To complicate Bridgeport’s already tenuous chances at taking a run at this thing the rest of the way, they might be as banged up as they’ve been all year. These past two games are the first times this season they’ve had four guys out to injury. (Throw in illness, and there are three others.) A few others were said to be game-time decisions today, banged up in Syracuse, and Josh Ho-Sang and Kane Lafranchise are missing today.
But, you know, absence creates opportunity, no excuses, play like a champion, et cetera. Eamon McAdam gets the start in Wilkes-Barre. Tyler Mueller makes his pro debut. Kyle Schempp draws in for the first time in the AHL since Feb. 13. Charlotte’s magic number is 12 and could be as low as nine in three hours, or Bridgeport could get the deficit back to single digits, not that that’s manageable.
Penguins lines brazenly stolen from Mike O’Brien, ’cause I can’t read those warmup jerseys from here. (Well, maybe I could, but it was bad enough figuring out what Bridgeport was going to do.)
BRIDGEPORT
F: Dal Colle-St. Denis-Bernier (A)
Hitchcock-Stevens-Bailey
K.Jones-C.Jones-Bourque
Turcotte-Schempp-B.Holmstrom (C)
D: Helgeson (A)-Vande Sompel
Aho-Burroughs
Mueller-Benoit
G: McAdam
Gudlevskis
WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON
F: Wilson (A)-Dea-Sprong
Johnson-Jooris-Haggerty
Sestito-Burton-Thomas
Cramarossa-Blueger-Kostopoulos (C)
D: Summers (A)-Czuczman
Pedan-Bengtsson
Tinordi-Trotman
G: Jarry
Peters
R: O’Donnell, Tufts. L: Waleski, Suchanek.
Bridgeport scratches (believed healthy unless noted): MacKinnon, Lafranchise (inj.), Toews (shoulder), Wotherspoon (lower), Eansor (upper), Gionta (upper), Ho-Sang (upper), Kubiak.
Scoreboard watching: Hartford at Hershey; Springfield at Toronto