Without Pulock: Hershey liveblog

No roadie for us, but an extra one for Ryan Pulock, called up this afternoon to make seven defensemen with Travis Hamonic on injured reserve.

We’ll hang out here and listen to a game with a suddenly thinned-out Bridgeport defense corps — these things change in a day, don’t they? good thing for versatility — with Scott Stuccio (audio/pay-per-view). We’ll obviously be following Paul and Tim Leone.

The box will be here if the numbers flow as they should, and this would then be Lehigh Valley against Wilkes-Barre.

Good news that hit last night: Scott Pellerin has joined the Maple Leafs in player development.

And Mike Keenan signed a PTO with Albany.

Reminder: Joel Rechlicz is in Iowa.

Sebastian Collberg’s ECHL debut came in a heartbreaker against Alaska: The Aces scored in the last minute of the second, the last minute of regulation and the last minute of overtime to win 4-3. Collberg had two shots and was minus-1, on for that second-period goal. Justin Johnson with a tilt against Garet Hunt off the draw.

Enjoyed this clip via Justin Bourne of Brian Boyle, miked up in Tampa last night.

And in that bummed-but-thankful place upon reading that Hopkins football coach and athletic director Tom Parr is retiring. One of the people that made my alma mater a great place to be.

More closer to gametime.

Expected HERSHEY from Scott:
F: Conner-Kennedy-Brown
Cornet-Wellman-Gazley
Walker-Stephenson-Galiev
Byers-Broda-Mitchell
D: Schilling-Oleksy
Landry-Kundratek
Carrick-Burgdoerfer
G: Grubauer
Copley

R: T.Koharski, D.Banfield. L: George, Pomento.

Word from down there is David Leggio gets the start for Bridgeport. Not odd in that it’s his old stomping grounds, and why not let him go at them. Interesting in that it’s the first time Kevin Poulin hasn’t started a weekend or a back-to-back for the Sound Tigers this year.

–Scott says Jesse Graham and Brett Gallant are scratched. That likely means Scooter Vaughan on defense, though we haven’t seen lines or pairs yet.

And no sooner do I say that:

BRIDGEPORT from Paul:
F: Bast-Mouillierat-McDonald (A)
Halmo-Stretch-Zolnierczyk (A)
Gillies-Sundstrom-Courtnall
Persson-Quine-Langkow
D: Ness (C)-Vaughan
Pelech-Mayfield
Czuczman-Nemec
G: Leggio
Poulin

Leggio gets a nice hand when he’s introduced as the starter.

–Bridgeport had a couple of good shifts, but the Bears pen the Bridgeport fourth line in for a long shift, and Stan Galiev puts a rebound over Leggio for a 1-0 lead just shy of four minutes in.

–Bast draws a hooking penalty from Byers, and Vaughan, playing the right point, blasts one through Halmo’s screen to tie it at 1 with about four and a half minutes left in the first period. (Ryan who?)

–Had figured Vaughan might take Pulock’s spot on the first PP unit, but instead he’s in Griffin Reinhart’s with Pelech and the Stretch line. Kevin Czuczman’s in Pulock’s.

–A 1-1 game after one, but a Pelech kneeing penalty in the closing seconds will put the Bears on a power play to start the second. A pretty good period for Bridgeport except for a couple of shifts.

–Looks like Vaughan is PKing as a forward, FWIW. Think he only did one shift of that on Sunday.

–Quine puts one out to Persson, open in the slot, and Grubauer makes the save and finds the rebound before Langkow does. A good shift for that line and the Pelech/Mayfield pair, kind of the inverse of the shift on which they allowed the first goal.

–Bridgeport kills a too-many-men penalty midway through the period.

–Ness interferes with Conner coming out of a battle in the corner. Conner puts a pass almost through the top of the crease to set up Galiev for a one-timer and the go-ahead power-play goal late in the second.

–Puck knocked out of play at the buzzer, so not only does Bridgeport trail 2-1 after two, but it’ll be killing a delay-of-game minor to start the third.

–Meanwhile up in Syracuse, Hartford trailed 5-0 but has cut it to 5-3 after two.

–Good, clean kill to start the third.

–Colin McDonald misses at one end; the Bears go three-on-two the other way, and Joel Broda scores on a backhander to make it 3-1.

–Then Johan Sundstrom can’t pick up the rebound after a save, and Chris Brown makes it 4-1. Time out, Bridgeport.

–Back and forth: Halmo scores on a power play to make it 4-2 Bears with 15 minutes left.

–Zolnierczyk takes a hit behind the play; no call. A scrum at the end of the play. Zolnierczyk gets hit for unsportsmanlike conduct for talking about it from the bench. Again, Terry Koharski and Dave Banfield.

–It all stays five-on-five, and then Pelech draws a call. On the delayed penalty, McDonald scores from up high in the zone to make it 4-3 with about 11 minutes left.

–Byers and another Bear are knocked down on a power play — the second especially was probably a Mayfield cross-check — but no call. As Mark Nemec turns up-ice after the penalty kill, Byers nails him cleanly, a heck of a hit. About seven minutes to go.

–Hershey clears, Mayfield knocks it down, Kennedy picks it up, carries in and feeds Brown for a one-timer in the slot with just under two minutes left. It’s 5-3 Hershey.

–Bridgeport will kill Hershey’s seventh power play soon after on a Ness penalty… Well, no they won’t. Conner scores with 1:12 left; 6-3.

Hershey 6, Bridgeport 3, final. The game turned in about six minutes, spread between the second and third, beginning with the Ness penalty and subsequent power-play goal. Tim Kennedy had four assists. Galiev and Conner had three points apiece. And Bridgeport’s seventh loss in eight games.

–Attendance 10,941, seventh-biggest crowd ever to see a Sound Tigers game.

–Penalties revised in that scrum after the hit on Zolnierczyk: Kennedy’s minor had been listed as roughing, but it’s now listed as a check to the head.

–Penalties also a factor, obviously. Even counting the delayed penalty Pelech drew that turned into McDonald’s goal, Hershey had six of the last eight power plays, and it’d have been 7-4 in all in Hershey’s favor.

–That Phantoms game ended 5-1 Penguins; Terry Murray was not happy. And Hartford cut it to 5-4, then 6-5, but that was the final in Syracuse’s favor.

–Told Brent Thompson I thought they played a pretty good two periods. He went me one further, thought they were good most of the game; breakdowns and mistakes were costly. “The guys really competed hard,” he said. “It just didn’t, for whatever reason, just didn’t click.” Discipline’s a factor, sure, but he liked the penalty kill.

At 4-1, he called the time out: “Just the response, the body language is why I called the time out. I said let’s get after them. We can beat them. The guys responded,” he said. “We just fell short at the end.”

He wasn’t sure about Jesse Graham for tomorrow; they’ll see how he is, but “we’ve got seven including him” and, now, including Scooter Vaughan, apparently, so he said bringing in another defenseman hadn’t crossed his mind.

Bast and Nemec: “They stepped in and did a very good job,” Thompson said. “Bast played a safe game, safe minutes. He showed dynamic speed, playmaking ability. Nemec, I didn’t really notice him much, which is usually a good sign. I thought he had a solid defensive game, reliable. He gave us reliable minutes.”

They’re in Allentown tomorrow night. Liveblog here again then.

Michael Fornabaio