Game 1: Check

Two periods of a chess match, of the Whale rolling four lines (and getting things from the fourth) and the Sound Tigers matching well against the top one.

And then three breakdowns in the third, against the third and fourth lines, and three goals against, and Cam Talbot’s 42 saves put Bridgeport down.

“We definitely have to put it behind us quick,” Trevor Frischmon said. “It’s a five-game series. We’ve got to figure out what we needed to do better and be ready go to next game. The good thing for us, like the coaching staff said, I think we know what we can do better.”

There was talk about getting more traffic, about getting to rebounds, about doing a better job of controlling the puck.

They hadn’t had too many breakdowns in the first 40 minutes, but they happened too regularly in the next 15. They gave up three goals. The chess match turned into checkers, and the Whale were jumping all over Bri… Nah, that metaphor got scary in a hurry.

But they did. Home-run pass makes it 1-0. Keep the puck in and scramble twice, and it’s 2-0. Then a two-on-one, and it’s over.

Bridgeport had chances. Ullstrom knocks the puck away from Bell, and gets maybe half of a shot on a breakaway. Talbot stones DiBenedetto from right in front twice on an early power play. Mark Lemelin intends to blow the whistle on a puck John Persson says was sitting right there uncovered for him to poke home. It could’ve been 1-0 Bridgeport.

Nothing to be done now. Back at it tomorrow.

…..

They worked a few times to get the matchup, Frischmon’s line and de Haan-Wishart, against the Newbury line, sometimes on short rest, sometimes winding up skipping another line to get it. Thought the matchup itself worked well, and they seemed to agree; Audy-Marchessault’s credited with seven shots, but to me the most memorable was the long-range one where he ended up getting an unsportsmanlike penalty for crashing the net from the top of the slot. “It’s a battle,” Frischmon said. “They’re a top line in this league. It’s a challenge, and it’s going to be a challenge all series.”

I’d say the flow seemed to get lost at times with that, but they did keep generating chances, so forget that.

The Sound Tigers won their first three playoff openers in 2002, and four of their first five, and six of their first eight, but they’ve lost the past three now. For what it’s worth.

They will not have instant replay for the playoffs, by the way.

Darn. I forgot the joke tweet when they put their eighth shot on goal. Yeah, well, guess what, more than seven shots on goal this time. (Justin DiBenedetto, not in the lineup that night, had eight himself tonight. Ullstrom and Cizikas combined for 11.)

Shutouts by a Sound Tigers goalie: DIPIETRO, Rick, 4. That is all. (Three the first year, one the second.)

I was looking up 1-0 playoff games after two periods. There’s only been one: April 25, 2006, Game 4. Max Talbot, 44.7 seconds left in the second period, banked in off Jeff Tambellini. That had been the fourth and last time Bridgeport was shut out in the playoffs. That’s also the only time they’d been shut out at home. Until tonight, etc.

(That Game 4 is special to me. That fall, I went looking for the last time Bridgeport was shut out. I found that. And I realized I didn’t remember anything about it. Hurray for concussions.)

This was the only game in the Eastern Conference tonight — three tomorrow — but there was OT in the Rumored Conference… and it ended on a delay-of-game penalty. Argh. Meanwhile, only 14 saves for Yann Danis tonight. That was plenty.

And RIP, Levon Helm.

Michael Fornabaio