They did everything but score in the first period tonight. They fell behind in the second. They came up short in the third.
“It’s frustrating, yeah,” Brent Thompson said. “There are positive notes. We did the right things. We have to clean up some details, clean up a little bit of wall battles.”
I had Corsi at 26-15 Bridgeport in the first period, including 26-10 at five-on-five.
“The energy was there,” Andrew Rowe said. “It just gets deflating when you don’t score on your opportunities, that ‘jeez, wish that’d gone in.'”
The Pens started strong in the second. A five-on-three helped them. They got two quick ones. They never let the lead go.
The bright side for Bridgeport, such as it is, was hanging in as other things deteriorated. And a couple of guys who’d spent time out of the lineup scored tonight.
(They also happened to, in the last 10 minutes, switch places in the lineup. Coincidence.)
“It was a greasy one,” Rowe said of his, in the last 30 seconds of the second period. “It popped up, off the goalie’s shoulder and in. It was a great play by Landry on the half-wall.”
Landry had spun away from two men to get it to Rowe at the right side.
Josh Winquist’s came with 5:05 to go, also at the right side.
“You always get confidence when you score a goal,” Winquist said. “It was a great play by both Holmstroms, actually. It ended up a tap-in.”
They got to use two different units for their six-on-five advantage late, though Josh Ho-Sang was on for both. It didn’t happen. Back home they go.
….
Bridgeport has now been outchanced 72-44 on special teams. Think they might be less galled about their 0-for-0 tonight if not for the ultimate game-winner, on which a Patrick Cullity-Garrett Wilson battle wound up knocking Stephon Williams over, leading to an easy Tom Kostopoulos tap-in. They’re pretty sure Wilson finished that one off with a shove of Cullity. (Start of the rush to finish of the play, wondered if there weren’t a few penalties both ways on the first WBS goal, too. Tough to tell on the video.) Ninth time without a power play for Bridgeport; the last seven have come on the road after the first two were at home. Nine games in a row with fewer power plays than their opponents.
Prescout. Phantoms came all the way back from 3-1 in the last eight minutes.
Sorta prescout, for Sunday: noting it mostly because, as Patrick Williams mentioned, the Senators had 20 goals in their first 36 real periods before they popped up four tonight in the first five minutes tonight against Albany.
Alex Vazzano had been an emergency backup, but now he’s got a contract with Manchester.
Speaking of Sacred Heart, the Pioneers pulled out a big win tonight at the arena.
And all the best to Joe McDonald.