When rookies Andrei Vasilevskiy and Slater Koekkoek took the ice Sunday at The Oncenter, the Tampa Bay Lightning organization took a step into its future.

It was a mixed bag for the debuts of the 2012 first-round NHL Entry Draft picks as the Syracuse Crunch and Hartford Wolf Pack went back and forth, goal for goal, with Vasilevskiy in net.

Every time the Crunch (0-1-1-0) scored a goal, the Wolf Pack (1-0-0-0) answered shortly thereafter all the way through into sudden-death overtime, when, for the first time, Hartford got ahead of the trend. An Oscar Lindberg goal, his second of the game, gave the Wolf Pack a 4-3 win on Sunday.

“I think maybe it’s a little bit (nervousness),” said Vasilevskiy, who’s regarded as the top goalie prospect in the country. “It’s new hockey for me. Everything’s different.”

He managed to make it through a clean first period before Syracuse kicked off what would be a string of five goals in the second. He finished with 23 saves.

Koekkoek, the 10th overall pick in the draft, had a shot and an assist. He said he thought he played well and that accounting for the size of AHL players is the biggest adjustment he’s had to make.

“I thought (Koekkoek) skated well, I thought he made smart plays,” head coach Rob Zettler said. “He didn’t look out of place at all.”

Tanner Richard scored with 18:25 left in the second for Syracuse before Lindberg answered back 50 seconds later.

The Crunch’s Cedric Paquette got on the board with his first of two goals at the 15:23 mark with a cross from left to right and then a shot between the legs of Hartford’s Cedrick Desjardins to make it 2-1. Desjardins tended Syracuse’s goal through its playoff run in 2013 and last season before signing with the New York Rangers’ organization this summer.

“I know Cedrick pretty well from last year,” Paquette said. “We practiced last year and I just tried to do the same move as in practice and it worked.”

The Crunch continued to have success getting in the Hartford zone throughout the period and it created two close chances around the 12-minute mark. The puck found its way out in front of an open net, but Crunch players couldn’t get to it.

Hartford managed to creep back with more shots. After being outshot 10-4 in the first, it put 13 pucks on net compared to the Crunch’s 11.

The effort helped bring the score even with a 10:24 Chris Mueller goal fired off the left post, past Vasilevskiy and into the net.

Paquette put the Crunch back on top soon after. Then in the third, Hartford tied it up courtesy of Marek Hrivik with 6:35 left.

That sent it to overtime, where the Crunch ultimately fell. Syracuse finished with 32 shots and Hartford had 27.

“I don’t think (Vasilevskiy) faced a ton of stuff,” Zettler said. “He made a couple of big saves. One got through him, the first one got through him, but other than that, the other shots were high-skilled shots.”

Published on October 12, 2014 at 10:56 pm