Gallant suspended/Nelson injury/new D

Though it looks like Nino Niederreiter is ready to go for tonight’s game, Bridgeport will be without Brett Gallant. The league gave Gallant a three-game suspension for leaving the bench on what it deemed a legal line change, but for the purpose of starting a fight with Dylan McIlrath. He’ll miss tonight, Monday in Glens Falls and Friday in Springfield and be eligible to return next Saturday at Portland.

McIlrath got two games for the elbow to the head of Marc Cantin, and though Cantin was feeling good enough to practice yesterday, that apparently changed afterward. He appears to be out tonight. Nathan McIver took the morning skate, but we’ll see if they bring in another defenseman. Like the other night, even if McIver’s healthy, if Cantin’s not, that’s six.

Edit, 1:20: A couple of things coming down this afternoon: Brock Nelson’s injury is finally revealed to be a jaw fracture, suffered when he took that puck to the mouth two weeks ago in Norfolk. He’s expected to miss another 2-3 weeks from here. Meanwhile, Bridgeport has brought back defenseman Dallas Jackson, who played three games here last season, on a PTO.

…..

The promised pregamer:

Guessing based on the morning skate, Sean Backman gets in to replace Gallant. Both teams have one to scratch. And naturally, they went at the same time. Fairly sure this was the first pass. McIver was on for warmup at least. Edit: Looks like McIver and Deslauriers.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Persson-Cizikas (A)-McDonald (C)
Ullstrom-Sundstrom-Niederreiter
Halmo-Watkins-Backman
DeFazio-Costello-Riley
D: Donovan-Wishart
Ness-Hill
Jackson-Landry (A)
(McIver-scratch)
G: Nilsson
Poulin

MANCHESTER
F: King-Loktionov-Kozun
Legein-Cliche (C)-Czarnik
Pearson-Vey-Toffoli
Clune (A)-Andreoff-Nolan
D: Campbell-Voynov
Bodnarchuk-Kolomatis
Muzzin-Hickey (A)
(Deslauriers-scratch)
G: Jones
Mannino

R: Luxmore. L: Colby, Galvin.

Michael Fornabaio