We haven’t had to talk about blowing a third-period lead in a while (since Nov. 9), but the opposite has been a little better of late for the Sound Tigers. They had come back to win only one of their first 11 games in which they trailed after two periods. Since then, of the past four times they have trailed going to the third, they have come back to win two (at Hartford, tonight).
All three of those wins — Nov. 25 vs. Albany was the first — happen to have come in shootouts. But anyway.
Tambellini. Nielsen. Yadda yadda yadda.
Not sure why Regier didn’t play. Best I could tell, Smith was on the left with Walter and Bootland.
If you thought 2004 had finally broken the hex… Here they come again. No points for future Islander/Sound Tiger/Grizzly Kyle Okposo (nor for Rhett Rakhshani). The U.S. plays Russia again Saturday at 10. Then, Canada plays Sweden; Robin Figren tied the other semi with 8:10 to go, and Sweden won in overtime.
The New Haven Eagles came about seven minutes shy of getting out of the record book before Mark Mancari scored for Rochester.
John Grahame did make it through to Albany. The Rats got pounded with Kevin Nastiuk in goal.
And two more interesting dots for that table I posted this morning: Dug up my two old 1980s AHL media guides (much smaller affairs than the annual Guide and Record Book is now). Turns out that 1985-86 home teams went 293-180-47, a .609 winning percentage. I don’t have the following year, which was the first incarnation of the shootout. The next year, 1987-88, the AHL first experimented with the point for the overtime loss. Home teams went 332-174-54, a .641 winning percentage. So appparently my hypothesis about the OTL point mattering in 1995 holds no water.