Ways and means: WBS postgame

Just up and asked Connor Jones: How do you keep finding ways?

“We’re a really hard-working team,” Jones said. “We love being around each other. We’re want to work together. … No one cares who gets credit. We just want two points at the end of the day.

They keep finding them, whether it takes 60 or 63:55 or whatever. (They’re 5-0 beyond regulation now, 7-5 in regulation.)

Tonight, Eamon McAdam withstood a shooting gallery, his teammates blocked a ton of shots (figured we’d next see Tanner Fritz around Christmas when he couldn’t even limp off in the first, but he made it back), and they got goals at good times to get the job done.

“We need to clean those details up, manage the puck, get it behind their defense,” Thompson said. “Turnovers, teams attack. They attack with four guys every rush.”

“The effort is there. The support of each other is there.”

Which got them to overtime. The Penguins broke out two-on-one. Jon Landry broke it up, coming back hard to deny Kevin Porter a pass from Danny Kristo.

“At three-on-three, if you have a chance going one way, you usually, if it’s missed, have a chance the other way, Steve Bernier said. “You just hope they miss and get ready to go.”

Landry chipped it past a man, and Bernier went. Connor Jones said they were both exhausted; he said they looked at each other, and looking back, yep, in front of the Penguins bench, Bernier looks over, Jones looks at him, and then Bernier puts his head down and skates.

Bernier pulled up in the Penguins zone, and the pass worked, somehow. Three bodies and the puck all converged around the same place, but it worked out.

They’ll all see each other again tomorrow.

…..

Imagine that bus ride involved lots of ice packs. Some nasty hits (don’t know if Carter Rowney arrived in ill humor, but he sure appeared to finish that way) on top of all those blocked shots.

A dump-in redirected on McAdam with about 40 seconds to go in the first period. He came a few strides forward, settled it and fired it right up the middle and, in the end, right on Casey DeSmith. McAdam’s was the sixth all-time shot on goal by a Bridgeport goalie, all at home, and I’d imagine the two goalies with two are pretty easy to guess:

Name Date Opponent
Rick DiPietro 10/30/02 St. John’s
Rick DiPietro 11/16/03 Providence
Nathan Lawson 12/21/08 Lowell
Nathan Lawson 2/14/10 Springfield
Scott Munroe 3/21/10 Springfield
Eamon McAdam 11/25/16 WBS

Finally got to ask Steve Bernier about his empty-netter the other night. He laughed. “Right above the knee; it didn’t hit any pad,” Bernier said. He didn’t have any idea it was going in. “The only thing I knew was it hurt a lot. When the puck went in, I couldn’t believe it.”

First goal as a Monster for Brett Gallant tonight with an assist from our (and his) buddy Jaime Sifers. His last goal was the power-play goal on Jan. 31, 2015, here against Portland. (Hadn’t seen that he got 44 back.)

The transactions today included Grand Rapids releasing Fairfield’s Jack Barre. He’d played only two ECHL games this year.

Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald calls out Colin Kaepernick for wearing a shirt with Fidel Castro on it.

RIP, Florence Henderson.

And RIP, Fort Wayne Komets legend Bob Chase.

Michael Fornabaio