So Dave Baseggio broke out tonight with a combination, Nos. 2 and 10 on the great hockey list of Good Things: “Good things happen when you go to the net and throw the puck at the net.”
Since the gamer was necessarily short tonight, a little runthrough…
1, Bridgeport, Tunik 4 (Omicioli), 11:44.
Martin Sonnenberg tried a pass out of the corner into the slot, but Omicioli picked it off and headed up the left side on a three-on-two. He took the shot, which Al Montoya knocked down with his blocker and lost; Tunik went to the net and poked it home.
2, Bridgeport, Regier 15 (Jarrett, Collins), 12:55.
Two shifts later, Collins’ shot went wide and caromed around to the right to Cole Jarrett, who pinched to get it and went all the way to the goal line before putting it to the net, into the crease, where Regier went to redirect it in.
3, Bridgeport, Koalska 18 (Rourke, Regier), 17:00 (pp2)
“Great hands,” Baseggio said. Rourke’s shot was stopped and directed left, but Koalska controlled it, put it to his forehand and snapped it upstairs.
4, Bridgeport, Masse 16 (Koalska, Marjamaki), 18:05 (pp)
On the back end, Koalska’s shot was stopped, but Masse knocked it out of midair into the net (and took a stick in the face for his troubles).
5, Hartford, Sonnenberg 13 (Degon, Grenier), 19:05.
Went to the net for a redirect on a shot from the top of the right circle. Not much Wade Dubielewicz could do there, which was a common theme on the three goals.
6, Bridgeport, Rourke 8 (Collins), 3:09.
This one was pretty neat and a big part of why I had Collins as the No. 1 star tonight. Collins was coming up the right side when Craig Weller nailed him, right at the blue stripe on the boards marking the blue line. Didn’t get all of him, but got enough of him to take him down. Collins hopped back up and, thanks to the wonders of physics, was right next to the puck. He slid it to Rourke, who was coming down the slot, for a goal low to the near side on newbie Robert Gherson. Either the first or second shot of the period, depending on whether you believed the scoreboard after one period (it said “13” when the number was 14) or then (it read “15” when the number was unknowable in our area). And it was really a backbreaker, particularly the way Dubielewicz was playing.
7, Hartford, Genoway 25 (Helminen, Dawes), 18:20 (pp).
Paul Flache had a scary-looking, red semicircle on the right side of his jaw after the game, but the word is he’s OK. Sore — because he took a Nigel Dawes slap shot in the jaw — and headaches — because he took a Nigel Dawes slap shot in the jaw — but no apparent concussion symptoms or fractures. So that’s good, initially. He’s day-to-day.
That Dawes slap shot, from the top of the right circle, came at 18:10 of the period. Off the draw, the puck came right back to Dawes at the top of the right circle. Hey, Harlan Pratt stood in better than I woulda. Still, the shot got through, hit Dwight Helminen, then hit Genoway and bounced in.
8, Hartford, Jessiman 5 (Weller, Falardeau), 11:39.
Two clears that didn’t work here, Omicioli’s first; Falardeau kept it in and put a shot off the end boards. Caldwell couldn’t get it out either, and Jessiman got the second whack at the puck over Dubielewicz and in.
9, Bridgeport, Collins 20 (Caldwell, Pratt), 18:27 (en).
A bouncer from center ice for Collins’ 20th, capping a great night for him, for Dubielewicz, for Koalska, for Rourke, for a lot of people.
LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Thompson-Regier-Collins (A)
Marjamaki-Koalska-Masse
Tunik-Omicioli-Tallari
Lee/Tsimikalis
D: Pettinen-Jarrett (A)
Caldwell-Flache
Rourke (A)-Pratt
HARTFORD
F: Dawes-Helminen-Genoway
Falardeau-Sonnenberg-Weller (C)
Wiseman (A)-Immonen-Smyth
Jessiman
D: Purinton-Girardi
Grenier (A)-Taylor
Pock-Degon
Bridgeport went over 300 man-games lost to injury tonight. The total is at 302, plus seven more lost to illness. Last year’s once-in-a-lifetime totals were 315 plus 26.
Al Montoya hadn’t lost in regulation since Jan. 20. He’d been pulled five times since then but had been saved from suffering losses.
Jeff Hamilton is also day-to-day with a “mild” concussion.
By my count, Lee and Tsimikalis got three shifts. (Come to think of it, I’m not sure Lee made it out for the first one, right before a TV time out.)
Alexandre Giroux of Hartford was off making his NHL debut down at Tampa, so they played 16.
Big day for Darien: Two goals for Ryan Shannon, one for Hugh Jessiman. And Shannon’s two helped beat Norfolk and cut Bridgeport’s third-place deficit to three points.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s shootout win means the Sound Tigers can’t finished first in the division, if that was still on your radar screen for some reason. You want a banner, you gotta win it the hard way.
It’ll probably be a game-night feature now: Magic numbers: To eliminate Binghamton, 12; Philadelphia, 10; Lowell, 5 (the Monsters’ loss tonight means they can finish with no more than 35 wins, the total Bridgeport already has. And the Sound Tigers sorta won that season series); Springfield, 5 with an asterisk (a regulation win Sunday at Springfield would knock them out; it’s a double whammy on the Falcons, preventing any hope of Springfield’s finishing with more wins). Binghamton and Lowell are idle today.
| Name | GP | G | A | PTS |
| Rob Collins | 212 | 52 | 106 | 158 |
| Jeff Hamilton | 173 | 89 | 66 | 155 |
Ital: Team record
Posted by mike on March 26, 2006 02:58 AM