Things could’ve been worse Saturday night. Josh Ho-Sang fell — it was epidemic even before a gash opened up in the ice behind Eamon McAdam’s net in the third — in the circle to McAdam’s left in the second period. Nicolas Aube-Kubel turned left and, well, knee met face. Jon Landry was angry. Another observer, not part of the team, called it the dirtiest play he’d ever seen. (Background for the quote to come: Landry got the extra minor.)
“It was a dirty hit, I thought,” Ho-Sang said. “I couldn’t believe it wasn’t a penalty. The fact we were down was insane.”
But Bridgeport killed the penalty, and Ho-Sang was OK, and he was around to score the fourth goal in a big win, another big one over a team that sure appears to be one of the top teams in the league when it doesn’t play the Sound Tigers.
Ho-Sang said he hadn’t been playing well. (He said it more emphatically if unprintably.) He was famously scratched eight days ago in Syracuse. He’d gone six games plus that night off without a point.
Both he and Brent Thompson saw improvement Friday night in Wilkes-Barre.
“The last game, I thought I played my best game I’d played without a point,” Ho-Sang said. “I just want to help the team. I don’t really care about points as long as we’re winning, and we had been. I got scratched and stuff. I had to step it up, right?”
He got a secondary assist in the first period tonight on the power play — yep, they even got one tonight — moving it back to Devon Toews for a shot whose rebound Michael Dal Colle put home. And he scored on a breakaway in the third, led out by Kane Lafranchise.
“Joshua has been playing much better of late,” Thompson said. “His speed’s dynamic. It feels like he plays better in higher-paced games. He made good puck plays in the defensive zone. he didn’t overhandle. It was great to see him get rewarded.”
….
Horrible story in Tucson, where Craig Cunningham collapsed just before the Roadrunners were set to play Manitoba. The team released a general statement. Hopefully all works out well.
McAdam gets his first AHL win. Did it matter that it was against a team that now plays 40 minutes from where he grew up, as the first guy to make it to pro hockey from the area? “Growing up, it was always a goal to make pro (hockey),” McAdam said. “To get my first win against this team, the Philadelphia Phantoms when I watched them growing up, it’s good. It’s just another stepping stone.”
Kellen Jones apparently played through his injury last night, blocking a shot. He was on crutches after the game.
Prescout. The heck is in the water there? Twelve goals in two games after 20 in 12.
May see former Hartford Wolf Pack forward Danny Kristo against Wilkes-Barre next weekend. Pittsburgh picked him up for Reid McNeill.
And times are tough in the NWHL.