Would it be easier to just put four up for the Bears tonight and see what happens?
The Sound Tigers have won four in a row on the road coming into this one. There are only four longer road winning streaks in team history and not that many longer road streaks with a point. They’ll try to continue that tonight in Hershey, where they’ve earned two points five of the past eight visits (three of them in shootouts, each of those with a late comeback, which is nothing new to these guys lately).
We’ll keep up through Alan (Mixlr audio / AHL Live audio/pay-per-view). Follow Alan, the team, Zack Fisch and the Bears.
The box should be here (R: R.Anderson, Pontes; L: Suchanek, Waleski).
Scoreboard Watching: Rochester at Providence; Syracuse at Springfield; Lehigh Valley at Hartford. Charlotte is off.
Off the ice, further parking lot disagreement between the arena and the city.
More in a bit.
HERSHEY from the Bears
F: Whitney-Graovac-Simpson
Walker-Langlois-C.Bourque
O’Brien-McGauley-Gazley
Sill-Gustafsson-Peluso
D: Ness-Lewington
Siegenthaler-Bowey
Johansen-Williams
G: Copley
Vanecek
—Champions walk together forever, etc.
–Stephen Gionta out injured. Michael Dal Colle also out; don’t know of an injury there. Back to Kristers Gudlevskis.
BRIDGEPORT from the Tigers
F: Hitchcock-St. Denis-Bernier (A)
Bourque-Stevens-Bailey
K.Jones – C.Jones – Ho-Sang
Eansor-B.Holmstrom (C)-J.Holmstrom
D: Benoit-Lafranchise
Wotherspoon-Burroughs
Helgeson (A)-Vande Sompel
G: Gudlevskis
McAdam
–Talking earlier about possible lineup changes, Brent Thompson tells Alan there were “guys I want to be able to pull a little bit better going forward.”
–Aside from one shift for the Joneses after a stretch pass from Ho-Sang, feels like a lot of the first six minutes are in the Bridgeport end. No score, though. (And Alan’s audio has caught up to live action, so that’s good.)
—Worcester is underway.
–Bit of a wacky sequence with a bit over 11 minutes left in the first. A Bears defender knocked the puck away from Hitchcock on a two-on-one, then sent it all the way down. Icing was waved off very late, and Whitney forced a tight Gudlevskis save.
–Alan says there hasn’t been a penalty. Five seconds later, Williams is called for a slash. Nice job, Alan.
–Eansor in Dal Colle’s spot on the power play, which ends with one shot on goal.
–No score after one. Hershey turned it over at its own blue line, but Ryan Bourque put it wide. Shots on goal 10-5 Hershey, most of which was that first six minutes.
–Whitney’s banged up on the first shift of the second; Alan thought maybe cut. The Bears had a couple of chances on that shift and the next. Bridgeport came back with a couple of good chances.
–Five shots on Copley for the Sound Tigers in the first 3:30 of the second, as many as they had in the first period.
–Partial breakaway for Ho-Sang, who pulls up and draws a slashing penalty. It’s Williams called for it. It doesn’t look like much of a slash, but it’s 2017-18. Second Bridgeport power play.
–As that penalty expires, Eansor knocks down Lewington, and Lewington gets up and goes after him. Bridgeport winds up with a power play.
–And 12 seconds into that, Bailey one-times Ho-Sang’s cross-ice pass and makes it 1-0 Bridgeport. Penalties were cross-checking on Eansor, roughing and unsportsmanlike on Lewington, it sounded like.
–Whitney’s back. (He may’ve been back before, but anyway.)
–Another Hershey penalty, the fourth Bridgeport PP against none for Hershey just past midway.
–Penalty expired; Hitchcock was out there late, not sure if he’d been out and I didn’t see him or it was mid-change. A bit after, Gudlevskis gives it away behind the net to Chris Bourque, who can’t find anybody in front.
–Hershey botched a two-on-one, but the next time they come in, Hampus Gustafsson ties it with 4:11 left in the second. Looks like Sill got to the puck behind the net just before Vande Sompel and got it quickly to Gustafsson in front. His first AHL goal… and as I’m typing, Ho-Sang gets free and gets Bridgeport a lead back with 3:15 left in the second, getting around Copley’s left pad.
–Gudlevskis kicked out a Peluso shot before that Ho-Sang goal. Couldn’t tell who it was (Edit: Kellen Jones, says the sheet) who sent it from the Bridgeport side of the red line to Ho-Sang up the right, a step ahead of a defender.
–Hershey goes to its first power play with 1:00 left in the second, Wotherspoon called for interference cutting off Gazley.
–Bridgeport leads 2-1 after two. Shots 14-8 Sound Tigers in that period, 19-18 them overall. One minute left in the Wotherspoon minor.
–Second looks: Think that Hershey goal came after Vande Sompel tried to backhand it along, got it elevated and still somehow had it bank off Sill to the right post, where Gustafsson controlled it and beat Gudlevskis. Then after that Peluso shot from the right circle, Helgeson backhanded the rebound ahead, where Kellen Jones knocked it away from Sill, carried into the neutral zone and sprang Ho-Sang.
–Over at Ingalls, the Farmington Valley Generals are up 7-0 on Guilford in the second…. 7-1 now, late second, in the Division II final. They were 3-17 three years ago. Fine turnaround. Would be Farmington’s first title since Nick Bonino’s in 2005, and believe it’s the first for the other teams in the co-op.
–Penalty killed, and Wotherspoon gets in the rush to set up Bourque in front… but the Bears, coming back the other way, draw another penalty 1:18 into the third. Wotherspoon goes right back in for a slash.
–Just after the penalty, Bowey’s shot is headed to Gudlevskis’ right; O’Brien tips it back to his left and ties it 3:26 into the third period. 2-2.
–Bears only credited with five shots midway through the period, but feels like they’ve spent more time around Gudlevskis than that. Meanwhile, Copley stops a Ryan Bourque blast from the right side. Under 9:00 to go now.
–Josh Holmstrom forces a turnover that Josh Ho-Sang carries up-ice, setting up a little flurry of chances with about eight minutes left in regulation. They all stay out.
–About seven minutes left, a Williams right-point shot hit someone in front and hit the right post.
–Bridgeport has been looking like the team that played last night while the Bears were off, and Anthony Peluso beats Gudlevskis far-side from the right circle with 4:42 to go. Bears take their first lead, 3-2.
–Chris Bourque called for slashing with 4:25 left.
–Killed off. And yeah, Hitchcock’s on that second unit, in Dal Colle’s spot.
–Time out, Bridgeport, 1:52 to go.
–Hershey ices it with 1:39 left, and Gudlevskis goes to the bench.
–Puck bounces out to Vande Sompel in the left circle; Copley, above the crease, stops him with the right pad with 28.7 left.
–Bears clear off the draw. Langlois misses the empty net, but Vande Sompel called for a cross-check with 18.5 seconds left.
–Couple of offsides, little scrum: Hershey 3, Bridgeport 2, final. Sound Tigers remain five back, squandering a game in hand on the Checkers, with 13 to play.
–Hartford beats Lehigh Valley in the shootout. Marek Mazanec is back for the Pack. Stopped Chris Conner to end it.
–Brent Thompson disagreed that Hershey looked fresher in the third. (And, I mean, I prefaced it with “I know you’re not going to use it as an excuse but.”) Poor decisions. Not on their toes. “No excuse.” They had enough rest. Had chances. Didn’t win it. He thought they were OK in the first, controlled the tempo. Thought they controlled the whole second. The back-to-back penalties came to start the third, and “they scored that one goal — it was five-on-five, but — it gave them life, and now you’re on your heels. … We didn’t push back until it was too little, too late.”
On scratching Dal Colle: “Just the thought process was to have him watch a game from up top and understand there’s another level,” Thompson said. “It’s a great development piece to watch a game from up top.” He said there were good things from Dal Colle the past few games and a few things that needed to be cleaned up.
Further afield, Bill Ballou reported after the Railers’ big win tonight that Ryan MacKinnon has signed with Bridgeport, though the Sound Tigers haven’t confirmed (not that I have any reason to doubt reporter or source there). MacKinnon has eight points in seven games for the Railers after three years at UPEI.
No ice tomorrow for the Sound Tigers. More Sunday from Providence unless warranted; a Stephen Gionta update is possible.