Step back: WBS postgame

Brent Thompson said everyone had better be ready to work on Monday. One suspects that after this one he gave a thought to bringing them back tomorrow.

“I’m not really going to get into individual stuff,” Thompson said; I was asking about Josh Ho-Sang in particular, but he could’ve gone on a while on a few different people. “Each guy has got to look himself in the mirror and say I need to be better. There are habits everybody needs to break.”

As close as it was over the course of 57 minutes — and Bridgeport led twice, even — it wasn’t particularly pretty. There were good things at times in the defensive zone, but transition, covering the rush, defending over 200 feet, they were inconsistent at best, and the (myriad) turnovers shorted out any chance of building on those leads. They just let them get away.

“To me that’s one of the bigger things, the fact we were in a close hockey game and up two different times,” Thompson said. “You know how hard you work when you’re down. You’ve got to work that hard when you’re up.”

Ben Holmstrom conceded that there’s frustration after getting leads and giving them back, “but at the same time, that’s kind of a wasted emotion. It’s easier said than done,” he said. “It wasn’t like we were out of the game. We’ve still got to find our way. We’re working on our identity.”

…..

Tanner Fritz is indeed day-to-day.

Officially the Alan Quine penalty shot was the result of a Chris Summers slash. There are five penalty shots in team history, two for and three against, that were officially from slashes. Three, now, of the responsible parties were in the building tonight: Kevin Czuczman, who was playing, and Jon Landry, who stopped in to watch the boys. Andrey Pedan also in the house with an assist on the first goal, sending it ahead for a two-on-one.

A couple of goals from Stamford’s Ryan Haggerty made the Pens’ room an even more pressing stop. Somehow did not know our old buddy Anthony Ciambriello is the Penguins’ assistant equipment guy now. Good to see him down there.

Prescout. Keep hearing how good Providence is. Didn’t happen for them tonight. Two chances to see how good next weekend.

Mitch Gillam in net for Worcester tonight with Alex Vazzano backing up again. The Railers are winning at this writing; couple of points apiece so far for Chris Langkow and Kellen Jones. (One of the things that drove me nuts when Bridgeport’s affiliates were in other time zones was the aggravation of paragraphs like this. Fewer of them now, at least.)

And Chip Malafronte’s story on Columbia-Yale.

More Monday.

Michael Fornabaio