Again otherwise occupied today, though hoping to catch up on tonight’s game relatively early. We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, you’ve got Phil tonight (audio/pay per view). Follows include Paul, Phil, Eric Lindquist’s in-game (his call is here) and The box should be here. R: Romasko. L: Boyle, F.Murphy.
More later.
–Settling back in just as Carson McMillan goes to the net to put away a rebound and make it 2-0 early in the second. Harry Zolnierczyk, just out of the penalty box, took the initial shot. He scored on a one-timer near the blue line in the first period.
Colton Gillies was ejected on the second or third shift of the game after a hit on Bryan Lerg, called a kneeing major. So not entirely sure what the lines looked like to start, aside from the same Persson-Jeffrey-Collberg that started. With Dyson Stevenson and Justin Courtnall in for Lukas Sutter and Brett Gallant — did you ever think Brett Gallant would be scratched in Worcester? Where have you gone, fightin’ Sharks of old — would guess you had Zolnierczyk-Quine-Vaughan, Gillies-Sundstrom-McMillan, Courtnall-Langkow-Stevenson or something like that. The D looks the same; Matt Carkner, even in blue tonight, is wearing the ‘A’ along with Zolnierczyk.
–This is the Hamilton to St. John’s story Phil was talking about earlier.
–Micheal Haley gets one back on a power play, redirecting in a centering pass out of the corner at 6:49.
–Also, Matt Murray still isn’t giving up goals. Barry Brust is in sight.
–Bridgeport led for 9:17 last Friday in Springfield; it led for 4:08 in Manchester on Valentine’s Day. Those were the only leads in the 10-game losing streak, so the Sound Tigers have already led longer in this period alone than they did in 10 games. That brief two-goal lead was the first since their last win (they blew it late but beat Hartford in overtime).
–Quick regroup after Worcester clears the zone, in to Persson and across to Jeffrey, and Bridgeport leads by two after two, 3-1. Jeffrey has two goals in two games for Bridgeport.
–In their 17 consecutive games without a regulation-time win, Bridgeport led for 78 minutes, 8 seconds. 39:43 of that came in that Feb. 8 Feb. 7 game against Hartford, a little over half. Even in the other win, in Syracuse, the Crunch came back 56 seconds after Bridgeport scored to tie it.
–Sacred Heart, meanwhile, is 20 minutes away from moving on in the playoffs, leading Army 3-0.
–Jeffrey off a faceoff, gets it to Collberg for a goal and a 4-1 lead at 6:11. It’s the Sound Tigers’ first three-goal lead in 2015, since the David Leggio 5-0 win in Wilkes-Barre.
–Coincidentally, that night was also Collberg’s last goal. He’d played 14 games without, interrupted by a couple of injuries.
–The Sharks get one back with 4:57 left, Chris Crane’s first on a power play with Johan Sundstrom off for taking down a man in the slot. It’s 4-2. Interestingly, I think I saw three different things mentioned for Sundstrom’s penalty (it’s a trip in the box; Phil said hook, and that’s what I thought I heard) and two different times on the penalty (Phil first said 4:57 left, then the goal at 15:01; the box says 15:03).
–Poulin called for delay of game, knocking the net off, soon after. Why would it be easy?
–Notre Dame has won, if you care. No Robbie Russo for at least one more day.
–Coetzee with 2:14 left, just after Troy Grosenick had gone to the bench, cuts it to 4-3. Why would it be easy?
–Time out, Worcester, with just under a minute to go.
—Bridgeport 4, Worcester 3, final. Really. The streaks are over. It took to the wire and a scramble, with five skaters on four after Micheal Haley and Aaron Ness were taken off together. But it’s a win. Lots of Jeffrey, Sundstrom, Persson, Ness, Pelech down the stretch, with Carkner on at the end.
–Sacred Heart won tonight, too, 5-2, sweeping the best-of-3 from Army.
–So this ends as the longest losing streak (10) and longest streak without a regulation win (17). Last night ended what’d been tied for the longest streak of regulation losses (9). It’s the third-longest winless streak (12, the end of last season).
–Before I forget, we’ll do the grand farewell on Bus Makeup Day, April 6, but sorry to miss the last trip to Worcester and even more sorry that it’s the last trip to Worcester. Easy trips and trips I’m able to make are getting fewer and fewer. And there’s a good diehard base there. Hope things work out for them.
–“They’re always going to have that push,” Brent Thompson said. “I thought we responded well to the push. … We did a good job.” He thought the Sharks “got a couple of bounces” on their late power-play goals; Haley’s was good position, but the faceoff play and the last one didn’t concern him as much. They competed well.
I wondered if the weekend tied together nicely, getting the point last night. “Last night was a step in the right direction,” he said. “There were a lot of good things last night to build off, a solid team game, defensively responsible. The late goal, obviously, the overtime goal is tremendously disappointing. The big thing was we built momentum. It was a nice job.”
Dustin Jeffrey has been a big contributor immediately: “He’s been great. He brings that veteran presence. He’s calming, a presence on the bench, in the locker room. He’s got a great skill set, great vision. His Hockey IQ, as a two-way player, he’s been great.”
They’ll take tomorrow off. And for the first time in a month and a half, they’ll do so after a win.