If you could drop in four goals, you might not be able to drop them into better times than Hartford did tonight.
Late in the first, Bridgeport riding a 1-0 lead on Masi Marjamaki’s first goal against a goalie since it was Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 6, Dubielewicz is making big saves (like one off the shaft of his stick against Dane Byers), on the verge of getting to the dressing room with a lead… and Brad Isbister slips one through Dubielewicz to tie the game with 2:45 to play.
Bridgeport is on the verge of killing two penalties in the first nine minutes of the second period. The Sound Tigers had just about as many chances in those two power plays as did Hartford. … and then, with eight seconds left, Dwight Helminen finds a rebound and punches it up high for a lead. …
…And then on the next shift, Dane Byers slides a rebound back under Dubielewicz for a two-goal lead.
Bridgeport can’t score on a five-on-three (Frans Nielsen was upset), but they get one on the back end, and they’re not playing badly, and they kill a penalty, and Jason Pitton drops Byers in a fight after Byers stirs things up in front of the net, and there’s more chippy stuff…
…And then Chris Brown calls Rick Berry for slashing, and Isbister puts a picture-perfect deflection in.
You can’t throw your hands up on this one. Dubielewicz wasn’t happy with himself, though those other 37 didn’t stop themselves. The power play didn’t get it done, though some chances flew wide and Boguniecki scored again. Hartford scored on two power plays. There were too many rebound chances for the other team again.
And one more Hartford win clinches the Geico Cup for the third year in a row. Ooooohh.
LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Tambellini (A)-Nielsen-Boguniecki
Comeau-Regier-Nolan
Marjamaki-Nokelainen-Pitton
Ferraro
D: Fata-Berry
Fraser-Wotton (C)
Mitchell-Rourke (A)
HARTFORD
F: Korpikoski-Helminen-Moore
Byers-Dubinsky-Callahan
Dawes-Immonen-Isbister
Weller (C)
D: Purinton (A)-Liffiton
Baranka-Taylor
Kasparaitis-Lampman (A)
Degon
Hartford is 11-1-1-0 in its past 13. Some job here.
Speaking of here, we sit in the corner on the concourse level, in front of where they let the smokers go outside. Yep, with the temperature outside, that was fun.
The first power-play unit had Nielsen in Nilsson’s spot on the right wall, with either Fraser or Rourke in Nielsen’s spot the left point.
Tambellini’s assist makes it a seven-game scoring streak. His shot just before the Boguniecki goal hit the post to Montoya’s left, then slid along the goal line before hitting the post to Montoya’s right and skipping out.
Marjamaki opened the scoring 9:33 in, deflecting Mark Wotton’s right-circle shot past Al Montoya. After not scoring in his first 39 games and notching an empty-netter in the closing seconds Wednesday, it was Marjamaki’s first goal against a goalie since Game 6 of last year’s playoff series against Wilkes-Barre.
Lots of All-Star changes announced today, one of which involves a big AHL trade today, as Anaheim/Portland sent Zenon Konopka and Curtis Glencross to Columbus/Syracuse for the stellar Mark Hartigan and Joe Motzko, with draft picks going each way. Brandon Bochenski was replaced due to injury, which is interesting; hadn’t seen anything about that.
More from Portland: Shane Endicott arrived from Nashville in exchange for Chris Durno in another Friday trade. The Pirates also signed their assistant coach, Eric Weinrich, to a PTO on Thursday. Wonder if he’ll still be active when his old Maine roommate, Jack Capuano, brings the Tigers to Portland next Saturday. Add all these moves to that Genoway-for-Rullier deal Wednesday, and it’s been quite a three days for the Pirates, who lost 6-2 tonight.
The Philly Quakers beat the Penguins 7-2 tonight — two goals for Zingoni — which will surely make the Penguins happy campers tomorrow in Bridgeport.
Looks like crazy madness in Atlanta, too, for the Islanders, who trailed 3-0 after six minutes but sent it to OT before losing.
Edit to mention: I don’t know why, on the main site, the paragraphs are running together. I assume it’s the template that got forced upon us with the software upgrade. I’ve got an e-mail in to the office to ask about it, and if it bothers you, the archived version (click on the post time or “comments” up top) has better formatting.