By PAUL WHITE, Special To The Courant
NORFOLK, Va. -- Norfolk goalie Corey Crawford spoiled one of the Wolf Pack's best efforts, stopping 31 shots in the Admirals' 3-1 victory Saturday night before 3,483 at Scope.
The Wolf Pack (1-6), who lost to the Admirals by the same score Friday night, limited the high-scoring Admirals (6-0-1) to a season-low 22 shots and controlled play throughout the second and third periods.
The Wolf Pack's inability to score this season continued, particularly on the power play. Hartford went 0-for-10 with the man advantage and is 0-for-21 in its last three games.
"I thought we played a really strong game tonight, and even dominated in stretches," Wolf Pack coach Jim Schoenfeld said. "We're just having a hard time scoring goals."
The victory was Norfolk's sixth straight, all at home. The Pack have lost three in a row.
As they have in every game this season, the Admirals scored first when Brandon Bochenski's wrist shot beat Al Montoya for a power-play goal at 5:31 of the first period.
Craig MacDonald's goal with 11:31 left in the second period gave Norfolk a 2-0 lead. The Wolf Pack finally answered 30 seconds later as Ryan Callahan tipped Bryce Lampman's slap shot past a screened Crawford.
The Wolf Pack continued applying pressure for the remainder of the period, but were continually denied by Crawford.
"We had some really good chances," Schoenfeld said. "But they had a hot goalie."
The Wolf Pack remained on the attack in the third and were aided by a series of Norfolk penalties. Admirals defenseman Steve Munn was sent off 51 seconds into the period, the first of six Wolf Pack power plays in the period.
The Wolf Pack were unable to capitalize on any of the power plays as Norfolk's penalty-killing units continued their strong play. The Admirals have killed 22 consecutive penalties in their last three games.
"Did we get outplayed? Probably," Norfolk coach Mike Haviland said. `'But we found a way to win."
With a little less than a minute remaining, the Wolf Pack pulled Montoya to set up one final man-advantage situation.
But the Admirals cashed in as MacDonald stuffed his second goal into an empty net with 32 seconds to play.
"We knew when the season started this was going to be a slow process," Schoenfeld said. "The guys are playing hard. I still feel as though it's just a matter of time."
