Optional, but fairly well-attended, at Wonderland. (Though with eight skating scratches, it’d be hard not to be well-attended, I guess… moving on.) Marc-Andre Cliche and Kyle Burroughs skated again, as did Justin Vaive, though it appears Vaive is doubtful for the weekend. They’ll try to give whatever’s ailing him a rest. Kyle Schempp joined the group.
Team’s off to Wilkes-Barre tomorrow. We’ll keep an ear out for any developments, and, if nothing else, update the playoff picture tomorrow night sometime.
Matt Carkner is Bridgeport’s nominee for the Yanick Dupre Award as AHL Man of the Year. Carkner won the award in 2006-07 as a WBS Penguin. Providence nominated Brandon DeFazio; Ontario nominated Sean Backman.
Sunday is Pucks and Paws night. There’s your advisory, if you (a) want to take your dog to a hockey game, or (2) will need to remember your allergy pills Sunday. (Sunday Saturday (thanks, Michelle) is also the 5k Tiger Dash; registration info therein.)
The Sound Tigers went 8-2-1-1 in March. Leaving out Aprils and based just on points percentage, this was the ninth-best calendar month in Bridgeport’s team history. April 2009 was a 4-0 month (at least in the regular season); take that out, and since November 2003, the only better months are January 2012, February 2012 and the Olympic-break-goosed February 2014. The team went 8-2-0-3 in February 2009, which, counting shootout losses as ties and overtime losses as losses (which turns March 2016 into an 8-3-1 month), is one of the few other better months in the past decade. Remarkable. (For numerous reasons.)
NHL.com profiles Tage Thompson.
Kevin Oklobzija on three season-ending injuries in Rochester.
And RIP, Laurie Baik.