One thing everyone around this team talks about is how hard the players work. Hasn’t been in doubt. The results haven’t followed.
They’ve worked to clean things up the whole way here. A lot of them were cleaned up tonight. Goaltending wasn’t bad; Kevin Poulin got beat on a wrister 35 seconds after Andrew Cherniwchan spun away from Dustin Jeffrey to set up Rob Flick at the right post, and the third goal was a massive deflection. The power play got one; picked up its percentage.
No win.
The penalty kill: The PK’s two short of its season-long run of 16 in a row, now, with 13 killed the past two nights.
“Our overall sense of urgency and pressure mindset,” Thompson said, is the biggest difference there. “The guys are a little bit confident in that area, and we’re getting good goaltending.”
Aaron Ness agreed: “Goaltending’s huge on that,” Ness said. “We’re figuring it out a little more, pressuring where we can.”
Everybody we asked about the PK mentioned pressure. It’s certainly important.
“I think we’ve blocked a lot of shots lately,” Jeffrey said. “Up-ice, we’ve pressured a lot. The hardest thing is to set up.
“(Johan) Sundstrom’s been really good on faceoffs. (Kael) Mouillierat’s been really good on faceoffs. If you win the first faceoff on the power play, it kills probably 20 seconds on average.”
It helped them win in Springfield on Friday, but it wasn’t enough to break the home losing streak: eight in a row, all in regulation.
…..
Adam Pelech joins the elite fraternity: Evgeny Tunik, Jeremy Colliton, Chris Lee and Mike Keenan were the first four Sound Tigers pinched for playing with a broken stick. “I have to watch it,” Pelech said. “I think what happened is I was trying to hit someone back-door. … The puck didn’t go anywhere. I tried to slap at it again, and my stick went flying.” What it looked like from up here was the stick blade fluttered away on that first attempt, and that second attempt was what Trevor Hanson called. Technically, participating in the game with a broken stick, though, as Pelech said, it didn’t look like there was any intent; reaction, at most.
Ness’ PPG snapped a second consecutive 0-for-16. (Ness has a point on Bridgeport’s past four power-play goals. Sure, it’s taken 13 games to do it, but still.) It also ended a scoreless-at-home run of 136:10, and that a week after they ended a 150:57 goose-egg.
One of those years.
Nothing new on the injured, Thompson said.
Prescout. Big comeback in Wilkes-Barre. Carter Camper’s got a point in nine in a row.
Manchester and St. John’s were delayed by a fire alarm for over a half-hour. And then it goes overtime. But of course Brian O’Neill scores. (Assume he and a certain teammate were glad to see some college scores break the right way. See where Yale and Quinnipiac get placed.)
No easy task for Trumbull’s Alex Vazzano tonight in his pro debut in net for Evansville: Florida, one of the top teams in the ECHL. Couple of points for Jesse Graham.
Congratulations to Darien, Suffield/Granby/Windsor Locks and E.O. Smith/Tolland, this year’s boys hockey state champs.
And RIP, Chuck Bednarik and Lisa Colagrossi.