For the sake of all that’s holy: Forgot to ask Mouillierat why he left warmup early.
Other things had happened in between, like this (in the Idaho version, I think that’s Chris Bruton who follows him behind the net) and six more goals. It’d been a while since they’d gone to center ice and saluted the fans after a win, a while since we’d had some happy interviews.
Oh, heck, they just put it on YouTube as I write this…
Yeah. Guy next to me and I did the old “did he just…” to each other.
“I couldn’t believe he did it so quick,” Alan Quine said.
“I didn’t realize it until I’d seen the replay a few times,” Dustin Jeffrey said (boss, I feel your pain). “It’s a high-skill play, to say the least.”
Hardly Peter Mannino’s night from there on, but Bridgeport has been on the other side of more than enough of these since the last time they were on this side of these. Kept racking up blocker-side shots. Made some nice plays, too. As both Jeffrey and Brent Thompson said, their goals came from the offensive zone: Making plays, working hard.
“Simplifying our game,” Jeffrey said, “that’s when we’ve had the most success.”
……
Team-record-book assault: Jeffrey got a fifth assist belatedly on Johan Sundstrom’s goal, Bridgeport’s last. Five assists breaks the team record, which’d been accomplished eight times by seven different players, most recently Tony Romano, three years ago this coming Friday. Edit, 9:15 p.m.: Calling up the box to update stats, the fifth assist has been taken away from Jeffrey. He’s back to four. (Aaron Johnson does kind of move it along behind the net, on a second look.) Four still ties the team record.
Swapping Jeffrey onto Quine’s wing: “We just wanted to have Alan to have a skill guy with him, who can make plays, defensively responsible,” Brent Thompson said. “Just thought we’d try it. He’s a smart guy.” Adjusting to the wing from center isn’t a hard adjustment.
Others with five points: Blake Comeau, Oct. 13, 2006, at Hartford (2-3); Jeff Tambellini, April 4, 2008, vs. Philadelphia (3-2, including an OT goal); Greg Mauldin, Feb. 13, 2010, at Hartford (1-4); Ryan Strome, Nov. 1, 2013, at Worcester (2-3). That last game was the last Bridgeport win by six or more (also 7-1).
With Aaron Ness’ two points, let’s break this chart back out:
All-time Bridgeport defenseman scoring
| Name | GP | G | A | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Donovan | 180 | 32 | 87 | 119 |
| Aaron Ness | 268 | 23 | 88 | 111 |
| Mark Wotton | 368 | 22 | 88 | 110 |
| Bruno Gervais | 134 | 24 | 47 | 71 |
| Brandon Smith | 137 | 14 | 55 | 69 |
(Through 3/22/15. Bold: Team record. Italic: defenseman record.)
Ness is tied with Wotton for fourth in overall assists, one behind Steve Regier. Ness is also now 13th in scoring by the tiebreaker behind Jesse Joensuu; Rhett Rakhshani is two points and a tiebreaker ahead in 11th.
Fenwick Close today, which we haven’t bothered talking about since November since well it kind of all came true: 16-4 Bridgeport. Not a lot of numbers to play with there but by far best of the season (though I didn’t take down the past few road games, which include two wins).
Day off tomorrow.
Speaking of boatloads of points by guys named Strome…
Prescout. Ongoing at this writing. Actually, they play Wednesday in Allentown.
And you may not know the name David Wells — well, if you do, you’re probably thinking of somebody else — but if you’ve enjoyed anything we’ve done as a sports section the past 15 years, you probably owe him a debt of thanks. I know I do. Dave left us after last night to go work in Hartford. Miss him already.