Missing Binghamton: Friday liveblog

Missed the news earlier? Kirill Kabanov plays for MoDo now. Now back to tonight’s regularly scheduled liveblog.

Five years ago tonight, I missed a Bridgeport game in Binghamton for the first time. Fritz-Yablonski happened. One Leni DiCostanzo backed up. It was the 300th win in team history.

Still haven’t been back. Miss that ol’ barn.

(Sigh.)

We’ll be listening to Grady Whittenburg (audio / video). We’ll be following the assembled Press and Sun-Bulletin posse, Joy Lindsay, Grady, the Senators and of course Corey.

The box will be here. Fascinating note from the preliminary official assignments: Bridgeport has three two-referee games this weekend using only three referees. (Chris Brown/Kaval Sunday in Bridgeport.)

Elsewhere: Springfield released former Yalie Broc Little yesterday; he signed a PTO with Iowa today. Tim Leone links to this on Edmonton buying the Bakersfield Condors; most of the story is about Bako’s promotional acumen, but if you’ve ever had that “West Coast division of the AHL” story in the back of your head, one wonders if and where those two stories may intersect. Speaking of Edmonton, Jack Combs to OKC as part of a four man, two-league trade.

RIP, Russell Johnson, the professor.

We’ve got a pretty good idea of what both teams will look like (Grady tweeted Binghamton earlier), but we’ll wait till closer to gametime to toss them up.

Eventual prescout. Bridgeport should beat tomorrow’s home team home.

–Reiter vs. Hammond.

BRIDGEPORT from Corey:
F: Lee-Strome-Halmo
Persson-Quine-Bouchard
Diamond-Langkow-Vaughan
Gallant (A)-Lowry-Bruton (C)
D: Ness (A)-Mayfield
Jackson-Keenan
Cantin-Cornell
G: Reiter
Milner

BINGHAMTON from Grady at the skate
F: Hoffman-DaCosta-Schneider
Prince-Pageau-Petersson
Puempel-Grant-O’Brien
Cowick-Hamilton-Robinson
D: Borowiecki-New
Sdao-Claesson
Eckford-Wideman
G: Hammond
Greenham

R: Chmielewski, Kaval. L: Harper, Ritter.

–There is a game. The Strome line starts.

–Grady mentions the 2003 playoff series between these two teams. What a series that was. First two games were just awesome.

–An early Bridgeport power play as Jackson gets held and spun around, but the puck bounces away from Bouchard for a Binghamton two-on-one. Reiter makes a save as the puck comes across to Pageau, but Lee slashes his stick out afterward. What’s that, the sixth time in four games or something like that? 1:49 of four-on-four.

–As all that ends, Borowiecki goes for a cross-check, and Lee scores a power-play goal at 7:26. Halmo and Strome assist, so that’s a 10-game scoring streak, technically, for Strome.

–Grady calls curling boring as they try to fix a problem with the ice in the circle to Hammond’s left. MUTED. (I kid, but c’mon, man!)

–Yipes; they’ve gotta bring a hose out to get after this spot, near the Zamboni gate.

–Binghamton ties it at 14:34. Petersson steps up in the slot and rifles it blocker-side on Reiter. A couple of clears that didn’t work for Bridgeport, and one that only got to the red line.

–It’s 1-1 after one, but Ness gets what seems to be a somewhat controversial delay-of-game minor with about 10 seconds left, so it’ll be a long power play with (theoretically, because that’s the end they worked on) good ice to start the second for Binghamton.

–Hoffman scores 1:16 into the second from the top of the right circle, maybe a bit of a screen in front and sounded like it caught iron, too. 2-1 Binghamton.

–Grady keeps talking about how Bridgeport has only four road wins. Fact is, on percentage, Bridgeport’s only 25th at home, too. (Grady also said Bridgeport was “going down to Chocolatetown” later tonight, and now I’m sitting here singing that to the chorus of Springsteen’s “Lucky Town.” This is not good.)

–Bridgeport survives a penalty kill, but Binghamton keeps it deep awhile, regroup after the clear, get it to Petersson on the right side. Petersson drags it in the right circle, uses Cantin as a screen and snaps it high-glove to make it 3-1, midway.

–The top PP kept it deep for the full two minutes but couldn’t score on a Hamilton high-sticking minor. Fredrik Claesson had a big block on Lee in front. That kid’s stat line caught my eye yesterday. He has 19 points now and is plus-24 after assisting on Petersson’s first goal; he has no points on the power play. Been a pretty good player for them.

–Claesson turns the puck over. Never mind. Heh heh.

–Bridgeport gets one back; Strome takes it up the right side, slows it down, feeds Halmo in the slot for a shot low-blocker to make it 3-2 with 1:52 to … 4-2. Schneider, as DaCosta coming back into the zone off a regroup pokes it past a defenseman to make it a 2-on-1. Just 27 seconds separate the goals.

–So ends the second period. Shots Bridgeport by one, but that period were Binghamton by two.

–Looks like Parker Milner in net for the third for Bridgeport.

–Milner makes a save early on a three-on-two re-entry after a turnover. Binghamton regroups nicely. Of course Bridgeport’s not exactly getting it 200 feet.

–Milner made a ridiculous save on a Binghamton power play, but out of a scramble, Puempel scores to make it 5-2, and Mayfield goes for a penalty at the same time. Three assists to Da Costa, and now there’s a hooking call coming, so it’ll be a 76-second five-on-three.

–The penalties roll on, but Bridgeport survives them. In order this period: Keenan hold, Mayfield hold, Cornell slash, Lee trip. There’s about 11 minutes to go.

–Gallant gets a bout with Mike Sdao and gets an extra roughing penalty. Binghamton’s eighth power play.

–Binghamton tacks on with 2:48 to go. It’s called Hoffman from the right side, a backhander that apparently banks off a defender with Cole Schneider going to the net. Either way, 6-2, and Da Costa has four assists.

Binghamton 6, Bridgeport 2, final. Binghamton gets two on the power play and basically another that comes from the power play.

Quite the box between Hartford and Adirondack. Rule 21.1 is the straight-up match-penalty intent-to-injure rule. Well then. (Curiously, that seems not to be the way they were assessed at the time, but… Anyway.) Edit: Now the fighting major’s taken away with a match under the fighting rule in its place. That makes more sense.

–Not good enough, basically. Mistakes were costly. They knew the Sens were quick, could pull that on them on the regroup. There were times, especially in the second, where Bridgeport needed to take care of the puck better. “They overwhelmed us at times,” Pellerin said. “They were able to get a couple on the rush.”

He’s seeing the same mistakes on the penalty kill, from the same guys. “It’s Game 40,” he said. “That’s the frustrating part for me, that we’re not seeing progress from certain guys in certain areas.”

Changing goalies: “just trying to change the momentum,” he said. “Parker came in in a tough spot, a five-on-three, a number of penalties. He made some fantastic saves.”

On Kabanov: “For Kabby, it’s a change of scenery, a fresh start. It’s an opportunity to continue to develop his 200-foot game, to make plays, to continue his development with regards to using his speed and his size, to playing with confidence. I think there were times he tried to do too much, where the play kind of died on his stick. It’s an area he can continue to develop. … He’ll be playing on a very good team. It’ll continue to challenge his game.”

On to Hershey. The Bears lost 3-2 tonight. More then.

Michael Fornabaio