Dom Amore: You ready for some playoff hockey? Wolf Pack delivering again for Hartford faithful

HARTFORD — Jaroslav Chmelar made a block, a solid defensive play, to give himself a breakaway opportunity. And he cashed in, beating Spencer Knight, one of the top goalies in the American Hockey League, for his first pro goal, and the Wolf Pack faithful roared its approval.

“It’s a bigger arena, like more people. I like the energy it’s giving,” said Chmelar, who reported to Hartford after signing with the Rangers two weeks ago.

The playoffs are nearing and the Wolf Pack, the Rangers affiliate, is getting its postseason skates laced up and sharpened, clinching a spot Friday and stringing together another strong performance to beat Charlotte, 5-2, on Sunday. For the first time since 2012, Hartford has made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, and enthusiasm for the franchise continues to rise. There were 8,090 in the XL Center Friday, to watch the 4-2 win over Springfield, and 5,543 on Sunday.

“I really do enjoy the fan base here,” said coach Steve Smith, who used to come to Hartford to play the Whalers during his NHL playing days. “It’s a pretty knowledgeable fan base. They understand the game well, they cheer at the right times, they frown on us when we’re having a tough night and much deserve it. We’ve had a tough month here and it was exciting to see they’re sticking by us and still energizing our guys.”

Coach Kris Knoblauch left in November to take over the Edmonton Oilers, where he engineered a dramatic, immediate turnaround. He left behind the deep talent in the Rangers organization, now augmented by Chmelar, 20, who signed after two seasons of college hockey at Providence, and left it in the custody of an experienced hockey lifer, Smith.

Those eternal puck-in-the-sky hopes of getting the Whalers back, or more accurately drawing the Coyotes out of Arizona to replace the franchise, gone from Hartford since April 13, 1997, were dashed this week as machinations were in motion to relocate the team to Salt Lake City. Hartford remains an aggrieved hockey party, but growing interest in the Wolf Pack, and a strong strain of the college game in Connecticut, show that this is still hockey territory, if it ever comes to that, if the renovation or replacement efforts for this aging arena ever get rolling.

While the dreamer’s dream on, and count me a realist with dreamer’s streak, it’s a good time to enjoy what we have, and what we have is the Rangers top affiliate playing very watchable hockey in the XL Center.

“The current state of the Wolf Pack experience is nothing that’s been seen here in more than a decade, at least,” said Bill Klein, from Cromwell, head honcho of the booster club. “Got so much energy in the house, got so much energy outside.”

The Wolf Pack Booster Club, re-established with 28 members at the beginning of the 2022-23 season, has grown to 228 members in two seasons, doubling since the end of last season, when the Pack was eliminated by Hershey in the third round of the Calder Cup playoffs.

The crowd is hoping to secure at least one playoff game in Hartford, but that cause was actually hurt Sunday, when the Wolf Pack beat Charlotte after losing the first seven games to the Checkers this season. Hartford is more or less locked into the fifth seed among six playoff teams in the Atlantic Division. If the Checkers are fourth, they would host the Wolf Pack in the first round and, because the league likes to limit travel, play all three games in Charlotte. To get a game in Hartford, probably a Game 1 on April 24, the Wolf Pack would need Wilkes-Barre/Scranton or Providence to be the first-round opponent.

But those concerns were secondary to the coaches and players. The Wolf Pack struggled toward the end of the season, losing six in a row, using different lineups in 21 straight games. Now, they’ve put together back-to-back hard-skating, good puck-managing performances. Chmelar was one of five rookies to score for Hartford on Sunday and his score was one of several on breakaways ignited by defense, including Adam Edstrom’s short-handed score in the second period.

“We’ve pushed it for the last couple of weeks, we’ve got to be playoff-ready,” Smith said. “We’re starting to play playoff hockey. Part of that becomes young guys buying into a concept that is completely different. The playoffs is a very tight-checking game, it’s a very simple game. You just can’t make mistakes on any given night and hope to get away with it. We have to be strong defensively and manage the puck well. It was exciting to see young guys score, but it was more exciting to see the buy into something that I would consider strong, defensive style of hockey and get rewarded on the offensive side.”

Knight, from Darien and Avon Old Farm, the Panthers’ first-round pick in 2019, was one of the top young goalies in the NHL before taking a leave to enter the league’s player assistant program, seeking help for his obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He’s on the road back with a terrific season with Charlotte, a 2.34 goals-against average before Hartford got five past him on Sunday. He’ll be one of many obstacles with which the Wolf Pack will have to deal in the playoffs.

“The guys are really experienced here and you’ve got to really think before you make a play,” Chmelar said. “Because they’re going to punish you if you don’t.”

The franchise averaged just over 4,600 fans last season, the highest total in a several years. This year, the Pack have averaged just under 5,500. On Friday night, the third 8,000-plus crowd tried to will the end of the losing streak and push the Wolf Pack back into the playoffs. The mission was accomplished when veteran goalie Louis Domingue, a fan favorite, stopped a potential tying shot in the final minute, then fired the puck through the traffic in front of the net. The crowd erupted as the puck glided into the net, the first goalie-goal of Domingue’s long career.

“The atmosphere in here was indescribable, it was so electric,” Klein sad. “It was like everybody won MegaBall, so much energy. That goalie-goal just sparked an explosion of euphoria.”

Explosion. Euphoria. Hey, it’s a booster club, they’re supposed to get carried away. And getting carried away only shows hockey, playoff hockey, is still alive and screaming on Trumbull Street.