Big win, de Haan hurt, comebacks

By on November 12, 2011 at 11:34 PM

Nothing right away on Calvin de Haan, who was injured early in the third period of what somehow became a team-record ninth consecutive one-goal game. He took a hit up high, might’ve been to the head, from Dane Byers along the boards on the power play. Went right to the room. Hopefully we get some kind of update tomorrow. (Though that’d be from afar. Speaking of which, liveblog off the radio tomorrow. Be here.)

Otherwise, this was one of Bridgeport’s better games. The Falcons probably deserved better after one, but Danny Taylor didn’t have it tonight, and Bridgeport beat him on three shots in a row, Niederreiter spinning off a Frischmon faceoff win, de Haan from the right point with DiBenedetto’s stick maybe giving Taylor something to think about, then DiBenedetto off a nice Aaron Ness defensive play. The Sound Tigers deserved better after two, but Manny Legace* was out of his gourd, denying Trevor Frischmon, Jeremy Colliton (both of them short-handed), Tony Romano and Tyler McNeely (penalty shot) on breakaways. (The out-of-his-gourd continued into the third. I lost track of “how’d that not go in”s for Romano, who put eight shots on net in all.)

And then came the third, which just degenerated. No call on the Byers hit. Bridgeport has to answer; Micheal Haley finds him. Byers, maybe looking for more than matching majors, goes ballistic in the box, whacks his stick against the glass, gets himself tossed, then lets himself out of the box, yells at referee Graham Skilliter, yells at Haley, goes off and tosses another stick on the way down the runway.

Then Tyler McNeely fights Aaron Bogosian. Then Trevor Gillies drops the gloves and decks Adam Mair, who keeps them on, and then Gillies tosses Mair down and shoves him down again. He gets a double minor, which turns into a full two-minute five-on-three after a Marcinko slashing penalty.

They killed it. They let Ryan Russell get lost in front at the end of the Gillies penalties, but the penalty kill “was great,” said Brent Thompson, impressed with the team’s leadership after Friday didn’t go the way they hoped. “The intensity level the entire game was great.”

That was the thing: They got that lead, and they were doing the right things to maintain it. Springfield came back on a broken-play, Giroux-at-the-right-post goal; that power-play goal; and a six-on-five goal late through a screen and a small hole.

Another night at the office. Of course, now they’re on a five-hour bus ride to play Hershey, which was idle tonight.

….

“Lucky,” Frischmon said: Bogosian, off-balance, had his leg swing up and cut Frischmon near the left ear late in the second period. He went straight off, bleeding quite a bit, but came back for the third. Announced as the second star in his old building, he got… booed. Thanks for the memories, I guess.

Dylan Reese compared this to last Sunday’s game against St. John’s, where Bridgeport was the one trying to come back from a 3-0 deficit. “It’s so hard to come back in this league,” Reese said. He especially credited Kevin Poulin on the penalty kill; Poulin quietly had a strong 28 saves, which may be masked a little in the box by the three goals against and the fact that he didn’t have to face a ton of shots in the first two periods.

This is one of those nights when you wish you could apply the baseball-pitcher rule to the goalies. I deserve the loss in this game more than Manny Legace did. Because Giroux pumps one in with 34.9 seconds left, the Ullstrom goal off a turnover sends Legace to 0-3.

A great Mark Howe story by Craig Custance.

Heard “Uprising” by Muse while flipping stations on the way up. Always reminds me of Game 4 vs. Hershey and the completely-changed-up, what-building-is-this warmup playlist, where that song led off. By the way, after two trips upstate, I’m amazed at the storm damage. Trees snapped in half, huge limbs down, evergreens bent. I thought we had it bad where I live, but nothing like that.

Holy cro: 62-41? Well, it has been basketball season at Columbia for a long time already. (OK, fencing season.)

And RIP, Charlie Lea.

*-Like I said about both him and Lebda on Twitter: kid’s got a bright future. (Especially with Mark Wotton gone, it’s nice to see a player older than I am.)

Michael Fornabaio

Big win, de Haan hurt, comebacks

By on November 12, 2011 at 11:34 PM

Nothing right away on Calvin de Haan, who was injured early in the third period of what somehow became a team-record ninth consecutive one-goal game. He took a hit up high, might’ve been to the head, from Dane Byers along the boards on the power play. Went right to the room. Hopefully we get some kind of update tomorrow. (Though that’d be from afar. Speaking of which, liveblog off the radio tomorrow. Be here.)

Otherwise, this was one of Bridgeport’s better games. The Falcons probably deserved better after one, but Danny Taylor didn’t have it tonight, and Bridgeport beat him on three shots in a row, Niederreiter spinning off a Frischmon faceoff win, de Haan from the right point with DiBenedetto’s stick maybe giving Taylor something to think about, then DiBenedetto off a nice Aaron Ness defensive play. The Sound Tigers deserved better after two, but Manny Legace* was out of his gourd, denying Trevor Frischmon, Jeremy Colliton (both of them short-handed), Tony Romano and Tyler McNeely (penalty shot) on breakaways. (The out-of-his-gourd continued into the third. I lost track of “how’d that not go in”s for Romano, who put eight shots on net in all.)

And then came the third, which just degenerated. No call on the Byers hit. Bridgeport has to answer; Micheal Haley finds him. Byers, maybe looking for more than matching majors, goes ballistic in the box, whacks his stick against the glass, gets himself tossed, then lets himself out of the box, yells at referee Graham Skilliter, yells at Haley, goes off and tosses another stick on the way down the runway.

Then Tyler McNeely fights Aaron Bogosian. Then Trevor Gillies drops the gloves and decks Adam Mair, who keeps them on, and then Gillies tosses Mair down and shoves him down again. He gets a double minor, which turns into a full two-minute five-on-three after a Marcinko slashing penalty.

They killed it. They let Ryan Russell get lost in front at the end of the Gillies penalties, but the penalty kill “was great,” said Brent Thompson, impressed with the team’s leadership after Friday didn’t go the way they hoped. “The intensity level the entire game was great.”

That was the thing: They got that lead, and they were doing the right things to maintain it. Springfield came back on a broken-play, Giroux-at-the-right-post goal; that power-play goal; and a six-on-five goal late through a screen and a small hole.

Another night at the office. Of course, now they’re on a five-hour bus ride to play Hershey, which was idle tonight.

….

“Lucky,” Frischmon said: Bogosian, off-balance, had his leg swing up and cut Frischmon near the left ear late in the second period. He went straight off, bleeding quite a bit, but came back for the third. Announced as the second star in his old building, he got… booed. Thanks for the memories, I guess.

Dylan Reese compared this to last Sunday’s game against St. John’s, where Bridgeport was the one trying to come back from a 3-0 deficit. “It’s so hard to come back in this league,” Reese said. He especially credited Kevin Poulin on the penalty kill; Poulin quietly had a strong 28 saves, which may be masked a little in the box by the three goals against and the fact that he didn’t have to face a ton of shots in the first two periods.

This is one of those nights when you wish you could apply the baseball-pitcher rule to the goalies. I deserve the loss in this game more than Manny Legace did. Because Giroux pumps one in with 34.9 seconds left, the Ullstrom goal off a turnover sends Legace to 0-3.

A great Mark Howe story by Craig Custance.

Heard “Uprising” by Muse while flipping stations on the way up. Always reminds me of Game 4 vs. Hershey and the completely-changed-up, what-building-is-this warmup playlist, where that song led off. By the way, after two trips upstate, I’m amazed at the storm damage. Trees snapped in half, huge limbs down, evergreens bent. I thought we had it bad where I live, but nothing like that.

Holy cro: 62-41? Well, it has been basketball season at Columbia for a long time already. (OK, fencing season.)

And RIP, Charlie Lea.

*-Like I said about both him and Lebda on Twitter: kid’s got a bright future. (Especially with Mark Wotton gone, it’s nice to see a player older than I am.)

Michael Fornabaio