David Ullstrom appears to get an extra day — no indication from anywhere that it’s more than that — so Max MacKay makes his pro debut, with Jason Clark playing his second game. Bridgeport’s lines look basically as they have all week, with one defenseman to scratch.
I haven’t the slightest idea if these Wilkes-Barre lines are accurate. Aside from the fact that we’re out here in Mountain Top looking through the netting, and the Pens are on the far side and I’d have a hard time anyway, they’re wearing some kind of acid-trip warmup jerseys with funky numbers. Best guess here. I’ll try to correct if possible.
BRIDGEPORT
F: Niederreiter-Nelson-DeFazio
Persson-Sundstrom-Backman
Halmo-Watkins (A)-Riley
Gallant-Clark-MacKay
D: Donovan-Wishart (A)
Ness-Landry
McIver-Hamonic (A)
(Hill-scratch)
G: Poulin
Nilsson
WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON
F: Tangradi-Smith (A)-Ferriero
Kuhnhacki-Holzapfel-Bennett
Thompson-Peters-Dupuis
Farnham-Uher-MacIntyre
(Gibbons-scratch)
D: Despres-Bortuzzo
Morrow-Reese (A)
Dumoulin-Strait
G: Zatkoff
Thiesen
R: Binda. L: Goodman, M.McNulty.
(Going with an initial on Matt McNulty to differentiate him from a referee I’m not sure is working in the AHL anymore. Whatever.
Watkins wears a letter for the first time here, with Cizikas and McDonald out.
Major tease before warmup: PA played the start of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Cecilia,” then cut to an ad. Brutal. They cut out of “I Saw Her Standing There” once here, too. Horrible. Still, on the ride out today, back to back, Harry Belafonte, “Calypso” and “Jump Up Calypso.” That worked out OK. (That said, saw more people cut more people off in those three hours than I think I had in three weeks. Crazy. You don’t care.)
No Phil tonight, by the way: Tom Grace’s call is here.