Great American Liveblog: Hershey from afar

No Hershey trip for us this year. We’ll be listening to Scott Stuccio (audio / video). We’ll be following Tim Leone, Scott and of course Corey.

The box will be here. Hartford has the night off. And while we’re on Hartford and box scores, that Petr Straka match penalty from last night changed again today, back to a straight-up, Rule 21.1 match penalty; no “fighting” to be seen. Straka got two games from the league this afternoon. (Tape on his hands, maybe? Shouldn’t speculate, should I?)

More closer to gametime.

–Onetime Sound Tiger Riley Gill in net for the Bears, Scott says.

–Phil says he’ll be back to call tomorrow’s home game. BABY BETTER BE WITH HIM. (No, not really.)

–Reiter for Bridgeport, says Tim.

–Riley Wetmore plays for the first time since before Christmas, and Andrew Clark also draws back in. The tweaked defense pairs appear to be reverse-tweaked. Alan Quine and Scooter Vaughan are the apparent scratches.

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

HERSHEY from Tim
F: Deschamps-Stoa-Segal
Taffe-Latta-Gazley
Potulny-LeBlanc-Wellman
Byers-Watkins-Rechlicz/(Brittain-apparent scratch)
D: Schilling-Strachan
Wellar-Genoway
Schmidt-Wey
G: Gill
Leggio

R: Chmielewski, C.Brown. L: S.Adams, Ritter.

–The goalies trade some good stops in the first five minutes, Reiter on Stoa streaking up the middle, Gill on Anders Lee off a Strome pass and Wetmore on a wraparound.

–Stoa scores off a turnover 7:22 in; 1-0 Hershey.

–Bridgeport kills off a Strome penalty (behind the play; I’ll just assume he knocked somebody’s stick out, ’cause it’s epidemic). His line has a good shift, followed up by another by Clark’s line. Wetmore — welcome back — puts in the rebound of a Clark shot to tie it up at 15:08.

–Halmo and Byers go after Byers hits Ness hard twice. Then Latta vs. Bruton as Rechlicz gets called for a slash; Bruton gets an extra slashing penalty, too, so it evens out. The period ends 1-1.

–Genoway’s hurt during a Keenan tripping penalty as Halmo takes him down (first called a tackle, then a hook); apparently Genoway’s head hits Lee’s skate on the way down. Bridgeport gets through the penalty.

–Bouchard, don’t think long off the bench on a change for Lee, scores on a wrister from the right circle with 6:10 to go in the second to make it 2-1 Bridgeport. Strome, pretty sure, on the ice but not in on the scoring. But Hershey comes back quickly and scores on a scramble 45 seconds later. Taffe snaps the loose puck upstairs; 2-2.

–Aaron Ness called for interference — too late, apparently, on a hip check — and Taffe sets up Segal for a right-circle one-timer on the power play to make it 3-2 Hershey.

–Mike Keenan scores from the top of the left circle with under 10 seconds left in the period. They say it’s one Gill should’ve had. Ties it up at 3 after two periods. Strome’s 10-game scoring streak is on the line in the third.

–A: 10,469. Hershey kills a Stoa holding minor; still tied midway third.

–Gill down to stop Langkow driving to the net, stacks the pads to stop Keenan from the top of the left circle. He stops Diamond on the next shift.

–Jeez — Wetmore, back after missing almost a month taking a puck to the head, takes a puck to the face. Hopefully OK.

–Deschamps almost breaks past Cantin in the left circle; Cantin takes him down with 4:24 to go, Hershey’s fourth power play (1-for-3).

–Segal backhands in the rebound of a Schmidt point shot to take a 4-3 lead with just under three minutes to go.

–Hershey icing with 1:01 to go; time out, Bridgeport.

–Cameron Schilling blocks a shot, carries out and puts it into the empty net to finish it: Hershey 5, Bridgeport 3, final. Strome’s scoring streak ends at 10.

–Familiar story: Mistakes costly, couple of power-play goals. “We had some opportunities. The guys came to play tonight,” Pellerin said. “We had some extended time in the offensive zone. Their goalie made some big saves. All of a sudden, one turnover, it’s in our net, we’re on our heels. We were able to get a quick goal, and it was a good game. We had some other chances. … One miscue on our penalty kill, something we worked on this week for that specific reason, guys didn’t execute the structure we need to have success.”

Vaughan was just the odd man out with Wetmore coming back, but Pellerin said about Quine, “I just don’t think he’s been playing at the level we need him to play. He’s had a number of chances to elevate his game, playing with some quality players, but he has to defend.”

They’re going to send tape of the Byers first-period hit on Ness to the league. “We thought he launched himself into our player; total disregard,” Pellerin said. “Good thing Nesser’s a tough kid; he’s OK.” They’re also going to send what they saw as a slew foot that Halmo took from Stoa.

So back they come to face a rested Hartford team. More tomorrow afternoon.

Michael Fornabaio