How’s it going, Frans Nielsen?
“OK. We won.”
Something with with I’m too familiar: Nielsen seems to be incredibly hard on himself when he makes a mistake, such as tonight, when he chose to carry the puck back to the neutral zone, then lost it on a play that led to the third Hershey goal. He was flat on his stomach in Joey MacDonald’s crease for a couple of seconds after that.
That line gave up the tying goal 61 seconds later on another wild and crazy and scrambly play after MacDonald lost a rebound. But then Jack Capuano kept them on the ice. The Sound Tigers came right back. Sean Bentivoglio scored on another breakaway.
“We almost lost the game, but we were able to win the game,” Nielsen said.
Just like that, a dizzying last four minutes turned out just well enough for Bridgeport.
The penalty kill returned to form now that it wasn’t facing Teddy Purcell. It went 7-for-7 and even scored when Tambellini crashed home Nielsen’s rebound (Nielsen was flying in the first period, BTW).
Even before that, the power play had gotten to work; Nielsen blasted one home on the rush after deking Sami Lepisto out of several articles of clothing at the blue line. It scored again at five-on-three in the third.
One interesting thing was the new power-play setup. Jeremy Colliton was in front, and Ben Walter had moved back to the point. “I’ve got to get used to it,” Walter said. “By the third, I felt more comfortable.”
It worked out for the lot of them. Tambellini recorded the 23rd four-point game by a Sound Tiger (and his third in Bridgeport). Nielsen and Walter had three points apiece. Matthew Spiller had his fourth career two-point game and set up the winner.
Not perfect, but they’re OK. They won.
BRIDGEPORT
F: Tambellini (A)-Nielsen-Bentivoglio
Smith-Walter-Regier
Kinasewich-Colliton-Bootland
Brennan/Haley
D: Fata-Spiller (A)
Kohn-Rullier
Wotton (C)-Ford
HERSHEY
F: Barney-Wilson-Clymer (A)
Bourque (A)-Morgan-Motzko
Potulny-Joudrey-Gordon
McAllister-Robitaille
D: Sloan (A)-P.McNeill
Paiement-Lepisto
Pokulok-Hunt
Fraser will probably give it a whirl tomorrow if he continues to feel better. Joey MacDonald was going up after Rick DiPietro got hurt in the Islanders’ game; Wade Dubielewicz gave up only a short-hander and got the win in OT. Mike Mole is coming here.
I’m told that Rullier’s PTO does NOT, in fact, expire after tomorrow (the 25th game since he signed originally in October). They rejiggered the money in November without announcing it, beginning a new 25-game clock and putting the expiration date somewhere around Okposomania.
Speaking of… The World Juniors are on, and that Okposo kid had a couple of points in a 5-1 win (PDF link) over Kazakhstan. He’s playing on a line with Rakhshani and another Denver kid.
No more “interim” for Bruce Boudreau… nor for Bob Woods.
An Alain Nasreddine feature from Jonathan Bombulie. He also eviscerates tonight’s ref, Nygel Pelletier, in a separate. Wasn’t there, obviously, for the “You Just Wait” game nor for the recent Hamilton shootout game… But tonight was interesting. You could conceivably have had two fellows called for instigating. One wasn’t even called for fighting.
How about this: The NFL is going to simulcast the Patriots-Giants game on, like, every network known to man. (Not quite, but at least people can see it.)
And it was a delight to see Gordie Clark in the house tonight, he thinks for the first time in over five years. You can’t credit him enough for that first season.