Manchester Liveblog ’13-2

Liveblogging off the radio again. We’ll have Ken Cail up and will follow Jamie and the Monarchs’ feeds on Twitter. The box will be here: Jamie Koharski and Tim Mayer.

Got to watch a little of the Islanders last night thanks to rare television arrangements, but didn’t like seeing David Ullstrom go off in massive amounts of discomfort. The Islanders announced that he’ll miss three to four weeks with a groin injury. This afternoon, they announced they’ve signed Colin McDonald for two more years. He came looking for a shot. He took full advantage. Win for both sides.

For your reading and viewing pleasure in the meantime: Bob McKenzie gives us some college free-agent names to watch, including Yale’s Antoine Laganiere. Meanwhile, TSN produced a hilarious piece with Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider. Also getting an extension: onetime Bridgeport ATO David Desharnais in Montreal, and former Beast of New Haven Herberts Vasiljevs with Krefeld. Have you followed the controversy around Weston High School’s boys basketball coach? Hollywood wouldn’t buy it.

And RIP, Dave Ruotolo, Connecticut Little League softball administrator out of West Haven. One of the first people I met in this job and, as Jim says, one of the best.

–DiPietro vs. Jones, Jamie reports.

–Guessing they’re looking something like:

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

–Jamie actually puts Hill in the middle, by the rushes.

–Bridgeport may catch a break about seven minutes in when a Manchester shot goes off DiPietro’s glove; after a whistle, it pinballs around and in. No goal.

–(Fixed the A’s. They’re on the road.)

–Told Hill took a shift on defense in the past little bit. Meanwhile this: “RT @MCSaratogian: Jon Sim threw a nice little forearm into Nathan Lawson in the crease and ADK is headed to an early PK.”

–Saw on Twitter that Bridgeport was getting a power play; my audio was about a minute behind. So I hit refresh and got the audio just in time to hear that Deslauriers was coming back on the ice. No idea how that PP went. About six minutes left in the first. … And Campbell makes a big block (with his hand — ouch) on a Niederreiter shot off a Manchester turnover.

–(Andrew Campbell, that is.)

–The teams trade off penalties in the last 2:46. Bridgeport’s power play in the middle of it lasted all of six seconds. It’ll be 47 seconds of four-on-four to start the second, then 30 seconds of Manchester power play after that, unless there are other penalties. No score after one.

–DiPietro stones Yellow Horn, drawing kudos from the Manchester booth.

–Lost the audio again, but apparently DiPietro gets hit with a high-sticking minor 1:12 into a Donovan hooking penalty. Longish Manchester five-on-three. Big save on Brandon Kozun late in that two-man advantage.

–DiPietro has one other high-sticking minor as a Sound Tiger. Dec. 16, 2001, vs. the Saint John Flames. I knew you were wondering. The penalties are over, and one begins now to Manchester’s Tanner Pearson.

–Andrew Campbell puts it in from the neutral zone on the penalty kill, but it’s offside. Remains scoreless. Missed it live, but I guess it was a DiPietro clear that was picked off.

–After Jones stones Niederreiter at least once, Nelson called for interference on Andrew Campbell. It’ll be another four-on-four.

–Jones denies Backman at one end. Stewart scores at the other end off a Yellow Horn pass to the back door. 1-0 Monarchs on the power play.

–Five minors in seven minutes as Andrew Campbell goes for holding at 12:28. Power plays 6-4 Manchester.

–Best chances on that one sounded like Vey on a wraparound and O’Neill on a breakaway.

–That’s it for two: DiPietro stops 13 of 14 that period, 19 of 20 overall; Jones perfect on 11 in the period and 18 in all.

–Kolomatis, returning to the lineup from injury, scores on a blast through traffic from outside the left circle to make it 2-0 early in the third.

–A big tilt between Deslauriers and DeFazio not long after. Sounded as if the fourth line got a shift intact, or at least close, before that, with Huxley and Hill out there.

–Jordan Hill puts one in to make it 2-1 just before the midpoint of the third, scrambling for a rebound of a Niederreiter shot.

–Chances in all directions, but Halmo finally winds up putting it in to tie it with 5:01 to go. Ken notes that of Halmo’s five goals, three have come against the Monarchs.

–Jackson called for tripping Weal with 1:54 to go.

–Like that, off the draw, off a blocked shot, Deslauriers steps up and blasts one up high to make it 3-2 Manchester with 1:46 to go.

Manchester 3, Bridgeport 2, final. The goalies, it sounded, both played pretty well. By the way, the box score has Jackson for kneeing.

–Albany beats Rochester, so the Sound Tigers are still 13th, six points behind both seventh and eighth place with 17 to play.

–“It looked like the boys were going to take care of the game. The men decided to get involved.” –Scott Pellerin. He thought the first period wasn’t bad, up-and-down. The second, there was a stretch he really didn’t like: “I thought we had some problems. We turned pucks over. We got outworked for a while.” But he liked the way they answered the bell in the third. They came back to tie it. There were a few shifts along the way, he said, where he thought the Sound Tigers had earned a power play, and later on the same shift they wound up short-handed.

First time I’d talked to him since the Combs trade: “We were just looking into the future, where he was going to fit into the lineup, ice time, and we just thought it would probably be the best fit for him. We were able to accomodate him and trade him there.” Hill stepped in and did fine in limited action. Asked if there were any moves planned; as it stands, no.

At close of business tonight, the seventh- and eighth-place teams in the Eastern Conference have 65 points, the ninth- and 10th-place teams have 64, and the 11th- and 12th-place teams have 63. And then there’s Bridgeport with 59. The Sound Tigers have at least one game in hand on everyone except Worcester and Albany. But sand keeps falling.

Michael Fornabaio