Sacrificing for a point

Like a lot of the Sound Tigers, right to the end, Chris Bruton was laying out to block a shot.

Hard to believe in a game where 45 shots got through to Kenny Reiter, but Bridgeport blocked a lot of shots tonight.

“It helped us build momentum,” Bruton said. “We played the hard-nosed hockey we need to play. A bunch of guys stepped up.”

The first period was kind of lackluster; it never felt quite like last week against Hartford, but not much was happening for them until the last two minutes of the period.

They fell behind in the second, but they’d picked things up a bit. Then they won the third. And even giving up 16 shots on goal, they were blocking shots through the third.

Reiter wasn’t happy with giving up two goals five-hole or two in the shootout, but he’d made enough saves earlier to make those goals meaningful. They scored a couple on the power play. They’ve got work to do, but it’s a starting point.

….

Bruton played quite a bit on the PK, regularly with Chris Langkow, in his return. Even-strength, he’d played regularly, though Joey Diamond’s secondary-altercation ejection and the penalties didn’t exactly lend themselves to rolling four lines. “I felt great,” Bruton said. “I’ve got to get back to the speed of things, get my timing down, kind of work through the injury.” Marc Cantin played plenty as well, and he kept blocking shots, too.

Scott Pellerin made a point to talk about Bridgeport’s play in front of the net; see the gamer. The rebound sat there awhile on the Bruins’ second goal; they let Lindblad to the net on the third. (Those happened to be the two goals on which Reiter wasn’t happy with himself.)

Prescout. Similar drives to Worcester; Bridgeport may have it a bit shorter, actually. (Trevor Hanson appears to be making the drive, too. Bridgeport will see a bit of him the next little while, if the preliminary assignments stick.)

Tim Jackman to Anaheim. (Apologies for not chasing the link, but if Twitter doesn’t lie to me, he’s got a fight in his Ducks debut tonight.)

Justin Bourne on hybrid icing. Count me, though, among those who like it: At least down here, last year and this, I think linesmen have done a pretty good job with it. It’s avoiding injuries, and there were plenty of “wait what no way” calls when guys were simultaneously touching up. (I wouldn’t mind a rewrite that just flat-out says it’s icing unless the attacking player by the dots clearly-no-doubt-in-the-building will win the race.)

RIP, Michael Weiner.

And if you somehow missed it, 50 years since the assassination of President Kennedy. Jason Chaimovitch tweeted the AHL release from that week and the gaps in the schedule.

Michael Fornabaio