Portland! Which comes to town for two games before the break next week. Portland! Where we don’t get to visit anymore. Ah well. We’ll be listening to Jeff Mannix (audio / video) and following Chris Roy, Paul, Jeff and the Pirates.
The box should be here (R: Brenk; L: Blanchard, Ross). Jeff usually tweets lineups; not expecting anything too dramatic tonight. Prescout; first trip of the year to the Mall tomorrow.
Portland’s Dylan Olsen, sent down without playing Saturday, was called up today.
From Jason Chaimovitch, this is an awesome Sirius XM 14-minute segment — yes, on hockey — with former Giants GM Ernie Accorsi, who grew up in Hershey.
RIP, Dolph Schayes, who got a nice night in Syracuse last year.
More closer to gametime.
–Did we do RestWatch this week? No. Portland played Wednesday, while Bridgeport bused up Thursday morning. Different kinds of issues there. Hartford is in Providence tonight, while the Sound Tigers will be coming down from Maine; edge to the Pack. Sunday, Hershey will be coming in after a home game, but doesn’t play tonight, BUT played Wednesday.
–Neat note from the AHL: Jon DiSalvatore of South Windsor becomes the second U.S.-born player to reach 800 games in the AHL. (Coleraine, Minn.’s Ken Gernander.)
–Gibson vs. Brittain, says Chris.
–Scratches as Jeff tweeted them, Portland lines as tweeted from everyone up there, coupled with this week’s practice array and intel from afar, suggest these:
BRIDGEPORT
F: Whitney (A)-Kearns (A)-Halmo
Wright-Quine-Beck
Johnston-Holmstrom (C)-Florek
Vaive-C.Jones-Gomes
D: Pelech-Mayfield
Czuczman-Pulock
Carkner-Graham
G: Gibson
Williams
PORTLAND per the Pirates
F: Wilson-Schremp-Grimaldi
Rau-Balisy-McKegg
McFarland-Knight-Olson
Turgeon-Megan-Flick
D: Matheson-Regner
Gaunce-Weegar
Racine-Acolatse
G: Brittain
McKenna
R: Brenk. L: Blanchard, Ross.
–And as I post that, Jeff tweets just those lines and pairs. So there you go.
–Schremp trips Johnston going to the front. Looks like Bridgeport goes with Graham instead of Collberg on that top power play, so two defensemen there… and now it looks like the second unit has four forwards with Czuczman. That second line plus Halmo.
–11:28 into the first, Rau comes in on the right side, pulls up, spins and puts it toward the net. It goes in off Balisy, but Brenk waves it off pretty quickly, saying it was batted in by a hand. It’s tough to tell, but there wasn’t a whole lot of discussion (and it was probably deflected too far out to get a replay look). Still no score.
–No score after one as the teams trade late power plays. Shots were 2-0 Bridgeport after its first power play, then were 12-4 Portland, and it looks like they finish the period 13-7.
–Pelech cut on a Grimaldi high-stick, so a double minor early in the second. Pelech goes off for repairs.
–A Whitney cross-checking minor wipes out half of that power play. On the four-on-four, a few big chances for Bridgeport; Quine passed instead of shooting, and it was blocked but right to Czuczman; Brittain stopped him then found the rebound.
–Quine’s hurting at the bench, Jeff reports, after being knocked down behind the Portland net. And now Bridgeport gets both a slash and an unsportsmanlike minor. Parade.
–Actually two different people on the calls, Graham on the slash and a few different reported candidates on the yapping. See what the box says. Long five-on-three for the Pirates after Grimaldi gets out of the box.
–Grimaldi scores on a one-timer off a right-to-left cross-ice pass. 1-0 Pirates at 6:16, and the power play continues for 36 seconds. And in the time it takes to type that, Bridgeport kills most of it and gets a Portland icing.
–Pelech is back. Doesn’t look like Quine is.
–Pirates lead 1-0 after two on that five-on-three goal. Bridgeport gets through a late Portland power play. Sound Tigers had the shots edge that period, close to even overall. Don’t think Quine returned.
–Bridgeport starts the third with a power play, but they give the puck away a few times and get a few shots blocked late. No Quine; looked like he went down awkwardly amid contact from Regner back early in the second.
–A Bridgeport PP is canceled by an unsportsmanlike minor after Graham shoots the puck after an offside that I don’t think Bridgeport liked… and after everybody gets out, Gaunce goes back in. Parade. Bridgeport’s seventh PP, midway through the third. The Sound Tigers are on 2-for-50 and 3-for-61 power-play runs.
–They were moving it pretty well, and even after a Portland clear, they reset, and Beck puts one over Brittain’s glove from the left dot with 8:54 left. It’s a power-play goal, etc. 1-1.
–Beck gives Bridgeport a lead with a tick under four minutes left. Gets it in the right corner, comes out, goes around Vaive at the front and backhands it home. He’d had a little give-and-go with Wright on the right half-wall for one assist; think Carkner should get the second, going back to get it after a Portland clear.
–While I “whoa” at this news that Michael Cuddyer is retiring (sorry), Justin Vaive puts on a burst of speed on the left side off Graham’s clear, gets a step on his man as the defense hedges to the other side, and puts it past Brittain. 3-1 Bridgeport with just under two minutes left.
–Did I ever… no. Bridgeport 3, Portland 1, final. (Tweet was up.)
–Thompson said Quine will be evaluated, and he hasn’t gotten a full report yet, but he doesn’t expect Quine playing tomorrow in Hartford. He said he hadn’t seen video of the tie-up that left Quine injured, either. The third was their best period, obviously; cleaned up some things and got what they needed.
Petrov and Collberg are day-to-day, he said, and obviously Root’s ready to go.