Wolves Alternate Captain Joe Flanagan scored a 3 goal hat trick to lead the Wolves to a 5-2 win over the Vermont Lumberjacks in Burlington, VT Wednesday afternoon.  Captain Ryan Dunn scored the other 2 goals, and Evan Ferraro chipped in with 3 assists for his second 3 point game in a row.  Kurt Gutting was strong in net once again stopping 36 Lumberjack shots, including a breakaway save and several other crucial point blank saves.

The first ten minutes of the game were a back and forth battle with the Wolves holding the territory advantage, but Vermont would take the first lead at 10:58 when Patrick Farnan scored his first of two in the game finishing a nice passing play from the doorstep.  The Wolves continued pushing and Ryan Dunn answered just under two minutes later at 12:50.  Dunn’s line mates Andrew Lee and Zach Sullivan cycled below the goal line before Sullivan found Dunn in the slot.  The veteran didn’t miss firing a hard wrist shot home to the far corner to tie it at 1-1.  The Wolves just missed taking the lead at the 18 minute mark when Cam Armstrong made a nice back hand feed to Sullivan at the top of the left circle but Sullivan couldn’t convert after deking around the goalie before firing wide and the period ended tied at one.

Vermont came out fast in the second with Farnan giving his team the lead just 1:01 in finding the back of the net off a scramble in front.  The Wolves put a major push on at this point that continued throughout the period as they outshot the home team 23-6 in the stanza, but although Gutting didn’t see many shots in the period he made a sensational save to keep the deficit at one following a Wolves turnover 5 minutes in when he flashed his glove to stop Nathan Foster who walked in alone.  The Wolves gained energy after the big save and Joe Flanagan tied the game 2-2 at the 11:09 mark.  On the play Chris Peters slid a pass to Evan Ferraro at the offensive blue line and Ferraro drove and shot before Flanagan poked home the rebound.  Gutting made another big save while shorthanded with 5 minutes to go in the period, and Flanagan gave his team their first lead of the game at 17:39 following great pressure.  On the play Ferraro and Andrew Olevitz played catch on the right wall before Olevitz swung it to Trevor Mack at the left point.  Mack drove a shot that caromed off the back wall where Ferraro picked it up and drove the net.  Flanagan was on the doorstep once again scooping the rebound and putting home a backhand shot to the stick side.

Flanagan completed his hat trick to push the lead to two early in at 3:13 of the third as the Wolves continued to string strong shifts together.  Matthew Toombs and Chris Peters dominated on the forecheck cycle to put the Lumberjacks on their heels before Trevor Mack slid a nice feed to Ferraro who skated down low at the right circle and found Flanagan who promptly finished on a wrister from the slot.  Vermont wasn’t sitting back and pushed back with urgency, but were consistently thwarted by Gutting and the Wolves defense blocking shots, including Justin Munck (5), Trevor Mack (3) and Cam Armstrong (3).  Matthew Toombs also had a big game for the Wolves with 4 hits and 5 blocked shots.   Gutting made an outstanding pad stop on a screen shot mid way through the period and Mack made an outstanding sprawling save behind Gutting shortly after.  Ryan Dunn sealed it for the Wolves putting a wrist shot into the open net from Sullivan and Lee with 2 minutes left and the Wolves headed for the happy bus ride home with a big 5-2 victory.