Will be following along with tonight’s game, when not watching to see if the Cubs can fly something more than a ‘W’ for the first time in 71 years. I suspect Alan will be following that even more closely than I will. Follow him and the team while listening or watching on AHL Live. There’s a whole new cast in Hershey, so we’ll be picking up follows there on the fly.
The box should be here (R: Voss; L: Goodman, Pomento). Home opener at Giant Center. Someone fly in Mike Mole for the occasion.
The morning news, Pulock and Boulton, is back here.
Elsewhere, Son-father goalie tandem tonight in southern California.
More in an hour or so.
This is two teams now that are tweeting lines before warmup even starts. (They’ll be sorry when they change some night.) (I kid.) (Probably.) (Or when Brent Thompson finds out.) (I kid.) (Not really.) From Hershey, Bridgeport may have one tweak at seventh defenseman but otherwise apparently same as last night.
BRIDGEPORT
F: Dal Colle – Fritz – Ho-Sang
Verhaeghe-Kearns (A)-Winquist
Johnston-B.Holmstrom (C)-Markison
K.Jones-C.Jones-J.Holmstrom
D: Pelech-Mayfield (A)
Toews-Burroughs
Finn-(Leduc-scratch)/Cullity
G: Williams
Gibson
HERSHEY
F: C.Bourque (A)-Malone-Barber
Carey-Stephenson-Galiev
Walker-Boyd-Vrana
O’Brien-Sill (A)-Mitchell (C)
D: Ness-Lewington
Bowey-Williams
Labrie-Dietz
G: Cannata
Vanecek
R: Voss. L: Pomento, Goodman.
–Bears say to expect a 7:20 faceoff.
–A little earlier than 7:20, at least. Cullity in, Leduc out. Game on.
–Bears take a 1-0 lead at 4:22. Cullity, without a stick, blocked a point shot, but tied up, his punt attempt at the puck was blocked by Paul Carey, who circled and snapped it glove side. Edit: Alan says it went blocker side. I never claimed not to be blind, did I? The Green Line draws a penalty a minute later after Cannata stops Connor Jones in front.
–Fritz, who got kind words from Thompson in Alan’s pregame interview for creating the turnover that became the Ho-Sang to Dal Colle goal last night, did a good job on the second shift to get the puck to the net, but no success down there. The power play is 0-for-10.
–Ben Holmstrom and Brad Malone go after a Holmstrom hit. Malone wrestles him down. A minute later, Bridgeport goes to its second power play. And off the draw, Verhaeghe called for a hold, so long four-on-four.
–Bears lead 1-0 after one, and Bridgeport doesn’t score on a third power play, dropping to 0-for-12.
–Bridgeport nabbed for too many men 6:03 into the second period.
–Aaron Ness, open in the left circle, makes it 2-0 at 7:44. A few seconds earlier it’d appeared Connor Jones had been tripped up at the blue line after knocking the puck out.
–Malone called for hooking Connor Jones with 4:38 left in the period. Alan notes that the crowd boos the call. Welcome to Hershey. … They actually call Jones for holding the stick as well, so a variant on the helping-it-along dive, I guess.
–Cullity breaks his second stick of the night (Stephenson had been on top of it earlier; Alan wonders if that weakened it, and that’d make sense), and Connor Jones draws his third penalty. Bridgeport’s fourth PP.
–Hershey leads 2-0 after two, and the Bears will carry most of a Verhaeghe hook to the third.
–Chris Bourque puts one from the endboards through Mayfield’s legs, off Pelech’s stick right to Malone in the slot, who snaps it over Williams’ glove to make it 3-0. But 23 seconds later, Ho-Sang saucers one to the slot to Tanner Fritz with a step on the D to cut it to 3-1 with 17:30 left.
–Hershey makes it 4-1 with 16:03 left. Walker cuts in off the right wing to the net, and Pelech gives him a shove that winds up knocking him into Williams as the puck goes into the net. Referee Voss, back at the blue line, half-heartedly signalled “goal” as he got to the net, then talked it over with at least one of his linesmen, but it appears to count.
–Kearns cross-checked down with 9:13 left. Bridgeeport gets its fifth power play.
–The Bears clear as the penalty ends, and coming back, Burroughs gets knocked down by Chris Bourque. Williams, ticked off, shoved Bourque over as Toews went behind the net to get the puck, and everyone on the ice came together. Fun and games, but it’s still 4-1 Hershey with 7:05 left.
–It winds up a Bridgeport power play.
–Mitchell knocks over Toews after Toews misses the puck in the Bridgeport zone; Winquist bowls him over and is called for a charge.
–Connor Jones draws yet another penalty after the teams revert to full strength, Riley Barber gets an extra minor, and Fritz gets Bridgeport off the PP schneid from the left circle with 4:03 left. He’d looked back to the point, then used a defenseman as a screen. The season-opening drought ends at 0-for-15, six shy of the team record to begin a year (2001-02, franchise-opening).
–Williams out as that second minor expires with a little over two minutes left.
–Bowey scores an empty-netter from his own end with 35.6 left, and then a get-together in the corner to Williams’ right with 14.5 seconds left. Mostly clutching and grabbing.
—Hershey 5, Bridgeport 2, final. The stats are often updated late, but at the moment the box has Hershey with three shots in the third period and three goals.
–Falling behind quickly didn’t help, Brent Thompson said. There are some things to clean up. “Starting with breakouts, bad puck management. … If we managed the puck better, don’t beat ourselves, we walk out with a different result.”
Getting one on the power play at least: “It’s a monkey off our back. Maybe things will start to roll for us, find a little chemistry.” It’ll be important, he said.
He’d told Alan that he liked what the guys who went into the lineup brought last night; did he still like them tonight? “Definitely. The Jones line with (Josh) Holmstrom was outstanding. They had energy, a physical presence. They were good on the kill. Each of those guys played their role.” Leduc’s absence was a lower-body injury, he said; they saw him grimacing in warmup andd made the final decision. (He blocked a shot in the third period last night and went off in pain, but he did return last night.)
They’re off tomorrow. More Monday.