Maybe not as pretty, but more effective? Maybe a little sloppier, but more opportunistic?
Wins are wins, whenever, wherever, cliché cliché cliché, but what Jack Capuano mentioned was energy. “We played with more urgency in the game tonight,” he said.
All right. The special teams still need some work — defensively on the power play, maybe. But I’m a bit surprised at how quickly this seems to have come together. Maybe I just think back to the last time a Bridgeport team tried a two-man forecheck, 2005-06, and how Wilkes-Barre kind of laughed them out of WhicheverBank Arena, and then did it again at Harbor Yard, followed by Portland doing it the next day. (Different personnel this time, maybe?) If this group could trade one of tonight’s fortuitous bounces to last night, it might have four points.
Fourth-line fun in the paper tomorrow after two good games. The top line got the job done. Danis made 30 saves. I left Dwight Helminen out of the stars but probably could have gone three or four deeper in Sound Tigers.
Tomorrow, we see how they handle three in three.
LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Smith-McLean-Iggulden
Bentivoglio-Colliton-Jackman (A)
Nikiforov-Hennigar-Joensuu
Fritz-Haskins-Pitton
D: Skinner-Callahan (A)
Fraser-Wotton (C)
Kohn-MacDonald
G: Danis
(Mannino)
ALBANY
F: Cavosie-Helminen-Petruzalek
Tifu-Chaput-Blanchard
Angelidis (A)-Dodge-Dwyer (A)
Gillies (A)-Reed-Weston
D: Borer-Carson
Rodney-Flood
Paiement-Bellemore
G: Peters
(Manzato)
Check of the game for Joensuu. A shame he and Dwyer were 25 feet away from the puck at the time.
Though Tim Jackman and Trevor Gillies were almost stirring the pot, and Jason Pitton had a pretty good one with Ryan Weston, it’s just not the same without Fata and Aucoin and Rowe. Sorry.
Prescout… Ouch.
Greg Logan seems upset. Gee, I can’t imagine why. Joey MacDonald, meantime, is a winner, though Radek Martinek left early, apparently.
Philly had Palin drop the puck. Albany had a congressional candidate. What, Obama wasn’t available? (OK, that’s equal time.)
Michael Peca’s in hot water.