TWO MINUTES FOR THOUGHTS: JANUARY 19TH, 2023

Jan 19, 2023

What a night it was at the XL Center on Saturday. Over 6,100 Wolf Pack fans helped sell out the lower bowl, bringing the best atmosphere of the season for the team’s 3-1 victory over the Providence Bruins. It was a loud night in downtown Hartford that caught the team’s attention.

Take a bow, Wolf Pack fans. You helped spark a huge Atlantic Division victory for the Pack. Let’s do it again tomorrow night and Saturday night, shall we? Trust me when I tell you, the players are very much looking forward to seeing you all out at the XL Center again. Your attendance and your cheering are noticed and appreciated.

In honor of the Pack’s seven-game point streak, their longest of the season to date, we bring you a seven-point edition of ‘Two Minutes for Thoughts’.

Onto the blog!

1. Congratulations to Louis Domingue, who on Monday was named the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week. Domingue posted a 2-1-0 record, 1.66 GAA, and .941 save percentage in three starts. He also recorded his first shutout with the Wolf Pack, a 21-save performance on January 10^th in Charlotte. Domingue is the first Wolf Pack player to win the award since Nicklas Jensen won it for his performance during the week ending March 20^th, 2016, during the 2015-16 season.

2. Domingue’s shutout was a big personal moment for him, but also a big moment for the Wolf Pack franchise. Their 5-0 victory in Charlotte was the moment where the Wolf Pack turned around and punched the bully tormenting them right in the face. The bully, of course, is the Charlotte Checkers and the Bojangles’ Coliseum. In 19 prior appearances in Charlotte, the Wolf Pack were just 1-16-1-1. The club had zero, yes, zero, regulation wins in that city in franchise history. Last week? Two regulation victories in a span of 24 hours. Fort Never Win? Not anymore.

3. Those two victories showed something for this club. Hartford suffered two difficult losses in Utica and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to open a four-game road trip. In Utica, the Wolf Pack lost 3-2 in the shootout after holding a 2-0 lead. The next night, it was a devastating 4-3 overtime loss after leading 3-0 late in the second period against the Penguins. The fact Hartford went on to win their next three games, two against the Checkers and one against the Providence Bruins, shows the type of buy-in and commitment there currently is in the locker room. Hartford was faced with a gut-check moment. They passed the…