Fun fact, re-dug up amid a project running later in the weekend: Bridgeport has used 38 different players this season, with No. 39 expected tonight in Allentown, David Quenneville. In 2013-14, Bridgeport used 42 different players… after the March 12 AHL trade deadline, or the last 17 games.
Some of those years were just mind-boggling. Especially that one.
Anyway. Three games to go. We didn’t make this roadie, so we’ll keep up through Alan, with a special guest doing color (Mixlr audio / AHL Live audio/pay-per-view). (As Ryan Smith tweeted earlier, many AHL broadcasters tonight will be silent the first 16 seconds of the game to honor Tyler Bieber and the other 15 from the Humboldt Broncos who died from the crash a week ago tonight.) Follow Alan, the team, the Phantoms, Bob Rotruck, Tony Androckitis among others.
The box should be here (R: Labonte, C.Syvret; L: Tobias, George).
Alan noted that it’ll be Christopher Gibson’s 85th Sound Tigers game, behind only Wade Dubielewicz (164), Kevin Poulin (156) and Rick DiPietro (117). Though he’ll pass Dieter Kochan (84) tonight, he can’t catch Kochan for fourth in minutes played (5030:49 to 4744:21) this season. (Greg Cronin changed goalies only three times in two seasons.) Gibson will pass Nathan Lawson (4796:28 83 games) tonight if he goes the distance.
Not much on the line standings-wise (well, the Phantoms need a point to clinch the league’s second-best record and home ice in the Calder Cup Final if they get there; got to end the league’s third-longest playoff-series drought first), but there’s always something on the line. Pride, earning contracts, catching eyes, what have you. Plus, Brent Thompson came perilously close to dropping the Herm Edwards line earlier this week. (I dropped it instead.)
Friday Scoreboard Watching: Charlotte at Providence; Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at Springfield; Binghamton at Hartford. Hershey’s idle. Don’t believe a Penguins win clinches anything, but if they win, a regulation-time loser in the Charlotte-Providence game can’t get home ice. (Same, actually, if the Pens win in regulation or overtime and the Bruins lose beyond regulation.)
Worcester’s series begins tonight in Glens Falls. A nice Humboldt gesture by the Thunder, too.
The Phantoms’ Phil Varone was named AHL MVP. Yesterday, Mason Appleton was announced as rookie of the year. Former Sound Tigers goalie Parker Milner was ECHL goalie of the year.
Former Sound Tigers Ryan Pulock and Anthony Beauvillier (we’re gonna laugh about that someday like we laugh about Josh Bailey having the longest active Bridgeport scoring streak, right?) were, as was reported from down on the Island, named to Canada’s roster for the World Championships that begin next month. Anders Nilsson is going for Sweden.
Take All My Money Right Now, Brad Bird.
And another beg: Fake Team Awards voting continues.
More in a bit.
–Coupla Phantoms expected to pro-debut as well tonight, Tony notes.
–Dustin Tokarski for the Phantoms, says Tony. Colin McDonald and Corban Knight among those with the night off.
–LEHIGH VALLEY from Tony
F: Carey-Varone-Laberge
Ratcliffe – Vecchione – Aube-Kubel
Goulbourne-Fazleev-Twarynski
Martel-Bardreau-Conner
D: Brennan-Friedman
O’Neill-Hora
Drake-Willcox
G: Tokarski
Lyon
BRIDGEPORT pretty much as they’ve run this week:
F: St. Denis-Stevens-Bailey
Bourque-Fritz-Bernier (A)
K.Jones – Schempp – Ho-Sang
Dal Colle-Hitchcock-B.Holmstrom (C)
D: Lafranchise-Quenneville
Aho-Burroughs
Helgeson (A)-Vande Sompel
G: Gibson
Gudlevskis
–“My dad always said, ‘Don’t call me, call AAA.'” Are you positive he meant that when your car got stolen from your garage? That seems… I don’t know.
Connor Jones is out (upper), if you missed that earlier this week. Scott Eansor (upper) and Parker Wotherspoon (lower) are also out, with Devon Toews and Stephen Gionta longish-term (for certain the former, more-apparently the latter).
–Ratcliffe, on his first shift, trips Kellen Jones. Aho’s shot was tipped and slowed by Tanner Fritz, it looked like on one replay, and Steve Bernier backhands it home for a 1-0 lead at 2:22.
–Tanner Fritz took an awkward hit about nine minutes in and stayed down for a few seconds before heading to the bench. See if anything’s up there. Allentown is where his season ended last year, on March 31.
–Looks as if Fritz isn’t going, at least this time through the lineup. Took one quick look back at the TV time out; kind of awkward, maybe dodging a hit from a Phantom and getting it up high somewhere.
–Willcox off a draw through a Twarynski screen to tie it at 13:02.
–And, yeah, Bridgeport’s one short on the bench.
–So 1-1 after one. Shots 11-10 Phantoms. The Checkers are up 2-1 in Providence, and Worcester’s down 1-0 starting the second.
–Looked at the Martel hit on Fritz again, and still not 100 percent sure what happens. Seems to inadvertently trip him while hitting him as Fritz tried to get out of the way. Hopefully just precautionary, but we’ll ask later on.
–The AHL Plays of the Week closes with a Tyler Bieber signoff, and it just got kinda dusty in here.
–Diametrically opposite that, I’ve just discovered that that is not a start-over button next to the “live” button, but is in fact the 10-seconds-back button I’ve always wished I had. This changes everything just in time for the season to end.
–Bailey sends St. Denis into the zone; Conner grabs him to keep it from being a clean breakaway at 1:23 of the second.
–Turnover at the Phantoms blue line at the end of the minor makes it a two-on-one as Conner joins the rush out of the box. Fazleev takes it himself on the right side and puts it wide.
–Aho called for hooking as Goulbourne crashes the net. Gibson was a little slow to get up.
–Bridgeport catches a break late in the power play when the Phantoms are called for a phantom (ahem) offside.
–The Phantoms take a lead at 12:27 as Willcox’s shot through a ton of traffic goes. Might’ve been tipped, and Gibson had Ratcliffe all over him at the top of the crease. Ben Holmstrom was looking for an interferene call to no avail.
–It’s Ratcliffe on the tip in his pro debut.
–With Bernier off for boarding, an Aube-Kubel shot tips high, off the glass and off the back of the net. Martel gets it, puts it off Gibson’s pad from behind the goal line and in with 4:57 left in the second, 3-1 Phantoms.
–That’s where the second period ends. The Checkers lead 3-2 in Providence after two, and the Railers are down 2-0 in Glens Falls as the third period starts.
–St. Denis for an elbow early in the third period after the President talks Syria on the networks. Meanwhile, Adirondack has taken a 3-0 lead in the third, and Charlotte and Providence have traded goals early in the third.
–Pat Cullity, doing color with Alan, laments their angle. I know it… well, not that well, only been there four or five times, but well enough. Bernier for a high-stick soon after St. Denis came back.
–Bridgeport nearly gets a two-on-one one way, but the Phantoms recover well. They go the other way moments later, Friedman to Martel in front, and it’s 4-1 with 10:00 even to go.
–Charlotte wins 5-3 at Providence. Worcester falls in Adirondack to open the best-of-7.
–Penguins win at Springfield, so the Bruins can’t get home ice and need everything to go their way the last two days to get out of fourth.
–A long Phantoms pass out of their own zone turned into a three-on-two for Bridgeport; it almost broke down, but Bailey found it again, gave it to Aho, got it back and scored with 2:05 left. 4-2 Phantoms.
–Vecchione into the empty net, 5-2 with 54.2 to go.
–Fazleev’s in Quenneville’s face at the next whistle. Most of the rest of the Sound Tigers, including Holmstrom and Gibson, wind up engaged with Fazleev. 38 seconds left.
–Fazleev gets an extra minor, which mostly messes up the power-play percentage. Quenneville (who’s credited with the assist on Bailey’s goal, but about 99.9 percent sure it’s Aho’s) puts a couple of shots on net, but it’s over: Lehigh Valley 5, Bridgeport 2, final.
–That assist is fixed quickly.
–The Phantoms went 7-1 in this season series. In a really cursory look, other Bridgeport season series of eight games or more in which one team won only once: Albany River Rats ’01-02 (Bridgeport 6-1-1, and yeah, one Albany win and one tie); Springfield Falcons ’02-03 (Bridgeport 7-1); Lowell Lock Monsters ’05-06 (8-0 Bridgeport); Hartford ’06-7 (9-1 Wolf Pack).
–Brent Thompson said Fritz is day-to-day, lower body, to be reevaluated.
He thought that second Phantoms goal was “definitely goaltender interference,” but even so, “I thought we started the game pretty well, but they took away our energy. We didn’t play our game. We weren’t aggressive. … It was a different kind of game than we usually play. It’s not acceptable.”
About Quenneville, “his first game, he moved the puck well. He’s got some good vision on the power play. … A game like that, you’re not happy in general.”
They’re on to Hershey. More tomorrow.