Liveblogging Binghamton

Dear Twitterverse: When you write that Joe Buck “sounds” bad calling the “Tigers” game, you flood my searches. Pls rephrase. Thx

Follow Joy Lindsay for news from up there, and also read the blog. And then Jamie and Phil are there, too.

Phil’s play-by-play will be at AHL Live. I imagine you can get Grady Whittenburg there, too, or you can find him on the radio. We’ll be tuned to Phil. Edit: Appears you can’t get Grady at AHL Live. Use the radio link for the home feed.

Haven’t seen anything from the Island on the makeup of their defense tonight. No word from Binghamton, either. Wish I were there. Tonight is the 20th game I’ll miss this year, and hopefully the last. A full quarter. Wow.

–Jamie made this point last night: Alex O’Neil becomes the youngest player for the Sound Tigers at 18 years, nine months, 28 days. Pretty sure there’s no one younger, anyway. Dustin Kohn, Kyle Okposo, Anton Klementyev: They all played at 19.

–Quite belatedly: RIP, Johnny Preston. Missed it a month ago.

Warmup should be beginning in a moment.

–Warmup elsewhere: Katie Strang tweets that Jack Hillen is on the ice for warmup.

–Koskinen vs. Brust.

–Yale’s Mike Matczak has apparently signed with Adirondack, from Tim McManus’ roster sheet.

–Looks like the same Bridgeport lineup as last night.

–It’s on in Bingo.

–That might’ve been Bridgeport’s first shot, about 10 minutes in. The Sens sound to have been carrying things, but not exactly peppering Koskinen, either. (Actually, I just see on Twitter, Joy says it was the first shot, 9:17 in.)

–Figren scores from the slot at 9:48 off DiBenedetto’s setup. First AHL point for Art Bidlevskii on the second assist. Figren, who’s been streaky, gets his first goal since March 9, going 12 games without. 1-0.

–Cody Bass gets Mark Wotton into the boards. Phil says he’s struggling to get to his feet with Mike Schroeder’s help. It’s a Bridgeport power play on a minor.

–Bridgeport kills off a Matt Donovan delay minor. Late in the first.

–Sound Tigers lead 1-0 after one. Binghamton has a 9-5 shots edge.

–Brandon Svendsen did go back to Kalamazoo and already has an assist for the K-Wings.

–Second period begins. Will guess that the absence of a note means that Wotton is not back.

–Bridgeport kills another Donovan penalty, and then Koskinen saves a pinballer to keep the Sens off the board.

–Just about nine minutes into the second. Binghamton gets its third power play on a McNeely hook. Bridgeport kills it off.

–Dziurzynski for a hit on Colliton puts Bridgeport on its second power play.

–After the power play, and with Donovan in deep working on a shot, Binghamton came out three-on-one, and captain Ryan Keller scores his third goal in two games against Bridgeport. It’s 1-1.

–A minute later, Coloumbe gets called for high-sticking with 1:11 left in the second, putting Bridgeport on its third power play.

–Rakhshani with evidently a heck of a shot buries his 21st goal, one away from Jeff Hamilton’s team rookie record. Assists to Ness and Donovan at 19:29 of the future, apparently. Donovan’s first pro point. Bridgeport leads 2-1 after two.

–Aw… Bidlevskii loses his assist (Ullstrom gets it). Third period should begin shortly.

–Figren gets dinged for yet another Bridgeport delay penalty.

–That was inevitable: Wick scores at 1:56 on the power play, and it’s 2-2. As Phil said, even if you’re not facing the best power play in the league, they’re going to score if you give them enough chances.

–Again, Bridgeport comes back quickly. Rakhshani to Tyler McNeely, who scores his first pro goal and puts Bridgeport up 3-2.

–Coulombe steals it in the neutral zone, comes up the right side and ties it with a wrist shot at 7:54. 3-3.

–Hisey for a slash with 7:58 to go. Bridgeport kills it.

–Rakhshani feeds McNeely again for the go-ahead goal with 1:23 remaining, and it’s 4-3 Bridgeport.

–DiBenedetto goes for tripping with 1:01 left. Nothing will ever come easily for this team. The Sens’ sixth power play.

–Sounds like Olson gets away with one on Keller, but then Colliton goes off with 27.8 left. It’ll be a six-on-three.

–McNeely gets the forward’s job on the penalty kill and pokes a puck out to the neutral zone. Motherwell knocks one away late, and it’s over: Bridgeport 4, Binghamton 3, two points the Sens could’ve used will go on the bus to Bridgeport.

–“What I liked about tonight,” Pat Bingham said, “as a team and as individuals, was they made a statement that they didn’t want what happened last night to happen again.” They did not let it happen. “Every time they scored, we camme right back.” Even if the late goal had gone the wrong way, he was happy with the way they had responded all night. “We were fortunate enough to get enough goals to win.”

Down to five defensemen, they all had to play a lot and kill penalties. He said they used six or seven forwards on the PK. “I liked the way Mikko exchanged pucks with the defensemen. He’s come a long way with that,” Bingham said. He said Colliton kept winning faceoffs on the power play, which helped lead to Rakhshani’s goal. “It was a gutsy effort. We did a lot of things well.”

As for Mark Wotton, Bingham said he didn’t have an update. “I wouldn’t tell you, anyway,” he said, which is consistent. And then he paused. “And he wouldn’t tell me, either.”

They’ll take tomorrow off and practice early Monday to prepare for Tuesday’s morning game, and then there’s two practices and three games, and then it’s over. Deep breath.

We’ll probably do the weekly chat Tuesday at 2:30, to avoid crashing into postgame. Talk to you Monday.

Michael Fornabaio