He’s waiting for a victory this year. After seven goals against in three games, Stephon Williams is 0-3 and not thrilled about that. But he got back in tonight and, but for a misadventure behind the net, played a pretty good game.
“I had fun with it,” Williams said. “It’s the game I love. I did (have fun). I thought it was an exciting game, back and forth. I felt really good. It was nice to feel good about my performance. The next goal is obviously to get in the win column.”
Like Friday night in Springfield, the Thunderbirds started strong. Unlike Friday, after 10 minutes and change, they had a lead. Bridgeport dominated the rest of the game Friday; it was good the rest of the day Sunday but never beat Reto Berra.
“We have to make sure we start with the same kind of intensity and passion,” Brent Thompson said. “Once you get behind in a three-in-three, it’s tough to play catchup hockey.”
And yeah, it was a three-in-three kind of game until the penalty parade started. Still, after the goal, Bridgeport had a reasonably good edge in five-on-five possession-type of numbers.
It took two out of three this weekend. They’re not satisfied, but still.
“There are positives you can take,” Thompson said. “You look at the weekend, two out of three from the weekend and look forward from there. We do have to clean up some structural issues, consistency night-in, night-out.
“We can’t wait for the other team to wake us up.”
…..
Team’s off tomorrow, so more Tuesday unless warranted.
Back to last season, the 16th game in a row without overtime, tying the team record (2005, 2013).
I was a little ticked off when the empty-netter went in, because I was all set to tweet about how it was the first 1-0 Bridgeport loss since 2013 (that one, actually, came in overtime) and the first one at home in almost six years. Funny enough, there are fewer 2-0 losses (11 now) than 1-0 losses (16). But the last 2-0 loss was about 11 months ago, against Springfield even. (Ah, but a different Springfield franchise.) (I called them the Falcons twice in the first two paragraphs of the gamer tonight. Caught myself at least.)
Attendance so far is historically, kinda frighteningly low. The two Springfield Sunday crowds were announced at 2,233 and 2,244. If those weren’t the ninth- and 10th-lowest weekend announced attendances in team history, I’d joke about the pattern. The other pattern is worse: This is the smallest four-game home start in team history, averaging a shade under 3,100. See what happens from here.
Thompson confirmed, no new injuries or anything to cause the lineup switches today.
Apparently a Zamboni ran out of gas in the first intermission tonight. They cut things awfully close in the second intermission with the lone remaining resurfacer. (Before you say “only in Bridgeport,” once saw them tow one Zamboni off the ice at Madison Square Garden with the other one.)
More Tuesday, and then bright ‘n’ early Wednesday.