Eight is not happening: Worcester postgame

Streak’s over.

“It (is objectionable or inadequate),” Matt Donovan said. “Obviously you want to keep that streak going. I felt that was a very winnable game if we showed up the first 40 and played like we did in the third. It was ours to take, those two points.”

A rough first two periods; a long stretch of the second period, they didn’t establish any zone time, it felt, at all. A good third, helped by the major but well on its way to good even before that. But it wasn’t enough.

“We missed a couple of chances,” Scott Pellerin said. “We’ve got to build off those positives and get ready for Utica.”

Things picked up toward the end of the second, beginning with a power play, but they were never able to bury one.

So they’ll try again tomorrow, again against a rested opponent; The Comets were already in town.

…..

Just a lineup decision, Quine vs. Johnson, Pellerin said. Broda-Sundstrom-Pistilli stayed together in general. Lines started as Vaughan-Clark-Persson, Mercier-Martin-Diamond, Gallant-Langkow-Johnson. To start the third, they were Persson-Clark-Mercier (or the other way around, I think, at least once), Diamond-Martin-Johnson and a reunited Gallant-Langkow-Vaughan. They all had some good moments early in the third. Things changed up after the power play.

Kevin Poulin had some ups and downs — some adjustments, he said, to the differences between the leagues — but felt good, mostly. “He hasn’t played in a while,” Pellerin said. “He was finding his timing. He made some big saves when we needed — he’s an NHL goaltender. … We’ll continue to work with him. He made some quality saves. I’m sure he’d like to have one back. It was good to see him on the ice.” First goal caught him in the shoulder, popped up high, he said, and kind of landed between him and Aaron Ness, which let Freddie Hamilton find it again. The second took a weird bounce in the corner and froze everybody in white.

Joey Diamond was supposedly OK after taking the cross-check to the face, played a couple of shifts after it.

Having had players suspended for fighting after coming off the bench, the Sound Tigers may be curious about Taylor Doherty’s fighting Brett Gallant on a line change. See if anything comes of that. (As noted on Twitter, Gallant now has 63 fighting majors as a Sound Tiger, tied with Eric Godard for second, two behind Micheal Haley.)

For those who dig such things: February’s 8-1 makes it, in pure, get-yer-shootouts-outta-here-and-take-your-OTL-points-with-ya terms, the second-best full calendar month in team history (only to November 2003’s 10-0-1 in the middle of the 20-game unbeaten streak). (There were those two 4-0 Aprils, too, ’03 and ’09.) Add those points back in, and the only other month to top it is January 2012, in which they went 10-0-0-1 with two shootout wins. Considering where they were on New Year’s Eve that year, that run was mind-boggling. This is probably the only run in team history to rival that.

Tim Jackman re-signed with the Ducks.

Texas at San Antonio postponed: unsafe ice conditions.

Brandon DeFazio and the Comets tomorrow.

Michael Fornabaio