First, Devon Toews thought I was asking if he remembered his last goal. “Maybe Lehigh? It’s been a while,” he said. (It was actually April 7 in Providence, coincidentally the last time they played seven D. Lehigh last December was the one before that.)
I meant two goals, because typically I’ll embarrass myself and forget that he scored two of his five goals some night in Hershey or something. You don’t get a lot of two-goal games when you score five, he said. But he didn’t think he did it at Quinnipiac, either.
He did it tonight, the second one on a rebound of a Tanner Fritz shot with 4.3 seconds showing on the clock.
After an ugly first period for Bridgeport, after a better second, he started getting chances.
“It’s funny; it’s just the way the game goes,” Toews said. “Me and (Kyle Burroughs) found ourselves having to play more in the defensive end. Late in the second and the third period, we really got our legs going. We were creating opportunities.”
He scored through Steve Bernier’s screen on a long-delayed penalty — Christopher Gibson was out 55 seconds; Adam Cracknell got dumped in the neutral zone, uncalled — early in the third. He hit a post early in overtime. He started the two-on-one with Tanner Fritz after Travis St. Denis shoved Dan Catenacci off the puck, and he finished it.
Didn’t take nine shots tonight, either.
…..
Speaking of, a glitch in the box has the shots off, so I’m not 100 percent sure if Toews had two or three shots. Gibson had 35 saves and saved their bacon in particular on this scramble with about five minutes left in the first. It was a near-dominant first for Hartford, though the Sound Tigers managed some golden scoring chances in the period.
“They just moved their feet,” Toews said. “To get out of that 0-0 was great. Gibby was awesome.”
I tweeted Toews’ lack of two-goal memory, and minutes later Jason Chaimovitch sends me this. (I did not know the BCHL has weird overtime rules.)
Thompson said they’ll evaluate the roster situation tomorrow. “Guys are banged up, tired,” he said. Ryan Bourque is day-to-day, like Connor Jones, and though they’re not to the point of a timetable yet, he said, Stephen Gionta is getting closer.
I may finally write that “Thompson with 11 forwards” story one of these two days. (Counted 23 different line combinations, not counting mixed combos that got stuck on mid-change or things like that.)
And so ends the longest streak without overtime in team history, 22 games, since the disastrous blown lead at Lehigh, Stephon Williams’ last start. The record in one season is 16, which could’ve happened Sunday.
Prescout, though the Checkers play in Springfield again on Friday.
And tip of cap to Rudy Raffone and Jeff Bevino.
More tomorrow.