Oh, Albany. So mispronounced by Canadians (Betty, when you call it, you can’t call it AL-bany). So missed by us after Hearst conglomeration kept us from visiting (except for last summer on our own, when there was no hockey, for good or ill).
As your team heads down I-88 (stop at Brooks‘ on the way) and your building figures out what comes next, Bridgeport pays its final visit tonight. It’s been 16 years of visits to two different New Jersey arenas, Rowdy (and Rude-E) moments, occasional bloodshed and infrequent-but-intense rivalry, and we’ve loved it all.
Ten moments — oh, what the heck: 10 moments (for broad definitions of moments) and the Two Years’ War — to remember from those 16 seasons, River Rats into Devils:
Army marches on, Nov. 23, 2001. Chris Armstrong scored 15 seconds into overtime — still the fastest Bridgeport overtime goal — and the Sound Tigers won 2-1 at home, extending their first long unbeaten streak to nine.
Francois St. Laurent’s Friday Night Penalty Party!, Nov. 22, 2004. Yeah.
Happy new year, Dec. 31, 2006. After Bridgeport lost ugly, 7-3, at the end of an ugly stretch, falling to 13-16-1-3, there was a 55-minute meeting after which the coaching roles appear different. The team goes 23-21-0-5 the rest of the way.
Playin’ the Feud, 2006-08. This kind of goes back to Lowell, even. In the summer of 2006, the affiliations swapped between Lowell — Bridgeport had had a testy finish with the Lowell Lock Monsters, then affiliated with Carolina, in 2005-06 — and Albany. The Hurricanes and Tom Rowe took over the River Rats. And for the next two years, the feud was fierce and sometimes funny. Rowe and Jack Capuano played games with their lines in warmups, running out combinations that had no bearing on reality whatsoever (centermen on the wings, wingers in the middle; about the only thing they didn’t do was send a goalie on defense). There was the fight between Jeremy Colliton and former roommate Brandon Nolan. There was the Scott Ford hit that sadly ended Nolan’s career. There was, obviously, Drew Fata’s hit on Keith Aucoin at the buzzer on Feb. 23, 2007, the signature day of the rivalry, if only because it also mixed in the “coaches being excluded from press meals” part of it all. There was Fata-Aucoin redux the next season. There was the day the Rats wouldn’t reveal their transactions before warmup. Jeez, you circled those games on your calendar.
It didn’t hurt that, in 2006-07, they were in a pitched battle for the last playoff spot…
The Mike Mole Game, April 1, 2007. At the time, it might’ve been the biggest regular-season game in team history. One day after an atrocious 6-5 loss at Hershey, Mole got the start back home against the River Rats. He made some huge saves early, Bridgeport contained Aucoin, the goal scorers included David Desharnais, and the Sound Tigers won 4-2 to pull into a tie for the last playoff spot in the East Division. (Bridgeport wasted an Albany loss to Springfield three days later with a listless loss in Philadelphia.)
SOL, April 7, 2007. They were tied again when Bridgeport visited the Rats a week later. Trevor Smith’s first professional goal tied it (deflecting in a shot by Blake Comeau, who was at the end of a 136-second shift). But the Rats won in a shootout to go a point ahead. They’d finish two points up.
Back on the bus, Feb. 25, 2009. A week earlier, Albany’s bus skidded off the Massachusetts Turnpike on the way home from Lowell and overturned. Thankfully everyone survived, and week later, those healthy got on another bus, came down Route 8 to Bridgeport and won in a shootout.
Clincher, March 31, 2009. Sean Bentivoglio’s hat trick in the game rescheduled from the Feb. 18-19 bus crash helped Bridgeport win 5-3 at Albany and clinch its first playoff spot since 2006.
He did what? March 9, 2011. Chad Wiseman did this. Four goals in the third period.
Blew up the Chicken Man, Jan. 13, 2013. In the first game of the rest of the 2012-13 season, after the NHL called up a few players for training camp (and, for some, beyond), Bridgeport beat the Devils in Atlantic City. Nino Niederreiter scored two goals in his 37th game of the year, giving him 19 goals and 17 assists for 36 points. Niederreiter was obviously disappointed about not getting called up for camp but said the right things afterward. In his last 37 games, he scored nine goals and five assists. He was traded on draft day.
Fight Night, April 16, 2016. The second-to-last day of the regular season turns into this.