And it’s boring here in Levittown: Lehigh Valley liveblog

Tied up with another assignment tonight, so watching Alan on the AHL Live and following him, the team, Tony Androckitis, Bob Rotruck, Stephen Gross et al.

The box should be here (R: Binda, MacDougall. L: Knapp, Ritter).

Scott Mayfield, the team notes on Twitter, plays Game 215 as a Sound Tiger tonight. He, Trevor Smith and Mike Halmo had been tied for 10th, but it’ll be Mayfield’s alone when he takes his first shift.

Possible weekend prescouting stuff: Cory Conacher got called up to Toronto, and Frank Vatrano is in Providence.

RIP, Alan Thicke. I am the rare one of my generation that can’t sing you chapter and verse on “Growing Pains,” but it still hits.

More closer to game time.

BRIDGEPORT from Twitter, forwards as yesterday, D looking familiarish (assuming the letters):
F: Dal Colle-Kearns (A)-Bernier
St. Denis – Fritz – Ho-Sang
Rowe-C.Jones-Gionta
Markison – B.Holmstrom (C) – J.Holmstrom
D: Cullity-Mayfield (A)
Toews-Burroughs
Lafranchise-Pulock
G: McAdam
Williams

LEHIGH VALLEY as Tony expects them
F: Bardreau-Laughton-McDonald (C)
Martel – Weal – Aube-Kubel
Carey-Miele-Conner
Knight-Fazleev-Zengerle
D: Brennan-Willcox
Morin-Sanheim
O’Neill-Hagg
G: Lyon
Ouellette

R: Binda, MacDougall. L: Knapp, Ritter.

–Bridgeport in white, with the Phantoms in orange. Wearing blue would’ve worked, right? Right? Never mind. Game on.

–I’m having all kinds of trouble keeping the signal, but as I get it back, the Phantoms celebrate a goal. Conner got Toews turned the wrong way to get a step on him, went to the net from the right side and beat McAdam at 87 seconds.

–The Phantoms score again just after a Cullity minor expires. Martel shot wide; it caromed to Sanheim left circle who may’ve gotten a bounce off a defender. 2-0 midway first.

I miss all the fun stuff. Called unsportsmanlike, though always thought that was technically interference. The Phantoms’ fourth power play in 13 and a half minutes. And as Alan says they’ve corrected that to interference, Sanheim scores his second, this one from the other side, a right-circle shot off the far post and in. 3-0 Phantoms just shy of 15 minutes in.

–Bridgeport gets one back 29 seconds later. Ho-Sang, apparently, scrambling from the right side of the cage.

–They give the goal to St. Denis, the other guy scrambling there.

–At least two Phantoms goals off the rush in the first period as Zengerle makes it 4-1 with 1:49 left. He carried up the right wing, dragged it toward the middle as Lafranchise went down to block a potential shot, and fired it over McAdam’s blocker.

–That’s how the first ends, though Bridgeport will have 79 seconds of a Weal cross-check to start the second.

–Shots 21-8 Phantoms. Yipes.

–Stephon Williams comes in to start the second. Ho-Sang called for slashing Knight’s stick as Knight tries to get in on a short-handed break. A minute of four-on-four.

–Kearns gets sent into Lyon and gets a penalty, so a longish four-on-three with a long five-on-three potentially to follow.

–And on the five-on-three, Cullity broke his stick, and the Phantoms feed the guy on his side, Greg Carey. 5-1 Phantoms 1:53 into the second.

–This game isn’t good enough to work this hard to watch it.

–See if the audio feed holds better than video. O’Neill goads Ho-Sang into a cross-check, sending Bridgeport to the PK for the seventh time in 27:36.

–Connor Jones gets one back short-handed, taking it away from Andy Miele and scoring from the right side. 5-2 Phantoms.

–Bridgeport gets another one as Mayfield comes in and feeds Tanner Fritz to the left of the net for a one-timer. Sounds like a nice job by Mayfield, as Alan describes it. 5-3 Phantoms with about eight minutes left in the second.

–Toews wrister from the top of the left circle goes in through Jones’ screen with five minutes left in the second, and it’s 5-4 Phantoms. Toews had a tough start, burned on the first one, may’ve had the second one go in off him, burned for a breakaway later that didn’t result in a goal. He’s now plus-1. Go figure.

–While I tweet one joke and try to point out that McAdam’s off the hook, they score again. Bernier from the slot. It’s tied late in the second.

–So (deep breath) it’s 5-5. Phantoms shots advantage cut to 27-21. Edit: make it 27-22. Bridgeport has 42 seconds of a Phantoms too-many-men penalty left, its fourth power play.

–The power play to start the third expires, though not before Lyon knocks down a Toews shot and it’s cleared before Bernier can find it.

–Geno Binda calls Jones for a dive 1:45 into the third.

–Penalty killed, and Lyon stops Fritz on a one-timer off a Ho-Sang pass with about 15 minutes left.

–Jones and Laughton yelling at each other at the benches. Soon after, Brennan gets one through Williams to give the Phantoms back the lead, 6-5, about eight minutes into the third.

–First time Bridgeport and its opponent have combined for 11 since Feb. 10, the 7-6 shootout win at Hershey when Andrew Rowe tied it late and then won the shootout.

–After Lyon makes a couple of saves, Fazleev scores on a two-on-one from Zengerle to make it 7-5 Phantoms with 4:52 left.

–Williams to the bench with 3:07 left.

–Dal Colle puts a shot into Lyon with 1:17 left, and Bridgeport calls time out.

–Bridgeport scores off a scramble with 1:05 left. It’s 7-6. Not sure who did so, as I lost audio immediately after. I’m having a night. Anyway. Crazy game.

–Bardreau gets an empty-netter, so it’ll end Phantoms 8, Bridgeport 6, final, the third 8-6 loss in team history, tying a team record for combined goals (they’ve all been road losses, at Albany on Nov. 30, 2013, and at Hartford on Jan. 30, 2015). First consecutive losses for the Sound Tigers this season.

–After he was furious at the effort Sunday, Brent Thompson was a lot happier with it tonight. “That was good to see, that we got that back on track,” he said. Obviously lots to work on, but he thought some bad breaks (including, yeah, that second goal was off a defender). “It’s disappointing, no matter how you cut it,” he said. “I hate the result but do take the positives out of it. It’s like when we were winning: It’s a new day.” Managing the puck and the forecheck were a couple of things he talked about.

They’ll be back at it tomorrow. More then.

Michael Fornabaio