Soundin' Off

The Sound Tigers have never lost six games in a row in regulation time. Friday at Springfield will, in fact, be only their fifth opportunity to do it (or prevent it, I guess you’d say) after this one.

I’ve focused, perhaps, too much on what has gone wrong at the other end, the turnovers, the breakdowns, the disappearing penalty kill (Tyler Haskins: still out, no return date set, “upper body, day to day,” and the impression is it’s very-upper-body).

But this team has scored more than three goals in regulation only in that Albany game. Take out the shootout-win point early in the year, and they’ve scored 35 goals, which is only a tiny fraction more than two goals per game, which would be lowest in the league if not for a Manitoba team that has put the puck in the net during real action only 33 times in 19 games (and yet somehow has 18 points, with help from three shootout wins).

This team is about work-hard, go-to-the-net, wreak-havoc, which is well and good, but they have to get themselves (and the puck) there somehow. They talk about staying out of the box, and sure, that’d help.

There’s plenty of time. This division has the markings of a battle to the finish. They’re young. They’ve played a lot of games in a little time; only in 2002-03 and last year did they get to 17 games in only five weeks. Jonathan talked last night about a Dan Bylsma idea “that it takes 20 games for a team with a lot of new players to figure out how it’s going to win.” The Penguins have, maybe, come a little closer to that. Bridgeport has next weekend — at Springfield, at Glens Falls, Portland at home — to begin to figure it out.

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Last time losing five in a row: six games, Feb. 21-March 9, 2007, the last in a shootout. The time before that: Dec. 4-11, 2005, 10 days before everything turned around.

Mikko Koskinen said his surgery went well; he said he’s hoping to practice in about three months and perhaps be ready to play again in about four, which is a bit longer than 8-10 weeks but makes sense with the surgery. And Joel Rechlicz said he’s not even sure when he got his infection in his hand, which he assumes came from tooth-vs.-finger. It had to be drained. He’s got a little way to go.

Scott Gordon in the house.

Jack Capuano said he considered playing a defenseman up front but went with the seven defensemen instead. It wasn’t like Klementyev was everywhere in the third, but he played substantially more than he had in the first and second, when I think he got one shift apiece.

Jonathan has a neat story today looking back on the first home game in Wilkes-Barre, 10 years ago this week.

All right, Mad Men finale shortly.

So Jack Capuano wasn’t ready to kill his team for their penalties Saturday night. He said he wanted to go take a look at the tape of this 4-1 loss before he did that.

But the Wolf Pack, one way or ‘tother, scored two odd-numbered power-play goals, took firm control after some early back-and-forth with help from a few power plays.

“We’ve got to stay out of the box so we can not use our energy on the penalty kill,” Greg Moore said. “We roll our lines at five-on-five. When we’re rolling four lines, I think we’re one of the better teams in the league.”

They were, indeed, dramatically better in the third, when they were the ones drawing penalties, when they were the ones getting the forecheck going, when they were the ones moving.

“It’s constant motion. The defense activated in the third period,” Capuano said. “We got to the net, made it tough for the goalie. I can’t fault their effort.”

(Capuano said that last bit Friday night, by the way, and almost laughed about how he says that every night.)

Gillies’ third game misconduct in eight games (that’s a brilliant percentage, isn’t it?) means he’s out for a game. Morency got an instigator in the last five minutes, so he’s out for a game (and Hartford wouldn’t mind it if he got some more). Justin Soryal and Jack Capuano had words on the way out the door. Capuano’s version of that is at the end of the gamer, but we up here were still laughing about what he said about Soryal: “If he’s got a problem, he knows where to find me.”

You’d think these teams were rivals or something.

—

Romano was the only healthy and available forward scratch tonight, so assuming Gillies and Morency are suspended, seven defensemen is likely for Lowell.

Mikko Koskinen was in the room on crutches, though he ducked elsewhere before I had a chance to talk to him about the surgery.

Gleed said he gloved the puck to put it down, and Jamie Koharski immediately called him for it. The rule in question is 67.4: “If a defending player, except a goalkeeper, while play is in progress, falls on the puck, holds the puck, picks up the puck, or gathers the puck into his body or hands from the ice in the goal crease area, the play shall be stopped immediately and a penalty shot shall be awarded to the non-offending team.” Also instructive is a piece of Rule 1.7: “The goal crease area shall include all the space outlined by the crease lines and extending vertically four feet (4′) to the level of the top of the goal frame.” I don’t recall ever seeing such a call made on a puck in the air. But there’s apparently cause for it, if Koharski thought Gleed sufficiently held onto it in the space over the crease. (Gleed said he was fairly sure that his skates weren’t in the crease.)

Prescout. Took 2:01 to play. The final was up when there were 12 minutes left here. Ben Walter has four points against Bridgeport in two games, and now with his goal tonight has five points in 12 games against everyone else.

Ian Clark has taken over the Union Leader’s Monarchs beat, and now he has taken over the blog, too.

Good NHLPA read from Elliotte Friedman.

As tweeted last night (’cause we’re full-service over here, with the high school football), the man who called New Canaan’s game-winning two-point-conversion play was assistant Bo Hickey, who’s also the Rams’ hockey coach and has been a fixture on the scene in both sports for a long time.

Speaking of 140-character humor: Have you seen the “Old Hoss Radbourn twitter account? Good golly.

And RIP, Qian Xuesen.

As tweeted earlier from somewhere in West Haven and as released about the same time, Mikko Koskinen will miss eight to 10 weeks with a torn hip labrum. Details about the injury — which hip, for instance — and treatment weren’t immediately available. Talked to Jack Capuano a few moments ago, and he wasn’t even sure when or how it happened.

So it drops to a two-man rotation until Christmastime.

Edit: Word this afternoon was he’d be evaluated further to see if he needs surgery, but Katie Strang is reporting he will undergo surgery.

Game 10 already. We’re an eighth of the way done. Or, to look at it more brightly, an eighth of the way to springtime.

Much shakeup for the Bridgeport lineup, including the season debut of Mark Flood against his former mates.

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

ALBANY
F: Boychuk-Chaput-Samson
Bowman-Dodge-Dwyer (C)
Blanchard (A)-Reed-Pistilli
Herauf-Terry-Micflikier
D: Rodney (A)-Paiement
FitzGerald-McBain
Olson-Bellemore
G: Murphy
Peters
R: R.Fraser. L: Galvin, Redding.

Koskinen’s persistent absence suggests something. Not sure what, specifically, yet.

A couple of weeks ago, maybe, this might have gone differently. Mikko Koskinen wasn’t as comfortable on the North American ice back then.

Um, the kid looked pretty comfortable tonight.

He has things to work on — he mentioned, especially, managing to cover up or get the puck to the corner when it’s in tight — but it was a solid first start, especially in that first 15 minutes, when Worcester could have run away with the evening. The Sound Tigers popped in three goals in a little over three minutes, and that was that.

(Literally. Until the bonus round.)

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Bentivoglio, Haskins and Martin had a combined one point tonight, and that was Martin’s on the five-on-three, but they were buzzing, forechecking, wreaking some havoc for the second game in a row. “They’ve been good,” Capuano said. “They’re doing the right things at the right times. They understand the system. They believe what we’re trying to teach, and they’re having success. We hope to get more guys on the same page.” Was a little surprised to see they got only four shots to the net.

Eric Boguniecki in the dressing room afterward, visiting the folks, so he visited the boys. He’s still hoping to latch on somewhere.

Thanks to Gerry Cantlon: Junior Lessard landed in Finland with Ilves. And Mark Parrish landed in Norfolk on a PTO.

Mikko Koskinen makes his North American pro debut in net for the Sound Tigers, whose only other change in the lineup is inserting Joel Rechlicz for Robin Figren:

BRIDGEPORT
F: Smith-Moore (A)-Mauldin
DiBenedetto-Romano-Joensuu
Bentivoglio-Haskins-Martin
Haley-Marcinko-Rechlicz
D: Wotton (C)-Gleed
Kohn-MacDonald
Katic-Westgarth
G: Koskinen
Lawson

WORCESTER
F: Mashinter-Vesce (C)-Trevelyan
Zalewski-Couture-Helminen
McCarthy-Desjardins-DaSilva
Henderson-Quirk-Jones
Strong
D: Groulx-Moore (A)
Joslin (A)-Callahan
Wilson-Petrecki
G: Stalock
Sexsmith

Well, the kids made their cases. Of the 18 skaters, 14 played for the second night in a row, and they put together a 3-2 win Saturday night. It appears that most of them won’t be around for long — official cuts come down Sunday, though some long faces appeared Saturday night amid several meetings with the coaching staffs — but they’ve made their cases.

“I saw a team with just a bunch of guys competing for jobs,” Jack Capuano said. He especially praised the defense, but moved on to the goalies (and Koskinen made some big ones late, in particular as Hartford outshot the Sound Tigers 17-2 in the third) and forwards. The Sixsmith-Nikiforov-Healey trio accounted for all three goals.

Oh, yeah — and Koskinen was out of his gourd a few times. Like your average 6-foot-6 goalie, he’s a little vulnerable when he’s moving around. But he got himself back in the way. He and Sudsie Maharaj appeared bound for a postgame session.

Gannon’s is a name that popped up a few times this week. “He’s just a big kid, a right-handed shot,” Capuano said. “He was a true freshman at Colorado College, a two-year captain, a teammate of Jack Hillen.

And Healey, Capuano said, had back issues Friday night but rebounded tonight with a couple of goals.

He made his case, too.

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Vladimir Nikiforov-James Sixsmith-Paul Healey (A)
Mike Lesperance-Adam Perry-Jason Dale
Jean Bourbeau-Bobby Hughes-Jeff Pierce
Justin DiBenedetto-Tony Romano-Robin Figren
D: Jan Piskacek-Evan Stoflet
Victor Bartley-Jake Gannon
Luke Sellars (A)-Dustin Friesen
G: Scott Munroe
Mikko Koskinen

HARTFORD
F: Ryan Hillier-Patrick Rissmiller-Jordan Owens
Dane Byers-Paul Crowder-Derek Couture
Devin DiDiomete-Tomas Zaborsky-Andres Ambuhl
Brent Henley-Tyler Arnason-Dale Weise
D: David Urquhart-Michael Sauer
Nigel Williams-Ilkka Heikkinen
Trevor Glass-Corey Potter

Hartford 1 1 0–2
Bridgeport 1 1 1–3
First Period — 1, Bridgeport, Healey 1 (Nikiforov, Sixsmith), 8:13. 2, Hartford, Couture 4 (Henley, Rissmiller), 19:33. Penalties – Henley, Hfd (roughing), 3:01; Figren, Bpt (holding), 5:22; Lesperance, Bpt (hooking), 9:07; Sauer, Hfd (holding), 13:01; Romano, Bpt (hooking), 17:20.
Second Period – 3, Hartford, Byers 1 (Ambuhl), 4:03. 4, Bridgeport, Healey 2 (Nikiforov, Sixsmith), 9:43. Penalties – Owens, Hfd (interference), :48; Bourbeau, Bpt (holding stick), 1:58; Couture, Hfd, major (fighting), 4:59; Gannon, Bpt, major (fighting), 4:59; Gannon, Bpt (hooking), 13:06; DiDiomete, Hfd (roughing), 15:51.
Third Period – 5, Bridgeport, Nikiforov 1 (Friesen), 9:18. Penalties – Sellars, Bpt (holding), 1:21; Byers, Hfd, major (fighting), 8:47; Bourbeau, Bpt, major (fighting), 8:47; Potter, Hfd (slashing), 9:06; Sellars, Bpt (interference), 10:09; Sellars, Bpt (hooking), 14:03; Owens, Hfd (unsportsmanlike conduct-diving), 18:14; Lesperance, Bpt (hooking), 18:14.

Shots on goal — Hartford 9-14-17–40. Bridgeport 7-9-2–18.
Power play opportunities — Hartford 0 of 8, Bridgeport 1 of 5.
Goaltenders — Hartford, Zaba 0-1-0 (18 shots-15 saves). Bridgeport, Munroe (9-8), Koskinen 1-0-0 (start second, 31-30).
Attendance – 1,723. Referee – J. Koharski. Linesmen – Spannaus, Wahl.

At least, I think that’s who the officials were. The numbers checked out, at the very least. And there was some discussion, both at the snack bar and apparently inside, about who actually scored a couple of those goals. But it’s the preseason, and right about now, all those numbers go back to zero.

Enjoyed reading Jonathan Bombulie’s twittering and reading about an attempted head-butt. We just get the twin hook-and-dive coincidentals. Naturally, if you’re following my twittishness, you got the Sideshow Bob reference.

Gregg Johnson joins the local contingent in Houston’s camp. Other Sound Tigers alums headed for the AHL: Jason Krog and game-winner-scorer Drew Fata; Tim Sestito, meanwhile, is battling for a job in The Swamp. (Jaime Sifers is in the mix in Minnesota, too.)

Katie and Chris report that Koskinen and Figren are assigned here, the first official assignments of the season.