USA 4, Russia 3, shootout, Americans on to the Gold Medal Game tomorrow night in Montreal!… oh, right, Bridgeport…
Jaroslav Halak’s last AHL game: Feb. 24, 2008, a win for Hamilton at Toronto, and take a look at some of those names.
Meanwhile, since Christopher Gibson went down the day before Election Day, Sound Tigers goalies have combined (while in the net; there’s one empty-netter in these 21 games) to go 11-10 with an .893 save percentage and a 3.10 GAA. For Eamon McAdam, that’s 7-2 but with an .885 and a 3.38. Stephon Williams is 4-8 but with an .899 and a 2.87 (which, thanks to a start that included four goals against at Hershey and five in two periods against the Penguins, is better than his overall season numbers).
Halak, in 21 NHL games this year, is 6-8-5 with a .904 and a 3.23. We’ll see how it goes for him in his Bridgeport debut.
Meanwhile, there’s the anger. Eric Boulton plays his second game of the year, coincidentally against Springfield again. Dylan McIlrath is down with the Thunderbirds on conditioning. And Jayce Hawryluk plays for the first time since the Dec. 2 Connor Jones hit that started it all.
There’s the returns and injuries, too. Ryan Pulock is out (he doesn’t play after taking a hit coming across the blue line with about 4:30 left Sunday, but I’m told the injury happened earlier), and so is Tanner Fritz, with the latter sounding shorter-term than the former. Josh Winquist appears to remain out, though he warmed up. But Adam Pelech plays tonight for the first time since Nov. 28.
Travis St. Denis is back from his suspension in the spot Fritz filled Sunday. Kyle Burroughs returns. Kane Lafranchise and Jon Landry are back together, though they’d been separated in yesterday’s practice.
There’s also a small amount of NHL experience in this Bridgeport lineup. That’s about 1,745 more NHL games than many of the lineups Bridgeport iced in some recent seasons.
And the U.S. junior national team will be playing for gold tomo… never mind.
BRIDGEPORT
F: Kearns (A)-B.Holmstrom (C)-J.Holmstrom
Dal Colle-St. Denis-Bernier
K.Jones – C.Jones – Ho-Sang
Boulton-Rowe-Markison
(Winquist-scratch)
D: Pelech-Mayfield (A)
Toews-Burroughs
Lafranchise-Landry
G: Halak
Williams
SPRINGFIELD
F: Horvat (A)-Balisy-Hawryluk
Hunt-Sutter-Harper
Rau-McCann-Greco
Bozon-Lammikko-Acolatse
D: Downing-Regner (C)
McCoshen-Weegar (A)
Brown-McIlrath
(MacKenzie-scratch)
G: McKenna
Berra
(backup goalie corrected, hopefully)
R: Schlenker, Tufts. L: E.Ernst, St. Lawrence.
Bridgeport scratches (believed healthy unless noted): Gibson (lower body), Leduc, Pulock (upper body), Fritz (lower body), Johnston, apparently Winquist (lower body).
First Bridgeport game for referee Jeremy Tufts.