□ Home □ Hockey □ Wolf*Pack □ Link to Story □ Back		Valiquette hits new Lowell for Pack By: Ken House, Journal Inquirer March 24, 2005 HARTFORD - Stephen Valiquette has officially become a thorn in the Lowell Lock Monsters' side. Valiquette stopped 33 shots, including 19 in a furious second period, as the Hartford Wolf Pack grabbed a 1-0 win over Lowell before 3,357 at the Hartford Civic Center on Wednesday. In posting his seventh shutout of the season, Valiquette upped his record to 4-0-1 against the Lock Monsters. In those appearances, he has stopped 148 of 151 shots. Hartford moved two points behind the first-place Manchester Monarchs in the Atlantic Division standings, while Lowell remained four points ahead of the Worcester IceCats and six ahead of the Providence Bruins. Asked for an explanation of his success against Lowell, Valiquette spread out the credit. "There is nothing I know about them, I have a lot of respect for them," he said. "They have a great hockey team. Offensively, they have a lot of real talented players. "I have to be focused every second of the game. That alone really helps a goalie prepare for games. I feel we are really comfortable against that team because we know how to play against them. We played really tough, hit them hard, and controlled most of the game." Hartford actually controlled play for large parts of the first and third periods. The Wolf Pack went up 1-0 on Jeff Hamilton's 21st goal with 6:16 left in the opening period. Hamilton, the AHL's leading goal scorer last season, moved into a tie with Dominic Moore atop Hartford's scoring list with 45 points. "That was a great play," Hartford coach Ryan McGill said. "If you look at that goal, it was not a fancy goal. We just kept pursuing the puck, had good support in the neutral zone, and went to the net. It was a real nice goal." In the second period, Lowell picked up the pace and peppered Valiquette with 19 shots. But Hartford's veteran netminder stopped every one, including several that he could not see due to effective screening by the Lock Monsters. McGill said Lowell's productivity picked up the minute his team's aggressiveness levels went down. "We try to play as physical as we can," McGill said. "We got away from it in the second period only because we got a little complacent in between periods. You have to give their team credit as they came out in the second period and really tried to establish their game. But we put ourselves by A, not being physical enough, and B, trying to be too cute." Playing cute was on neither team's mind in the final period, which elapsed without a single penalty being called. The Lock Monsters kept pressuring the Wolf Pack, but Valiquette and a critical blocked shot by Jed Ortmeyer in the final minute helped Hartford post its 12th shutout of the season. "I thought we were good," McGill said of the third period. "Ortmeyer is our best shot-blocker. He got out there and blocked the shot. It was one of those plays that somehow you knew he'd find a way to get out there." While on the topic of "finding a way," the Wolf Pack managed its league-best 27th home-ice victory and tied Manchester and the Norfolk Admirals for most shutouts. And, finally, Hartford managed to inflict its second heartbreaking win over Lowell in five nights. The Wolf Pack got third-period goals Alexandre Giroux and Ken Gernander to capture a 3-2 win on Sunday. So, what's the secret? "We try to match their intensity every shift, outwork them, try to shut them down and give them no time or no space," Hartford defenseman Bryce Lampman said. "Then they will get frustrated and kinda back off a little bit. If you give them lots of time and don't play physical, they will get better and better as the game goes on." And, most importantly, the Wolf Pack makes sure that Stephen Valiquette is in goal. Even if he can't explain it, he seems to know what he's doing against Lowell. AHL news All the rough play that occurred in Saturday's Wolf Pack-Lock Monsters game did not go unnoticed at the AHL offices in Springfield. The AHL suspended Wolf Pack left wing Ryan Hollweg and Lock Monsters right wing Carsen Germyn two games apiece as a result of their actions in Saturday's game. The league also suspended San Antonio Rampage left wing Robb Palahnuk six games due to his action in a game against the Utah Grizzlies on Sunday. Also, Edmonton Road Runners defenseman Rocky Thompson was suspended for two games as a result of his actions in a Sunday game with the Grand Rapids Griffins.