You know, sometimes, when you’re breaking a hex, you need a break. You need to sneak by when the spirit has its head turned.
But this was a monumental effort to get one point, let alone two. Bridgeport came into this game with eight guys in the NHL (or on their way, or on their way back). Justin Papineau didn’t get cleared. Rob Collins had to pull his stuff off the bus, is how late in the afternoon he got called up. (And then Collins reportedly got into an accident on the way to LGA. Sounds like he’s OK, though word of the accident hadn’t seemed to trickle to the Sound Tigers right away.)
So Bridgeport shows up in the House of Pain with 15 skaters, with Evgeny Tunik now pressed into every-third-shift service for the first time in a long time. The Marjamaki-Koalska-Masse line, out of necessity, gets splintered for the first time since Dec. 21. Collins was supposed to be a centerman, so Dave Baseggio audibles and taps Regier, who hadn’t played center in about four years, in part because of his defensive responsibility. (“You couldn’t tell he’d never played center,” Baseggio said afterward. “He was good on faceoffs. He was great down low.”)
So after all that, Providence scores short-handed off a semi-broken two-on-two with 1:10 left in the first period. Then they go up 2-0 on a goal 2:56 into the second off a lucky bounce in front of the net that caroms right to the guy with the open side.
Hexes.
But then Hamilton’s in the box for holding, and then Pettinen goes in for hooking, and it’s a five-on-three, and that’s that, right? But Regier/Pratt/Flache don’t allow a shot on the five-on-three, and Wade Dubielewicz is solid on the five-on-four, and then Masse-Koalska-Hamilton have a great buzzing shift, and this game’s all turned around. Chris Thompson nails Jonathan Sigalet in the corner.
And then Evgeny Tunik — the big man played his best game since at least November and the Koalska/Regier days, and maybe his best game all year — is about to draw his second penalty of the night. He hands off to Koalska, who drops it to Hamilton for a blast… and a goal.
Wow.
So Dubielewicz stays hot, the Sound Tigers threaten a little but have to kill a couple of penalties, Tunik almost stuffs a goal home. Then Regier gets nailed in front of the Bridgeport bench, and it seems to suck all the attention away from the play… which is Thompson to Masse for the tying goal.
Turn its head, eh?
And they trade penalty kills, and Dubielewicz makes some more big saves — 19 in the third period — and it’s looking like one of those games where you just cling with all your life to a point and hope for the best in the shootout…
And then the spirit turned its head. And so did Scott Hoberg.
Old buddy Ben Guite had the puck in the corner to Dubielewicz’s right. Harlan Pratt was on him. Hoberg, the referee, was right on top of them, so he turned to his right to back off and give them some space. And right then, Pratt nailed Guite.
Pratt took the puck and moved it ahead to Joe Tallari. Tallari came up the right side, took a shot that Jordan Sigalet stopped but kicked into the slot.
And who was streaking down the slot but the soon-to-be No. 1 star? Nine games without a point, no spot on the Clear Day list, scratched in three out of four, but Evgeny Tunik got his chance to be a hero tonight, and he took advantage.
It’s a House of Pain no more.
LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Masse-Koalska-Hamilton (A)
Marjamaki-Regier-Thompson
Tunik-Lee-Tallari
D: Jarrett (A)-Pratt
Pettinen-Caldwell
Larocque-Flache
PROVIDENCE
F: Healey-Lundbohm-Nickulas
Pelletier-Walter-Robinson
Reich (A)-Guite (A)-MacDonald
Caprara-Thompson-(Dyment-scratch)
D: Jon. Sigalet-Leach (C)
Schutte-Schmidt
Gaucher-Curry
For the third, Marjamaki and Masse switched, with Thompson then moving to the left side.
Collins was called up to replace Mike York, who apparently suffered a concussion on that hard hit Thursday night from Andy Sutton. No word on the extent.
Allan Rourke was supposed to meet the team in Portland.
Wade Dubielewicz got back to .500 at 16-16-1. He hadn’t been at .500 since the opening weekend of the season. He hasn’t been over, I’m pretty sure, since Dec. 2004; something I’ll look up before tomorrow’s game. (Not now. It’s getting late.)
In really good news, the numbers on the new set of blue sweaters are white now. Off-ice guys rejoice the whole league ’round. The team’s road blues had featured black numerals all season, frustrating fans and officials and nearsighted media throughout the conference.
Glad to see Chris Dyment out there in warmup. Dyment, you might recall, suffered that scary facial/eye injury New Year’s Eve when he was hit by a bottle on the street. They were talking in career-threatening terms then, so it’s nice to see him close to coming back.
Sad news from Quebec, where Jonathan Delisle died in a car accident Thursday. Delisle, a Montreal draft pick, played with Bridgeport’s Mario Larocque in junior. He played in Quebec’s only visit to Bridgeport on Dec. 8, 2001, and he played for Fredericton against the Beast of New Haven as well.
Off to Portland…
Posted by mike on March 17, 2006 06:40 PM