“Obviously you have to have your good players producing to have success,” Scott Pellerin said, and four goals from his top line’s top players made for a successful night tonight, indeed.
But it’s everyone else that made it that way. It’s the penalty kill, Backman and Watkins, Donovan blocking shots. It’s Halmo working his way to set up Niederreiter. It’s a few guys getting shifts in situations they might not otherwise, keeping them in the game when the penalty party ends any dream of rolling four lines.
It’s a big night for special teams; they’ve worked on the penalty kill hard without much to show for it the last little while, Pellerin said, but tonight it was huge. “I thought we put a lot of pressure (on the Admirals),” Kevin Poulin said. “I was talking a lot to the D, ‘back door,’ ‘screen’. They did a real good job clearing the puck.” And the power play scored two big ones.
It’s Poulin making big saves on the likes of Josh Brittain (stoning him right after Bridgeport took the lead) and Luca Caputi. “He was going a great job (controlling rebounds),” Pellerin said. “A lot of shots went off his pads, off his stick and into the netting, slowing the game down.”
It’s a five-point weekend, two big wins after a disheartening shootout loss. Sean Backman said last night they were back on track. Maybe he’s got something there.
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Apologies if this formats poorly or links are broken. Gonna post, drive home and check on a functional computer.
Niederreiter breaks the six-game schneid. “I thought Nino played really solid overall,” Pellerin said. “A complete game for him. Down low, puck protection, he made good decisions a lot.”
This may not be as bad as some of the other ones, but still.
Feb. 2, 2013, vs. Norfolk:
| SITUATION | Incidences | Total time | NOR goals | BPT goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5-on-5 | 10 | 37:14 | 0 | 1 |
| 4-on-4 | 3 | 4:02 | 0 | 0 |
| B 5-on-4 | 6 | 5:13 | 0 | 1 |
| B 5-on-3 | 2 | 1:54 | 0 | 1 |
| N 5-on-4 | 7 | 9:24 | 0 | 0 |
| N 5-on-3 | 2 | 1:17 | 1 | 0 |
| N 6-on-5 | 1 | 0:56 | 0 | 1 |
| TOTAL | — | 60:00 | 1 | 4 |
Seven of the Sound Tigers’ 30 all-time hat tricks were finished into an empty net. You were wondering.
Anders Nilsson wasn’t available, and nothing new on the mystery of what’s ailing him.
Lots of penalties in Wilkes-Barre, too.
They were hoping to break the indoor franchise attendance record tonight in Hartford; a smidgen behind, but still over 13,000 at XL Center, second in the old Civic Center’s Wolf Pack/Whale history. Announced 4,632 here and a packed house at Ingalls for Quinnipiac’s statement win over Yale, on top of a slate of CIAC games and probably a few in the preps, too? Pretty nice night for hockey in the state.
Bill Parcells is a Hall of Famer. And finally the Hall of Fame agrees.
Off tomorrow. More as warranted.