Tone’s tough today. Games go on, though. We’ll have Pete Michaud up on Norfolk’s broadcast (a new URL for the radio station’s stream). Following the same group on Twitter, Jamie, Pete, the Ads’ official feed and their play-by-play account.
Norfolk’s without Hampus Lindholm, off to the Swedish national junior team.
The box will be here: Trent Knorr/Tom George, Luke Murray. Knorr’s first Sound Tigers game. Kind of an interesting story. Same trio is scheduled to work tomorrow night.
RIP, N. Joseph Woodland (h/t Chris Jones, IIRC).
More a little later.
–Pete tweets it’s Nilsson vs. Andersen.
Probable BRIDGEPORT
F: Niederreiter-Nelson-McDonald (C)
Persson-Sundstrom-Ullstrom
Backman-Cizikas (A)-Riley
Gallant-Watkins (A)-Halmo
D: Donovan-Wishart
Cantin-Landry
Ness-McIver
G: Nilsson
Poulin
NORFOLK from Pete:
F: McMillan-Pelley-Mitchell
Palmieri – Holland – Smith-Pelly
Rosehill-Kurtz-Bodie
Maroon-Wagner/(Elkins-scratch)-Etem
D: Hendry-Vatanen
Guentzel-Clark
Parent-Schaus
G: Andersen
Bobkov
–After a moment of silence for Newtown, game on.
–An early fight, an early Jay Rosehill elbowing penalty, and a John Persson tap-in gives Bridgeport a lead early. But now the Admirals will get a chance. Eventful start.
–Bridgeport kills it, but a couple of minutes later Palmieri gets through the defense and gets it to the net, and Smith-Pelly puts it away. 1-1.
–Another tilt, Gallant-Bodie. Bridgeport may not have a shot yet at even strength, about 10 minutes in.
–Still 1-1 after one. Shots 15-4 Norfolk, though I think they were something like 7-2 when Bridgeport scored only 3:36 in.
–The plus/minus has Donovan and Landry on for both goals. Don’t know if that’s mid-change, real change of pairs, or a mistake (mid-change sounds especially possible on the Bridgeport PPG; Persson had come on for Niederreiter, and I thought I heard a Landry-to-Ness pass earlier). Either way, Bridgeport scores quickly in the second, Brock Nelson on a wraparound. McDonald gets his second assist at 1:13.
–The teams trade off four penalties the next few minutes, culminating in Peter Holland’s midair deflection of a Jordan Hendry shot, as Pete sees it, or maybe Pat Maroon got a piece down low… nope, Holland. Trust Pete. Tied at 2 nearing the game’s midpoint.
–A messy scrum that had an Admiral going after David Ullstrom ends up with 19 penalty minutes for Nathan McIver, who’s got 24 for the night, chasing his cousin hard. Bridgeport kills the ensuing Norfolk power play. Soon after, Parent trips Sundstrom; sixth power play in about 12 minutes this period.
–Nelson goes quickly to the room with just over a minute left in the second; Pete thinks he either took a puck or a stick to the face. It is 2-2 after two.
–Nelson not back for the third, Jamie notes, with Casey Cizikas taking his spot.
–Wishart scores through a screen at 3:31 of the third to make it 3-2 Bridgeport. Niederreiter gets credit for an assist; two points for each member of that line, including Nelson in the room. The Sound Tigers have taken a lead in the first three and a half minutes or so of each of the three periods; we’ll see if they can hold it for longer than eight minutes this time.
–Actually, Riley credited with the assist in the box.
–The answer to the question as posed is “yes, they can hold it for longer than eight minutes this time.” About nine minutes to go, still 3-2 Bridgeport. No penalties yet after six PPs in the second.
–Sound Tigers get a power play with 5:45 to go after Persson gets taken down on a draw.
–The Admirals get through that, and Patrick Maroon scores at the back door off Chris Wagner’s pass with 2:45 to go. Tied at 3.
–Overtime. Bridgeport gets a point for the third game in a row. It could obviously use two. Norfolk is the only team left in the AHL with zeroes in both the OTL and SOL columns, 3-0 beyond regulation (1-0 with the clock running, 2-0 in bonus rounds).
–Norfolk could obviously use two, as well. Hasn’t won at home in a while. Last in the East.
–Cizikas gets hooked. A little surprising — didn’t catch who’s working with Pete, but he thought Maroon got hauled down in the slot with about a minute left in regulation. Bridgeport gets a chance after catching, it sounds like, a bad break in OT the other night.
–Well, there ya go. Niederreiter trips Hendry. Evens it up.
–May get a review here. If I got the flow right, Cizikas went to the net, Clark knocked him into Andersen, and the puck at some point ended up across the line and the net came off the moorings. Knorr’s going to take a look.
–It’s a goal. Well then. The Admirals are reportedly and logically incensed, but Bridgeport gets its own three-on-three goal. Bridgeport 4, Norfolk 3, final (OT).
–So, yeah, no three-on-three goals in 11 years and change, and then two in two weeks against the same team. Reportedly fans throwing things afterward, too. Come back tomorrow night, folks.
–Scott Pellerin: “I was talking with Eric Boguniecki and Doug (Holewa) here just now about it. We found a way. It wasn’t pretty.” The first, especially, they got outplayed. But it was only 1-1. Nilsson was solid throughout, he said. Norfolk gets the late goal, “some plays where we almost got the puck out” but didn’t, but Bridgeport stuck with it. The winning goal was Cizikas getting to the net. “He got hit by the weak-side defenseman into the goalie. He, the puck and the goalie went into the net.” And apparently that all happened before the net came off, and they’d found a way. “It’s one of those things. You have to learn from those situations to grow. You want to try to do that in an environment where you’re working hard for one another, everybody’s doing their own job and playing within the structure we have to play.”
He wasn’t sure whether Nelson took a stick or the puck in the teeth. Sounded hopeful he’ll be OK for tomorrow.
We’ll do this again then.