Last Chance to Turn Around: Tuesday (Belmont) notes

The official announcement comes down tomorrow, but reports are that the Islanders have won the Belmont bid. You may remember that co-owner Jon Ledecky got in touch with us a couple of weeks ago to say that would be good news for Bridgeport. It should provide some long-term stability, finally, for that franchise and its fans and its players.

Then again,

Anyway.

All three goalies were on today. Kristers Gudlevskis said he was feeling good. “It’s obviously day-to-day,” Brent Thompson said. Couple of days yet before they have to pick two to dress.

Maintenance day for Shane Prince, Thompson said. Optional tomorrow.

Patrick Cullity came back up from Worcester yesterday. “By the third or fourth game I felt like I was back to myself,” Cullity said, “back to game speed, making decisions. You never want to get sent down, but it’s numbers.”

Calvin de Haan is injured up top; the reports sounded bad yesterday but sound a little better today. Thomas Hickey came off IR to fill the spot.

Back here, Bridgeport has gone 10 games without a regulation win (3-4-2-1). That’s tied for the eighth-longest run in team history. The record is 17 in spring of 2015.

Edit: The Penguins have acquired veteran goalie Michael Leighton from Arizona and sent him to Wilkes-Barre.

Fun dumb stat from the other night: Of all 51 Philly/Adirondack/Allentown Phantoms visits to Bridgeport, Sunday was the first time the Sound Tigers lost beyond regulation. They’d been 5-0-2 vs. any variety of Phantoms. That includes arguably the most-important tie in team history, the scoreless draw on April 10, 2004, second-to-last day of the season, that clinched both a couple of league records for Wade Dubielewicz (1.38 GAA, .946 save percentage) and the division title for Philadelphia. Which set up Bridgeport-WBS in the first round. The rest is history. Actually, if you want to go one fun/dumb/weirder, only one of those five wins came with the clock running; the other four were shootout wins (and the last of those was in 2009). The only OT win for Bridgeport was April 4, 2008, Jeff Tambellini completing his five-point game with the winning goal.

Already a Bridgeport flavor at the all-star game: After Scott Pellerin was named an honorary captain last week, Bracken Kearns was named a playing captain today.

Springfield’s Ryan Horvat will miss the re-rematch on Friday

Tage Thompson got the call back to the Blues. His little brother in the house today.

Olympic and Paralympic rosters announced Jan. 1.

This feels weird.

About halfway down a rabbit hole yesterday afternoon, I ran into this Smithsonian Magazine story on baking powder. Enjoyed it. Figured what the heck.

And RIP, Len Ceglarski.

Michael Fornabaio