First of all: No.
Physics makes it difficult to believe that puck was in. It’s almost impossible for it to have completely crossed the goal line and come out along the line. Maybe there’s super spin. The goal light came on, right?
The goal judge makes it difficult to believe that puck was in. He put the light on, doused it, then spent the next minute, apparently, trying to get Andy Thiessen’s attention, to no avail. He told Mike Sharp it wasn’t in.
Maybe the reaction isn’t pretty. Actually, pretty ugly. You don’t like to see people throwing things onto the ice; read the Rod Gilbert story if you need convincing. You love the passion, but Pascal Morency said about four people wanted to fight him heading back to the dressing room. Come on.
But no.
And here’s the best part: This game was a grab-your-head-crazy night long before Jack Hillen blocked a cross-ice pass, got the puck to Jeremy Colliton, jumped into the rush, split the Binghamton defense, put a shot off Jeff Glass’ right pad and hit the right goalpost with 9.3 seconds to play.
Another 2-0 lead. A 3-0 lead, for crying out loud. Turned 5-2 lead. Gone. Colliton had an interesting response to that, and it should make the gamer.
But…
Jesse Joensuu goes to the net after a power play ends, Mike Iggulden makes a nice pass to him: 1-0. Binghamton has only one shot through 14 minutes; kinda familiar.
Late, after Joensuu draws a power play and Danny Bois gets hit with one of those godawful delay-of-game penalties, Jack Hillen blasts one high-glove off a Comeau feed: 2-0.
Beginning third, Brendan Bell in the box for tripping Colliton, Iggulden snaps one up high off a feed across the right circle: 3-0.
And then Colliton gives one away. But then Joensuu fights! Didn’t know he had it in him. He said he’d been in one in Finland in four years; “I’m not very familiar” with the pugilistic arts, he said. But he got a right hand in to put Cody Bass down and end the thing. “It was good to get (a fight) in once,” he said. Momentum swings back: Trevor Smith banks one off Bell on a three-on-one: 4-1.
And then Shawn Weller scores on a breakaway. Momentum swings…
Well, no, not really. Binghamton goes back to the box, and after a penalty expires, Fraser scores through a two-man Binghamton screen with 1:48 left in the second. Jeremy Yablonski gives up on trying to hit people normally and goes a-spearing at Jason Pitton at the buzzer.
Game’s in hand, right?
Zubov. Zubov. Shannon, because he couldn’t get out of the way of Zubov’s shot and it bounced off him and in.
Tie game.
“It’s hockey,” Jack Capuano said. “We were just talking about momentum in a game. It’s sports. Momentum can shift anytime. They had a couple of nice shots on their goals. We never quit. We battled.”
They could have made things easier on themselves if they had capitalized on some chances. Thiessen handed them one in the third, but Glass stopped Kurtis McLean’s penalty shot.
The last couple of minutes were back-and-forth. Mannino stopped Zubov on a breakaway with 2:15 to go, sticking out the left pad and smothering the puck as Rob Hennigar leaped on top of him to help out. Glass stopped Smith and Colliton.
And then Hillen did whatever he did.
The box score says he scored. Let’s go with that.
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Our man Mike Sharp will have more from the Bingo side.
Capuano said Dustin Kohn will be back in against Albany, without saying who’ll sit. He offered that Bridgeport might try to work “some of the injured guys back in,” without being specific. “Some of the injured guys” are, in all, Walter and Haley. But Walter probably isn’t ready. There are four home games in the next eight days before the Maritime trip.
Chaos on the Island, too, huh? And in Toronto?
Prescout. Bruce’s Hartford press release says Dane Byers is out for the year with a torn ACL. He collided with teammate Tommy Pyatt amid all that mess Friday.
Kevin Oklobzija up the block in Rochester laments Friday night’s crowd: It’s very clear: Last season’s disaster on and off the ice has virtually killed this franchise. How sad. How very, very sad. Amazing. And depressing.
Best wishes to Manitoba assistant Jay Wells, who had a heart attack and an angioplasty this week. (Thanks to Tris Wykes for sending it along.)
Michal Neuvirth is coming back to North America, though not immediately to Hershey.
And finally, Raffi lives!