Camp, Day 3: (Which should have been on the a.m. report)

(Rigor. Anyway.)

Albany had about 11 opening-night players dressed, by one estimate; Bridgeport maybe had five. So that explains some of this 5-3 game. Even when Bridgeport had a lead, it was being outshot and mostly outplayed.

Which wasn’t Jack Capuano’s biggest concern. “We weren’t looking at the outcome, getting a win or a loss. I was proud of the way they played. They haven’t played together long. We were looking at work ethic. … We were looking for guys who played with desperation.”

He saw it in the May-Sixsmith-Walsh line, which scored the first goal on Walsh’s nice setup to the goal mouth for Sixsmith.

“The D played pretty good,” he added. “The first period, the guys were a little nervous. … Mole and Lawson, I thought, did a good job.”

Gleed agreed that it got easier. “You get some of the cobwebs out, get the dust out of your skates,” he said. “Overall, I thought it came back together late in the game. We played pretty hard, solid.”

So what the heck happened? Lawson made some really nice stops in tight, a couple on Murley that stood out. Rechlicz took the penalty, Mole came in, Bridgeport started chasing off the faceoff, Blanchard was all alone in front for the tap-in, and back they came.

“They’ve got some experienced guys that have been at this level, and they’re going to find holes,” Capuano said. “They found guys in front of the net.”

Capuano stressed the skating system that they’re trying to play.

“We don’t really care if mistakes are being made as much as work ethic, getting back into position,” he said, and I’m guessing he means he doesn’t care right now. “Sprinting back to get pucks.”

Tifu’s first goal, they totally lost him on the rush, and Jakub Petruzalek (one goal, three primary assists) found him. The second was an open rebound on the rush. So 3-2 after two. Petruzalek scored at four-on-four 94 seconds into the third, after the puck bounced past Leslie. Petro set up Blanchard for the third Albany PPG of the night.

Pitton scored as he was about to get knocked over, off a Sixsmith rebound, on a power play.

Capuano on Pitton and Kohn, the two “veterans”: “Yeah, Pitts came on as the game went on. Dustin, I’m still looking for him to jump up a little more.He’s been a little tentative throughout camp, even the last camp. We’re continuing to communicate it with him, we want him to jump up into the offense a little more.”

And Morency? “He gives you everything he’s got,” Capuano said.

BOX SCORE

Bridgeport 2 0 1–3
Albany 0 3 2–5

First Period — 1, Bridgeport, Sixsmith 1 (Walsh), 8:29. 2, Bridgeport, Gleed 1 (Sertich, Pitton), 12:48. Penalties — Angelidis, Alb (boarding), 1:58; Sixsmith, Bpt (holding stick), 5:53; Hart, Bpt (holding), 9:20; Weston, Alb (hooking), 9:26; M.Rechlicz, Bpt (hooking), 14:58.
Second Period — 3, Albany, Blanchard 1 (Murley, Paiement), 9:54 (pp). 4, Albany, Tifu 1 (Petruzalek, Bellemore),12:28. 5, Albany, Tifu 2 (Petruzalek, Paiement), 18:54 (pp). Penalties — Hennigar, Bpt (hooking), :16; Weston, Alb (holding), 3:16; Cavosie, Alb (holding), 4:08; Cavosie, Alb (elbowing), 6:48; J.Rechlicz, Bpt (roughing), 9:47; Babin, Alb (holding), 15:01; Takahashi, Bpt (slashing), 17:20.
Third Period — 6, Albany, Petruzalek 1 (Bellemore), 1:34. 7, Albany, Blanchard 2 (Petruzalek, Murley), 12:29 (pp). 8, Bridgeport, Pitton 1 (Sixsmith, Leslie), 14:45 (pp). Penalties — Pitton, Bpt (holding), 1:21; Reed, Alb (tripping), 1:21; Leslie, Bpt (hooking), 4:42; Hart, Bpt (slashing), 6:55; Gleed, Bpt (charging), 10:24; Morency, Bpt (unsportsmanlike conduct), 11:19; M.Rechlicz, Bpt (slashing), 13:06; Olson, Alb (slashing), 13:06; Paiement, Alb (holding), 14:13; Paiement, Alb (holding), 18:30.
Missed penalty shot — Hennigar, Bpt, 11:41 second.

Shots on goal — Bridgeport 6-11-8–25. Albany 18-16-10–44.
Power play opportunities — Bridgeport 1 of 8, Albany 3 of 10.
Goaltenders — Bridgeport, Lawson (24 shots-24 saves), Mole 0-1-0 (9:47 second, 20-15). Albany, Leggio (17-15), Munce 1-0-0 (start third, 8-7).
Attendance — 967. Referee — C.Brown. Linesmen — Lemay, Emanatian.

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Nikiforov-Hennigar-Morency (C)
Walsh-Sixsmith-May
Pitton (A)-Takahashi-Bourbeau
M.Rechlicz/J.Rechlicz
D: Kohn (A)-Hart
Sertich-Gleed
Leslie-Moyer
G: Nathan Lawson
Mike Mole

ALBANY
F: Marc Cavosie-Jakub Petruzalek-Harrison Reed
Yannick Tifu-Stefan Chaput-Ryan Weston
Mike Angelidis-Nick Dodge-Nicolas Blanchard
Matt Murley (A)-Brett Carson
D: Jonathan Paiement-Brett Bellemore
Ryan McGinnis-Noah Babin
Benn Olson-Mark Flood
Casey Borer (A)
G: David Leggio
Ryan Munce

(Wasn’t paying close Albany attention; missed Borer in warmup rushes, and don’t know where he played in the game; he’s credited with two shots, so we assume he was here.)

Oh, right, afterthought (especially in preseason): Hennigar’s penalty shot, about two minutes after the first Albany goal. The puck came ahead, and he had a step on everyone to get to it at about the blue, I think. McGinnis came back to sweep at him, getting his right leg as Leggio tried to pokecheck him. Chris Brown pointed right away. Hennigar got off a low forehander that Leggio stopped with the right pad.

No more Fata. No more Aucoin. No more Rowe. (Sigh.) We’ll have to make our own fun here, I suppose.

Colley, Trottier and Bingham running the bench.

They wore the ’06-07 third jerseys, like the rookies did in Canada. The Rechlicz boys had their initials on their backs. Those aren’t regular-season numbers, by the way. Joe Franke said they have only 22 of those sweaters, so a bunch of nameplates are coming off tonight.

Sertich’s assist was announced as coming from “Sir-Tek.” Sounds like a plastics company. (Or maybe a rapper.)

I have never been cold in this building until tonight.

The Rangers had to sweat out their Victoria Cup (exhibition) game.

Off to fix the spacebar. (Well, actually, home to bed. Then fix the spacebar.)

Michael Fornabaio