Soundin' Off

Got some HS stuff to finish up, so no immediate liveblog, but you can get audio on the game tonight on the Heat’s flagship’s Web site. Will toss some stuff up if it strikes me, but most of what should strike me early during the next two Sound Tigers games should concern football or volleyball.

—–

OK, back to hockey after an amazing high school football game. Whet your appetite for coverage with Sean Patrick’s blog, then wait for Emmett Spillane’s gamer. I don’t recall ever seeing a team more devastated than Central was. Incredible.

Hockey-wise, the Sound Tigers took a 2-0 lead before the Heat scored in the final minute of the first. Box here.

—

Lawson is up to 30 saves midway through the game, the broadcast reports. I am curious who this “Jonah Sue” is for Bridgeport. (It’s like a messed-up Buddy Holly/Johnny Cash mashup.) Not the easiest name to get out, of course, so that’s not too bad. Stumbling over DiBenedetto, I dunno. Pronounced as it’s spelled. Meanwhile, DiBenedetto’s getting an assist here as Trevor Smith, according to the broadcast, kicks one in. And they’re comparing it to France-Ireland: sacrilege! Edit: Wrong Eyetalian: It’s Bentivoglio.

It belatedly strikes me: Would someone remind Staffan Kronwall about what he did to Jeremy Colliton last March? I wonder.

—-

Bobby Hughes apparently arrived in Utah in one piece. Amazingly, the Grizzlies were playing Las Vegas. (Only the seventh time in 13 games. Utah has only played against three different teams so far.)

And Springfield continues to stockpile vets, Jason Morgan this time.

That’s it for two, a 3-1 Bridgeport lead. Shots are 4142-21 for the Heat. Gah. To be prepared, team records: 55 shots against, 52 saves for a Bridgeport goaltender.

—
Nearing the third-period midpoint, and not a lot of shots yet. Those records may not be in such jeopardy.

—
That’s it, 3-1 final. A mere 48 shots, if the sheet’s up-to-date. Seven power plays to three for the Heat, aided by Pete Vandermeer’s 18 PIM.

Concern of the moment is Greg Mauldin’s absence after a first-period trip. Don’t know what kind of update we’ll get, but we’ll pass it on if we get one.

Jonathan Bombulie’s afternoon post points out the one glaring deficiency in the Pittsburgh and WBS lineups: experience. That Mark Eaton wound up playing, short-circuiting Chris Lee’s potential NHL debut, only improved the situation a bit. The NHL (part 2) and AHL results probably aren’t so surprising. Wild numbers, though.

The boys have been in British Columbia for bit more than two hours now. We knew Bobby Hughes wasn’t going to be among them; we had a vague idea he might be going somewhere else. Now today comes word that Hughes is going to be assigned to Utah.

Not a huge shock, though the legal issue makes it look funnier than it otherwise would. “A pure hockey-operations decision,” Howard Saffan said. I don’t doubt it; if not for some of the injuries and Hughes’ arrest, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had happened sooner. So he’ll play a lot for the Kinasewich-less and Sixsmith-less Grizzlies with no set timetable on a return to Bridgeport.

Speaking of timetables, interesting bit: Because he had to give up his passport, and because he didn’t have other photo ID, he wasn’t going to be able to fly. He’s taking the bus out to Salt Lake.

—-

In response to a comment, Rick Cohen said he might do some blog/journal type of things from Abbotsford. I imagine they’re just about settling in there now.

Chris Lee got called up. Jonathan Bombulie tweeted an interesting stat: If Lee makes his NHL debut tonight, Pittsburgh’s bottom-four defensemen will have played a combined 22 NHL games.

More from last year’s defense: a note on Joe Callahan from Bill Ballou.

Edit: TV writer Earl Pomerantz is recovering from surgery, and in the meantime, they’re re-posting some of his favorite blog posts. Today’s repost is a “The Greatest Hockey Story Ever.”

And finally: Grr.

With the reinsertion of Tyler Haskins to the practice crew, this team is starting to look like itself again. They just need several more defensemen and another goalie to make it complete. (Yeah, kidding.)

Haskins, though, won’t make the trip, which begins in the dead of night tonight. Reich continued to practice but also won’t travel. On Rechlicz, Jack Capuano was less commital. With Micheal Haley’s return to full duty, all else was the same as yesterday.

—

While the Sound Tigers jet off for their first games in the Pacific Time Zone, we’re stuck home. The time difference might make things dicey for print, particularly Friday night, but the blog and the Web should pick us up. (If we’re not covering soccer.)

With Michael Leighton and Cam Ward out in Carolina, Albany called up Mike Morrison from the ECHL.

Bates Battaglia to Syracuse.

Micheal Haley was under the weather and came off the ice early. Not out there: Bobby Hughes, for unclear reasons (that didn’t appear connected to legal issues).

Indeed out there was PTO James Sixsmith, wearing No. 21 on his helmet, skating on a line with Tony Romano and Robin Figren. Jeremy Reich (did I ever mention he’s got 17 on the lid? No? There ’tis) and Joel Rechlicz wore yellow practice jerseys along with Trevor Gillies and Pascal Morency, and they took part in the whole practice, but Jack Capuano said not to necessarily take that as a sign they’re ready to go.

(”The whole practice” included a grueling skate at the end that looked pretty painful.)

The lines otherwise looked like Sunday’s. Assuming Haley’s OK and nothing else happens, they’ll have 13 forwards and seven defensemen available for Abbotsford, since Hughes can’t make the trip.

Sixsmith said life in Utah has been pretty good; they’re playing good hockey. (Ryan Kinasewich, who’s only 16-11-27 in 12 games, got a PTO with Hamilton yesterday, too.) Shea Guthrie fans: he’s Sixsmith’s roommate, and Sixsmith said he’s doing a nice job down there.

Staffan Kronwall is off to Abbotsford for conditioning.

Utah announced it has loaned James Sixsmith to the Sound Tigers.

(While we’re here, RIP, Bobby Frankel and Ken Ober.)

Jon Gleed got off the ice early this afternoon, ready to take a shower and settle in for a day as a healthy scratch, to take in this one from up on the fourth floor.

And then Andrew MacDonald got recalled.

“The coach called me in and told me I was playing,” Gleed said. “I had to run to Subway and get something to eat.”

Forget that Jared guy: Get this kid an endorsement deal.

Gleed had a couple of assists, was credited with a third until the off-ice guys realized it belonged to Trevor Smith (who, says a trusted source, was about five feet offside on the winning goal)*, was plus-2 and continues to play his usual effective game.

“Jon’s played great,” Mark Wotton said. “He’s the kind of guy who works hard every game and practice.”

That sometimes doesn’t show up tangibly (unless he’s playing Superman, as Peter Mannino once called him), and when you’re on a team with eight defensemen and you’re the only one who has neither an NHL deal nor a ‘C’ on your sweater, you’re gonna sit sometimes. When he gets in, he does a nice job.

“I try to keep things simple,” Gleed said. “We happened to score some goals, and I benefited … when some guys made some great plays ahead of me.”

Wotton, camera-shy anyway, tried to motion us away after the game. “Talk to Jon Gleed,” he said. Yeah, we probably don’t do that enough.

It’s just, you know, Cornell.

—-

Martin had a great line about his line; it’s in the gamer. Capuano said they looked back at film of Bridgeport’s game in Portland on Halloween, and they really liked what those lines did against the Pirates, so they went back to them, at least the top three. The result: five goals in a game for the first time since April.

Meanwhile, check out what that goal today did to the Sound Tigers’ all-time overtime scoring list:

1) Jeff Hamilton       6-1-7
2) Rob Collins         2-4-6
3) Trevor Smith        0-5-5
4) Mark Wotton         3-1-4
5T) Blake Comeau       2-2-4
5T) Sean Bentivoglio   2-2-4
7T) Brandon Smith      1-3-4
7T) Bruno Gervais      1-3-4
9) Eric Manlow         0-4-4

Katie Strang reports Brendan Witt is out for personal reasons, hence the call for MacDonald.

Speak of the devil: Peter Mannino wins his first Chicago start.

Long weekend.

*-You know what? On video, it both looks as if Smith is easily onside and the assist should be Gleed’s. So strike that whole thing.

Andrew MacDonald was parked across a couple of spaces in front of the Bridgeport dressing-room door earlier. Apparently he had to load up the car: The Islanders called for him.

Jon Gleed had been expected to sit, but he’s in, instead. Bobby Hughes plays as Trevor Gillies sits out.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Smith-Moore (A)- Bentivoglio
DiBenedetto-Mauldin (A)-Joensuu
Haley-Marcinko-Martin
Hughes-Romano-Figren
D: Katic-Westgarth
Wotton (C)-Gleed
Kohn-Flood
G: Lawson
Munroe

PORTLAND
F: Gerbe-Ennis-Mancari
Cowan (A)-Byron-McCormick
Whitmore-Turnbull-Wanvig
Rank-Schutz-Benson
D: Persson-Kostka
Weber (A)-Generous
Brennan-DiPenta (A)
G: Enroth
Lamoureux

R: Cozzan. L: Spannaus, Wahl.

Ennis, obviously, is back from The Show.

On one hand, it’s not a win for the 11th time in 15 games. (It also messes up the W-L-O-S columns, but that’s just me.) On the other hand… well….

You take that Munroe is in one of those stretches where he’s making every save he can.

“A lot were kind of from outside,” he said (as tweeted, some of those outside shots were still open, not exactly point shots, and dangerous). “I was able to cover up a lot of rebounds. Early on I was kicking out some rebounds and the guys were clearing them.”

You take that they have been good this weekend when they’ve been right.

“We’ve just got to be a little better in our own zone,” Munroe said.

It’s three out of four this weekend, and tomorrow’s all the bigger because of that, to see if they have taken a step forward, or if they’ll falter against a fresher opponent.

—-

The fourth line was mostly a non-factor in the third, playing one shift together to start, and then maybe one shift each separately. At even strength, Capuano went heavily to Bentivoglio, Smith, Mauldin, Joensuu, Marcinko in varying combinations, along with Haley and, mitigated by four power-play shifts, Moore. Martin got about as many power-play shifts as he did even-strength; DiBenedetto played a smidge more at five-on-five. “I felt some guys were going pretty good,” Capuano said. “I liked the way they played without the puck, which is more important to me than with the puck at that point in the game.” He said he thought some players seemed to be tiring as the game went on. His only option up front is Bobby Hughes, which might at least be a possibility for tomorrow.

The D-pairs went down to, more or less, MacDonald-Flood and Kohn-Wotton in the last five minutes. Gleed got in for a couple of OT shifts. Klementyev might have been banged up.

Remember how J.S. Aubin’s mask needed some repairs last year, and he went to the bench to borrow one from some guy named Munroe? Nothing new under the sun: Munroe’s needed some tweaking, so he had to wear Nathan Lawson’s for a while in the first. (Forgot to ask about that.)

It’s not really clear whether that Nodl attempt in the shootout went through the net or not. Ciamaga checked it with the goal judge and everything, so I’d imagine they were pretty confident about the “no.” But other people were not so sure. (I really thought “no,” but I thought the net moved, too.) No harm, no foul, unlike most other goal/no goal controversies in this team’s history.

Jon Gleed said he had his stick broken and was cross-checked down before the Phantoms’ first goal. Yeah, he still wasn’t very happy about it.

Bridgeport might miss Portland rookie (’08 late-first-rounder) Tyler Ennis, who made his NHL debut and scored a goal. The rest of the Bucs were off tonight.

Dean Arsene gets the call and could make his NHL debut tomorrow for Edmonton. (Hat tip: Tim Leone.)

Tell ‘em, Rat.

All right, been a fun visit here today, but hitting the highway. Enjoy Cotto-Pacquiao, if you paid for it.

This place is… nothing like I imagined.

The barn is bright, for one thing. Vividly so. The bright comes from white-painted cinder-block walls that stretch maybe 15, 20 feet up to yellow rafters under a silver roof. The vivid comes from greens and blues: light-green ventilation; blue curtains on the windows; alternating light-green and forest-green seats, every other section, 15 rows in most from floor level to the wrap-around concourse, with concessions in every corner. (Was built in the ’70s, you know.) Stand anywhere on the concourse and you’ll still be able to watch the game, like Lowell. But it feels nothing like Lowell.

It’s still cozy. If you’ve been, you know how Binghamton feels a little like New Haven, minus the top 100 rows or so? Just seating-wise, this feels a little like Binghamton, if you cut the top seats off, left the concourse open and had one incredibly big elephant gate between the benches. But brighter. Cheerier. We’ll have to see what it’s like with some anger in the seats, if such arrives. (The downstairs is much less cheery and much less bright and much more peg-on-the-wall. But I digress.)

Five banners hang over seats in the west* end of the arena, white banners with red winged-wheel logos. The first honors AHL legend Glenn Merkosky, though Matt Clackson is wearing his 15. The other four honor their four championship teams in order. For a moment, looking up at the last two, I was an angry kid again. They broke our hearts here a couple of times. The last finals game for a New Haven hockey team? Here, May 16, 1989, after the circus left through that elephant door. The final Nighthawks game ever? Here, April 18, 1992. Those two years stare you in the face. I swore at a few far-away people under my breath and moved on.

The Phantoms brought their Calder Cup banners from Philly, and they hang in the corners, not quite flanking the Red Wings’ banners. They were made for the Spectrum, a much bigger building. They’re huge in here. Not exactly their fault, but still.

Outside, it’s like any other run-down river town in this league, except for the “run-down” part. Parts look old, sure, but well-kept, and there’s a library up the block that looks recent and beautiful; lots of foot traffic on a dreary Saturday. Were it a nicer day, I’d have taken a walk around. (It’s rainy and dismal.)

Nice town. Sorry it took me almost 25 years to get here for a hockey game.

Been here before, though. Cousins have a place in Lake George, and we’d spend some time every few summers in the area when my brother and I were kids. (They themselves have cousins in Trumbull, to make this plausibly local; turns out they’re in Shelton tonight.) Caught the old Glens Falls Tigers of the Eastern League once, in 1987. On the home team’s roster but not chucking that day: John Smoltz. Closest I’d be to a Hall of Famer for about a decade.

—-

Oh, yeah, they’re playing hockey. Just a rotation on defense:

BRIDGEPORT
F: Bentivoglio-Moore (A)-Haley
Smith-Mauldin (A)-Martin
DiBenedetto-Marcinko-Joensuu
Gillies-Romano-Figren
D: MacDonald-Flood
Wotton (C)-Gleed
Kohn-Klementyev
G: Munroe
Lawson

ADIRONDACK
F: Maroon-Matsumoto (A)-Legein
Kolanos-Ross (C)-Laliberte
Nodl-Kalinski-Bellamy
Klotz-Beaulieu-Clackson
(Dingle-apparent scratch)
D: Lehtivuori-Mormina
Marshall-Stephenson
Bourdon-Curry (A)
G: Riopel
Backlund

R: Ciamaga. L: Lemay, Harper.

I had thoroughly forgotten that Pat Bingham coached here. Will have to ask him a bit about the town.

Meanwhile, for the Adirondack perspective on things, here’s Tim McManus’ gamer, full of Greg Gilbert genius: “We don’t shoot the puck,” Gilbert said. “We all think we’re Wayne Gretzkys and Mario Lemieuxs (with) these fancy plays we’re looking for. Put the puck to the net. I guess that’s a hard thing to understand.” Sound familiar?

*-Or west-southwest, or southwest, or whatever you’d call it. The Hudson takes a turn here, as you’ll see if you pop the city into your favorite map/satellite Web site, and the barn kind of parallels that, adjacent to the falls.

Why Munroe back to back, getting a win and making bigger saves than the raw 21 saves might necessarily indicate?

“Just changing it up,” Jack Capuano said. “I don’t know where the rotation’s going to go. Maybe Scotty will go against his old team, then we’ll get Lawson a couple of games. … We’ve got to get them feeling comfortable, too.”

(Asked Munroe about some of the bigger saves, including two or three good chances for NHL star Ryan O’Marra: “You’ve got to (make them),” he said.)

And what about going without the lids in warmup?

“Sometimes you just do something to rally the troops,” Greg Mauldin said.

Well, it worked out.

“We had good pressure on them, but we were keeping the third guy high. They weren’t getting many odd-man rushes,” Munroe said.

They talked about the week of practice, the focus on keeping things simple, working on tightening up the systems. They looked much more consistent with them.

Springfield caught a break to end the second period, when Greg Moore’s stick broke, and took advantage. Bridgeport got one in overtime, when two Falcons hopped off the ice, and took advantage.

—-

Bridgeport stayed out of the box. Amazing. Three power-plays against, one for only seven seconds; that’s the fewest in nine games.

The Falcons took a couple of penalties for some nasty hits and had some other hard ones that weren’t penalized. “They were playing hard, we were playing hard,” said Bentivoglio, who took one that looked uglier than, maybe, it was in the second period. But Greg Mauldin, who took three or four vicious hits and kept going, was proud of they way they battled through that, pointing to one time when Jesse Joensuu took a hit behind the net, went down but still had the puck when he got up.

Prescout. Maybe they won’t be happy.

Len DiCostanzo had been with Mississippi in the SPHL and spent some time with Charlotte before getting a concussion. Hope Matt Broyles comes back from the flu as well as Kyle Okposo did. (Though the Big Club gave up a lead, too.)

Four overtime wins is already halfway to the team record (eight, 2003-04) and more than they had in three complete seasons.

Faith Night here, which helps account for the attendance: 5,479. I have this urge to read my Bible. Gonna try to beat the kids out of here.

Daniel Tkaczuk signed with Charlotte.

Syracuse signed a long-term lease to stick around up there.

How about Central, smoking New Canaan 42-7 to get back to the FCIAC football title game?

And best of luck to Mike Murphy in his treatment.

There are no blue helmets out there for warmup; the only two on that side are the goaltenders’. Mixing it up? Playing with the karma? (What, a Jack Capuano team, superstitious?)

Munroe goes tonight and becomes the first Sound Tigers goalie to start back-to-back games this season. (Mixing it up? Playing with the…)

BRIDGEPORT
F: Bentivoglio-Moore (A)-Haley
Smith-Mauldin (A)-Martin
DiBenedetto-Marcinko-Joensuu
Gillies-Romano-Figren
D: MacDonald-Flood
Katic-Westgarth
Kohn-Wotton (C)
G: Munroe
Lawson

SPRINGFIELD
F: Linglet-Wiseman-Fretter
Trukhno-Paukovich-Thomas
MacMurchy-O’Marra-McDonald
Brennan (A)-Lerg-Nickerson
(Bates-scratch)
D: Arsene (C)-Taylor (A)
Armstrong-Wild
Peckham-Plante
G: Dubnyk
Sorochan

R: Ghislain Hebert. L: Chris Low, Brent Colby.

Matt Broyles has the flu, so someone was coming up from the Island to fill in on the bags. Edit: It’s Lenny DiCostanzo, who rode up with Phil Giubileo. So we know who the third goalie is, too.

*-1F03