Three of Bridgeport’s eight longest winless-in-regulation streaks have ended on Jan. 29. Unfortunately for this year’s bunch, that’s the day of the All-Star Skills Contest. They’ll have to find their own way out.
This current 11-game skid (2-8-0-1) is tied for sixth on the team’s all-time list. The record is 17, beginning with a loss in Newark as the Sound Tigers dropped from 19-16-4-1 to 21-29-6-1.
Third on the list is a mild oddball, a 15-game streak that just stretched into a second season. It included the last 14 games of 2013-14, and it ended with the first game of 2014-15. Around the regulation wins that bookend the streak, though, are a six-game losing streak in 2013-14, the beginning of the plummet after the Olympic break that took them from 26-24-1-4 to 28-40-2-6; and an OT-heavy start to the following season. In 27 games overall over two seasons, Bridgeport was 2-18-7 after 60 minutes.
Anyway. Ancient history. Curiosities. The thing of the moment is for Bridgeport to get points today against a team that snapped a four-game losing streak last night.
This isn’t the only reason I’m not in Hartford to watch it, but it’s one of them. We’ll be following Alan on AHL Live, which is offering free video tonight in addition to the usual free audio. (There’s an outdoor game in California tonight if you want to watch something else at some point.) The box should be here (R: Lambert; L: Galvin, Wahl. Or at least that’s how they were scheduled. Lambert was in Utica last night).
Alain Vigneault told New York reporters not to expect Pavel Buchnevich in for Hartford tonight. The Pack have three-in-three this weekend, so he’ll go tomorrow after scoring a goal last night.
More off-topic than usual, every time I’m jealous or concerned that technology is moving quicker than I can keep up, I see something like this and am fine with my elderly TVs and such.
More around 7 p.m. (remember, 7:30 start after Yale beat UConn this afternoon).
–OK, more in like a minute: While I posted, the team tweeted lines that look like yesterday’s and D pairs that come close (no Fritz):
BRIDGEPORT from the team (with the apparent extra from Stan)
F: Winquist-Kearns (A)-Bernier
Dal Colle – St. Denis – Ho-Sang
K.Jones-C.Jones-Rowe
Johnston-B.Holmstrom (C)-J.Holmstrom
D: Lafranchise-Mayfield (A)
Toews-Burroughs
Landry-Leduc
G: Halak
Williams
–Stan was up in Hartford today and reports Halak vs. Halverson.
–Scouting the Refs says to expect Chris Rooney to join Pierre Lambert tonight.
HARTFORD from Bob Crawford
F: Glass-Fogarty-Fontaine
Noonan-Carey-Kovacs
Oksanen-McPherson-Alderson
Joly-McRae-Brown
D: Gilmour-Hughes
Kampfer-Paliotta
Graves-Summers
G: Halverson
Hellberg
–If Rooney is indeed in Hartford, it’d be his first Sound Tigers game since Game 4 of the 2002 Calder Cup Final. He worked the first game in franchise history, Oct. 5, 2001, at Rochester; the Ray Schultz triple minor was his handiwork.
–Alan mentions that the winless-in-regulation streak is tied for sixth on the team’s all-time list. HI, ALAN!
–Power-play units are the Kearns line with Lafranchise and Toews, and the St. Denis line with Landry and Burroughs.
–Fogarty hits the post after beating Halak blocker side 8:45 into the game; Mayfield puts a shot on at the other end a few seconds later.
–Shots on goal just 3-3 at 12:17. Two Wolf Pack forwards have tripped Bridgeport defensemen, but nothing to show for them for Bridgeport.
–Decent tilt between Tanner Glass and Ross Johnston after a Johnston hit on Fontaine. Johnston got the right free briefly, then Glass got the left and then the right going. Lasted awhile.
–Phil McRae draws a Kearns hook, then takes an interference minor. On the four-on-four, Dal Colle comes across the blue, gets by a man in the left circle and puts one against the grain glove-side on Halverson. It’d been 17 games without a goal for him. 1-0 Bridgeport.
–Shots 8-6 Bridgeport after one, leading on that four-on-four goal.
–Was just about to say “Landry should get an assist on that” when, on refresh, there it is. Landry sent it across to Dal Colle in the neutral zone, who went east-west, came in, got past one man to set up the shot.
–Bridgeport kills off a Winquist slash, but as that expires, Hartford comes out three-on-two. Alderson puts it to the crease from the right side, and Halak covers almost midway through the second. (Burroughs again starting with Mayfield in the Pelech/Cullity PK spot.)
–Glass collides with Connor Jones, and Jones goes slowly to the bench, cutting his shift a little short. See if he’s good for his next shift.
–Jones is there for his next shift.
–Leduc has shown no shyness about shooting the puck when he’s been in, and his right-point shot goes in through Kearns’ and Bernier’s screen. If it’s his, it’s his first AHL goal with 3:59 left in the second. 2-0 Bridgeport.
–It’s his, at least by the announcement.
–On the rush on the right, Ho-Sang tries to put it back into the slot to St. Denis; the pass misses connection, Hartford comes out three-on-two, and Fogarty drops to Graves in the slot for a blast that beats Halak low-glove. 2-1 Bridgeport in the last two minutes of the second.
–Halak gets one under the mask or maybe collarbone with 38.5 seconds left in the second; Halak goes to the room, and Stephon Williams comes in.
–Chris Brown’s stick rides up and knocks Kellen Jones’ helmet off, so Bridgeport will have 1:59 of power play to start the third. See who’s in net for Bridgeport for that. The second Bridgeport goal is now credited to Bracken Kearns, so we’ll wait for Loic Leduc’s first AHL goal. 2-1 Sound Tigers after two.
–RIP, Nat Hentoff.
–Williams still in net to start the third. They showed in the highlights a look at Dave Stickney pulling at the right side of the collar of Halak’s sweater, but not enough to tell exactly what he was looking at.
–Halak wasn’t in the runway, where the visiting goalies sit in Hartford, to start the period, but he has since returned there.
–A long stretch without a whistle — there was a glove on the ice for at least one full rotation — ends with a Wolf Pack holding penalty with just under seven minutes left. I’ll ha-ha-only-serious suggest Leduc at one point. Bridgeport’s seventh power play; it’s 0-for-10:12.
–Reminded myself of this story from last year, by the way, including especially Gibson’s note about collarbones.
Meanwhile Hartford nearly converts on a two-on-one on that penalty. Burroughs slid to help prevent a pass from getting to Tanner Glass in front.
–Holy cro, New York Rangers. Meanwhile Halverson gloves a Winquist blast near the end of that power play with Bernier in front.
–The outdoor game is on in Bakersfield; 58 degrees… And now a Kampfer penalty with 2:35 to go. Alan had just gotten through noting the penalty disparity. It’s a roughing minor. Eighth power play for Bridgeport.
–Halverson to the bench with 48.9 seconds left off a Bridgeport three-line pass and Hartford’s time out. The Kampfer minor has 13 seconds left.
–A Bridgeport icing in the final seconds is waved off — Ryan Graves is not happy at all, and I’m not sure I blame him — and it ends Bridgeport 2, Hartford 1, final. The winless-in-regulation streak is over.
–Raining pretty good in Bakersfield right now. They’d cut the first period five minutes short with a stanchion problem. Meanwhile the football game’s in the fourth quarter? Moved faster than the hockey game. Moved faster than most of my high school football games.
Eventual game-winner for Ryan Haggerty in Wilkes-Barre tonight.
Brent Thompson said Halak, “he’ll be fine.” Tried to narrow down where it hit him; Thompson wouldn’t play along. But he’s apparently all right. Thompson pointed out that he was dressed to back up.
Good defensive effort, he said. “The referees let us play,” he said. Eight power plays ties their season high. Two against is their lowest of the season.
“Steps in the right direction” for Dal Colle; a good few lines about him in the gamer.
He said he hadn’t taken a look at the video on the Leduc shot to see the deflection. “Net presence is what you need to be successful in this league,” he said, and they had it. “Overall, I’m really happy to see Duker making better puck plays. He’s always ready, whether he’s in or out. It seems he’s ready all the time.”
They’re off tomorrow. More Monday.