When Ben Thomson was penalized for roughing up Colin McDonald — who’d neatly rope-a-doped Darcy Zajac three minutes earlier, making Bridgeport 6-for-6, seriously, SIX-FOR-SIX, on the power play — and Kael Mouillierat stepped in to cut him off, I thought, well-played, kid. Even this thing up. Playing with fire here.
Mouillierat didn’t get a penalty. It was power play No. 7. Even after it became a 41-second five-on-three, Bridgeport didn’t score. The power play finished 6-for-8. Ah well.
Frankly, 6-for-6 to start is crazy enough. Particularly since Bridgeport gave Albany enough chances to go on a little run of its own in the second period, but the Sound Tigers killed four out of five in the second while scoring three goals of their own.
And Kevin Poulin is in that ho-hum, “129 saves on 134 shots the past five games” zone.
“The guys played great in front of me. They took rebounds away. They were blocking shots,” Poulin said.
“Even the penalty kill, this was a special-teams game tonight.”
At 4-for-4, it started looking special. At 5-for-5, tying the team record for power-play goals in a game (last achieved here, with a link in there to the first time), it was looking even more remarkable. And then 6-for-6.
Really.
………
But seriously, you can’t be giving Albany eight power-play chances, either, even if your penalty kill has been that good. “We’ve got to move our feet,” Brent Thompson said.
Chuck Scott and I asked a few people if they’d seen six power-play goals in a game. We asked the wrong guy: Colton Gillies scored one of the two even-strength goals for Houston in an 8-1 win over Rockford on March 2, 2011, when the Aeros went 6-for-12 on the power play. That, via the league, was the last time an AHL team scored six in a game before tonight.
(Also playing for Houston that night: ex-Tigers Jamie Fraser and Pascal Morency. Coincidentally, via Mike Flannery, Morency appears set to retire due to the effects of head injuries.)
Alan Quine had three points (six-game scoring streak) and drew two penalties in the first period. “With the way I play, I have to move my feet, use my speed,” Quine said. “Any time I can get in on the forecheck and draw a penalty, it’s a chance for the power play to get out there and score. That’s part of my game.”
Griffin Reinhart left the game during Bridgeport’s third power play. Brent Thompson said he hadn’t received the full report but thought it was more of a day-to-day thing.
Dumb coincidences: Bridgeport’s first five-power-play-goal game was its first game under Nygel Pelletier’s watch, and now its first six-power-play-goal game is its first under Jake Brenk’s watch. Discovered during the game that the other five-PPG game was its last regular-season game under Francois St. Laurent (he worked a playoff game that spring, the only one in this building).
New Jersey sent Mike Sislo back to Albany on Saturday, so he’s a possibility for tomorrow.
With Hartford’s loss to Hershey — four in the third for the Bears — Bridgeport is a tiebreaker off the Eastern Conference lead. For what that’s worth on the morning of Nov. 9. In the midst of a five-way points tie.
And Shayne Gostisbehere, who we got to know watching Union seemingly every year in the NCAA tournament, tore his ACL Friday night and will have surgery. Rough break for an exciting prospect.