Edit: Arthur Staple reports Griffin Reinhart is going up to the Islanders.
When the game was still sort of in doubt — if it ever truly was — it was the third and fourth lines driving offense. Eberle-Sutter-Markison, Gillies-Sundstrom-Langkow keeping the puck deep.
“Listen, the third and fourth lines are giving second and third efforts,” Brent Thompson said.
“They need to be physical. They need to be edgy, whether that’s with their speed or playing physical.”
Though they weren’t getting the shots, Thompson also liked the Collberg-Mouillierat-McMillan line. “I thought they did a good job for the most part of keeping the game simple,” Thompson said. “They were being responsible.” He thought Jeffrey-Quine-Vaughan was on its heels defensively a bit.
But most of all he wanted shots on goal. No Corsi/Fenwick or SAT or whatever they’re calling it now down here (OK, I had Fenwick Close at 17-8 Manch in the first), but Thompson would’ve liked to know how many times Bridgeport missed the net.
“We’ve got to execute getting shots on net going forward,” he said.
They did get progressively better: five in the first, six in the second, seven in the third.
Three games left.
…….
Mike Halmo was walking around the room with relative ease and could be back on skates Tuesday. Thompson didn’t sound optimistic about Harry Zolnierczyk getting back for next weekend; seeing a doctor this week. He said John Persson’s still sore. And he said Brett Gallant is still suffering from the injury that kept him out in March, so he’d be questionable with or without the suspension.
Team’s off tomorrow. (Shelton and Notre Dame-West Haven baseball are not.)
Manchester won the last eight and 12 of the last 13 games between these two teams. They finished 39-22-3 in 64 games; the Monarchs won the only two shootouts. (There were those three playoff games in 2003 that aren’t counted in there.) Bridgeport was 8-22-2 up there, 14-17-1 here.
As noted on Twitter, Michael Mersch’s penalty-shot goal at 10 seconds ties for the fastest into a third period in a Sound Tigers game. Kurtis McLean did it for Bridgeport on Jan. 7, 2009, against Houston*; against Bridgeport, Fedor Fedorov did it for Manitoba on Dec. 28, 2002, and Nikita Filatov matched it for Springfield on April 1, 2011, starting a comeback from 2-0 down.
It’s also the earliest penalty shot into a period in a Sound Tigers game, not surprisingly. Marc-Antoine Pouliot had one 37 seconds into the third period on Oct. 8, 2011, for Portland.
Things needed to break right this weekend for Manchester to clinch the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy today, but they all did. “We’re pretty strong top-to-bottom,” Sean Backman said. “The forwards can score. The D can make plays and also contribute some offense. The goaltending’s strong.”
Bridgeport may’ve pulled off one of the better jobs after an icing I think I’ve seen in a while with 5:16 left. No one came on when Kael Mouillierat came off as the puck was iced. That happened to be when Johan Sundstrom’s fighting major expired. Sundstrom came onto the ice and skated to the defensive zone… and got to take the faceoff. Brilliant.
As an aside to my Twitter rant on poor Lukas Sutter getting his name butchered everywhere, a package showed up at the Bridgeport dressing room for him the other day addressed to “Lukas Suttee.” I just don’t know.
Prescout. The Wolf Pack took over the division lead on the non-shootout-wins tiebreaker with Syracuse’s loss to Utica. Portland, meanwhile, lost to Wilkes-Barre, leaving Springfield and Albany a whiff of hope. (The Pirates pulled Mike McKenna and put him back in on the fly, noted Jason Iacona.)
NHL draft lottery next weekend. Solid tweet from Rob Tychkowski in Edmonton.
Stockton played its last ECHL game last night. Thompson wasn’t expecting to call anybody up. Meanwhile, Justin Johnson scored in Alaska’s finale; it was, Doyle Woody reports, also likely his last game.
And while Jordan Spieth tears up Augusta, Calgary Flames fan Graham DeLaet has a bet for Canucks fans. The Big Club starts Wednesday.
*-That made it 3-0 before the Aeros, led by Corey Locke and Marco Rosa, scored three late power-play goals on a Vladdy Nikiforov boarding major to tie it; Bridgeport won the shootout.