Not brake time

“I think it was a strong effort to turn around the game,” David Ullstrom said, and in a way, they did it twice. “We let off the gas.”

They started slow again, and they recaptured the momentum, and when Johan Sundstrom scored twice in the first 7:36 of the third period, you figured they’d climbed the mountain one more time.

Except it barely took any time for the Whale to start climbing from the other side and toss the Sound Tigers right off my horrific metaphor.

The reconstituted UPS/Tre Kronor/Swedish line scored four times, including Ullstrom’s on a power play. Given a little more time, they might’ve picked off every Whale defenseman once and turned it into a goal.

But it wasn’t enough. The Whale tied it on a funky bounce off the stanchion, though credit the Whale for doing everything right leading up to that. They won it on a long-shift four-on-four when Nilsson lost his stick, reminiscent of a goal Sunday in Providence (“we have a structure in that situation, and we weren’t able to execute that structure in that situation,” said Scott Pellerin; coverage? “Yes.”) And then they tacked on.

“5-3, we talked in the locker room, we should protect that lead, especially in our home arena,” Sundstrom said, saying sometimes it’s more mental than physical. “(We had to) protect Anders. He was alone back there.”

So it’s Bridgeport’s first losing streak since last year’s playoffs.

….

As someone asked… Fourth time they’ve allowed seven on home ice, and the first since the New Year’s Eve debacle of 2006-07. Third time they’ve been in a game with 12 combined goals, all of which they lost 7-5 (Jan. 28, 2005, at Providence; Nov. 4, 2005, vs. Manchester).

Nino Niederreiter’s streak ends at nine games, so Jeff Hamilton and Frans Nielsen’s record 12-game streaks are safe. The longest active Sound Tigers scoring streak remains Josh Bailey’s. (Or Sundstrom’s, three, 2-3-5.)

Micheal Haley was reportedly sporting some damage both from Brett Gallant’s left and from a stick that clipped him in the third. He got booed pretty good coming back from the room after the fight. The fun of the wars.

Replay: A little before there was 2:34 left, a shot got through Cam Talbot, and Blair Riley whacked for the rebound. The crowd jumped, but the red light never went on. Chris Cozzan gave it a look at the next stoppage (there’s the 2:34) but only needed about a minute to confirm the no-goal.

Prescout. Binghamton is one of only two teams (St. John’s) that has no one with double-digit points. They ain’t bad defensively, though. Robin Lehner’s been playing OK. (We’ll liveblog off the radio Saturday night.)

Two midweek Sound Tigers road games among those announced today by the AHL for satellite radio broadcasts, Dec. 5 at Hartford and Dec. 11 at Portland.

I’m in for a couple of bucks; who’s with me? (Monday is, per Lewisohn, the 50th anniversary of the recording of “Please Please Me.” Kind of unreal.) Sacred Heart’s second-intermission music selection was “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” into “Hold Me Tight.” Beautiful.

And RIP, Cleve Duncan and Jack Hunt, longtime Ansonia High football coach.

Michael Fornabaio