CROWD: “BOOOOOO! You (are objectionable or inadequate), Nygel!”
DYLAN REESE: “We had three goals. We even killed a lot of penalties. We got what we wanted, up a goal with a minute and a half left.”
(A goal is scored. Maybe. Did it hit a defender’s stick and go in? Hmm. No, that was knocked in with a high stick. It’s clear as day on a replay.)
CROWD: “B-E-A-R-S, BEARS, BEARS, BEARS, WOOOOOO!”
MATHIEU PERREAULT*: “That was a tough call, I think. It was close. The puck was above his head and right above the crossbar. I got a whack at it. I think it was a good goal and they made the right decision.”
ALMOST EVERYONE ELSE, ESPECIALLY AFTER A REPLAY: “It was high.”
JACK CAPUANO: “I didn’t get an explanation (from Nygel Pelletier). Maybe I was hot, he didn’t want to talk to me. You can’t go back and change it. That’s the way it’s going to be.”
(AHL executive vice president Rod Pasma passes by. Capuano’s gaze shifts. We cut to: )
CARD: “We are experiencing GIANT technical difficulties! Please stand by.”**
FLASH BACK TO:
First period
(Matt Martin approaches Chris Bourque, who coughs up an utterly puzzling, backhander-up-the-middle, that-couldna-been-Chris-Bourque-couldita? turnover. Trevor Smith shoots…)
BRADEN HOLTBY*: “I didn’t play it very well. It was kind of a series of unlucky bounces. It hit my shoulder. It hit my mask. And then it hit the back of the knob of my stick and landed on its side and kind of curled in.”
(Then Martin gets a lead pass, shoots, save, Bentivoglio retrieves, Martin crashes, and it’s 2-0?)
MATT MARTIN: “We just felt confident. We didn’t play well against them in the regular season. We got blown out twice. We knew we had to come back.”
MARK FRENCH*: “I don’t know if we handled it the right way. It was almost like, oh, here we go and now we’re behind the eight-ball.”
FLASH FORWARD TO:
(Andrew MacDonald backhands a falling puck into that same controversial net. His stick is about five feet lower than Perreault’s. It’s 3-1.)
FLASH FORWARD TO:
JACK CAPUANO: “The guys stuck to the game plan. They executed. They played well in all areas of the game. I’m proud of the effort. It shouldn’t end that way. If everything else can see it, the guy running the jumbotron, how could the referee not see it?”
(Andrew Joudrey deflects in a goal for Patrick Wellar’s second assist.)
CROWD: “B-E-A-R-S, BEARS, BEARS, BEARS, WOOOOOO!”
(Oh, and in the meantime, Andrew Gordon tripped Rhett Rakhshani, and Jesse Joensuu almost split the defense but drew a hooking penalty. That’s 0-for-2 of an 0-for-6. But that might not have mattered.)
—-
So, yeah, that happened. Calls like that are going to decide games, sometimes in the first period, sometimes in the third. They happen. When they happen with 68 seconds left in a game that could have been an incredible first game for Bridgeport, when it leaves you pondering what a different result might have meant for the series, for a run at history, well, it just looks bigger, doesn’t it?
(With an entirely different angle than Pelletier had, my first thought was that a defenseman’s stick had knocked it in, inadvertently. Tweeted that I thought maybe that’s what Pelletier had seen from that entirely different angle. Maybe I was just projecting. Don’t know.)
The 13th-longest game in Bridgeport playoff history, just ahead of Eric Meloche from Sebastian Caron (Colby Armstrong in the middle? Should look that up…Nah! Toby Petersen), just behind Chris Minard last year. Those are the three longest that would have ended in regular-season five minutes. Bridgeport is 6-11 all-time.
No good consensus on that Andrew MacDonald shot-Matt Martin tip that some thought went in the goal and through the net on the late-regulation power play. As tweeted, from the naked eye, I thought for a second it might have. I dismissed it as an optical illusion, that it was close enough to the post, and in a spot where there was netting, that it probably hit the outside and kept going. But we’ve seen weirder. Martin said the deflection felt good, that he tipped it toward the goal, but he couldn’t be sure whether it actually crossed the goal line inside or outside the post.
Munroe was excellent, particularly in the second period when the Bears started coming. When it looked like it might end up 3-2, I was a little mad at myself for not putting him first. You still, maybe, could.
Check out the end of Albany vs. Wilkes-Barre, which could have been duplicated here: The Penguins tied it with 1:22 to play and an extra attacker, and then Albany won it 31 seconds later. Lowell held off Worcester in Game 1. Peter Mannino gave up five goals (one late, extra-attacker, to Ben Guite) but won.
A bit belatedly noted: Columbus won’t bring its Syracuse coaching staff back when it debuts in Springfield. If you haven’t seen what Springfield’s new sweaters will look like… here ya go. The Falcons are also looking for new and local ownership.
Greg Prince demands a Citi Field tribute to Willie Mays.
In disbelief that it’s 12:05, calling it here. More after practice tomorrow.
*-Through the good courtesy of Tim Leone