Bridgeport looks for a sweep at Mile One. Appears last night’s word remains in effect and Kevin Poulin starts. Last day of the Haley suspension, so figure one defenseman gets scratched as Donovan comes back, barring some injury up front. Edit: Jamie reports Klementyev is the scratch on D. Mikko Koskinen backs up again.
An add to the local Twitter list: New Canaan’s/Elmira’s/Binghamton’s Jack Downing.
Seen last night: RIP, Robert W. Galvin. And today would’ve been Bobby Fuller’s 69th birthday. If an appropriate lyric-quote presents itself, maybe we’ll toss it up.
Updates from Jamie in St. John’s, and Robin Short tweeted a bit last night while doing color with Brian Rogers. We got the stream here last night and presume we can again.
Jamie tweets a Bridgeport lineup mucch like last night’s, with the above exceptions:
BRIDGEPORT
F: Ullstrom-Colliton-Romano
DiBenedetto-Cizikas-Backman
McNeely-Frischmon-Wallace
Gallant-Langkow-Marcinko
D: Ness-Olson
de Haan-Reese
Donovan-Wishart
G: Poulin
Koskinen
The IceCaps tweet this lineup:
F: Jaffray-Holzapfel-Machacek
King-Cormier-Clark
Gregoire-Rosa-Klingberg
Albert-Murray-O’Dell
D: Flood-Redmond
Kulda-Ramsey
Festerling-DeSantis
G: Aebischer
Pasquale
A 6 p.m. EDT start again, so more in a bit.
(Hmm. Isles are on Game11 tonight. Free preview on Comcast only goes up to Game10. Toronto-Montreal, maybe?)
–It’s good to know the U.S. isn’t the only country with people who think it’s cute to play around with the national anthem. Wow.
–Sound Tigers force St. John’s to take a very-early time out.
–DiBenedetto and Jason Jaffray fight out of a scrum in the Caps crease. It’s DiBenedetto’s fourth fighting major as a Sound Tiger, by my count. Soon after, Kulda hits a post.
–A flurry at both ends of the ice, but the goalies stand up to them.
–The Caps take the lead at 11:38. The thought was Rosa on a deflection, but it’s announced as Carl Klingberg’s fifth goal. Jason Gregoire gets an assist.
–Between the call and various Twitter feeds, I think everybody saw that puck go in a different way. Anyway. 1-0.
–Bridgeport gets the first power play, but Poulin has to stop Jaffray on a breakaway before the period ends. The PP carries over for 39 seconds.
–Tyler McNeely scores on a rebound 2:15 into the second to tie the game. Gets his first point of the year.
–The IceCaps reclaim the lead on a scramble around Poulin for a rebound. Klingberg again. 2-1. Two points for Gregoire.
–At four-on-four, Jaffray scores to make it 3-1. Bridgeport has given up three four-on-four goals in seven games. For what it’s worth, that’s how many they gave up (in regulation, at least) all last year. Soon after, DiBenedetto gets taken down to give the Sound Tigers a four-on-three power play for a time.
–Marco Rosa scores from the right circle at 13:16 to make it 4-1, and Mikko Koskinen gets to make his season debut in relief.
–Bridgeport gets a power play with 1.5 seconds left, and off the faceoff win, Bridgeport scores. Incredible. It’s 4-2 after two. Colliton wins the draw; Donovan scores his first of the year.
–Poulin officially 15 shots, 11 saves. Shots overall are 25-19 Bridgeport after two.
–Koskinen’s first relief appearance in the AHL… in the regular season, anyway. He came into the blowout Game 3 against Hershey in 2010. The last three times Bridgeport changed goalies last year, the reliever got the decision (and, yes, for poor Joel Martin, the Sound Tigers were 0-2-1 in those three).
–With a little under 10 minutes left, St. John’s gets a 44-second five-on-three: Wishart already in for interference, Ness gets called for delay of game. Brian Rogers thinks Ness’ clear hit a player before it went out.
–Wild: Holzapfel takes de Haan into the boards, Robin Short relates, and the hit shatters the glass: the glass separating the scorers from one of the penalty boxes. No kidding. There’s 3:20 remaining, still 4-2. Bridgeport got through that penalty kill, making the Sound Tigers 9-for-9 at St. John’s. The Caps are 0-for-their-last-24, I think.
–And just off the draw off that delay, Colliton deflects one home to make it 4-3 with 3:13 to go.
–Announced as Ullstrom from Reese. A minute left, net empty.
–Comeback just short this time: St. John’s 4, Bridgeport 3, final.
–Box goes final: 19 saves for Koskinen. Goal remains Ullstrom’s.
—Prescout. Only end of two for the Sharks right now. I don’t think I’ve ever seen coincidental boarding penalties before.
–Jamie again got us some quotes, some of which are already in the gamer. Selections from the rest: Especially since it’s Brent Thompson’s first goalie change, wondered whether it was performance-based or to change the momentum. Sounds like a bit of both: “Two reasons for the goalie change: one, to wake up the guys and try and urge them to play harder defense, and also the fact that I didn’t think Poulin was as sharp as he could have been.” He was very impressed with Koskinen, though. With the three big penalty kills in the third: “Your penalty kill is as good as your goalie, and Mikko played great during that time. We had decent routes and we can be a little better on the little things. Right now we’re seeing improvement overall but it’s still a work in progress.”
They might not be back on the ice until Tuesday (chat day).