Manchester liveblog ’13

Liveblogging off the radio again. We’ll have Ken Cail up and will follow Jamie (who said DiPietro was first off this morning) and the Monarchs’ (guess Bridgeport’s wearing white (hustles off to change the ‘A’s)) feeds on Twitter. The box will be here.

Light and heavy reading beforehand: Neat Micheal Haley story from Justin Bourne. Victor Bartley got the call to Nashville. An obit of Hugo Chavez that’s worth your while (h/t Richard Deitsch).

–Jamie’s first-goal tweet suggests no Wishart and no Persson, which suggests the same 18 as Sunday.

–Here’s the Rangers’ statement about Marc Staal; that was a pretty scary scene last night.

Pregame’s on.

Considering the scratches, yesterday’s practice and the white sweaters, imagine Bridgeport will look (to start at least) something like:

BRIDGEPORT
F: Niederreiter-Nelson-Kabanov
Halmo-Watkins (C)-Backman
DeFazio-Campbell-Riley
Huxley-Combs-Costello
D: Donovan-Landry (A)
Ness-Jackson
Hill-McIver (A)
G: DiPietro
Reiter

R: Luxmore, Miller. L: Lovett, Ross.

The same two refs worked last night in Hartford. Bridgeport is eight back.

–They’re well into the first. Sounds as if DiPietro has made some saves with the puck moving around the net, and a few Monarchs shots have gone wide. Bridgeport’s going on a power play for an elbow interference, which they were complaining about on the radio as being on the puck at 12:17. The 0-for-37 is on the line.

–38. Somebody hit a post.

–Matt Watkins goes with Andrew Bodnarchuk late in the period, his third fight of the year and first since November. (One of them was with Andreoff in the first game up there.)

–No score after one, though Bridgeport will have to kill a little over a minute of a Brandon DeFazio slashing minor. Shots 11-11. (Or maybe not — sheet’s gone down to 10 shots for Bridgeport.)

–Penalty’s over. Second is on in earnest. Bridgeport’s 10 shots in the first period, incidentally, included three for Kabanov and two for offensive powerhouse Nathan McIver.

–The Monarchs take the lead at 2:44 as Stewart takes it behind the net and sets up O’Connor in front. 1-0.

–The teams trade power plays nine seconds apart; Manchester first, Combs evening it up. If no other penalties, that’s 39.

–Here comes Chance 40, 11:09 into the second, on a Toffoli slash.

–Some chances, but still: 40. Hard to fathom.

–Jamie says the Monarchs got away with too many; they’ll go on a power play with 1:16 left in the second on a Jackson cross-check.

–Manchester will carry 44 seconds of power-play time to the third with a 1-0 lead. Bridgeport outshot the Monarchs 14-10 in the period.

–Sad news: RIP, Stompin’ Tom Connors, he of “The Hockey Song” and others.

–Bridgeport ties it early in the third as a Donovan shot deflects past Jones. Halmo gets credit.

–Colton Yellow Horn wrists one in from the slot to make it 2-1 with 7:11 left in regulation.

–Niederreiter gets one: Kabanov gets it to him at the front for his first goal in eight games. 2-2 with 5:22 to go. Two points for Brock Nelson.

–#pointsforall: Overtime. Shots 34-26 Bridgeport.

–Jordan Weal, who scored the winner in regulation when the teams met a week and a half ago in Bridgeport, gets the winner 2:36 into overtime: Manchester 3, Bridgeport 2, final. Bridgeport is seven back in 12th with 20 to play.

And now Bridgeport is seven back in 13th after Norfolk gets to overtime. I take it back. Misread Norfolk’s shootout column. Bridgeport’s in 12th.

–Chances, yes; quality chances, ehh, Scott Pellerin thought. They blocked a lot of shots, held the Monarchs under 30, which was one thing they wanted to do, but couldn’t get enough past Jones. He thought DiPietro took some contact but made some big saves.

Persson and Wishart, “I’m not holding them back on purpose, I’ll tell you that,” he said. He’s hoping Persson can play Friday. He said he expected to know more on Brett Gallant tomorrow. We’ll check in then.

Michael Fornabaio