Linkage: Alan calls it at AHL Live. Follow him, the team, Hershey, new broadcaster Zach Fisch and whoever else we can find.
This will be the box. (R: D.Banfield, T.Koharski; L: Goodman, Lyons.)
Still catching up on last night’s third period. Apparently Syracuse had no shots on goal through 11 minutes of that period, then put 12 on net in the last nine minutes. Connor Jones had a nice scoring chance with about 50 seconds left, but Gudlevskis made a glove save. Syracuse came the other way, and a Gourde shot off Stephon Williams’ right shoulder sat in the crease a second or two, but it somehow stayed out.
–Wow. What a finish to OT. Williams miscommunicated, perhaps, with Tanner Fritz, leaving the puck behind the net for… Mike Halmo, who went to the front and shot wide. Then Michael Dal Colle had a partial breakaway in the final seconds but was disrupted from behind to send it to the bonus round. Dan D’Uva says Brent Thompson wanted a penalty shot. Didn’t get one. (Got eight instead.)
Hey, which day’s liveblog is this? More closer to warmups, I’d guess.
–Lineups, from the teams. Ho-Sang, Winquist and Landry in; St. Denis, Johnston and Leduc out.
BRIDGEPORT
F: Verhaeghe-Kearns (A)-Bernier
Dal Colle-Winquist-Fritz
Rowe – B.Holmstrom (C) – Ho-Sang
K.Jones-C.Jones-J.Holmstrom
D: Cullity-Mayfield (A)
Toews-Burroughs
Lafranchise-Landry
G: Williams
Robinson
HERSHEY
F: C. Bourque-Boyd-Vrana
Thomas-Stephenson-Galiev
Carey-Malone-Barber
O’Brien-Walker-Mitchell
D: Ness-Lewington
Djoos-Bowey
Williams-Dietz
G: Cannata
Vanecek
R: D.Banfield, T.Koharski. L: Goodman, Lyons.
–Albany picks up ex-Phantom Petr Straka.
–Second power play has Dal Colle, Fritz, Ho-Sang, Rowe and Landry.
–Vrana chips a Hershey lead pass past Burroughs, comes up the left side and goes over Williams’ glove to make it 1-0 Bears a little over five minutes in.
–Double-minor on Burroughs for high-sticking Vrana. Cullity in the Pelech PK spot.
–With the extended penalty-kill time — Hershey’s too-many-men minor was soon evened out by a Mayfield penalty — Dal Colle got a little PK time, which we saw early in the year but I don’t think for a while. Teams finally back at even strength late in the first period.
–Bears lead 1-0 after one, outshooting Bridgeport 13-8 with power-play help. The Bears have 1:48 of PP time to start the second, with Toews off for high-sticking Malone.
–Bridgeport kills the penalty and gets even 2:00 into the second. Aaron Ness took the puck behind the Hershey net and took a hit from Bracken Kearns; Christian Djoos went to help, but Steve Bernier jumped in to win it and center to Carter Verhaeghe for the goal. 1-1.
–Bridgeport takes a 2-1 lead at 8:46 as Kearns tips in a Mayfield shot, but Hershey ties it 35 seconds later on a four-on-two, Barber wraparound after faking a shot from the right side of the net and getting Williams to commit.
–Hershey scores again 15 seconds later. A point shot off a draw is stopped, the rebound is stopped, the second rebound is backhanded in by Chandler Stevenson. Bears lead 3-2.
–Sweet little tip by Bernier on a Cullity pass to tie it again with 2:09 left in the second. Bernier forced a turnover behind the Bears net; Walker tried to dive and play it out of danger, but Cullity came in to the left half-wall to pick it up and start the play. 3-3.
–3-3 after two, though again Hershey will start the period on a power play, a Kellen Jones trip.
–The second Bridgeport goal is credited to Mayfield; lots of the circumstantial indicated Kearns, but maybe he didn’t get it. If he didn’t, the second assist is Cullity’s, and this would be his second AHL multi-point game (Feb. 5, 2012), Norfolk at Springfield, when he scored his only AHL goal).
–Bridgeport kills the Jones trip and a Rowe trip, then see Bowey get enough of Kearns to bring him down. Bridgeport’s fourth PP with 15:42 left.
–Nothin’ doin’. (The box is off in a few different ways at this moment, by the way: It’s got Kellen Jones’ penalty assessed to Paul Carey at the end of the second — both No. 28, but wrong team — and it counts the Hershey bench minor as a Bridgeport power play, but the Sound Tigers were never up. I’ve got six PPs for Hershey and four for Bridgeport.
–Another K.Jones penalty, actually: A high stick with 13:06 to go. Hershey’s seventh PP.
–Killed off. Still 3-3 with 9:30 to go in regulation.
–The lines look rearranged: Jones-Jones-Ho-Sang, Dal Colle-Holmstrom-Holmstrom, Rowe-Winquist-Fritz… and then Fritz gets called for a cross-check with 7:05 left. Hershey’s eighth PP.
–Back even. That’ll help the PK percentage, at least.
–Make it nine, as Connor Jones gets a stick up on Hershey’s Williams with 2:34 to go.
–They actually call that a Rule-48 minor for a check to the head.
–Overtime. #pointsforall With 13 power plays, 33:02 of five-on-five tonight.
–Ness called for hooking Ho-Sang 47 seconds into overtime. Bridgeport’s fifth power play is a four-on-three. Dal Colle, Bernier, Landry and Burroughs, after Kearns started overtime with Ho-Sang and Toews.
–Kearns, Ho-Sang, Lafranchise and Toews for the second shift.
–Back even, not before a hard Lafranchise shot from the high slot that Cannata stops.
–Bonus round, second night in a row, after 49 seconds of four-on-four at the end of the Bridgeport power play.
–Rowe’s tally in the first round is the only one in the bonus round. Bridgeport 4, Hershey 3, final (SO).
–Dumb fun fact: 15th time the Sound Tigers have gone to shootouts in back-to-back games, the third time it has won both, and the first time it has done so since 2010: it has three sweeps, four both-losses and eight splits in those 15 instances, and it had been 0-3-3 in the last six before tonight. Coincidentally, all three double-wins were back-to-back nights on the road: 2010 at Norfolk, 2007 at Philly and Hershey.
–I’ll save Thompson on Ho-Sang for the gamer, but: “(The penalty kill) was a bunch of different guys buying in,” Thompson said, “doing what they’re supposed to do, their willingness to block shots.” He thought the structure was a little sloppy, but the effort was there. “At this point, we’re finding ways,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of cleanup. We’ve got to clean up discipline. We’ve got to clean up managing the puck. We’ve got to make sure we’re playing a solid, consistent 60 minutes. But overall, I’m very happy with the effort.”
Team’s off tomorrow after the bus ride, so more Monday, probably.
–Actually, worth pointing out: Rowe did this in February at Giant Center.