Haven’t heard from anyone Bridgeport-related about their trip yet, but the Monarchs appear to have needed about seven hours to get home from Glens Falls. Lovely.
We’ll have Ken Cail up (radio popup available off their site, or video) and follow Corey and your Manchester MONNNNNNarchs. (I miss that trip.)
Teddy Bear Toss day in ManchVegas.
The box will be here. I hadn’t checked it in a few days, but there’s a linesman change from the original assignments; not sure if that’s weather-related or not. (Those assignments are generally preliminary until the few days before.) Regardless, Double Whittemores!
If you missed them late last night, a few postgame stats and nostalgic links.
More in a bit.
–RIP, Peter O’Toole.
–A sad and depressing story from Grantland about two dead football fans in Buffalo and the culture that may have helped get them there. (Language warning.)
–Anders Nilsson again, Corey tweets.
–No Sundstrom, apparently. Don’t know why. Can think of an assortment of possibilities, but no word.
Per Corey:
F: Lee-Wetmore-Halmo
Bouchard-Quine-Kabanov
Wiles-Langkow-Bruton (C)
Gallant (A)-Lowry-Johnson
D: Donovan (A)-Cornell
Keenan-Mayfield
Jackson-Vaughan
G: Nilsson
Reiter
R: Hersey, T.Koharski. L: T.Whittemore, S.Whittemore.
Brett Gallant gets the ‘A’ in Sundstrom’s absence.
–Justin Johnson takes the ceremonial faceoff in his return to Manchester. Dropping the puck: Santa Claus.
–Doesn’t take Manchester long. The Monarchs came out two-on-one and kept it in awhile. Nilsson was out to play a Bodnarchuk shot, Pearson drew him out further, came around the net, threw it into the crease and got the bounce off Nilsson to make it 1-0 at 2:29.
–Not a lot of zone time; not a lot of pucks to the net in the first 10 minutes. Sound Tigers don’t have an official shot on Berube.
–Though they put together a couple of shifts in a row with a halfway decent cycle for a time as I type that.
–Kabanov, battling Schultz in the slot in front of the Monarchs net off a draw (Berube had stopped Vaughan, then Kabanov’s rebound), is called for interference. OK. (The camera was off them for a split second, and I suppose that somewhere in that split second there could’ve… never mind.) First penalty at 15:34.
–Meanwhile, while I rebuffer, Manchester gets two penalties and Kabanov gets free. Manchester gets through a brief five-on-three kill and comes out on a rush; Weal beats a man (think it was Jackson) but puts it wide.
–Period ends 1-0 Manchester. Bridgeport carries 42 seconds of power-play time to the second.
–Shots 5-5 online. They were 4-0 Manchester midway through the first.
–Enjoying listening to Ken watching the Patriots game, about 45 seconds delayed from my TV.
–Didn’t catch the unit on the power play in the first period, but Bridgeport starts Bouchard-Lee-Halmo, Donovan-Jackson for the PP to start the second.
–Burt’s point shot blocked, tips up, Pearson tips it down and in: 2-0 Manchester early second.
–Backman and Cornell go for the puck; Backman wins it, and Cornell hits him; Backman flies and lands face-first. It’s called a major on Cornell after Andreoff fights him.
–In fact, a match penalty for a check to the head on Cornell.
–Sabourin cross-checks Keenan in front to negate two of the five minutes, but then Quine is called for interference, best I can tell for a shove-back at Bodnarchuk that knocks him over. Anyway. The major is over, but Quine’s minor rolls on.
–Still 2-0 after two. The teams trade minors in the last five minutes; Manchester actually carries seven seconds of power play to the third. Shots 14-14.
–Wow: Ryan Freel reportedly diagnosed with CTE. Well then.
–Really good shift, overlapping the first couple of changes, for the Sound Tigers results in Sean Wiles’ goal from the right circle 1:42 into the third. Manchester’s lead is cut to 2-1.
–Bridgeport putting pressure on Manchester, forechecking, keeping it in more than it did early in the first two periods.
–A hard hit on Donovan into the endboards is let go, but after Berube makes a big save on Langkow, Andreoff is called for a hold with 5:34 remaining.
–Halmo had a good look but missed the net early in that power play, which has expired. Late regulation.
–Both broadcasters don’t believe Kozun isn’t called for a neutral-zone trip on Halmo. Time out, Bridgeport, with a little over two minutes left.
–Pearson puts his third of the night into an open net with a little over a minute left, 3-1 Manchester.
–So it ends: Manchester 3, Bridgeport 1.
–Not that there’s not personnel here that could do something about this, but without Ryan Strome, Bridgeport is 1-for-17 on the power play in four games, including 0-for-the-last-12, and the one was a five-on-three.
–More in a bit, but Scott Pellerin said Sundstrom woke up sick today.
–After they got to Manchester at about 2:40 a.m., beating the Monarchs by about two hours, Pellerin said his plan was to go with the same lineup as last night, because it’d played well. Then he got word that Sundstrom was sick, so Wiles, the other forward on the trip (they’d let Jon Sim stay home, knowing he wasn’t expected to play), went in. Scored a goal. That was the only one, and it sounded as if Pellerin is asking for more from them. “Like I’m not going to let guys off the hook defensively, I’m not going to let guys off the hook offensively. ‘I’ll get ’em next time’ — you’ve got to have that responsibility,” Pellerin said. There were times they generated chances he liked, but they didn’t bury them. “I’m not asking it, I’m demanding it of those guys,” Pellerin said. “They have to know that’s what’s expected.”
He said they’re making plays on the power play; he likes Bouchard’s ability to find seams. “It’s nothing negative. We’ve got to capitalize on our opportunities,” he said. “Little things, winning puck battles, winning faceoffs, good tape-to-tape passes on the breakout, they all add up to time and territory. The more we execute at that, we’re going to have the territorial advantage.”
He said he hadn’t seen video of the Cornell-Backman hit, but from what he saw live, he thought it was “an unfortunate hockey play. Both players were going for the puck. Backs was leaning forward to get the puck, Cornell came in, there was body contact. Backs got kind of swung around and hit his head on the ice.”
They’re off tomorrow but back at it Tuesday.