That game couldn’t get any better to watch. I’m trying to remember a game here that was more fun to watch. What compares right now? All that was on the line, and two teams that didn’t play cautious, didn’t play tentative, just went out and skated. It wasn’t like it was sloppy, either; sure, there were some messed-up shifts, but all in all, just a good, hard, battle of a hockey game. One bounce, or one non-call, and it could have gone the other way, and it would’ve been just as entertaining.
And the Sound Tigers came out of it with two ridiculously huge points, while denying Hershey any.
Looks like we got us a race.
BRIDGEPORT
F: Tambellini (A)-Walter-Bentivoglio
Keith-Regier-Jackman (A)
MacArthur-Smith-Fretter
Mosienko/K.Johnson
D: Spiller (A)-Fata
Kohn-Sertich
Fraser-Wotton (C)
HERSHEY
F: Bourque (A)-Wilson-Gordon
Giroux (A)-Morgan (A)-Beaudoin
Joudrey-Collymore-Beagle
Robitaille-Garlock-(Pinizzotto-scratch)
D: Boumedienne-Lepisto
Paiement-Syvret
P.McNeill-Hunt
All sorts of wacky stuff around the division. Binghamton tied it in the third, but Philly got it done late to stay on top. Wilkes-Barre seemed to be trailing all night but came back — Dennis Bonvie got the party started — to beat lowly Hamilton in a shootout. And Albany tied it with 3:06 to go but lost to Syracuse in OT and slipped a point further back.
Jeff Tambellini hit 30 goals for the second year in a row; Trent Hunter also scored exactly 30 twice. The only other 30-goal season by a Sound Tiger was Jeff Hamilton’s 43 in 2003-04.
Spiller’s last goal was Feb. 9, 2007, for San Antonio in Milwaukee. Including seven games with the Islanders, he had gone exactly 100 games without a goal until tonight. And then they tried to give it to Drew Fata. Give a guy a break!
It is unlikely to matter, but Bridgeport clinched the season series against the Bears. (The Sound Tigers would need to lose three more games beyond regulation, yet still finish tied in points with Hershey — and not fall behind Binghamton.)
An e-mailer passed along this column from BU about Peter MacArthur, who’s the first Sound Tiger to wear 24 since Matt Koalska. He got nicked for two penalties, but I thought he fit in well.
Around the league: The Phantoms are wearing Flin Flon Bombers sweaters Sunday to honor Bobby Clarke. (Hat tip: Uni Watch.) Might Rochester have new ownership?