Haggerty scores for Hartford: Monday notes

Ryan Haggerty’s first career playoff goal helped Hartford to a 3-1 win at Worcester over Hershey to even that series at 2. There’ll be a Game 6 in Hartford on Friday. Yann Danis made 22 saves on 23 shots; Jon Landry scored for Hershey in the third period with an assist to Steve Oleksy, but the damage had been done, with Oscar Lindberg in on all three goals. Game 5 is Wednesday in the Land of Chocolate.

That Jordan Weal fellow had a hat trick in Manchester’s 5-2 win at Wilkes-Barre in Game 4. The Monarchs led 5-0 before the Penguins scored a couple in the third period to make it interesting. Well, more interesting. Manchester takes a 3-1 lead in the series and can finish if off Tuesday.

Utica claimed a 2-1 series lead at Oklahoma City with a 3-2 win in Game 3. Mike Zalewski’s first goal was the winner, not two minutes after the Barons tied it. The series continues Wednesday and Thursday in OKC.

In the Coast, the Isles’ kids down in Florida couldn’t stave off summer a third time. New Canaan’s Drew MacKenzie had two assists and was plus-4 in a 5-2 South Carolina win to finish off that series in six. Jesse Graham had an assist for the Everblades, and ex-UConn and ex-Tiger Brant Harris had a couple of helpers.

So it’s South Carolina against the winner of Fort Wayne and Toledo in the ECHL’s Eastern Conference (Game 7 there is Wednesday in Ohio), then Ontario against either Allen (which leads 3-2 and has the last two at home Tuesday and Wednesday) or Rapid City. (An assortment of ex-Tigers of various vintage and longevity dots those rosters, including the coaching staffs. (Ontario’s a little less so, but still, Jason Christie coached Utah when Bridgeport was affiliated.)

At Worlds, two big newsy bits from Finland’s shootout win over Belarus. One is, by not allowing a goal until Yevgeni Kovyrshin scored 5:09 into the third period, Pekka Rinne set a modern-day tournament record with a shutout streak of 237 minutes, 5 seconds. Former Milwaukee and Nashville goalie Jan Lasak had the old mark at 206:26. The other bit: Because Belarus came back to tie with an extra-attacker in the last minute, and it took a shootout for Finland to win, Finland and Russia are one point behind the U.S. with all three in action tomorrow to close out the round robin. The Americans only need a win of any sort now over Slovakia (Tuesday, 10 a.m., NBCSN) to clinch first in the pool (Finland and Russia meet later in the day, and the Americans defeated both so will win a head-to-head tiebreaker) and a date with Switzerland.

Belarus right now would be fine with a U.S. win tomorrow, though they may not care by 10 a.m. They lead Slovakia by three points, so a Belarus regulation loss to Norway and a Slovakia regulation win over the U.S. gives the fourth spot in Pool B to Slovakia. Any other set of results, and Belarus is fourth. The U.S. can’t finish lower than second, but the order depends on Tuesday.

Otherwise, Brock Nelson’s going to need a couple of more goals tomorrow to keep pace with Filip Forsberg; Sweden beat France to clinch second in Pool A (Canada, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, in order). Austria beat Germany in a shootout to get out of relegation territory, for now at least. Assuming Austria doesn’t take a point from Canada in the morning (6 a.m. here), it could be relegated if France beats Latvia beyond regulation. (Three-way ties, head-to-head-to-head, yadda yadda yadda.)

Slovenia meanwhile got a win before relegation, beating Denmark 1-0. Two penalties and one goal: about as short a box score as you’ll ever see.

And up in the Show, reports are that Tampa’s Ryan Callahan, the former Rangers captain, is out after an appendectomy.

Michael Fornabaio