From their ancestral House of Pain last weekend, the Sound Tigers head to their modern House of Pain tonight to begin a three-in-three weekend. They’ve lost their past six visits to MassMutual Center, beginning and ending with shutout losses that devastated their playoff hopes in 2016-17 (elimination night) and 2017-18 (not quite but close).
Providence was once Bridgeport’s private house of horrors. In occasionally odd fashion, the Sound Tigers didn’t win their first nine visits to what was then the Providence Civic Center, which is still their team-record winless streak in one visiting arena. They’ve now dropped their past five visits to what’s now the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, including Sunday’s 6-1 loss.
Even after losing the first three visits to what was then the Springfield Civic Center, including the legendary turning-point 316-penalty-minute game on Feb. 1, 2002, Bridgeport won 13 of its first 21 games in Springfield. But in the past 38 trips to what’s now MassMutual Center, it is 10-22-1-5, with three winless streaks of five or more.
And this six-game losing streak here is two short of Bridgeport’s team-record losing streak in a visiting arena, eight games in Hershey from 2007 to 2011 (plus three more in the 2010 playoffs).
(“Visiting” qualifiers because they have a nine-game home winless streak in 2011 and an eight-game home losing streak in 2015, but.)
It looked during the week as if Ryan Bourque and Mike Sislo might be tonight’s odd vets out, particularly when the power play ran with Ryan Hitchcock in Sislo’s place. So they are, apparently. The power-play absence of Mitch Vande Sompel probably tipped off that the eight-defensemen-six-spots lottery was going to leave out the Vande Sompel-Yannick Rathgeb pair to start the weekend, too. No Tom Kuhnhackl. Stephen Gionta makes his AHL season debut.
Three former Sound Tigers on the other side.
Those who obsess over the order of line rushes will presumably love this one.
BRIDGEPORT
F: Dal Colle – Jones – Ho-Sang
Bellows-Gionta-Fritz
C.Bourque-St. Denis-Bernier (A)
Hitchcock-Kubiak-B.Holmstrom (C)
(Koivula-scratch)
D: Toews-Burroughs
Wotherspoon-Helgeson (A)
Aho-Casto
G: Smith
Gillam
SPRINGFIELD
F: Lowry-Zolnierczyk (A)-Thompson (C)
Repo-Ang-Greco
Hunt-Borgstrom-Hawryluk
Farnham (A)-Horton-Bajkov
D: MacDonald-Bystrom
McCoshen-Mangene
Stillman-Melchiori
G: Montembeault
Driedger
R: C.Brown, Sheehan. L: Richetelle, Simeon.
Bridgeport scratches (believed healthy unless noted): Rathgeb, Vande Sompel, R.Bourque (veteran), Eansor (lower), Gaudreau (lower), apparently Koivula, Kuhnhackl (veteran), Sislo (veteran).