17.76: Charlotte pregame

And so it ends, the 76th game of Season 17. Tyler Mueller steps in for Kane Lafranchise, with some minor rearrangements, but otherwise the same crew as last night.

Four times before (Dieter Kochan in 2004-05, Nathan Lawson 2008-09, Scott Munroe 2009-10, Christopher Gibson 2015-16), a Sound Tigers goalie has finished a season with 19 wins. Gibson is there today, looking for the eighth Bridgeport season of 20 wins.

Charlotte — with ex-Yalie Andrew Miller back from injury on Friday — takes third place and a date with the Penguins with a point. If not and Providence wins, third is the Bruins’. They’re tied right now against Springfield, late second.

(There’s precisely one other spot up for grabs in the AHL: the super-, all-, incredibly important fifth place in the North Division. It’s Belleville’s with a win at Toronto, but if Binghamton makes up the one point between them — the Devils are down one in the second at Utica, and the BSens are early on in Toronto — the Devils win any tiebreaker. The other 26 teams are all locked into place for eternity, including San Jose, which last night capped a crazy comeback to take fourth in the Pacific.)

BRIDGEPORT
F: Dal Colle-St. Denis-Bernier (A)
R.Bourque – Stevens – Ho-Sang
K.Jones-Hitchcock-Bailey
Schempp-B.Holmstrom (C)-J.Holmstrom
D: Helgeson (A)-Quenneville
Wotherspoon-Burroughs
Mueller-Vande Sompel
(Aho-scratch)
G: Gibson
Gudlevskis

CHARLOTTE
F: Zykov-Wallmark-Miller
Saarela-McKegg-Poturalski
Foegele-Bishop-Brown (C)
Kuokkanen-Roy-Gauthier
(Stortini-scratch)
D: Carrick (A)-Didier
Samuelsson (A)-McKeown
Fleury-Kichton
G: Brown
Booth

R: Lambert, Mayer. L: N.Briganti, Galvin.

This should be the box.

Bridgeport scratches (believed healthy unless noted): apparently Aho (lower), Benoit, Cullity, Lafranchise, Toews (shoulder), Eansor (upper), Fritz (lower), Gionta (upper), C.Jones (upper).

Season-ending Scoreboard Watching: Springfield at Providence, well underway; Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at Hershey.

Worcester getting started at the same time as Bridgeport in Game 3 of 7, tied at 1. Eamon McAdam starts to end the three-in-three.

…….

It has been a while since we ran down the list of Bridgeport off-ice officials, who provide the behind-the-scenes backbone for these games while tolerating assorted coaches and staffers and insane beat writers, all for a few tickets (to give others) and a pregame meal (if they win the race to the buffet).

So, with thanks and no small degree of affection: Tip of cap to Stan Capp (chief), Nicole Broderick, John Brillante, Anthony Ortiz, Alex Oleshko, Kenny Michaels, the legendary Frank Camera, Mario Gazzaneo, Al Longobricco, Joe Milot, Bruce Shepard, Rich Corris, Mark Dias, Mike Duprey, Casey Schilling, Alex Puttock, Aaron Puttock, John Brillante, Jr., Ozzie McLelland and Alan Longley.

Michael Fornabaio