The land of Adam Erne: Eventual Syracuse liveblog

I’ll be a little late to the liveblog party tonight, but you can hang out from the start with Paul at AHL Live. Follow him, Lindsay Kramer, Dan D’Uva and the Crunch, among others.

The box should be here (R: Mullen, Romasko; L: Oliver, Sylvester). From practices, I’d expect the forward lines to look pretty much the same as they have, but the defense could depend on availability. Plus, man, I mean, can you really play a lefty on the right side? Not sure how that’ll go. (It’s been a while since there wasn’t a righty overload, but the most-likely available six included four left-handers.) Syracuse, meanwhile, had Slater Koekkoek assigned this afternoon.

The Five sighting: Scotty Howes wound up a Missouri Maverick at the ECHL trade deadline. Rapid City, ex-Bridgeport assistant Joe Ferras’ team, signed Sacred Heart’s Zach Luczyk.

Elsewhere, Alden Hirschfeld, who had a seizure in a game earlier this season, is undergoing surgery hoping to prevent any more. Hopefully successful.

College stuff: The Quinnipiac women and Sandy Hook’s Melissa Samoskevich play tomorrow afternoon for a spot in the Frozen Four. A few locals in the men’s NCAA Division III tournament, which starts tomorrow. Peter Gintoli of Shelton, who played at Notre Dame-Fairfield, is a Salve Regina senior; they visit SUNY Geneseo. Williams hosts Salem State; included for Williams are sophomore Colby Cretella (Guilford/Notre Dame-West Haven), junior Greg Zaffino (Darien) and junior George Hunkele (West Haven). Trinity, with Fairfield’s Griffyn Martin and Stamford’s Matthew Millendorf, hosts UMass Boston, with the winner of that game going to the quarterfinals next Saturday at Hobart, including sophomore Andrew Silard of Greenwich. The national semifinals and final are at Lake Placid, March 25-26.

OK, lots of notes. Actual game stuff eventually.

–Still catching up from high schools, but the game began late because of a broken pane of glass. Syracuse scored goals 34 seconds apart (Jeff Tambellini down the slot for the second one, his 19th) to take a 2-0 lead, but Bracken Kearns scored off Mike Halmo’s centering pass with 17.8 seconds left in the first to make it 2-1 Crunch after one.

Looks like something like:

BRIDGEPORT
F: Verhaeghe-Kearns (A)-Halmo
Wright (A)-Quine-Fritz
Vaive-Holmstrom (C)-Florek
Johnston-C.Jones-Gomes
D: Czuczman-Carkner
Finn-Lafranchise
Cullity-Graham
G: Gibson
Williams

–Crunch take a 3-1 lead 11:14 into the second, and it’s Luke Witkowski’s second odd one. His first went off Jesse Graham; this one comes as he drives to the net and is apparently hit by the rebound of a Jonathan Drouin shot. 2-1 Syracuse.

–The teams trade fruitless power plays after that — well, the Crunch will carry over 12 seconds of theirs — and Syracuse leads 3-1 after two.

–Syracuse outshot Bridgeport 14-6 in the second.

–The Crunch have killed a penalty and still lead 3-1 with 11 minutes left. Meanwhile Frank Vatrano has his 30th goal tonight. (Not 30 tonight. Though would you put it past him?)

–Nothing has worked on the scoreboard there since the second intermission, nothing has worked on the blog tonight (corrections disappeared, if whole paragraphs disappeared I wouldn’t be surprised), and not much has worked on the ice for Bridgeport, either: A Syracuse stretch pass hits a defender and caroms right to Tanner Richard, who slides it over to Yanni Gourde for a 4-1 Syracuse lead with 5:37 left.

–Quine centers to Wright with 1:43 left, and it’s 4-2 Syracuse. Right where Bridgeport wants ’em…

–Time out, Bridgeport, with 55.1 to go and a draw to Wilcox’s left.

–Wilcox made a save on Holmstrom in front with about 40 seconds to go. The Crunch cleared, a Bridgeport backpass at the Crunch blue line failed, and Gourde puts it away: Syracuse 5, Bridgeport 2, final.

–“Obviously not very happy with this one,” Brent Thompson said. “It’s a game you’re going to look back and wish you had a better effort for 60 minutes, did a lot of little things better over 60 minutes. … We just weren’t sharp.”

Off to Wilkes-Barre. I won’t be, so liveblog here tomorrow night. Hopefully I’ll be a little more attentive.

Michael Fornabaio