Race is run: Charlotte (1) liveblog

Bridgeport missed NASCAR Night in Charlotte. Spare a thought for poor Alan. Tonight is 1950s Night, and it’s sold out.

We’ll be following along with him (Mixlr audio / AHL Live audio/pay-per-view). On the Twitter, we’ll follow Alan, the team and the Checkers.

The box should be here (R: MacDougall, Sewell; L: Nicastro, T.Lyons).

Bridgeport made the Jeff Kubiak recall official this morning. He’s assigned No. 48, the number he wore in training camp (not the number he was assigned last spring, though, which was 54.) No. 48 had been the lowest number assigned only once, to Cameron Wind, one of the many ATOs in 2011. That honor now falls to Graham Belak’s 53 (his fifth number).

Congratulations to our new colleague Paul Doyle, as well as Ch. 8’s John Pierson.

Nice Alex Prewitt story on Wes McCauley.

And RIP, Mike Shanahan.

More in a bit.

–It’s a Green Line reunion (lineups from the teams):

BRIDGEPORT
F: Bourque – St. Denis – Ho-Sang
Eansor-Stevens-Bailey
K.Jones-C.Jones-J.Holmstrom
Johnston-Schempp-B.Holmstrom (C)
D: Wotherspoon-Burroughs (A)
Lafranchise-Cullity
Helgeson (A)-Vande Sompel
G: Gibson
Gudlevskis

CHARLOTTE
F: Zykov-Wallmark-Miller
Saarela-Brown (C)-Kuokkanen
Foegele-Bishop-Poturalski
Heard-Roy-Gauther
D: Carrick (A)-Didier
Samuelsson-McKeown
Chelios (A)-Kichton
G: Nedeljkovic
Smith

–Tonight’s winner, by whatever means, will hold fourth place on percentage, for what that’s worth on Jan. 16 (halfway, for Bridgeport). The Sound Tigers would hold it both on percentage and on accumulation with a regulation win only. (And I know, don’t say “accumulation.”)

–Missed this: RIP, Edwin Hawkins.

–The other ‘A’ on Burroughs.

–High-stick for Wotherspoon on Miller as the ex-Yalie moves the puck past Wotherspoon at the left point. First Charlotte power play.

–A redirect about midway through appeared to hit the post. Looked like the usual PK group. Back even.

–Didier for interference on Connor Jones at 6:21. Bailey, Ho-Sang, St. Denis, Eansor and Vande Sompel on the top unit. John Stevens on the second unit for the first time in a while with Bourque, Johnston, Burroughs and Wotherspoon.

–Cullity hooks Miller as he cuts to the front. Third minor in the first 9:01.

–A Jones-Holmstrom pair out there at the end of that PK… K.Jones and J.Holmstrom.

–RIP, JoJo White.

–Ben Holmstrom finishes a hit on Carrick (maybe lateish), Carrick engages, they shove, and then they go. Spirited. Carrick falls on top of Holmstrom. Five apiece.

–Vande Sompel takes a shot up high. Gets up under his own power relatively quickly but heads off, bleeding, with Dave Stickney.

–Lowish-event period (at least until the fights and injury) despite three power plays: no score after one. Shots Charlotte 8-5. St. Denis put one wide from the slot with about 90 seconds to go.

–Alan asks Kyle Burroughs about his coupla goals in the past few games. Burroughs quips about having to pick up the slack with Devon Toews out.

–Lafranchise paired with Helgeson to start the second, which presumably means no Vande Sompel at the start. A scrum after a stop; Charlotte power play.

–Only penalty is to Ryan Bourque, so two PK forwards in the box with Ben Holmstrom still serving the fighting major. The Joneses start it.

–Vande Sompel returns after an whistle late in the PK.

–Wallmark trips up Josh Holmstrom to keep him from the puck in front. Connor Jones levels Wallmark after that. Bridgeport’s second power play 6:12 into the second.

–Couple of near-misses, and Gibson almost dangerously turns it over. Back even.

–Burroughs slow to get up, slow to get to the bench, caught out after a turnover in the neutral zone. Let’s see how he looks after the whistle… well, it’s the Hot Dog Cam. Never mind.

–Samuelsson for interference on C.Jones. Second interference minor he’s drawn in the first 30 minutes.

–Burroughs is on for the second shift of the power play, so guess he survived. Back even.

–Gibson stops Poturalski off Brown’s centering pass from behind the net with 6:58 left in the second.

–St. Denis tossed from a draw in the offensive zone, then jumped early. Charlotte wanted a penalty call for a second false start; no such luck.

–Charlotte takes a lead with 3:55 left in the second. Puck didn’t get out, Charlotte a half-step ahead twice, a Checker wins a one-on-two in the left corner to let Foegele take it to the front of the net to score on his own rebound. And seconds later, Kyle Schempp to the box for elbowing.

–Poturalski was the one who got it out of the left corner there; given the only assist.

–Wotherspoon off-target on a return pass to Burroughs, lost, sent the other way. Gibson makes the first stop on Foegele, but Roy is first to the crease for the rebound sitting behind Gibson. 2-0 with 10.1 left in the second period. So 2-0 Charlotte after two. Shots 19-14 Checkers.

–Just Foegele with an assist so far, but think it was Bishop who chipped that ahead in the neutral zone.

–For ’50s Night, which apparently includes ridiculously underpriced tickets and concessions, they just showed this.

–They’re getting snow in Charlotte, too, and they’re already setting up an exchange if fans can’t go tomorrow.

–Nedeljkovic stones St. Denis point-blank moments after Ho-Sang drew a penalty with 14:47 left.

–Elsewhere, Shane Prince (upper) is done for the night, the Islanders announce.

–Alan notes that Dave Stickney came out to check on Christopher Gibson after he got tangled up with a Checker.

–Kellen Jones blocks a shot, heads up the left wing on a partial break and is stopped by the blocker. Seconds later, Bailey heads to the box. Fifth Charlotte power play with 4:44 left.

–Alan: “If you’re looking to Sound Tigers hockey to fill some kind of void… (long pause) in your life…” Beauty.

–Bridgeport kills it off, but down under two and a half to go. Nedeljkovic made a blocker save on Bailey out of the box; good read for whichever Checker dropped back to make sure Bailey had someone to deal with. Time out, Bridgeport, with 2:19 left.

–Gibson to the bench with 1:58 to go.

–A Checker fights off Eansor and clears it past Vande Sompel at the right point. Foegele takes it all the way to the empty net. 3-0 with 54.1 to go. Bridgeport’ll get another power play with 28.4 to go after Gauthier trips Connor Jones.

Charlotte 3, Bridgeport 0, final, first time Bridgeport’s shut out since Elimination Night last year at Springfield. Bridgeport’s halfway home on pace to go 36-28-8-4.

–A two-mistakes-in-the-back-of-the-net kind of thing? “That’s the hockey game,” Thompson said. He liked their first period, a good road period, but thought they were casual in the second. Win your battles, and the like. “I thought we only played 35-40 minutes,” he said. “It wasn’t consistent.”

Offensively, “we didn’t shoot enough. Two-on-ones, point-blank chances, we were looking to make an extra pass. We need that shooter’s mindset. We definitely didn’t do that. Normally we go after 30 a night, and tonight, you see. (5-9-11 for 25.)

He said he hadn’t heard about Shane Prince’s departure from the Big Club’s game, but he hadn’t gotten a call for anyone, either. (For what it’s worth, that was around 10:10.) On Kellen Jones, “I thought he had a good game. He created a couple of chances. He did a good job in his role.”

Elsewhere, Sacred Heart continues to handle Bentley.

Let’s do it again tomorrow.

Michael Fornabaio