We’ll look at those five points from Ryan Strome and those four points (or was it five?) (or was it three?) (hey, sheet says four) points from Mike Halmo and seven goals in all and four goals in the second and four power-play goals and what the heck was that?…
But Scott Pellerin was looking at the other end, at the defense, the puck distribution and the strength around the net as the engine behind a wild victory over a team that has struggles of its own.
“We played how we should play every day,” Anders Nilsson said. “We played well from our own end. They didn’t get many odd-man rushes.
“We blocked a lot of shots,” he added. “Cants, he played goal there for me (in the first period, when Nilsson was down and out after a broken play). He made a good save; I think it saved it with his hand. I’m very thankful for that. It was a great team effort.”
And that included Nilsson, who had a shutout for 53:03, who made big stops in the first period (12 in all, not counting Marc Cantin’s); he left a rebound or two but recovered on them, made some good saves and got in a groove.
“I’ve been obviously struggling pretty bad,” Nilsson said, “but it’s nice to get back in today. I felt good today. I felt like I found myself again, found my rhythm, found my game, how I should be playing every night, consistently. … Now I just have to make sure to be able to bring this every night.”
You could say that for a lot of people, but they put together quite the performance, led again by the top line, Lee-Strome-Halmo.
“The last game, our line had a really good game, too,” Strome said. “On the stat sheet* last game I think Halmo had 10 hits, Lee had six; I even had a few.”
They combined for 10 shots of Bridgeport’s 36, five of them Strome’s. He tripled his season goal total in the first 23:17.
“I’d been a little disappointed, one goal in six or seven games,” Strome said. “I’ve got to put more pucks toward the net.” And with better quality, he said, and that first one was; he was in the right spot for the second one.
“Scoring first, that kind of got things going,” Pellerin said. “The power play (was encouraging), especially how much work we’ve done on special teams. … They were rewarded for playing their roles.”
….
Andrey Pedan took a hit up high in the first period; he seemed to be shaking it off and looked OK at the bench, but they took him inside to make sure. He returned for the third period. He almost had a fighting major with 29.6 seconds left, but I guess he spun Curt Gogol down too quickly. (He was escorted off, but he didn’t receive a penalty.)
If you weren’t following along, the first goal’s scoring went through a few iterations. At first assists were credited to Ness and Diamond, the latter of whom wasn’t on the ice. They were changed at the first intermission to Halmo and Lee. And that meant that, at the second intermission, Halmo was credited with five points. But a review took Halmo’s assist away, leaving it at Lee alone.
So that means that only Strome joins the elite fraternity of five-pointers: Blake Comeau, Oct. 13, 2006, at Hartford (nine points in two games); Jeff Tambellini, April 4, 2008, vs. Philadelphia (needing overtime); Greg Mauldin, Feb. 13, 2010, at Hartford (which included four assists).
Prescout. The Ads are in town for the last time this year tomorrow night. Bridgeport beat John Gibson in his first pro start for its only win of October; didn’t keep Gibson from being the AHL goalie of the month.
Stockton is playing tonight, trailing 2-1 in the second as I type. Parker Milner’s in net, and Mike Dalhuisen has the goal.
Charles Island makes the very-cool Atlas Obscura.
And a neat Internet story. I feel like I should’ve heard of that but don’t think I did. (And that just made me stop and realize that I’ve been online for 20 years. It’s at once hard to remember what it was like before the ‘net and kind of petrifying that it’s been 20 years.)
*-No, it’s not on the stat sheet I get, either. There are a few things I’d like to have that I’m sure they’re keeping. But I digress within a digression.