Get in the mood. (You may remember it as the 2008-09 victory song at Harbor Yard. Twitter buzz over the past couple of days seemed to indicate it isn’t the victory song at Air Canada Centre anymore, which is… well, sad.)
Follow Jamie, as he’s there. We’ll liveblog it from here, listening to Brian Rogers, voice of the Maple Leafs then and now voice of the IceCaps. Appears you can also get the stream at this link.
Light reading in the meantime:
Alumni features: Nathan Lawson from Hamilton; Brandon Svendsen from Kalamazoo.
Dmitry Chesnokov says Robert Nilsson is going to the minors in Russia.
Alex Stalock is back on the ice, at least. Long road back, as Bill Ballou details.
Somebody never heard of Down Goes Brown before (see “Hockeymane”‘s comment).
Fun with Marc Rzepczynski‘s name from Ben Zimmer. If you do nothing else today, check out that YouTube video mentioned within. Truly, pronounced like it’s spelled. (One of the Seven Blocks of Granite is even mentioned.)
Jamie tweets Bridgeport as follows:
BRIDGEPORT
F: Ullstrom-Colliton-Romano
DiBenedetto-Cizikas-Backman
McNeely-Frischmon-Wallace
Gallant-Langkow-Marcinko
D: Ness-Olson
de Haan-Reese
Wishart-Klementyev
G: Nilsson
Koskinen
Between the brain and the keyboard, Ness-Olson became “Nelson” the first time I tried typing. Yikes.
IceCaps tweet this lineup:
ST. JOHN’S
F: Albert-Murray-Klingberg
Jaffray-Rosa-King
Weller-Cormier-Clark
Gregoire-Holzapfel-Machacek
D: Flood-Postma
Ramsey-Kulda
Festerling-Redmond
G: Mannino
Aebischer
R: Lemelin. L: MacPherson, Keough.
You’ll hear Brian refer to the “Bob Cole Media Centre.” The Hockey Night in Canada mainstay is from St. John’s.
–Game 3 at St. John’s was the first time I ever stood on foreign soil and heard our national anthem. An oddly moving experience. Flashed back a bit there. Game should begin in a moment.
–DiBenedetto gets his sixth on the rebound of a Backman shot, not two minutes into the game. 1-0 Bridgeport.
–Mannino stops Backman on a breakaway.
–Caps tie it on the rebound of a point shot, Jason King.
–With Shawn Weller in the box for a high-stick, DiBenedetto deflects in his seventh goal. Bridgeport leads 2-1 at 13:47 of the first. Jamie tweets that Wishart’s shot hit DiBenedetto and went in. That’s two of those.
–Former future Sound Tigers forward Jason Gregoire deflects in a Mark Flood shot for his first professional goal to tie it. It’s 2-2 after one, a tie Nilsson preserved with a big save on Patrice Cormier.
The box is here, by the way.
–Matt Donovan tweets a picture from the press box as the second period begins. The IceCaps get an early power play, but Bridgeport gets through it.
–Justin Bourne tweeted during the intermission, reminiscing about the 2007 rookie camp. How about a line of Gregoire, Trevor Smith and Bourne?
–Bridgeport gets through back-to-back penalties, actually, with about 12 minutes left in the second.
–Mark Parrish is Binghamton’s captain, come the reports from Binghamton (via Norfolk). DiBenedetto crashes for a possible third, but no avail. Still 2-2.
–Though Bridgeport has had to kill three penalties in the first 15 minutes of the second, shots are only 9-5 St. John’s in the period.
–There was buzz about a possible Sean Avery appearance for Hartford tonight, but it appears he isn’t playing.
–Much as I enjoy listening to Brian Rogers and Robin Short, I’d love just a PA feed to listen to later: just for the music they play. Good stuff. Remains 2-2 after two.
–Appears they’ll begin the third at four-on-four, McNeely and King having roughed each other.
–Holzapfel scores on a breakaway off a Machacek lead pass 49 seconds into the third, 3-2 Caps.
–The Sound Tigers had seven of the first eight shots of the period (the one, obviously, went in); the Caps have the past three. A little more than seven minutes to play. And as I hit “update,” Bridgeport takes a penalty: Reese for hooking, 7:17 to go.
–Mannino makes another big save, on Marcinko. Getting late.
–Not late enough. St. John’s can’t clear, and with 2:50 left, David Ullstrom puts in a rebound, 3-3.
–A fortunate bounce off the endboards gives the Sound Tigers a few chances in the final seconds, but it’s on to overtime.
–Bridgeport wins it in overtime, de Haan to Colliton for the winner at 2:44. Ness gets the second assist. Bridgeport 4, St. John’s 3 (OT).
–It’s the Sound Tigers’ first regular-season win on the road against a St. John’s team; the Sound Tigers were 0-2-2 in two seasons against the Maple Leafs at Mile One. Of course, (a) Bridgeport won two games there in the 2002 playoffs, and (2) Bridgeport won a game there as the home team in 2008.
–Jamie got us some thoughts from the coaches. “That was a great team we played against and I thought we competed well against them,” Brent Thompson said. Eric Boguniecki said the penalty kill gave them momentum in the second period, and Brent Thompson was happy with the third period. (The Holzapfel goal: product of a bad pinch, probably unsurprisingly.) Nilsson “was great for us tonight,” Thompson said. “He was in very much in control and played very big. I thought his rebound control improved as the game went on, and he made a big save in the first period that really kept us right in it.” And Thompson on the DiBenedetto line: “They work very hard and they’re all on the same page. They go to the net and go to the dirty areas. DiBo always goes there. If you’re not willing to go to those spots, you won’t win.”
More tomorrow; word is Poulin gets the start.