The audio link is here. Some notes beforehand:
–How would this be: Sean Avery, Hartford Wolf Pack forward?
–John Walton notes how Brent Johnson’s surgery can’t help Hershey.
–Ryan Kinasewich signed an AHL deal with Lake Erie, according to the transactions.
–And keep yer heads up: Elsberry’s blogging.
We’ll follow along with Pete and Pat as Riku Helenius makes his first AHL start against Nathan Lawson.
–And they’re off. Looks like scratch the injured, Gleed, Hillen (who’s listed as reassigned, not sure yet if he has joined Bridgeport) and Packard, so Jordan Hart makes his AHL debut. Nygel Pelletier is in charge.
–Jesse Joensuu gets in Fight No. 2 after hitting Bracken Kearns. And now Jeremy Colliton takes a puck in the face. Funky start.
–Binghamton picked up Mike Sgroi on a PTO today, BTW.
–Norfolk takes the lead on a deflection off a skate at 11:31.
–That sounds like two penalties Rosehill has taken around the goaltender. Interesting if that keeps up.
–End of one, 1-0 Norfolk; shots are 16-11 in Norfolk’s favor despite three Bridgeport power plays.
–Pete says Jeremy Colliton isn’t back for the second period.
–And now, at the first TV time out, Colliton is back.
–Morency was stopped on a knuckleball on one shift, and now he hits the crossbar and another post… that’s a few posts. This shift draws a penalty, anyway: power play, Bridgeport.
–End of two, still 1-0. Power plays are Bridgeport 5-2, but Norfolk has a 30-25 shots edge.
–Bochenski scores again off a turnover, and it’s 2-0 Norfolk about four minutes into the third.
–Segal scores late after Bridgeport fails on a five-on-three, and it’s the third shutout in the last little while against the Sound Tigers. Norfolk 3, Bridgeport 0.
Guess Portland didn’t carry over. Maybe some notes to come.
–Company: Binghamton came back from 2-0 down in the final four minutes to tie Hamilton, with Mauldin tying it with under four seconds left; they’re in overtime at this moment but will be at least tied with the Sound Tigers. Wilkes-Barre wins in overtime and is six points ahead. Philly falls to Hershey and stays five points behind Bridgeport.
–OK, it clicked to final as we post: Hamilton wins, but Binghamton has 59 points and is a tiebreaker behind the Sound Tigers.
–Capuano: not happy with some of the big guns. Questioning work ethic. Said they didn’t get the traffic they needed in front of Helenius. Lawson was good; the defense was good; Haskins and Morency came up when asked who was going; Colliton was “a warrior, one of our best forwards tonight,” but they needed more from other guys. He said Hillen isn’t there, and it sounds like he wasn’t expecting him, either. He’s “thinking about it” as far as Stephan tomorrow, but Stephan got only three hours of sleep, and Capuano wanted to make sure everything was in place for the kid before he throws him in.
We’ll see what happens tomorrow. (Or we’ll listen to it. One or the other.)
—I always lie at the end of these liveblogs. Three stats:
—-The power play is in a 2-for-39 rut since the tail end of the last Hershey game at home, two games before this goal-scoring drought began.
—-Speaking of which, this is the third time the Sound Tigers have been shut out three times in seven games or fewer. They were shut out three consecutive games (in four nights) early in the lockout year, Oct. 28-30, 2004; there were three in five games, April 4 and April 11 and 13, 2007, which culminated in elimination.
—-This appears to be just the third time Bridgeport has scored eight goals or fewer in seven games. Around that three-shutouts-in-three debacle, the Sound Tigers scored only seven in seven games, Oct. 22-Nov. 6, 2004 (1-2-3-0-0-0-1). They also had eight goals in seven games near the end of the previous season, March 14-27, 2004 (1-2-1-1-1-1-1), one of the two times they scored one and only one goal five consecutive times (early in that same season, right before the 22-game non-regulation-loss streak).
OK, seriously, good night.