As mentioned, the press box here is in the corner now, to the left of the “home” net. And that at times made it pretty easy to watch the second period.
Bridgeport started fine. If they get a bounce early, it might have been a different game. (Can’t you always say that? Anyway.) And then the Bruins score two goals in 172 seconds, and this night goes the other way.
The Sound Tigers had their chances, still — some of their best play in the second might have come short-handed — but got penned in at times, kept away from the puck at others, and just denied by Tuukka Rask everywhere else.
So, Wilkes-Barre is two points behind.
And that’s more or less it, so on to the most interesting thing to me: The Sound Tigers very strictly matched MacDonald and Kohn against the St. Pierre line, changing on the fly on the road to get it, right from the drop of the puck. One of maybe three times they didn’t get it, that line scored, at the end of a Bridgeport power play, with Lehtonen coming out of the box after serving the too-many-men call. (St. Pierre also assisted on the empty-netter, but that was the extra-attacker situation, and he wasn’t out with his linemates.)
Point being, it’s the second game in a row they did that — they did it Wednesday against Corey Locke, most-dangerous of the Aeros. Jack Capuano has at times professed not to like to match; top of my head, I can’t remember him doing it this consistently, particularly two games in a row.
“We tried it,” Capuano said. “We’ve got some skilled defensemen, pretty quick. We wanted to try it. They accepted the challenge. They want the challenge. I don’t want — we’re trying the matchup, but I don’t want to take away from those two guys’ offensive abilities, too.”
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Sixsmith and Nikiforov switched places for the third, as Jason caught in the comments.
Here’s how good the renovations are here: Pascal Morency didn’t recognize the place. He wasn’t quite sure this was the place where they had come last year. Since I’m not covered in sawdust, I’m not entirely sure, either. The parts in which I’ve wandered have come out pretty nice.
Frans Nielsen may be close, Greg Logan reports from a Canadian airport.
Prescout. Zaba’s first AHL shutout. Hartford is off Sunday, too, so the next two games are a true home-and-home for both teams.
Providence is No. 29 tomorrow: only team not playing.
Our buddy Andrew Ferraro, who covers Houston, noted that the Aeros rallied for three goals in the final 2:36 to force overtime in a game in December. And then they did what they did Wednesday. So… we know you need at least a four-goal lead in the last three minutes to have a chance against Houston.
Chris Minard got called up. So did Brian Elliott, and Michael Sharp has a lot about it. Final tonight: Wilkes-Barre 4, Binghamton 2.
Great Patrick O’Sullivan story on NHL.com. (Hat tip: Tris Wykes.)
Andrew Gross points us to this crazy note: Avangard Omsk fired Wayne Fleming in the middle of a game.
Mikhail Grabovski, after shoving a linesman, goes after Sergei Kostitsyn with words when the fists wouldn’t work. And he just kinda slanders the French in the process. (Hat tip, with other cool stuff: Puck Daddy.)
Mets statgeekery: If these numbers hold up, it’s just incredible. (But it doesn’t explain ’07.) And further geekery on park dimensions here (Hat tip: Uni Watch).
And in really good news, that Tim Hortons in North Stonington is still open 24 hours, according to the young lady behind the counter this afternoon. So I’m on my way.