Bridgeport was more or less how it has been of late, with two exceptions, one obvious, one not. The obvious: With Bracken Kearns called up to the Islanders, Tanner Fritz moved up to his spot for practice at Wonderland. It’s a reunion, kind of: Andrew Rowe will play the middle, as he did a couple of weeks ago against Hershey when Kearns was banged up, between Carter Verhaeghe and Fritz. Simple and logical, with Fritz returning from illness.
The non-obvious: yesterday’s news that Connor Jones is on an NHL contract. “I’m excited,” Jones said. “I was pretty surprised. My agent called in the morning. I thought he was calling about tax stuff. I was really surprised. It happened really quickly.”
Kearns will play with Kulemin and Gionta. The Islanders put Casey Cizikas on injured reserve; no other move, but Arthur Staple said Shane Prince looked close.
Mark Divver reports that Zac Rinaldo is out for the year.
Bolton’s Ron Hainsey was traded to Pittsburgh this morning. WBS forward Danny Kristo, traded for the second time this season, goes the other way. He’ll likely be joining Bryan Bickell in Charlotte.
Sacred Heart wraps up the regular season at Air Force this weekend. It needs a sweep and help to get home playoff games.
Greg Wyshynski was on our wavelength yesterday and looked for the little kid who did the Herb Brooks speech from Miracle. No word, unfortunately, if he fires up his teammates at intermission by telling them they’ll take a loss to their (blank)ing graves.
Sad to hear the Alaska Aces will fold.
And RIP, Alan Colmes.