Ties with power: Hershey postgame

Better effort, better result, not the one they wanted, but a point.

It came in part from the power play, and it’s just one in part because of the power play, but still, we’re not talking 0-for-25s and 0-for-14s anymore.

“We got one the last game, got one in Portland, one tonight,” Brent Thompson said. “Obviously tonight with eight opportunities, you’d like to generate another goal, but at the end of the day we had some really good looks.

“It’s a matter of finishing them off with good execution.”

In the past five games, Bridgeport has a power-play goal in four of them (the last Hartford home game the exception; 0-for-2). It’s not quite time to throw bouquets; 4-for-27 in those five games is 14.8 percent, which’d rank 21st in the league as the order went today.

It’s still a lot better than the 2-for-42 they were in the previous 11 games.

“We’ve tweaked a few things, but it’s a matter of us knowing where each other is going to be and outworking the opponents,” Ryan Pulock said.

“I feel like we’ve been getting some chances, they just haven’t been going in for us. Sometimes it’s just a matter of sticking with it. We could go on a streak where we start getting two a game.”

He felt he’d been getting chances, too, that hadn’t gone in (see below and the gamer for some Pulock stattery and quotery on finally scoring a goal again). You get him finding the net again and the percentage will be fine in short order. But it’s that chicken-and-egg thing we talked about during the week with the offense in general: Are guys not getting points because the team’s not scoring, or is the team not scoring because guys aren’t earning points with good plays?

Regardless, this is a lot better way to go into a day off than last night’s game would’ve been. Last night might not have even earned them a day off, to borrow a phrase.

“I thought our guys responded well. We’re not satisfied with one point. We wanted two,” Thompson said.
“I liked the attitude of our guys. When a team gives you that kind of effort, you can leave the rink with your head held high.”

…….

Third in three or not, Bridgeport outshot the Bears in the third. “It was the third-in-three for us, only their second game this weekend. The intensity level, the pace was very good,” Thompson said.

Pulock’s longest streak without a goal last year was also 11 games. It began the night he got hurt on the first shift and continued with the first 10 games after he came back. (His reaction’s in the gamer.)

Jesse Graham’s got six assists in a five-game scoring streak. He has a point on each of Bridgeport’s last five power-play goals.

Ross Johnston left the game in the second, looked like going hard into the boards for a hit, but it’s apparently lower body. Thompson had both him and Alan Quine “week to week.” Doesn’t sound too long-term for either of them, but long enough.

Teams have kind of turned three-on-three into a little chess match, huh? Pull it back, look for a hole, pull it back, get a change… “You don’t want to get guys caught out tired,” Pulock said. “It seems like kind of the right play.”

Prescout. Nice night for Brandon DeFazio. Hartford, like its parent club the other night in Edmonton, tied the game too early.

No World Juniors for Michael Dal Colle.

Missouri’s winning streak ended at 14. Missed their leading scorer, no doubt.

So, yeah, team’s off tomorrow, so more Tuesday, probably.

Michael Fornabaio