A few changes for Bridgeport: Nino Niederreiter gets the night off after the stick to the face, though it sounds as if they don’t think it’s serious; Nathan McIver apparently a minor tweak from last night. For the Whale, no Micheal Haley, who didn’t return after the fight with McIver last night. But Dylan McIlrath makes his season debut after that offseason dislocated kneecap, and it looks like Jyri Niemi returns for the first time since he took the hit from Colin McDonald back on Nov. 11. Skated as a forward in warmup, but we’ll see whether they just go with seven defensemen.
Same goalie matchup. One to scratch each way. First look was Halmo/Deslisle. Edit: Nope, Halmo/Niemi. So seven defensemen.
BRIDGEPORT
F: Persson-Cizikas (A)-McDonald (C)
Ullstrom-Sundstrom-DeFazio
Combs-Watkins-Costello
Gallant-Campbell-Riley
(Halmo-scratch)
D: Donovan-Wishart
Ness-Hill
Cantin-Landry (A)
G: Poulin
Nilsson
CONNECTICUT
F: Hrivik-Newbury (A)-Kolarik
Kreider-Jean-Segal (A)
Grant-Tessier-Bourque
(Niemi-scratch)-Wiebe-Thomas
D: Vernace-Gilroy
Collins (A)-McIlrath
Klassen-Parlett
Delisle
G: Talbot
Missiaen
R: D. Banfield, Sylvain. L: Briggs, Galvin.
First Bridgeport game for Jean-Philippe Sylvain, a ref out of the QMJHL who attended NHL camp.
Bridgeport’s wearing the whites with the Whale in green, so Landry in an ‘A’ after Watkins wore one at home last night in the blues.