Mike Madar of the Hour leaned over in the third period and asked what Bridgeport’s record was in home openers. I knew it wasn’t great, but I couldn’t remember how not-great: coming into tonight, it was 2-4-0-1 after losing the first three.
And then there’s the coming-home-from-road-trip saw. Long trip, come home, get complacent, stink up the joint. Jack Capuano mentioned that one.
So much was in the anecdotal demerit column going into the third. Actually, much was in the actual demerit column (except Yann Danis, which, well, if you had “goaltending” as the thing this team wasn’t going to have to worry about, pat yourself on the back).
And then things got going. Capuano credited Tim Jackman’s fight, sticking up for himself against Captain Conboy, with turning up the juice at the end of the second. McLean and Iggulden had a hard-, hard-working shift to get the first one, and Bridgeport was on its way to 3-4-0-1.
That line was out there every time you looked up other shift at the end. For good reason.
And so the Sound Tigers are in third place. If this keeps up, they’ll play Binghamton in the first round…
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Sounds like just a tweak or something for Tyler Haskins, but obviously they’re releasing nothing official. Lower-body.
That broke up the roll-four-lines thing, and juggling the lines a bit changed the dynamic a lot.
By the third:
Smith-McLean-Iggulden
Comeau-Colliton-Jackman
Bentivoglio-Marcinko-Joensuu
Hennigar took only one shift, early, in the third, and if I’d been bright enough to notice, I’d have asked.
Iggulden’s was the 16th hat trick by a Sound Tiger. He was the third to complete it into an empty net. He mentioned it was nice to get it early: His three hat tricks were Feb. 15, 2006; March 31, 2007; and March 2, 2008. The first two were coincidentally against Houston. (Last year’s: Norfolk.)
BTW, after seven consecutive losses in Wilkes-Barre, Bridgeport has won four in a row there.
Good to see the legendary Chris Botta. Welcomed him over to the other side.
What happens when the irresistible force meets the immov… Ow. OK. Never mind. (BTW, Hershey settled its goaltending jam (for now) by sending Michal Neuvirth down, to South Carolina, Tim Leone reported.)
Liked Phil’s description of Kyle McLaren’s arrival in Glens Falls.
Edited to fix a typo and, um, add the box-score link. Yeah.