Ah, the glamorous life of a writer. After writing the gamer, driving home from Albany, spending a few hours with the family and then getting changed, it somehow popped into my head that I had miscounted games. A minor point to the story off Saturday’s game will be the nine second periods that Bridgeport had played to that point. At 4 a.m., I was somehow thinking that Saturday night was Game 9 instead of 10. I was all set to log on here and issue a pre-emptive mea culpa, but a quick check of the calendar showed I was right in the first place. There is nothing — nothing — like that middle-of-the-night panic. Did I spell that name right? Is that stat right? Did I leave the garage door open? (Sorry, different affliction)
Oh, right, the game…
Jody Robinson still wore an A… but it’s the old-style, white A. It looks funny, but it’s the only number/letter that’s easy to read on these black-on-blue sweaters…
QOTNTDMTS: “We’ve been slowly building, but we haven’t got the results. … It’s not to say we’re over the hump yet, but if we put a couple of these together, we’ll get on the roll we want to be on.” — Chris Madden
One Sound Tiger jokingly told me not to quote Steve Regier tonight, lest he get a swelled head. But gotta strike while the iron’s hot, and the kid has been hot. He’s scored three goals three different ways, though all three involved going to the net, one way or the other. Regier says part of it is an infusion of confidence. I asked Dave Baseggio if he sees anything different: “He’s playing with a lot more conviction. He’s looking to make plays instead of being afraid to make mistakes. He’s taking pucks to the net, doing the little things, and it’s paying off for him.”
Baseggio mentioned all the bad penalties, but only in passing; true, it has become a broken record, and it’s something that can’t stand, but he didn’t want to rain on the team’s parade tonight, and who can blame him? After five losses, they just needed to win any way possible.
I only caught the aftermath of the Sean Bergenheim attempted spearing* event. Referee Gord Dwyer called it pretty strongly. But since I hadn’t seen the spear and only saw his hand motions from behind, when the four minutes popped up on the board, I at first thought he had called a hook and an unsportsmanlike minor; both Bergenheim and Evgeny Tunik were arguing vociferously, so I guess good on Dwyer for the patience not to toss an extra two minutes onto a volatile situation. Bergenheim said he had just taken a spear moments before and retaliated; not the smartest, he admitted, but he had to stick up for himself. Comes back to the old saying, though: Mom only catches the kid who hits back.
Ryan Caldwell didn’t seem panicked over his knee injury, so I guess we wait for the tests. (Justin Papineau didn’t seem too distraught Wednesday night, either, so we’ll see.) Pascal Rheaume bumped Caldwell on a play that looked innocuous, and Caldwell didn’t think it was dirty, either. Caldwell said he tried to fake Rheaume out, that he was going up the boards, but instead turned back, and got caught there.
Jeremy Colliton played a nice game mostly between Bergenheim and Kevin Colley. On the go-ahead goal, former Sound Tiger Ray Schultz gave the puck up to Bergenheim, and Bergenheim dropped it right off for Colliton. Both of those guys scored their first goals since the Norfolk trip.
Got a kick out of Collins springing Bergenheim’s breakaway: Bergenheim was the guy who led Collins on Friday night when Collins got the penalty shot.
Pretty good game all around. This is a different Albany team than past years — this matchup had been trap-on-trap for two years, but the most passive I remember the Rats getting Saturday was a 2-3 forecheck in the second period — and though it has a few guys out, holding them to two goals (by an NHL-ready defenseman and an NHL forward) is a pretty nice night. Chris Madden made some big saves, too. With sixth-place Binghamton coming in today, this could — could — be a stepping stone for the Sound Tigers.
Yup, Game 11: big one.
LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Brigley-Smith (A)-Collins
Bergenheim-Colliton-Colley (C)
Tunik-Koalska-Regier
Marjamaki-Aquino (scratch)-Masse
D: Jarrett-Gervais
Robinson (A)-Macri
Caldwell-Flache
ALBANY
F: Ryznar-Vrana-Tallackson
Suglobov-Pihlman (A)-Pikkarainen
Murphy-Rheaume-Bergfors
Sgroi/Clarkson
D: Hale (A)-Brooks (C)
DeMarchi-Schultz
Redlihs-Miller