Hersheypark Northeast? Nope.
All I could think of with about five minutes left in the second: (expletive deleted), they’re gonna do this again.
Awful, just awful, for a period-plus. Then Nolan scores. Three guys rip shots wide. Johnson and Johnson cycle hard. Jamie Johnson’s feed to Boguniecki skips; Boguniecki gets a chance after a Motzko turnover, but Caron stops him. Nolan’s strong again on the next shift, but Caron stops him.
And then out come the Pirates… And this struggling team did what those Bears just couldn’t do two weeks ago: They put it away, and they did it with just 12.6 seconds left in the period.
Well, that was interesting for a while.
Albany lost to Worcester, so Bridgeport could have taken over fourth place all alone for the first time in almost two months. Nope, not tonight. But Philly took a point out of Norfolk tonight, so the Phantoms are four points back, giving up three games.
LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Marjamaki-Nokelainen-Pitton
Comeau-G. Johnson-Nilsson
Nolan-J. Johnson-Regier
Boguniecki/Ferraro
D: Fraser-Wotton (C)
Malec-Berry
Mitchell
PORTLAND
F: Miller-Carter-Keith
Wilson-Wirtanen-Motzko
Peters (A)-Endicott-Melin
Brent (A)/Amadio
D: Weinrich-Rome
Salcido-Huskins (C)
Skinner-Rullier
Marshall said he doesn’t expect another body tomorrow for the Bruins, who lost tonight for the first time in a long time.
They mixed and matched the lines big-time in the second and third. One that seemed to have some click — and jeez, you think they might? — was Boguniecki-Nilsson-Ferraro.
Another routine 38-save night at the office for Wade Dubielewicz. Here’s a stat — pure curiosity, because of the makeup of the teams and the eras and the systems and lots of other factors — that’s probably going in the weekly notebook: Dubielewicz has made 30 or more saves in each of his past 10 games, and in 13 of his past 14 starts. In his 33 games in 2003-04, Dubielewicz faced 30 or more shots just seven times. (Kochan did 18 times.)
Ryan Shannon apparently took an elbow Friday night and was held out.
Nobody officially with phantom A’s tonight. Forgot to mention last night, but Bridgeport’s in white all weekend. As usual, it’s Worcester’s wearing blacks at home that makes it right and normal with whites on the road messes it up for everyone.
Fata: Got to admit I didn’t expect a lot from him this year, but he has worked hard and done pretty well for himself at this level. He might be playing as well as anybody on the D right now. Why not give him a shot?
Indeed, I can’t find three faster goals against Bridgeport than those Friday night. I couldn’t find a two-short-hander penalty back there — there was one time Binghamton scored two SHGs in the same game, but not the same penalty, so maybe that’s what I was thinking — but I’ve got to go through the history and clean up some old files at some point, so maybe one will pop up somewhere.
Totally unrelated, the Portland Press-Herald today ran this story from a paper in Vermont about a girl with autism and the system that allows her to communicate. Fascinating.
Sat in the car this afternoon listening to WMPG do a Buddy Holly/Richie Valens/Big Bopper tribute. Good stuff. And they won me over for good when they played the Bobby Fuller Four’s “Love’s Made a Fool of You,” followed by Bobby Fuller’s early El Paso medley of “Peggy Sue” and “Pamela.”
Another random technomalogical question: Why does that orange light on a hotel-room hair dryer flash… and why does it move toward steady when light shines on it? (This one brought to you from Shrewsbury, Mass., at about 5 a.m. this morning. Didn’t sleep so well.)