Hit Wonderland for the morning skate (early-morning, because of ice-availability issues), then rather than drive home through the third period, stuck around to watch in the lobby with a bunch of parents. And then I got to do something I’ve always wanted to do: At the overtime buzzer, rather than watch a shootout, I stood up and walked out.
(Look, the game was on the radio. I had it on on the drive home. I’m anti-bonus-round, not anti-American.)
After that fun morning, the weather took some turns from there, so sitting in the living room tonight to listen to Phil (audio and video at AHL Live) and follow along with him, Corey, Mike Kelly and Springfield. (The team has made it without reported incident.)
The lineup looked similar to Sunday‘s; a decision on defense, but it looked like Jake Newton is in to make his Bridgeport debut (and become player No. 43 this year). Springfield won’t have Darryl Boyce, suspended two games by the league for a high-sticking match penalty last night. The box will be here.
Joe Finley joined them in red no-contact. He was rushing out, so we’ll talk more during the week, but he said he felt great. He’d been doing some work at home, but getting back with the team (even after getting to Milford at 1 a.m. for a 6 a.m. wakeup call) and actually doing some hockey drills with them was something more. No timetable yet; “if it was up to me, it’d be yesterday.” A similar type of issue to the one he had four years ago, but he said a different type of surgery that, doctors told him, should solve the problem for good.
Interesting prescout note: Scott Wedgewood starts for Albany for the second day in a row. If they decide not to go three-in-three with him, that could mean Johan Hedberg tomorrow in Bridgeport. We’ll see. (Free kids’ ticket coupon with purchase, if you’re so inclined/equipped.)
Heard from Kevin Oklobzija on Twitter this morning that Julie Chu left practice early. Hopefully she can go Monday in the semifinals against Sweden, which upset Finland and apparently got Noora Raty to use the ‘R’ word. That’s a very interesting missive she posted.
More in a bit.
—Pete Dougherty notes that Albany’s last win against a team other than Bridgeport was Jan. 18. That’s coincidentally the last time Bridgeport lost to a team other than Albany (at Hershey). Funky.
–Nilsson vs. Jeremy Smith.
BRIDGEPORT from Corey
F: Lee-Strome-Halmo
Diamond-Sundstrom (A)-Pistilli
A. Clark-Quine-Persson
Gallant (A)-Langkow-Vaughan
D: Donovan-Cornell
Ness (A)-Mayfield
Jackson-Newton
Keenan-apparent scratch
G: Nilsson
Reiter
R: Hanson. L: Galvin, Simeon.
–With Gallant off for a high stick on Goloubef, Erixon scores from the center point at 3:31. Bridgeport gets a power play right off the draw, though.
–A quick answer at 4:29 as Donovan snaps one through traffic from the center point to tie it. Halmo was in front, Phil notes. That puts Donovan 10th alone in all-time team scoring with 114 points.
–Two more power plays; Bridgeport doesn’t capitalize on a 49-second five-on-three, but Donovan scores soon after to make it 2-1. He’s one point behind Ben Walter, who’s ninth all-time in team history.
–Albany finished off Adirondack 4-1.
–Phil notes that, about 12 minutes in, Springfield has just put its second shot on Anders Nilsson.
–Johan Sundstrom converts a neutral-zone turnover with a slapper above the right circle to make it 3-1 at 12:17. Smith is pulled for Mike McKenna; Phil says Smith fires his gloves down the tunnel.
–Phil beat me to it: Sundstrom’s first goal since Nov. 24, 11 games without (interrupted by about two months).
–Bridgeport leads 3-1 after one, outshooting the Falcons 11-5. Appears to be Donovan’s third two-goal game. (No Bridgeport defenseman has ever scored three.)
| Place | Name | Years | GP | G | A | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Trent Hunter | 2001-03 | 150 | 60 | 76 | 136 |
| 8 | Justin Mapletoft | 2001-05 | 240 | 47 | 83 | 130 |
| 9 | Ben Walter | 2007-09 | 133 | 40 | 76 | 116 |
| 10 | Matt Donovan | 2010-14 | 173 | 31 | 84 | 115 |
| 11 | Rhett Rakhshani | 2009-12 | 120 | 44 | 69 | 113 |
| 12 | Jesse Joensuu | 2007-11 | 177 | 42 | 69 | 111 |
| 13 | Mark Wotton | 2006-11 | 368 | 22 | 88 | 110 |
–The Falcons get one back at four-on-four at 3:37 of the second. Joudrey carries in, circles the net, feeds Goloubef for a point shot and deflects it in with Cody Bass in Nilsson’s face. 3-2 Bridgeport.
–Jake Newton gets one at 7:05. His right-point shot hits a Falcon, skips a time or two and bounces off McKenna and just over the line. It’s 4-2 Bridgeport at 7:05.
–Hanson blows off an obvious Donovan trip. When Donovan’s stick is slashed out of his hand, Phil notes he asks Hanson for a call but sure isn’t getting one after the trip went unpenalized. Diamond goes for roughing out of a scrum a minute or two later. Lee stopped early on a short-handed break.
–Bridgeport leads 4-2 after two. Neglected to mention a Cornell fight with Paul Thompson earlier. Shots are… 22-9 Bridgeport. Well then.
–Sundstrom somehow winds up in a fight with Paul Thompson. Doesn’t even get both gloves off, but gets the takedown.
–(Given Twitter, I’m about three minutes behind somehow, because the tweets say Ryan Strome has scored on a penalty shot to make it 5-2, while on my feed he’s just gone in the box to serve a too-many-men minor at the same time as that fight.)
–Goloubef wrapped his arms around Strome to set up that penalty shot. Will have to double-check: last penalty-shot goal for Bridgeport I have is Nino Niederreiter in his conditioning stint, Nov. 13, 2011, at Hershey.
–In fact I’ve only got two penalty shots since that Niederreiter shot, Scott Howes and Niederreiter again, the latter Oct. 20, 2012. Been a while.
–Yep. Opponents had eight penalty shots since the last one for Bridgeport. Phil notes the restless crowd, somehow on their team instead of the officials, gives the Falcons a Bronx cheer for their first shot at 6:52; 10 seconds later, Goloubef goes for a slash on Scooter Vaughan.
–I’m like five minutes behind. This game may be over and they’re on the bus. Anyway. Box says there’s a trade of penalties to come, a Persson hold, then a Paul Thompson goalie-interference minor right off the draw. You’ve got to move pretty quickly to get that done.
–Ah. I perhaps misread the box: 63 seconds into the minor, not three. That’s a little different.
–Yeesh: Binghamton’s beating Worcester 8-0.
–Twitter says it’s over, and if you can’t believe Twitter, what can you believe? Bridgeport 5, Springfield 2, final, the Sound Tigers’ seventh win in a row against AHL Teams Not From Albany.
Three wins in a row against Springfield for the first time in almost two years. First time with two in a row at Springfield since they won three in a row there in 2009-10. (After that winning streak and before this one, they were 2-10-1-3 at Springfield with one of those wins in a shootout.)
–Here’s that Binghamton box. Eight goals; only three skaters without a point. (Was kind of hoping Andrew Hammond snuck in an assist.) Harri Sateri played the whole game for Worcester. Chris Wideman plus-5; that’s a lot of celebrating.
–“I thought our guys were engaged in the right times,” Pellerin said. “The forecheck, the way we kind of connected in all zones, whether we were cycling and protecting in the offensive zone, backchecking and response: It was right on. The breakout speed was there. The guys played probably their best complete game they’ve played.” And they did it after giving up the first (they didn’t allow another shot for eight or nine minutes, either): “We made maybe one mistake, Halmo tried to make a play and we just couldn’t recover from it, and they scored. But we were able to bounce back. You could feel the confidence in our guys was going to grow and grow.”
Pellerin was giving lots of credit to the team and to the staff, including assistant Doug Holewa, who was out after getting sick this afternoon.
Asked about Newton, beyond the goal: “I thought the beginning of the game he was feeling his way around. The pace, the speed was a bigger adjustment. He settled in later on. It’s those little 10-foot plays. We’re not trying for big ‘wow’ plays. Those consistent little plays on the breakout, transition plays. He settled in. He had a good defensive game, No. 1.”
Nilsson wasn’t tested a lot, 17 shots credited on net, but Pellerin said he made some big saves. Pellerin said the Joudrey goal “could have maybe been goaltender interference; Bass was in the crease, the D was trying to get him out, and (Nilsson) couldn’t react,” and there were other times he took some bumps.
–RIP, John Henson.
OK, one more day of prelims at the Olympics, then we get down to business. (And another early day.) Bridgeport vs. Albany at 3. More tomorrow.