Trivia time: 1) Sean Bergenheim’s was the third natural hat trick in Sound Tigers history. Who had the other two?
2) Who else has scored four in a game for Bridgeport?
Answer to 1 below. Answer to 2: Trick question. This was it.
While banging in second edition’s story tonight, I thought back to that night in Syracuse, when he couldn’t finish and just kept saying “I don’t know” over and over.
Now, goal after goal after goal…
He deflected in Robert Nilsson’s shot from the right circle, a pretty nice start. He tipped in Allan Rourke’s left-point shot later in the first, a shot Rourke paid for: Craig Weller nailed him into the boards for the first of at least two times.
He scored short-handed off Jeremy Colliton and Harlan Pratt’s setup, his fourth short-hander of the year. And then he batted in Nilsson’s center at the end of the night. (In between, Matt Koalska greeted relief goalie Chris Holt by banking a power-play shot off him and in.)
The forecheck and the cycle were both tremendous tonight and helped neutralize Hartford’s speed. The Dawes-Helminen-Genoway line finished with 10 shots, more than I would have expected, but it wasn’t generating the kind of rushes that slaughtered Bridgeport in past meetings. (Bruno Gervais and Cole Jarrett were against them every shift until late in the game.)
And what got through, Wade Dubielewicz stopped. He got Alexandre Giroux’s penalty shot 4:33 into the third, too. Steve Regier put a pass into the middle of the ice in the offensive zone, and Giroux was off to the races. Regier tugged at him from behind to take him off the puck, and referee Chris Brown called it after the briefest hesitation when Bridgeport touched up. Giroux came down the middle and went to his backhand, but Dubielewicz got the glove up to stop it. Opposing players are 0-for-7 all-time against the Sound Tigers; Dubielewicz is 5-for-5.
We’ll see what the lines look like tomorrow and Friday, now that in-attendance Islanders coach Brad Shaw took Wyatt Smith, Nilsson and Joel Bouchard back to the Island with him. There have been whispers of player movement, but I don’t think anything else is official beyond what had happened before the game: Frederic Cloutier going up to help out at practice (nice payday for that) and Cody Rudkowsky coming in here in the meantime. We’ll see in the morning.
Not sure about Vince Macri, and in the hubbub after the game, I neglected to ask. More for the morning.
LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Bergenheim-Colliton-Nilsson
Marjamaki-Koalska-Masse
Thompson-Smith (A)-Regier
Tunik
D: Jarrett-Gervais
Bouchard-Flache
Rourke (A)-Pratt
HARTFORD
F: Dawes-Helminen-Genoway
Wiseman (A)-Sonnenberg-Weller (C)
Giroux-Immonen-Jessiman
Falardeau/Rullier
D: Liffiton-Girardi
Baranka-Taylor
Grenier (A)-Pock
Stop me if this sounds familiar, but Rullier and Grenier switched spots in the second period. Unlike the last time, Grenier didn’t score. He didn’t even see much ice.
The Sound Tigers are now 3-0 on Feb. 22.
Weird stuff 7:00 into the game. Gherson went behind the net to clear the puck but hit a Sound Tiger (Regier, I think), who centered to Chris Thompson, whose second swat at the puck went under Gherson toward the net. Thompson celebrated, and referee Brown circled behind the net, then started pointing. But then he consulted with his linesmen, and then he consulted with the goal judge, and then he consulted with his linesmen some more, and then he concluded the puck hadn’t gone in.
Dave Baseggio was apoplectic. Why would you point “in,” and then say it wasn’t? But it all worked out. And it made the hat trick a natural.
Oh, yeah: Answer to Trivia 1: Justin Mapletoft, Oct. 12, 2001, vs. Hartford, the first Bridgeport hat trick in team history, the go-ahead goal and two insurance goals in a 6-2 win; and Justin Papineau (who’s been around, rehabbing), Oct. 15 this year at Binghamton, the tying, go-ahead and necessary insurance goal in a 5-4 win. Bergenheim’s is the first non-Justinian natural hat trick for a Sound Tiger.
Tunik was the spare forward, and he skated with Smith and Regier for three shifts in the first period when Thompson needed a skate repaired.
I’ve been forgetting to mention this story from the Albany Times Union. It’s about Robbie Ftorek’s daughter Anna and the severe concussion she suffered that has left her with amnesia. Go now.