Brent Thompson gave Tony Romano a pop Saturday night for his work on the power play, and there he was again Sunday, involved in two key goals in yet another come-from-behind Bridgeport win.
Kind of a crazy week for that guy. A week ago today, he’s in the suburbs of Chicago. Today, he’s got two points, three for the weekend.
“I’m so happy to be back around this team right now,” Romano said. “The atmosphere in the room is phenomenal. I’ve never been around a team with so much confidence and ability to come back.”
Ah, yeah, that. Albany got a couple on the power play — one through bodies, another when Keith Kinkaid caught the Sound Tigers changing and the Devils got a pass through a defender — and took a 2-0 lead to the third. The Devils kind of flipped the script on Bridgeport, keeping pucks in, getting pucks deep and using their speed to keep them deep.
Bridgeport got things going in the third.
“We started playing our game,” Aaron Ness said. “We got back to what we’ve been doing to get us wins all year.”
Ness kept a couple of pucks in the zone, got it deep to Scott Howes the second time and one-timed home the return pass to tie the game. But things got going with the fourth line, Marc-Olivier Vallerand, Romano and Trevor Gillies. They won a defensive-zone draw, got the puck up the ice, and after Romano’s right-circle shot, the wingers crashed the net.
That began a period that was a far cry from that second period, when “we got away from what makes us successful,” Gillies said. “Chip it in. Slash it in, (work) down low in their end. We were too soft to play against.”
Gillies put home the rebound to make it 2-1. Ness scored a couple later. Bridgeport has a point in eight in a row, in 20 of 21.
….
Programming notes: The team’s off Monday, but we’ll be following the trade deadline, and I’ll probably toss some kind of post up to track trades of local interest (assuming some happen). Also, I’ve had to reschedule an appointment right into the chat window, so we’ll do the weekly chat Wednesday at 1:30 instead of Tuesday.
The deadline can obviously change some things. The Sound Tigers were hopeful this week of having Rhett Rakhshani ready for next week, so that would lengthen the lineup. Tomas Marcinko is again eligible to play, returning from suspension. Brett Gallant had been making progress. We’ll see how they line up Tuesday.
Romano’s loving playing on the power play. “Hopefully we can keep it going,” he said, “keep getting some offense from it.”
It is quite early to be hyperanalyzing — oh, I figure we’ll start next week; 20 games to go — but the Sound Tigers are just one point behind Hershey, which has the fourth-best record in the conference. (Obviously the Berkshire League champ would play as the third seed in the playoffs, and the leader right now is Bridgeport by two points and a tiebreaker over the Whale.) Imagine that two months ago.
A note that Jamie has been waiting for: This was win 30, non-shootout-win 26… which matches last year’s 80-game totals.
Prescout. Oh, wait…. (Come on. Haven’t used that one in a while.)
Is it me, or is every Bridgeport opponent either coming from or going to a game against Manchester? It’s like they’re the Cornell to Bridgeport’s Columbia. The Expos and Phillies (I think it was them, anyway; getting old) to Bridgeport’s mid-1980s Mets.
Around the league, Norfolk has won nine in a row, a team record.
More tomorrow.