Bridgeport pays its second-to-last visit to the Binghamton Senators tonight. The B-Sens are coming off a pair of one-goal wins, beating Utica last night at home. It’s their second two-game winning streak this season. The other one ended in overtime in Bridgeport. See what happens with the second one.
We’ll have Alan up at AHL Live, with Grady on the other side. We’ll follow Alan, Grady and the BST on Twitter.
This should be the box (Tarnaris/Harper, Ritter). It’s Teddy Bear Toss night up there.
RIP, Robert Bennett. And if you missed it earlier, sad to hear of the passing of the legendary Bill Dineen.
More closer to gametime.
–Alan drops a spoiler and a snow picture: McAdam vs. Driedger.
–Tweeted lines:
BRIDGEPORT
F: Carzo – Kearns (A) – Ho-Sang
Dal Colle-St. Denis-Fritz
Johnston-Gionta (A)-Rowe
Schempp-B.Holmstrom (C)-J.Holmstrom
D: Cullity-Pulock
Toews-Burroughs
Lafranchise-Landry
G: McAdam
Williams
I’m guessing Gionta gets the second ‘A’ with no Mayfield or Bernier, but we’ll see. Edit: per the box, it is Gionta.
BINGHAMTON from Grady
F: Bailey (A)-Paul-Akeson
McCormick (A)-Nehring-Blunden (C)
Perron-Flanagan-Rodewald
Gagne-Loiseau-Stortini
D: Lepine-Carlisle
Harpur-Erkamps
Sieloff-Rumble
G: Driedger
O’Connor
–Brent Thompson on the pregame show tells Alan the players worked hard in practice this week. Thompson pauses just long enough to me to remember his practice blowup Wednesday. Thompson adds “for the most part.” I laugh out loud.
–Sound Tigers power play had Rowe with Kearns and Carzo and Pulock-Toews, then Landry back with Ho-Sang and the St. Denis line.
–With Burroughs off for a hook on Paul, Rodewald puts in a rebound at 9:05. Third time in McAdam’s seven starts that Bridgeport has given up a power-play goal in the first 10 minutes to fall behind. Teddy bears fly. Edit: Not quite. One of those other two, the power-play goal-against to open the scoring was early in the second.
–It’s 1-0 Binghamton after one, and I think this is the first time in McAdam’s seven starts that Bridgeport goes to an intermission behind. Shots were 8-4 Senators at one refresh; they’re 9-8 Binghamton now.
–Two shots apiece for Josh Holmstrom and Kyle Schempp.
–Rowe ties it 3:34 into the second. Johnston got it in under duress on the left side, got it deep to Gionta (who I don’t think played with his linemates to start the period), who centered to Rowe for a one-timer.
–Alan says happy birthday to assistant trainer Zack Yannes, who’s grown up with this team. We’ll echo those wishes.
–Nice pass finds Sieloff open in the right circle 8:48 into the second; beats McAdam short/glove side, and it’s 2-1 B-Sens.
–Ross Johnston called for a curious hold with 87 seconds left in the second period. Postgame edit: It’s now listed as elbowing, which makes a lot more sense.
–That penalty will carry over to the third period. Bridgeport is the only AHL team that hasn’t yet lost back-to-back games, and that’s in jeopardy now.
–It took 23 games into the 2008-09 season for Bridgeport to lose consecutive games; that’s exactly where they are now. Game 23 that year was an overtime loss; they didn’t lose back-to-back regulation games until midseason. Wilkes-Barre is the only other AHL team that hasn’t lost back-to-back regulation games this year. It has two two-game winless streaks, including one overtime loss each time, and the second of those is active going into tonight. The Pens lead the Bears 4-2 after two. Hey, speaking of which, prescout. The Pens will have a slightly shorter bus ride (weather pending), but they played Friday, too.
–That period felt kind of low-eventish, and shots in the second were just 7-4 Binghamton. 16-12 in all.
–Bridgeport ties it 71 seconds into the third period on Andrew Rowe’s second. Binghamton seemed to have a handle on Cullity’s flip-in, but Rowe took it away, cycled with Johnston in the right corner and gave it to Johnston on the right wing. Johnston took it back toward the point and had a shot blocked, but Rowe found it in the circle and fired away. 2-2.
–Looked like Ben Holmstrom got away with a trip in the offensive zone a couple of minutes later.
–Bridgeport to the penalty kill 9:19 into the third. Carzo for a high-stick, came up on Rumble going into the corner.
–A couple of good saves on that kill. Meanwhile, Oskar Sundqvist has four goals for the Penguins tonight. (And on that, wow.) (And wow, Part 2.)
–Bridgeport gets a 3-2 lead with 6:10 to play on his second. Ben Holmstrom’s forecheck forced a turnover. Josh carried down the slot, and his shot went off Carlisle, turning it into a changeup and a goal.
–And then not long after, Rodewald gets in behind the D, but McAdam stops him.
—Josh Archibald hurt in that Wilkes-Barre game on a knee-to-knee hit.
–Ben Holmstrom and McCormick scrap off a McAdam save with 1:58 left. Binghamton calls time out.
–Driedger off with 1:33 to make it a five-on-four.
–Nick Paul ties it on a wrister from the right circle with 1:05 to go. Bailey passed it across the top of the circles, and Paul held just long enough to get the shot off through a bit of a screen. It’s 3-3.
–Overtime. So the Sound Tigers still haven’t lost back-to-back games in regulation. Putting their 6-0 extra-time mark on the line.
–OT four-on-four as Ben Holmstrom and McCormick come out of the box.
–That lasts all the way until 2:19 remains.
–Gionta wins a draw to McAdam’s left, Toews picks it up and takes it right, carries it all the way up the right wing and slides a backhander through Driedger 3:30 into overtime: Bridgeport 4, Binghamton 3, final (OT). Jeez. McAdam becomes the second Sound Tigers goalie to begin a season 7-0 (Nathan Lawson, 2008-09). And they still haven’t lost consecutive games.
–“We found a way,” Brent Thompson said. (I didn’t tell him about my pregame LOLs.) It seems as if he has said that an awful lot this year. “It was a character win.” He conceded the winning goal might’ve been a break, but (a) they’d worked for it, and (2) good things happen when you shoot the puck.
Good on Rowe and Johnston to get rewarded with a couple of points? “They’ve been working hard,” he said, and with Rowe, what stood out to him was play away from the puck. “His tracking — it’s not just little puck plays, it’s all those things, possession. This was probably his best total game. He was great away from the puck. He competed on the puck, 50-50 plays, D-zone coverage.” Doing that gets you the puck, and that turned into offensive chances.
Status quo otherwise, he said. More tomorrow.