So what did Jack Capuano like out of this thing?
“I thought the defense did a lot of good things,” Capuano said. “They’ve done a lot of work on headmanning the puck. Their gap control against some skilled forwards was really good; they’ve been working on that. Nathan Lawson played really well. He gave us a chance to win. The penalty kill was really good.”
That might be about enough.
One changeup, one knucklepuck, one other goal, and that’s all she wrote.
Except for that fight.
Callahan obviously thought the hit Dale Weise put on Mark Wotton looked pretty dirty. (Not the best angle up here in this corner, but gut reaction was “penalty” from here.) Even before that moment, if I had to pick one player who was exemplifying the intensity they wanted, it was Callahan. It was a natural for him to jump in.
“We preach sticking up for each other,” Callahan said. “Even if it’s Nikiforov going at another team’s Fritz.”
(I had to smile, although Nikiforov had been in there against, I think, Greg Moore a little earlier. Anyway.)
“It’s just too bad it was at the end of a two-minute shift,” Callahan said with a grin. “I needed oxygen when I got back here.”
Bridgeport maybe got a little spark out of it, with three shots in the final three minutes. But it didn’t seem to carry over. (And at least Wotton appeared to be OK.)
A little back-and-forth in the final five minutes capped off a night that’s been typical lately: few goals for Bridgeport, not many more (but still more) for the other side. The Penguins jumped two points ahead of them, coming from two goals down to beat Hershey in a shootout. The Sound Tigers can thank Corey Locke and Brandon Rogers for keeping the Senators from getting any closer than three points, and they can thank Springfield, because Philly was the one team in the AHL with the night off.
Portland tomorrow, then a few days off, and then the 20 games in 17 nights*.