Trivia 2012: The Answers

Meant to post these like three days ago; sorry

“Esoteric” is our middle name around here, but maybe and admittedly a little too much so this time around. Here’s the answers:

(1) Which forward was called off the ice at Webster Bank Arena just after noon Feb. 23 and informed that Tampa Bay had claimed him off waivers? Tim Wallace, just back from the Islanders long enough to have that happen to him.

(2) Bridgeport’s season ended in playoff overtime for the third time. Name the three players whose goals have ended Sound Tigers seasons in sudden death. Chicago’s Yuri Butsayev, Game 5, 2002 final; the WBS Penguins’ Konstantin Koltsov, Game 7, 2004 first round; Hartford’s Casey Wellman, Game 3, 2012 first round.

(3) All of the following players wore an ‘A’ for Bridgeport. Which one didn’t wear it for the first time in 2012? (d) Ty Wishart, Dec. 11, 2011.

(4) You know the five pro-tryout players who stuck around, who earned AHL deals, who helped turn last season from a near-disaster to a division title. Which one was the only one to make his Bridgeport debut in 2012? (b) Jon Landry, Jan. 13 at Manchester.

(5a) Put the eight captains — Alan Letang, Keith Aldridge, Richard Seeley, Ed Campbell, Kevin Colley, Wotton, Jeremy Colliton, McDonald — in order of games-played-with-the-‘C’. That’s Wotton (368 plus 10 playoff), Letang (76 plus seven), Colliton (41), Seeley (39), Colley (21), Campbell (18), McDonald (11 as of Dec. 31) and Aldridge (eight). McDonald could be up to fifth by the end of January.

(5b) When Wotton didn’t dress, only one player was listed as Bridgeport’s captain on a lineup sheet while Wotton was here, though he didn’t actually wear the letter. (That became a trend, not to mention a running blog gag.) Who’s that? Rick Berry, he of the “Phantom ‘A'” that became a Phantom C on Jan. 10, 2007.

(6) Which past Bridgeport defenseman took a regular shift at forward wearing 5 in several games, earning perhaps a technical share of a Bridgeport regular-season record for lowest forward’s number? Paul Flache (2005-06), who announced his retirement this summer.

(6b) Name the other four men to wear No. 4 for Bridgeport. Ray Schultz, Jody Robinson, Joel Bouchard, and ATO Dustin Kohn.

(6c) Who’s the only forward to wear a lower number for Bridgeport? (He only wore it in the playoffs.) Mike Davies, 2010, No. 3.

(6d) Before Micheal Haley played his first Bridgeport game that snowy night that will live in infamy in Springfield, who was the last Sound Tiger to wear 18? Ken Magowan.

(6e) Who was the first Sound Tiger to wear 25? Dave Karpa.

(6f) Who has played the most Sound Tigers games wearing No. 2? In the regular season, at least, it’s Cole Jarrett with 120. But if you knew that Andrew MacDonald wore it for 111 in the regular season and 10 more in the playoffs and you want the point, go ahead.

(6g) The one uniform number that has been worn by only one forward, one defenseman and one goaltender? 43: Peter Tsimikalis, Chris Lee in his one-game 2006-07 PTO, and Marty Biron on conditioning.

(6h) One of the numbers involved in this question matches the number of different PTO players Bridgeport had signed through New Year’s Eve of its first lockout year. How many? Five, as it turns out: John Morlang, Brett Nowak, Blake Bellefeuille, Mike Bayrack and Derek Edwardson.

(6i) One of the other numbers involved in this question matches the total number of different PTO and ATO players Bridgeport signed in its first lockout year. How many? It’s 18: The above five plus Brendan Yarema, Nic Bilotto, Ed Campbell, Jeff Hutchins, Doug Christiansen, Jason Sessa, Jeff Szwez, Nathan Gillies, Joe Tallari, Ian Manzano and Jean Desrochers (PTOs), then Tim Sestito and Jason Guerriero (ATOs).

And as I mentioned in another post, those two were a lot more fun-coincidence when it was written based mostly on Combs and Costello.

(7a) Aside from Wotton, who has the Sound Tigers record for most games wearing one number? Steve Regier (39), 290. (That’s also the lowest number to be worn by only one player, by the way.)

(7b) Among Sound Tigers who wore more than one number, who has the record for most games in one of those numbers? Yeah, it’s Jeremy Colliton (215 in 21, with 66 in No. 23 and 45 in No. 27), though Trevor Smith (206 in 23) comes close (eight games in 45 on his amateur tryout).

(7c) Only one man has actually worn five different numbers in a game for Bridgeport. (Graham Belak wore five but only actually played in three.) Remember him? Marco Charpentier: 17, 7, 14, 23, 12

(7d) Justin Mapletoft and Tomas Marcinko are both in Bridgeport’s top 10 in games played. Both wore more than one number along the way. Both wore a number in the 60s for one season; they’re the only two Sound Tigers to wear 60-something. What easily hockeydb.com‘d dumb coincidence do they share for the season in which they wore those 60-somethings? They played as many games as the number they wore that year. Mapletoft played 61 games in 2004-05 wearing 61. Marcinko played 65 games last year wearing 65.

(8) There’s only one team against which Bridgeport won every game it played in 2012. Name it. Syracuse, 3-0.

(8a) There’s one other team against which Bridgeport had only wins and shootout losses, not regulation losses, in 2012. Name it. Springfield, 3-0-0-2.

(9) Match the 2011-12 Sound Tiger to his current team. a-2, DiBenedetto-Salzburg; b-4, Frischmon-Graz; c-5, Howes-Allen (though now out of date); d-8, Katic-Berlin; e-9, Mouillierat-St. John’s; f-7, Oleksy-Hershey; g-1, Rakhshani-HV71; h-3, Romano-Vienna; i-6, Wallace-Charlotte.

(10a) The record-tying performance did not happen last Monday: Matt Donovan, 11-37-48 in 71 games, led the way. Casey Cizikas was 18-25-43 in 45 games.

(b) Who led the team in goals in 2012? Cizikas’ 18 did it; David Ullstrom and Nino Niederreiter both had 16.

(Ullstrom was interesting, by the way. In 23 games last season in 2012, he was 12-4-16. In 21 games this season in 2012, he was 4-12-16.)

(11) Which was Bridgeport’s best calendar year, by percentage? Aided by the unbeaten streak, 2003: 44-21-9-4.

Michael Fornabaio