the Pack's penalty killing, second in the regular season, virtually allowed three power-play goals. The winner, by former Pack wing Gordie Dwyer at 1:29 of the second, came on a one-timer off a Ryan Bayda pass after Dominic Moore stopped in the neutral zone, allowing a 3-on-2. Moore sat most of the rest of the game, and Jozef Balej saw limited ice time.
"Not mentally in the game, just ridiculous," McGill said of Moore. "I'm not happy with the first period, but we knew they were going to come out ready to battle. Then to make that kind of mistake killing a penalty makes no sense.
"After the performance we had Sunday [in a 4-1 victory] and then to do this ... I have no idea. I'm not going to baby-sit these guys. They have to show some mental maturity themselves."
Dwyer's goal came 1:05 after the Pack got a break to get to 2-1. Lawrence Nycholat broke his stick on a shot that trickled through a maze of players to Hamilton, who shot into an open net.
Lundmark one-timed Alexandre Giroux's rebound past Cam Ward (21 saves) at 14:50 of the second. Valiquette, who was 6-0-0-1 with a 0.75 goals-against average and .975 save percentage against Lowell, kept the Pack in the game with big saves off Chad Larose and Lynn Loyns early in the third. But the Pack failed to get a shot on a 6-on-4 the final 1:44 after pulling Valiquette when Mike Commodore took a high-sticking penalty.
"We talked about just doing the things that have made us successful," Zigomanis said. "All you can do is tighten your bolts. You don't try to play to the other team's weakness. You have to play to your strengths, and that's being a transitional team and using our speed."
Gernander Sets Record
Gernander played in a record 121st Calder Cup game, breaking a tie with Fred Glover. "On a different night, it would have been a lot better," Gernander said. "I can't even say bittersweet. It was just mostly bitter." ... Murray returned after missing one game with an eye injury. ... Assistant Nick Fotiu was back behind the bench after missing the previous two games because of a death in his family. General manager Jim Schoenfeld, who filled in for Fotiu, returned to the press box, watching with Rangers assistant GM Don Maloney.
