Missing points

They had some breaks go against them.

Dec. 11 in Portland. Brock Nelson gets called for a high-sticking penalty when apparently the puck did the damage. Bridgeport loses in overtime.

Four nights later after the long trip to Norfolk. Colin McDonald’s deflection would’ve made it 3-1, but it’s disallowed for a high stick; Bridgeport thinks it’s borderline, but it’s waved. Norfolk wins in a shootout.

Feb. 15 in Providence. The next night is the night Svedberg pushes off the right post in more ways than one before Sean Backman scores, with the unopposed faceoff as Bridgeport plays the delay game with Kenny Reiter. But this night is the night a bunch of odd penalties completely disrupt Bridgeport’s night, when Providence scores a key goal with a player draped over Poulin.

March 15 at Manchester, Dallas Jackson called for kneeing Jordan Weal with under two minutes left, the Monarchs score in eight seconds, and Scott Pellerin says “the men decided to get involved.”

April 6. Hartford. 3-2 in the third. Johan Sundstrom shoots. John Persson drives to the net. Puck goes in. Chris Ciamaga penalizes Persson. It’s a 3-2 final.

And Friday. Brandon DeFazio’s at the top of the crease. Goal disallowed. That’s about it.

But they’ve had nights to make their own breaks.

Nov. 4, one of the Hurricane Sandy crowds in the house a night after that awesome Hershey game, and Kevin Poulin has one of his worst nights against Wilkes-Barre.

Nov. 23 against Hartford, blowing 3-2 and 5-3 leads.

Dec. 5 at Hartford, two rough turnovers to J.T. Miller.

Jan. 11 at Providence, completely botching the first two periods to trail 5-0 with a full lineup against the Bruins’ post-lockout crew, before scoring four in the third to make it a game.

March 1 at Hartford, Rick DiPietro’s season debut, when he’s completely hung out to dry in the first period.

March 28 at Springfield, taking a 4-2 lead in the first period and blowing it.

March 30 at a done Adirondack team, trailing 97 seconds in.

April 9 against a done Worcester team, falling behind, losing 3-0.

Maybe they’ve taken some knocks. But they’ve knocked themselves a time or two as well.

….

Anders Nilsson makes his first appearance since a start in Norfolk on Jan. 26. Nathan McIver’s run at the penalty-minute record waits. A couple of forward tweaks, including a 42-4-20 reunion. Bridgeport has one to scratch, but it looked like Keenan as Cantin gets his first AHL action in a while.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Persson-Nelson-Sundstrom
Niederreiter-Strome-Kabanov
DeFazio-Campbell-Riley (A)
Clark-Wetmore-Backman
D: Donovan (A)-Landry (A)
Ness-Mayfield
Pedan-Cantin
(Keenan-scratch)
G: Nilsson
Reiter

PROVIDENCE
F: Lindblad-Camper (A)-Knight
Caron (A)-Khokhlachev-Mink
MacKinnon (A)-Fallstrom-Hirschfeld
Florek-Flick-Randell
D: Button-Cohen
Cross-Trotman
Warsofsky-Casto
G: Hutchinson
Morrison

R: McIsaac, Ciamaga. L: Simeon, Wahl.

One (well, maybe two) last plug: Fake Team Awards. Vote!

Michael Fornabaio