Josh Ho-Sang is loving life with this line.
“I’ve always had chemistry with Mike (Dal Colle). We had a lot of chemistry early in the year,” Ho-Sang said. “Today you saw more me and Winny.”
He’s developed it with Josh Winquist, he said, in practices and morning skates when they’ve been the extras. He and Winquist connected twice, beautifully, tonight, and though Hartford took a point, Bridgeport got the two it needed.
They’re creative. They’re thinking offense. They know where each other will be, he and Winquist said. “Just go, go, go,” Ho-Sang said.
Not surprisingly, Brent Thompson’s thoughts on Ho-Sang’s game were not all about points. It involved play away from the puck, tracking defensively.
“I think he’s improving every day,” Thompson said. “You see him working hard, shift-to-shift.
(Thompson, in fact, pointedly said that we probably notice it, compared to some of his earlier games. I’d agree.)
“At the end of the day, he’s a kid committing to the little things we’re asking.”
The team in general struggled a little early. The Wolf Pack carried play. Too sloppy, too swingy, too poke-checky early, Thompson said.
“If you look at the first period, it was a function of us not moving our feet,” Thompson said, “not working to support each other.”
It picked up in the second period. Bridgeport allowed only two shots on goal, helped by a power-play disparity. That rubber band had to bounce back; Hartford got the last two power plays, and it scored on the second, off a pass that snuck through to the front for Matt Carey.
Bridgeport got the second point anyway.
……
Hershey blew an early 2-0 lead and lost in a shootout to Providence. Bridgeport and the Bears both have 50 points, and they both have 20 non-shootout wins. Bridgeport has two games in hand. There are 35 games left for the Sound Tigers, so talking about “games in hand” at this point is kind of silly, as really is getting down to the second tiebreaker, but anyway. Zane McIntyre, back from Boston, made 32 saves for the P-Bruins.
Brent Thompson’s 133rd win, tying Jack Capuano. Capuano was here for 255 games as head coach (133-100-8-14); this was 269 for Thompson (133-110-15-11). (Capuano had 23 shootout wins to Thompson’s 14, but with the new overtime rules, it’s kind of apples to oranges at this point.)
Prescout. The Phantoms have won three in a row, coming from behind tonight.
I love these usually anyway, but this Bad Lip Read is brilliant.
And RIP, Alan Rosen, Mike Connors, John Hurt and Charles Shackleford.