Chris Thompson was very unhappy afterward, and he didn’t even play.
Thompson caught a rut in the morning skate and crashed into the boards. No final word on it, but crashing head-and-shoulders-first into the boards is no fun.
So up came Doug Christiansen from Reading as the Sound Tigers were missing 12 skaters from the Clear Day list. And from the drop of the puck, it looked like it.
You shut down Denis Hamel, you might think you could beat Binghamton. Nope. The Sens’ second line scored twice and their third line scored twice as the Sound Tigers were lax too often in their defensive zone and didn’t get much sustained pressure in the offensive zone till the third period.
I’ve got a note with 45 seconds left in the second, when Mark Lee hit Neil Petruic. There wasn’t much memorable body contact before that, which you wonder about against a team playing only five defensemen. Granted, the big thumping hit isn’t really Bridgeport’s game. But still.
LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Marjamaki-Koalska-Miles
Tallari-O’Marra-Collins (A)
Tunik-Tsimikalis-Lee
Christensen/Masse
D: Pettinen-Jarrett (A)
Kemp-Caldwell
Barr-Pratt
BINGHAMTON
F: Hamel (C)-Martins-Bois
Potulny-Stephens (A)-Heerema
Cullen-Johnson-Robins
Clouthier-Bass-Cheesman
D: Petruic-Platil
Ward (A)-Evans
Malec
(Clouthier-Bass-Cheesman=19-20-21)
The old, indestructible Marjamaki-Koalska-Masse line was resurrected for power plays in the second period and then skated their final even-strength shift of the period together. They were separated again for the third.
Check out the gamer for Binghamton’s record since that nutty 6-5 game at Bridgeport back on Feb. 26. It’s scarier than I had thought.
The shutout snapped Rob Collins’ eight-game scoring streak.
If I have my count right — I was concerned about earlier, but I think it’s back on track — Chris Barr and Jeff Miles became the 149th and 150th players to play for the Sound Tigers, if one includes playoff-only players Tyler Rennette and Adam Edinger. There have also been five goalies who only served as backups (Lombard, Sanca, Laplante, Naumenko, Boucher).
In the gamer, I mention the groups of players who are missing off the Clear Day roster and of guys who are in to replace them… Here’s the lists of who falls into which category:
CLEAR-DAY LIST
Here (8): Caldwell, Collins, Jarrett, Koalska, Marjamaki, Masse, Pettinen, Pratt
Up (8): Bergenheim, Colliton, Gervais, Grebeshkov, Nilsson, Regier, Rourke, Tambellini
Hurt (4): Hamilton, Papineau, Robinson, Thompson
FILLING IN
ATO (2): O’Marra, Tsimikalis
PTO (4): Kemp, Barr, Miles, Christiansen
AHL (3): Tallari, Lee, Tunik
So the magic number remains four, and if the teams are tied in points and wins, Binghamton gets the spot for winning the season series 4-2. Norfolk remains three points ahead of the Sound Tigers with a magic number of four to clinch third, though a Norfolk win of any kind or a Sound Tigers loss of any kind allows the Admirals to clinch with a tie in points.
WBS clinched first. Hershey is locked into second after Norfolk’s loss and its own overtime loss.
Portland clinched the Atlantic on the day Kevin Dineen was named Coach of the Year. Nice pick; the league doesn’t release the voting, so we’ll have to wonder where Dave Baseggio finished.
Hartford can’t finish fourth because of Manchester’s loss; the Monarchs can’t finish second. Providence, while still in fourth, still has six games left and could conceivably vault over Hartford. Hartford’s magic number to clinch home-ice in the first round is three points against Providence.