Bridgeport is actually in the playoffs. Two games left to figure out where they finish. Hey, let’s do this one more time. One of those 5 p.m. starts in Albany. We’ll be listening to Paul (audio/pay-per-view). Follow Paul, Pete Dougherty and the Devils among others.
The box should be here. (R: R.Murphy. L: Emanatian, Lemay.) The Scoreboard Watching is a little less urgent but is still plenty significant: Later on tonight, there’s Portland at Springfield (1 of 2), Providence at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (big home-ice implications) and Utica at Syracuse, all of which can affect where Bridgeport finishes. There’s also Lehigh Valley at Hershey, with the Bears still two points away from clinching the division. Hartford will send its Black Aces up to New York after finishing tonight in St. John’s.
Posted this last night to keep the pregame liveblog from spilling into billion-word territory: Bridgeport’s clinching scenarios tonight can only clinch half of what they need to know. They can’t know their opponent tonight. Details and a link to a clip of Futurama in Spanish are in that link. (Along those lines, are there no Isiah Thomas “welcome to the playoffs” memes floating around out there? C’mon, Internet.)
Missouri starts its run tonight.
Last call for the Fake Team Awards if you haven’t voted.
More closer to gametime.
–Williams vs. Wedgewood, tweets Pete.
We’re led to believe just one Bridgeport change from last night, Wotherspoon for Burroughs:
BRIDGEPORT
F: Dal Colle-Kearns (A)-Wright
Halmo (A)-C.Jones-Fritz
Florek-B.Holmstrom (C)-Cliche
Johnston-Gomes-Markison
D: Czuczman-Mayfield
Finn-Cullity
Lafranchise-Wotherspoon
G: Williams
McAdam
ALBANY from the Devils
F: Lorito-Blandisi-Sislo
Boucher-O’Brien-O’Neill
Pietila-Zacha-Thompson
Thomson-Pelley-Lappin
D: Mozik-Helgeson
Severson-Kelly
Scarlett-Gragnani
G: Wedgewood
Danis
–Wright draws a cross-check in front from Severson 59 seconds in. Looks like the same power play units as last night. (Well, except Wotherspoon for Burroughs there, too.)
–Albany grabs a 1-0 lead just after the power play. Pavel Zacha, highly regarded youngster, carried into the zone and dropped it off on the left to Brian O’Neill for a wrister past Williams at 3:11.
–Scarlett gets the Devils into the zone, and after a longish shift there — Paul notes that Fritz goes off to the room immediately afterward, hurt blocking a shot — Blake Pietila buries it in front to make it 2-0 at 6:16. Two assists for Zacha.
–Fritz returns to the bench a few minutes later, Paul notes.
–Wright for a slash midway first; Albany to its first power play.
–Severson and Halmo battle in front; Severson loses his stick, and there’s an initial penalty coming to Bridgeport before those two fight.
–Halmo gets a double slash and Severson gets a rough to go with fighting majors. Albany’s second PP.
–Blandisi, whose NHL claim to fame was getting dinged for diving, gets called for a dive to negate a Mike Sislo power-play goal. Wow.
–Boucher carries Wotherspoon into the Bridgeport net, and as the teams come together, Holmstrom comes in hard and nails Boucher. It’ll be four-on-three.
–On replay, Boucher threw one back pretty good, but so be it. Halmo’s extra penalty expires, so back to four-on-four.
–Cullity for a hold in the last minute. Fourth Albany power play.
–It’s 2-0 Devils after one, with 1:09 left on the Cullity penalty. Shots 11-9 Devils, helped by the penalties.
–Even better for Bridgeport, Mayfield cross-check at the buzzer. Long five-on-three will start the second.
–Williams makes a couple of saves on the five-on-three; Cullity’s back. And the five-on-four goes relatively quietly.
–Props to whichever linesman pretty much jumped into the Albany bench to stay out of the way.
–An Albany goal waved off as Williams is down in the crease. Called incidental contact, apparently. Still 2-0 Albany, nearing the midpoint of the game. Williams needed a minute and got a visit from Dave Stickney, but he stayed in.
–Finn took a hit from Pietila into the open door at the Albany bench. Slow to the bench, supposedly. Man. I cringe every time that comes close to happening. Scary. A minute or so later Mayfield and Thomson are both sent off, Mayfield first, Thomson retaliating. This thing’s getting nasty.
–Finn’s on for the four-on-four.
–Paul earlier thought a Devil played without his helmet without a call. Now he didn’t think Pietila really played after his helmet came off, but that gets called. Bridgeport’s second power play.
–Boucher makes it 3-0 short-handed. O’Brien changes gears on Wright and drops it back to Boucher; off Williams’ stick and in.
–Looked like Mozik knocked Dal Colle off the puck on the boards there to start it the other way.
–Long-simmering line brawl after a Wotherspoon hit and an assortment of players going after him. Paul Thompson dropped the gloves, and after they were separated, Cliche and Thompson went. Someone else went after Wotherspoon, and several Sound Tigers went into that mess. Holy cro. Eric Boguniecki and Rick Kowalsky have to be separated at the benches. Johnston and Kelly go later.
–I think Brent Thompson was holding Boguniecki back. Incredible. Kowalsky is pointing at the Bridgeport bench, then at Murphy.
Murphy goes into the penalty box to sort this all out. Well. Boguniecki was sent to the room, Paul reports.
–They’re going to send everybody off, actually, because there’s 43.4 left in the period. Let ’em cool off, play the last seconds and turn them around, presumably. It’s 3-0 Albany.
–These are pretty close to expected playoff lineups. Avoiding Toronto is a noble fight, but the slightly better option isn’t much better.
–It looked like Wotherspoon, coming across the neutral zone, went to hit Lappin, but Lappin was held up a little from behind, and Wotherspoon wound up getting him either leg-to-leg or skate-to-skate. Pelley went to Wotherspoon, everyone came together, and it all went to hell from there. (Severson was the one who came in after Wotherspoon after that, and Holmstrom tried to get in there.) And I take it back: Looks like Dave Stickney was holding Boguniecki back more than Brent Thompson was. Marc-Andre Gragnani was trying to pull Kowalsky back.
–The teams are coming back, and the penalties aren’t on the box yet.
–Pietila bowls over Williams following a shot, and there’s another line brawl.
–Looks like Williams stays in, with 24.7 left in the second period.
–In the middle of all this is a broken pane of glass that needed fixing. No idea if the penalties are sorted yet.
–A minor up to Bridgeport, a major up to the Devils. They somehow manage to get to the end of the second period without further incident.
–Pietila got a charging major for the Williams hit. Seven players on the Bridgeport bench, eight on Albany’s, says Paul. There are a few guys in the penalty box.
–They are, even while play goes on, trying to sort out who should and shouldn’t be in the penalty box. Remarkable.
–PIMs were 19-15 Bridgeport before all this. At least at the moment they’re 107-101.
–And that appears to be missing the bench game misconducts on Boguniecki and Kowalsky. Albany could’ve had a penalty shot, but Murphy just gives Lafranchise a penalty for hooking off O’Brien on a bit-more-than-partial break.
–Also, I think the box has one too many power plays for Albany. It’s going to be nigh impossible to double-check that later, though.
–PIMs now 126-122 with 6 or so left; the coaches’ penalties are up. It’s still 3-0 Devils. Williams stops O’Brien on a breakaway.
–Williams kicks the left post off as Lorito goes to the net. Fortunately for all involved, Lorito shot wide. No call. Two minutes left now.
–Halmo really needlessly accosts a couple of Devils at the buzzer and gets swung at in response. Anyway, it ends. Albany 3, Bridgeport 0, final. Bridgeport can’t finish third; Portland and Utica games will determine what tomorrow means.
–@IslesEnforcers has got video up. Though I assume you follow him and have seen it already.
–Still waiting on the final box, almost an hour after the game. Portland is up 2-1 after two; Utica took a 2-1 lead late in the second on a short-handed goal.
–Brent Thompson declined to go into detail on what happened at the bench. “It’s two coaches who care about their team very much,” he said.
Things got out of control early, he said, and then the Wotherspoon hit/trip: “There was nothing there,” Thompson said. “One thing led to another.”
He was glad they stuck up for each other. “We’ve got our discipline. We’ve got to focus on the task at hand,” Thompson said. “At the end of the day, our team stuck together, which I respect and like. There’s a special chemistry in our dressing room.”
–The Devils posted Rick Kowalsky’s postgame.
–Springfield ties up Portland with 10:14 to go in regulation.
–And Syracuse soon after ties up Utica. Goal for former Quinnipiac forward Matthew Peca.
–Mike Zalewski gives the Comets a 3-2 lead with 14 minutes left.
–#dryscrape #pointsforall in Springfield. Portland has one point; if it gets the second, it locks Bridgeport into fifth.
–Hershey beats the Phantoms to clinch the Atlantic Division title.
–Syracuse ties up Utica — Peca again — with about six minutes left in regulation.
–Dakota Mermis scores early in overtime to give Springfield a win over Portland. If Bridgeport wins tomorrow and Portland loses in regulation, Bridgeport would move up to fourth. Anything else, and it’s the Pirates in fourth and Bridgeport in fifth.
–Wilkes-Barre and Providence will definitely meet, then, with home ice to be determined.
–Overtime #dryscrape #pointsforall in Utica-Syracuse. The point draws Utica even with the Sound Tigers at 87 points, though Bridgeport has one more tiebreaker win.
–Utica wins early in OT, so the Comets move a point ahead of Bridgeport. Providence wins in Wilkes-Barre, so a point for the Bruins tomorrow clinches home ice for them.
Let’s try to sort tomorrow out in another post. This was one wacky evening in the living room. Thanks for riding along.