Like Ben Holmstrom said after the mathematical end, it was a longshot.
“Seventy-plus games of hard work,” the captain said, “it’s just tough to swallow.”
The last time Bridgeport controlled its own destiny was after it completed the 4-0 comeback for the second time, beating Rochester on March 15. The next night, it lost at Hershey. The Checkers won the next night, and the deficit never got below seven again.
A week later, while we were here for the NCAAs and more watching Syracuse instead of Clarkson, Carter Verhaeghe stuck a knife in his old teammates, dealing them their third loss in a row. It might not have been lethal, except later that night Charlotte came back to beat Laval. A night later, the lead was 11, albeit with three games in hand for Bridgeport.
But Bridgeport won the next two. And then it went to Springfield and had a repeat of last year. Pretty soon, the path was easier through Providence than through Charlotte.
“There are games, you can look back over the course of the year, games, times, moments when you say ‘I wish we didn’t give those up,'” Brent Thompson said.
“I don’t know if you can pinpoint them this minute,” Holmstrom said. “There are always points, you look back, if you could’ve kept a losing streak to two games instead of three. A goal here, a goal there. An overtime loss becomes an overtime win. Those points obviously add up. It’s nothing we didn’t know all season.”
This group, as I mentioned to Holmstrom around midseason, has played very few meaningless games. They scratched their way into the playoffs in 2016, and even their last game was for positioning; 10 guys who were here for that season are still on the roster, though just five who played in the playoffs dressed tonight. They were mathematically in it until the second-to-last game last year; nine guys who played in that one played tonight, and another three from that game are on the roster now. And now this, in a year they knew they were in another dogfight in a tough division. Hershey fell on hard times, but Charlotte was good as advertised.
And so that’s it.
“They are taking it hard,” Thompson said. “Our goal is to make the playoffs and win the cup. At the end of the day, it’s a letdown.”
……
Four games remain. The Sound Tigers are locked into fifth. In an alternate universe, they’d be five points behind Utica with four to play, but add about 95 disclaimers to that.
David Quenneville was in the house. Thompson talked about getting him a practice, not wanting to throw him into the fire, but said decisions were yet to be made about tomorrow’s lineup.
Had to be a weird way for Jeff Kubiak to score his first AHL point, putting in a nice short-handed goal.. with 25.6 seconds left, to make it 4-2 in the game that eliminates your team. “It’s a tough situation, down 4-1,” he said. “Tough, but it’s obviously nice to contribute.” He and Kyle Schempp had a pretty good short-handed shift earlier in the third period that kind of turned momentum for a bit, but nothing came of it, and then the B’s put it away with Schempp in the box. “It was nice to get in on the PK,” Kubiak said. “You just want to do your job.”
Anders Lee got his 40th tonight in Detroit in the Big Club’s finale. Weird fact, tweeted earlier: This is only the sixth time both the Rangers and the Islanders missed the playoffs in the same year (1998-01, 2010). It’s the first time they and both their top affiliate miss as well. The Wolf Pack made it the first four times, as did assorted Islanders affiliates; Bridgeport made it in 2010, which is the last time — annual playoff explainer, longer every year — the Sound Tigers won a playoff game. The Rangers cut Alain Vigneault loose tonight.
Lehigh Valley tied it late but lost in OT in Hartford, so the Phantoms’ magic number to secure the division title (their first since they edged the Sound Tigers in 2003-04) is two points over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (30 for Daniel Sprong) and one over the Bruins.
Worcester won again, six in a row. They close the regular season Sunday, again against Richard Seeley and the Monarchs, and they could play Manchester in the first round, too.
And a tip of cap to Minnesota Duluth, NCAA champions, preventing Notre Dame from becoming the third team in five Bridgeport regionals to go on to win the title. The Bulldogs were the first in 2011. Of course the Bulldogs barely eked their way into this year’s tournament when everything went wrong for Minnesota on the last day of the season, which led to Don Lucia’s stepping down and Bob Motzko’s move from St. Cloud State. A day that changed the course of history, then.