Welcome back the Hershey Bears

Wow.

That’s Hershey: Capitalize on turnovers, use speed and transition, pick teams apart. From Goal 1 (Perreault coming down the wing with a step, finding the guy in front) on, the Bears did what they do best.

“They’re a quick transition team,” Mark Flood said. “You take a shift off, even a couple of seconds on a shift, the puck is in your net. You’ve got to be on your toes every shift.”

That period blew you away. (Blew the Sound Tigers away, sure, and maybe with it their season, but…) Just relentless. Every turnover, they pounced on.

It’s 12 years ago tonight, the league office tweeted, that Hartford put that ridiculous seven-goal third-period bombardment on the Beast of New Haven in Game 1 of their playoff series. Don’t think I’d ever seen anything like that since… until tonight.

Like this game, New Haven had the better of the play to that point (the Beast had a 3-0 lead.) And then… whoosh.

And so, a series that began with a high stick, that continued with a lead in the third period, now can end tomorrow with a thud in 60 minutes. About the only thing favoring Bridgeport now is that only-three-teams-lost-three-in-three stat from last year. It’s a good group, for sure, and it’s hard to imagine it rolling over. They’ll compete tomorrow, for their goaltender (which sounds like Koskinen; Capuano said that’s where he’s leaning), for each other.

If they don’t turn the puck over, maybe they give themselves a chance.

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The history Bridgeport is chasing: 1960’s Rochester Americans came from 3-0 down to beat Cleveland, and Adirondack did it to Hershey 29 years later. Some stats, furnished by the league office, will accompany the story in the paper tomorrow. It’s important to note that, were Bridgeport to somehow pull it off, they’d not only have to go through the best team in the league and match the biggest by-points upset in league history, they’d have to do it without benefit of home ice for Game 7, which would be a first.

For fun:

New Haven 0 3 1–4
Hartford 0 0 7–7

First Period — None. Penalties — Armstrong, Har (obstr. holding), :48; Sorochan, Har (cross-checking), 4:16; Martin, Har (boarding), 7:52; Ferguson, NH (interference), 14:20.
Second Period — 1. New Haven, Kvasha 1, 5:53. 2. New Haven, Ferguson 1 (Kuba), 9:11. 3. New Haven, Washburn 1, 17:09. Penalties — Sorochan, Har (slashing), 6:26; MacNeil, NH (interference), 9:53; McMahon, NH (obstr. holding), 14:01; MacNeil, NH (roughing), 17:42; Ferraro, Har (roughing), 17:42; Savard, Har (roughing), 18:35.
Third Period — 4. Hartford, Ferraro 1 (Savard, Hall), :56. 5. Hartford, Vorobiev 1 (Savard, Ferraro), 4:02. 6. New Haven, Kvasha 2, 6:37. 7. Hartford, Brennan 1 (Winnes, Dube), 10:10. 8. Hartford, Sevigny 1 (Winnes, Dube), 13:27. 9. Hartford, Sevigny 2 (Thompson, Savard), 17:20. 10. Hartford, Savard 1 (Vorobiev, Ferraro), 17:43. 11. Hartford, Savard 2, 19:48 (en). Penalties — None.

Shots on goal — New Haven 12-13-12 — 37. Hartford 9-19-12 — 50.
Power play opportunities — New Haven 0 of 5, Hartford 0 of 3.
Goaltenders: New Haven Todd MacDonald, 0-1 (49 shots-43 saves). Hartford Robb Stauber, 1-0 (37-33).
Attendance — 7,171. Referee — Dan O’Halloran. Linesmen — John Malinosky, Brewster Earle.

And yes, that’s Peter Ferraro.

Worcester won on the road to go up 2-1. Manchester goes home with a 2-0 lead. Stuff happened in the West. (Ouch1 and Ouch2.)

Off to recollect what my apartment looks like. See you in a few hours.

Michael Fornabaio