Only the second time I’m missing a regular-season game in Wilkes-Barre (snow, both times: Jan. 22, 2005, the 13th consecutive loss on the road; it’d reach 15). Very disappointing; it’s like a second home (and in an ancestral way, it’s close). But given some of the travel stories, probably a good call by the boss.
The big non-arterial-highway news this afternoon is…
Actually, it’s probably the Islanders’ announcement that Rick DiPietro was sent home to get the adductor evaluated. Lots of Koskinen for the next few weeks? We’ll see.
The other big non-road news is on the home side: Jesse Boulerice will sit for 10 games for a bump on Francis Charron in Wednesday’s game at Charlotte. Here’s Jonathan’s initial post off the news, with his take on the incident. (Boulerice, of course, has a history, and you can’t help but wonder if that plays into it.)
No Phil, either, so you can listen to Tom Grace and Scott Stuccio here. On Twitter, we’ll be keeping an eye on <a href="http://twitter.com/CVBombulieJonathan and Jason (the latter of whom said Joel Martin came out first tonight).
Elsewhere: Manitoba will retire Mike Keane’s number. Utterly adorable story from Joe Posnanski.
And RIP, Ryne Duren.
–Jamie tweets that Koskinen starts tonight, that Friesen and Motherwell are playing forward. Justin Felisko said he didn’t see Hisey in warmup (and saw Martin come out first, too — that happened once before, but we’ll see…)
–Grace/Stuccio say it’s Koskinen vs. Curry. Jamie says the fourth line is Motherwell-Friesen-Bourbeau. Hisey out.
–Per Jamie, the lines: Svendsen-Ullstrom-Rakhshani; DiBenedetto-Romano-Labelle; and the usual Haley-Marcinko-Figren. Would guess D pairs remain the same. Kohn has the ‘A’ in place of Colliton.
–Penguins outshooting Bridgeport heavily early. Might have outshot Bridgeport on the Sound Tigers’ own, shortened early power play.
–Wallace scores off an icing faceoff, 1-0 Penguins. Grace says Koskinen would want it back.
–Brett Sterling, one of the best offensive players in this league for a long time, scores on a breakaway: 2-0.
–Sounds as if Bridgeport had a late chance, but the Penguins hold for a 2-0 lead after one. Shots 12-3.
–Former Nighthawk Stan Drulia will be on the Penguins’ broadcast in moments.
–Sounds like we got a heck of a lot of commercials online instead of the Drulia interview. Oh well.
–Nope, the end of the interview is the best part. Outstanding. (Well, OK, Stuccio mentioned New Haven, and Drulia answered about the AHL more than anything. Oh well.)
–Turnover in front, and it’s 3-0 very early in the second.
–Grace: “This is a dismantling.”
–Sounds like Motherwell working point on PP. Curry stops Figren one-timer with Sill off for goaltender interference a little past midway second. Shots were 19-6 at last mention.
–Sounds as if the Sound Tigers are… and as I type, Grace says it — they’re coming a little more. A couple of scoring chances. Jamie notes a Rakhshani chance in tight.
–Sill called for his second goalie-interference penalty in the last five minutes. Shots up to 19-12.
–Isles announce Kevin Poulin starts tomorrow.
–Broadcasters are stunned: Wallace dumped, Bortuzzo called for a hold elsewhere. Getting late second.
–And it’s evened up a little less than a minute in. If the Penguins don’t score on the power play, it’ll carry over.
–Eric Tangradi scores on the four-on-four and makes it 4-0. Pens have a goal 1:07 into the second and now one with 1:06 left.
–Jean Bourbeau scores his first AHL goal, short-handed, with under 10 seconds left in the second. Cuts it to 4-1 after two.
–Third period has begun.
–Long BPT 4-on-3 coming up here as Mormina called for slashing DiBenedetto. If they’re going to think about getting back into it, with 11:30 left, this’d be a good spot.
–And Potter goes before the combatants (Labelle and Craig, who made it 4-on-4 to begin with) get back. A short 4-on-3, and then it’ll be a five-on-three for a while.
–Bridgeport gets one on the five-on-three. A long way to go on the Potter minor. It’s 4-2. Goal is Katic’s, so he’s on a scoring streak after going into the week without one. Wishart assist is his first as a Sound Tiger.
–Jeffrey hits the post at the end of the power play. About eight minutes left.
–And moments later Nick Johnson scores to make it 5-2, led by Sterling.
–20th time the Pens have scored four or more; eighth time they’ve scored five.
–They’re scoreboard-watching on the broadcast. WBS leads the division by 11 points, by the way, not quite at the midpoint of the season. Penguins to the power play with about five minutes left (edit: actually 6:43).
–Final: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 5, Bridgeport 2.
–Perpetually amazed how well I know the WBS sponsors. From listening during playoff runs. From TV, radio commercials while out there. It’s the second home, really is.
–Sad story: RIP, Tom Cavanagh, the former Worcester Shark, Monarch and Falcon.
Sorry about the delay; Internet is wonky.
–Patrick Williams noted on Twitter that Mark Flood is at a point-a-game pace over the last dozen.
–They’re planning on bringing in training-camper Brady Leisenring from Kalamazoo; the Wings were in Elmira, and Leisenring had a couple of power-play goals in the third as they tried to fight back from a deficit. Sounds familiar.
–Pat Bingham said he and others tried to prepare them for the way the Penguins were going to come out. “We still came out challenged to match their intensity. … We weren’t bad by any means, but they were coming.”
Bridgeport worked hard to earn power plays, Bingham said. “They really swarm on the PK. They pressure you up the ice. They pressure you inside the zone. The way they kill penalties, there’s a lot of hacking, grabbing, hooking, holding… they push right up to the line, maybe not over. You’ve got to push it, make them pay for being overly aggressive. As the game went on, we started doing that more and more, getting higher-quality scoring chances until we finally scored. If the power play was super-sharp, like it has been, it might’ve made a difference.”
He said Friesen and Motherwell did a good job up front. “Different guys on different lines, a different power play with no time to practice, difficult circumstances: It makes it a difficult challenge, but not impossible,” Bingham said.
“I might’ve tried to overcoach this one. We had a long bus ride, and I thought all through about line combinations, the power play, how we were going to forecheck. I threw a lot at our guys.” Maybe, he thought, less would have been more.
Hisey is day-to-day, gave it a try this morning but wasn’t able to go. He’ll try it again tomorrow.
Me, too. Good night.