Captain Courageous

By far the best thing about today’s game came afterward.

There was a crowd around the coaches’ offices as I was about to leave the dressing room. And for good reason.

Kevin Colley had stopped by after the game for a visit.

The captain looked good. Just talked to him briefly; exchanging hellos and passing on good wishes is about it. But it was nice to see him.

On the ice, the story of the game — maybe the weekend — was Chris Thompson, a successor to Colley in that middleweight-tough-guy, hit-it-if-it-moves category for Bridgeport. Thompson played hard in these couple of games; always does. Sunday, he got his reward with his first AHL goal.

A solid team effort to get back into the win column. Nice game for a lot of people. I juggled names on the three-stars ballot a few times (including those of Norfolk’s Nathan Barrett and Mark Cullen). Wade Dubielewicz allowed three goals, yes, but made 42 saves, including some big ones. David Masse made nice passes on two goals. Joel Bouchard is always slick with the puck, but he made some nice plays today. Steve Regier went to the net and scored twice. Cole Jarrett put the puck on net and got two assists from it. Wyatt Smith had three points.

The name on top was easy, though, and not only out of a sense of the dramatic.

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Bergenheim-Colliton-Nilsson
Marjamaki-Koalska-Masse
Thompson-Smith (A)-Regier
Tunik/Flache
D: Jarrett-Gervais
Bouchard-Macri
Rourke (A)-Pratt

NORFOLK
F: Barrett-St. Pierre-Thornton (A)
Vorobiev-Morgan (A)-Keith
Bartovic-Fraser-Meloche
Laing (C)-Cullen-Corazzini
D: Barinka-Wisniewski
Munn-Byfuglien
Richmond-Kuiper

Vince Macri didn’t play after Barrett beat him for a rebound goal in the second. Flache never took a shift up front; he slotted in on defense here and there and finally was a regular after Macri was kept out. “We had seven (defensemen),” Dave Baseggio said. “I don’t like playing seven. Paul Flache played well. Go with what’s goin’.”

Again, I think I only saw Tunik once.

Hamilton, Collins and Caldwell remained out. Caldwell keeps saying he’s feeling good, so he’s a possibility for next weekend, by which time Bouchard will probably be back in Islander camp.

Another postgame sighting, Page Six style: former trainer Garrett Timms, hanging out for the day and ready to get back to work as the Isles’ strength and conditioning coach.

Well, one more day of round-robin Olympic hockey. It’ll be nice to have that bracket in front of us and see if our picks can still come to pass…

Michael Fornabaio