We’re home again — been almost three years since we’ve made Albany; miss the folks, not the sweltering top level of the barn — so we’ll listen to Phil and follow Jamie, Pete Dougherty and Bill Cain for updates from up there. What meaningless stuff we can add here, we’ll try.
For example, I’m sure you’re dying to know what the Sound Tigers did each time a captain wore the ‘C’ for the first time.
| Captain | Date | Site | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alan Letang | Oct. 10, 2003 | at HFD | T 3-3 |
| Keith Aldridge | Oct. 16, 2004 | vs. ALB | W 4-1 |
| Richard Seeley | Nov. 6, 2004 | at HFD | L 2-1 |
| Ed Campbell | March 16, 2005 | at BIN | SOW 4-3 |
| Kevin Colley | Oct. 5, 2005 | at WBS | L 8-1 |
| Mark Wotton | Oct. 8, 2006 | at BIN | W 5-3 |
| Jeremy Colliton* | Oct. 14, 2011 | at ADK | L 6-3 |
*-Colliton missed the first two games last year, though he’d been named captain before the season. But the team lost to Portland opening night, 4-2, so it washes.
The trend is clear: alternating non-wins with wins, Bridgeport is guaranteed an end to its seven-game winless streak today. I assume that’s how these advanced stats work, anyway.
The box is here. Referees: Dave Lewis (not seen by Bridgeport since an upstate swing, Glens Falls to Albany, almost three years ago) and Geoff Miller (only seen this year, including Wednesday in Hartford); linesmen Marty Demers and Paul Simeon. And while we’re at it, later on, prescout; the bulk of the defending champs make their only Bridgeport appearance tomorrow. And even more so while we’re at it, delayed prescout; Portland’s off tomorrow.
Elsewhere, Kael Mouillierat scored 142 seconds into his AHL season.
More a little later.
–RIP, Arnold Dean.
–Nilsson vs. Kinkaid, per the folks up there.
BRIDGEPORT, from Jamie:
F: Niederreiter-Nelson-McDonald (C)
Persson-Sundstrom-MacKay
Halmo-Cizikas (A)-Riley
Gallant-Watkins (A)-Backman
D: Donovan-Wishart
Cantin-Landry
McIver-Ness
(Hill-scratch)
G: Nilsson
Poulin
ALBANY, from Phil:
F: Parse-Josefson-Pesonen
Butler-Whitney-Zalewski
Wiseman-Gionta (A)-Tedenby
Zajac-Sestito (A)-McKelvie
D: Kelly-Gelinas
Leach (C)-Larsson
Urbom-McPherson
G: Kinkaid
Frazee
R: D. Lewis, G. Miller. L: Demers, Simeon.
–A Cantin interference penalty and a Watkins goalie-interference penalty 25 seconds apart gives the Devils a long five-on-three; Bridgeport gets through that, but Tedenby maybe puts the puck in from the side with 16 seconds left in the Watkins minor. They’re going to replay, and Phil says they’re showing the play in the building, which isn’t supposed to happen. Either way, one ref or the other waves it off after a brief review.
–After the teams trade power plays, Larsson’s point shot gets past Nilsson at 12:37. Tipped by Whitney. 1-0 Albany.
–The word on every tweet about that goal: “slow.” A slow wrist shot. Tip made the difference, apparently.
–It’s 1-0 Devils after one. Shots 7-3 Albany: That’s four periods in a row where neither Bridgeport nor its opponent reached 10 shots.
–Phil tweets that it’s freezing upstairs at the Times Union Center (Hearst!), not the usual oven. Remember that only once. Preseason 2008-09.
–Early second, and another long five-on-three for the Devils, McIver for a trip and Cizikas for interference (fourth such minor among six calls), 22 seconds apart… And Bobby Butler makes it 2-0.
–After Keith Kinkaid makes some saves on a Bridgeport power play, Chad Wiseman scores after a Tedenby shot hits the post. Devils lead 3-0.
–A few good Bridgeport scoring chances late — Phil likes a Backman-Cizikas-Riley line; think we saw that once or twice in Hartford the other night — but still nothing through Kinkaid. It’s 3-0 Albany after two. The no-double-digit-shots streak ends: 12-10 Bridgeport in the period (most of them in the last five minutes or so), 17-15 Albany in all.
–Brock Nelson draws a hooking penalty 62 seconds into the third. Phil says Watkins starts the power play in Niederreiter’s spot after Backman-Cizikas-Riley indeed starts the period.
–So Josefson hits Nelson, and apparently Brett Gallant goes after both him and Adam Larsson. Messy penalty situation; Josefson gets a boarding major, Gallant gets a minor and matching misconducts with Larsson. Interesting call. Can’t wait to see the rule numbers. Anyway. Bridgeport will eventually get a three-minute major power play — but no they won’t. Donovan has to hook Tedenby to prevent a breakaway.
–The computer ate an update, apparently; had Larsson, per the box, getting a game misconduct for losing the sweater, and Cizikas going to the room after blocking a shot. But Phil says Larsson’s back in the penalty box, and Cizikas is back on the bench. Thanks, technical difficulties.
–The combination of penalties leaves Bridgeport with just 1:50 of power-play time from the boarding major. The Devils kill it.
–Phil: “The Devils have blocked about a million shots in this game.” 4:15 left.
–About 20 seconds after Phil says the ‘S’ word, Niederreiter breaks up Kinkaid’s shutout with 2:07 left. Last time Bridgeport was shut out was March 21 in Binghamton, the seventh game of an eight-game winless streak. 3-1 Albany.
–That’s how it ends, Albany 3, Bridgeport 1, eight in a row without a win. There are six streaks of eight or longer in team history: One of 11, one of nine, now four of eight. Of those six, five — all but the nine-gamer — have happened since the beginning of calendar year 2011. Incredible. They’ve played 143 games since Jan. 2, 2011, and 43 of those have been part of an eight-or-more-game winless streak.
And they have a division championship within that two-year span. Figure this game out.
–The rule numbers on those misconducts are just garden-variety unsportsmanlike conduct. Ah well.
–Jason Clark had an assist last night in his ECHL debut, by the way. Plus-1 early tonight.
–Pellerin: Not thrilled with killing three penalties early, not thrilled with his team’s consistency in effort (“we competed hard, at times, but we weren’t able to capitalize on chances”), certainly not thrilled with the result. He thought they’d picked it up a bit in the second period, done in by a couple of turnovers and the power play. “The third period, I thought we sustained a lot of momentum, a lot of plays, but we weren’t able to get any points out of the game,” he said. I mentioned that Phil had noted the blocked shots. “You look at the last two games, look at Hartford, tonight, they did block a lot of shots,” he said. “We did miss a lot of shots wide, over the net. We weren’t able to generate a lot of quality opportunities around the goal.”
They will try again tomorrow.