Down here it's just winners and losers

Deepest apologies to Bruce Springsteen. And his fans. And his non-fans. All of you. Sorry.

We’ll liveblog game thoughts here, or again tweet if we’re moved. According to the board in the East dressing room, Casey Cizikas is with Carter Camper of Providence as the 13th/14th forwards, Cam Atkinson plays with Corey Locke and Kyle Palmieri, and Trevor Smith skates between Norfolk teammate Cory Conacher and Wethersfield’s Colin McDonald.

By the way, neglected in the previous post, but a note from Hershey: Joel Rechlicz got an NHL deal from Washington and got called up today.

–It’s only 10 years later that I discover they took a point away from Ray Giroux in the 2002 AHL all-star game. So, Rhett Rakhshani holds the Bridgeport team record alone: 1-3-4 in an all-star game. #completelymeaninglessstats

–Oh, thank goodness. The warmup jerseys were borderline unreadable from up here. The game sweaters are different. (Merchandizing!)

–Cizikas behind his own net just now on his first shift. Someone explain the whole “all-star game” to him, please.

–Second shift was better. He flew the zone off a faceoff, then changed in time to avoid a minus. 2-1 East early.

–Cizikas’ll get credit for this one, pinballing back and forth and then through Hackett to make it 3-2 East at 10:32.

–Atkinson has an assist on Kyle Palmieri’s goal earlier. He tried a bank-in from behind the goal line shortly before the West made it 2-2. It’s 4-2 East now at 10:58. Not sure if Barberio’s shot got through cleanly or if Andy Miele got a piece. Edit: Miele did; Audy-Marchesssault apparently shot it.

–Zuccarello scores on a breakaway. Three points for him and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault already. It’s 6-2 East after one.

–Internet and runnin’-around delays, but the West has put on a charge and trails just 6-4 with 2:32 left in the second. Yann Danis has made 10 saves on 10 shots in the period for the West.

–The West wears down the East, outshoots ’em 22-11 in the second, and cuts the lead to 6-5 East after two. Danis 11-for-11.

–Goaltending clinic. Tyson Sexsmith of Worcester has come on for the third and made three or four point-blank stops. (The West has also hit the post at least three times.) This after Danis.

–By the way, got to hang out a bit with Rich Bocchini here this weekend. Rich is with Houston now. A bunch of the Aeros’ staff in town for the event.

–Cory Conacher stops the bleeding with his second of the night, 7-5 East. Trevor Smith gets the second assist with Albany’s Alexander Urbom in between. Now 9:43 remaining after Ben Bishop stops Cizikas’ shot from the slot.

–A “Let’s Go, East” chant breaks out with 5:40 to play. It’s 7-6 in favor of the object of their affections. The first and so far only puck to beat Sexsmith went in off East/Norfolk defenseman Mark Barberio.

–Tie game, Kevin Connauton with 4:07 left.

–Shootout. Ah, jeez. 7-7.

–The West wins the shootout 2-0 and the game 8-7. MVP is Ben Bishop, 10-for-11 in the third and 4-for-4 in the shootout.

–So Cizikas got himself a goal, with his family in the house watching. “It was definitely a learning experience,” he said. “I got to meet all the guys around the league. It was definitely fun, to be in this kind of atmosphere, to get this experience. I never thought I’d experience this coming into my rookie year. … Everything was top-class.”

I’m thinking Yann Danis got robbed for MVP, but whatever. “The guys were backchecking,” Danis said. “I didn’t face any two-on-ones, breakaways.”

So that’ll wrap it up from here, more or less. Headed home. Day off tomorrow (as noted a post below, leaning toward Thursday 1:30 for a chat). Practice Wednesday afternoon. Fewer Springsteen quotes. Back to some sort of routine.

Michael Fornabaio