Bridgeport vs. Albany: 0-4.
Bridgeport vs. the rest of the league: 9-8-1-3. Um, what?
(That’s 7-9-5 in non-shootout, so it’s not exactly something to write home about, but still.)
The loosest of thoughts on Friday’s game, as I got home late and caught some highlights bleary-eyed…
–Mattias Tedenby appears conditioned.
–Guys left open in front of the net on the penalty kill: usually a problem. Hoeffel was open inside the box on the first goal. Whitney was wide open in front of the net on the last goal. Yep.
–Power-play breakaways are also not helpful. Think Demkov’s power-play penalty-shot goal was the first in a Bridgeport game. Threw me off, statistically: Quine’s minor is counted as two power plays because of the penalty-shot goal.
–Pierre-Marc Bouchard (3,153 days after his last AHL game; thanks, Josh!) had a few scoring chances come to naught. He was the fourth forward on the power play on the five-on-three, working the left point with Donovan. When they scored — Donovan keep-in, back and forth with Halmo — the same foursome stayed out there for the five-on-four. He got knocked down by Sislo, setting up a two-on-one. and McKelvie’s short-handed goal. Josh noted that Bouchard wanted a penalty; looked as if Sislo might have cross-checked him, but even so, it’s two-on-one the other way, and the one is Halmo.
–That’s the eighth short-handed goal against Bridgeport… but the first in over a month.
–How often do you score power-play goals 13 seconds apart without a five-on-three? Albany did: 10:56 of the third on Gallant’s instigator minor; 11:09 on Johnson’s unsportsmanlike-conduct minor after the faceoff win.
–Riley Wetmore was the last scratch. Not sure if his usual partner, Sundstrom, was killing penalties as often. Lots of Lee-Halmo, which is usually the third pairing.
That’s what caught me, anyway. That and Tyler Bailey’s two big defensive plays in the first quarter oops, wrong game.
Been asked twice already Friday if they’d postpone Saturday. Looking at the weather, I don’t think I’d mind. But history suggests they’ll try, and that if the officials and Bruins can get here, they’ll play. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, they took it outside in Rochester tonight… and got a last-second tying goal by Lake Erie.