Home again: Springfield pregame

Off a clunker last night, in which they were down 5-1 halfway in and at least didn’t give up any more, the Sound Tigers begin the eight-game homestand that could pretty much seal their fate. There are only 13 games left: these eight, a trip to Providence, two more at home, then two more on the road (a flashback-inducing Springfield-WBS swing).

Plenty of opportunity to secure all that needs securing, maybe even take a run at Charlotte, which will be in town twice next week. Plenty of time to slip.

This team hasn’t shown a lot of the latter, though, and there’s a chance to turn around the past few weeks’ ups and downs today against Springfield, a team that has gotten itself back into the neighborhood of the playoff race but still trails Providence by eight points with 12 to go.

A lot of tweaks for Bridgeport off that messy night in Hershey last night; three forwards in (Scott Eansor, who has been out of six in a row and eight out of 10, is in today), three forwards out (Kieffer Bellows, with one point in his past 15, most notably).

BRIDGEPORT
F: St. Denis-Koivula-C.Bourque
Lorito-Fritz-Bernier (A)
Jones – Kubiak – Ho-Sang
Eansor-Stevens-B.Holmstrom (C)
(Gionta-scratch)
D: Aho-Burroughs
Vande Sompel-Rathgeb
Helgeson (A)-Casto
G: Smith
Gibson

SPRINGFIELD
F: Zolnierczyk (A)-Ang-Thompson (C)
Lowry-Dea-Praplan
Repo-Lammikko-Greco
Byron-Horton-Farnham (A)
D: Melchiori-Bystrom
MacDonald-Mangene
Stillman-Breton
(Schemitsch-scratch)
G: Driedger
Sakellaropoulos

R: T.Koharski, Reneau. L: Galvin, Hanrahan.

This should be the box.

Bridgeport scratches (believed healthy unless noted): Cornell, Wotherspoon (upper), Bellows, R.Bourque (veteran), apparently Gionta (veteran), Sislo (veteran).

Will leave the veteran tag on three of those scratches even though only two, technically, are. Bridgeport’s only dressing four vets today.

Only because it was randomly noted in updating the stats last night and he followed them here: Bridgeport is 3-11-1-0 all-time with Stephen Reneau.

Scoreboard watching: Just one game, Toronto at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, well underway, but it could affect Bridgeport’s magic number (19) today. (Toronto lost gutwrenchingly last night.)

And happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Michael Fornabaio