Hey, remember all those bad starts? Not so much tonight, with a goal 29 seconds in.
“I thought our guys were ready to play,” Brent Thompson said. “Credit them. They played hard. They had a good start and pretty much rode the wave for two periods.”
Offense is coming (“Shooting the puck,” Thompson said), at least more often than not (they did, even as I go looking for consecutive games with six goals, only score four in a three-game losing streak not all that long ago). They built themselves up a big lead tonight.
And then they kind of coasted home.
“We have to finish the game the right way,” Andre Benoit said. “We strayed a little bit, but at this time of year, you want to find a way to win games. We found a way to do that.”
……
So, seven points back, nine games to go, one game in hand. The math is a little better than this afternoon; not lots, but better.
Second time in two seasons Burroughs has received a kneeing major and game misconduct: got Danick Martel early last season. On tonight’s hit on Tyler Graovac, “he tried to lead with his shoulder,” Thompson said. “The league’s going to have to make a decision on that, but to me, it was not an intentional knee-on-knee. Burroughs is not like that.”
Scoring goals, taking faceoffs on the five-on-three kill: What couldn’t Benoit do tonight? “I had another (faceoff) earlier in the year,” Benoit said. “I took a lot of flak. I wanted to make sure not to take a penalty. Now, winning one, they can’t chirp me anymore.”
Tanner Fritz, Ross Johnston and Christopher Gibson were in to see the boys tonight. Unfortunately for Bridgeport, couldn’t stick around.
Steve Stirling, Dave Baseggio and Rich Bocchini all in the house. Party like it’s 2002.
Anthony Peluso’s first pro three-point game. All in the third period. Only took him 341 more games than it took John Stevens.
Unclear what happened with AHL Live tonight. They will be working on it tomorrow.
Prescout, theoretically good for the next two games (though Hartford plays the Penguins on Friday). Hartford stays in it, mathematically. Springfield sent Jayce Hawryluk to Manchester yesterday. That’s an interesting one.
The Penguins cut their magic number to seven, beating the Bruins.
Worcester won behind a stellar Mitch Gillam night.
Optional tomorrow, but more then.