Soundin' Off

Brent Thompson gave Tony Romano a pop Saturday night for his work on the power play, and there he was again Sunday, involved in two key goals in yet another come-from-behind Bridgeport win.

Kind of a crazy week for that guy. A week ago today, he’s in the suburbs of Chicago. Today, he’s got two points, three for the weekend.

“I’m so happy to be back around this team right now,” Romano said. “The atmosphere in the room is phenomenal. I’ve never been around a team with so much confidence and ability to come back.”

Ah, yeah, that. Albany got a couple on the power play — one through bodies, another when Keith Kinkaid caught the Sound Tigers changing and the Devils got a pass through a defender — and took a 2-0 lead to the third. The Devils kind of flipped the script on Bridgeport, keeping pucks in, getting pucks deep and using their speed to keep them deep.

Bridgeport got things going in the third.

“We started playing our game,” Aaron Ness said. “We got back to what we’ve been doing to get us wins all year.”

Ness kept a couple of pucks in the zone, got it deep to Scott Howes the second time and one-timed home the return pass to tie the game. But things got going with the fourth line, Marc-Olivier Vallerand, Romano and Trevor Gillies. They won a defensive-zone draw, got the puck up the ice, and after Romano’s right-circle shot, the wingers crashed the net.

That began a period that was a far cry from that second period, when “we got away from what makes us successful,” Gillies said. “Chip it in. Slash it in, (work) down low in their end. We were too soft to play against.”

Gillies put home the rebound to make it 2-1. Ness scored a couple later. Bridgeport has a point in eight in a row, in 20 of 21.

….

Programming notes: The team’s off Monday, but we’ll be following the trade deadline, and I’ll probably toss some kind of post up to track trades of local interest (assuming some happen). Also, I’ve had to reschedule an appointment right into the chat window, so we’ll do the weekly chat Wednesday at 1:30 instead of Tuesday.

The deadline can obviously change some things. The Sound Tigers were hopeful this week of having Rhett Rakhshani ready for next week, so that would lengthen the lineup. Tomas Marcinko is again eligible to play, returning from suspension. Brett Gallant had been making progress. We’ll see how they line up Tuesday.

Romano’s loving playing on the power play. “Hopefully we can keep it going,” he said, “keep getting some offense from it.”

It is quite early to be hyperanalyzing — oh, I figure we’ll start next week; 20 games to go — but the Sound Tigers are just one point behind Hershey, which has the fourth-best record in the conference. (Obviously the Berkshire League champ would play as the third seed in the playoffs, and the leader right now is Bridgeport by two points and a tiebreaker over the Whale.) Imagine that two months ago.

A note that Jamie has been waiting for: This was win 30, non-shootout-win 26… which matches last year’s 80-game totals.

Prescout. Oh, wait…. (Come on. Haven’t used that one in a while.)

Is it me, or is every Bridgeport opponent either coming from or going to a game against Manchester? It’s like they’re the Cornell to Bridgeport’s Columbia. The Expos and Phillies (I think it was them, anyway; getting old) to Bridgeport’s mid-1980s Mets.

Around the league, Norfolk has won nine in a row, a team record.

More tomorrow.

Afternoon edit: The Islanders sent Aaron Ness down this afternoon. Edit2: Cizikas up (possible NHL debut to come), Poulin down as well. Edit3: Kael Mouillierat’s agent says he’s agreed to terms.

Tim Wallace had just gone onto the ice at Webster Bank Arena for a skate after the Sound Tigers’ practice when Brent Thompson, phone to his ear, bolted out from his office to the rink.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had claimed Wallace off waivers before the noon deadline, sending him to the Gulf Coast instead of Bridgeport.

“It’s nice, obviously, a good thing that another team likes you,” Wallace said. “It’s been a whirlwind of a couple of days. I’m just going to take it one game at a time from now on.”

Wallace (this was about 12:45) was just leaving the arena and had talked to his agent but not anyone from the Lightning yet. He has a familiar face waiting for him: Nate Thompson, a good friend from back home in Alaska.

(We’d say “former Islander Nate Thompson,” but it’s Tampa; they’re all former Islanders.)

Unless I’m forgetting or misinterpreting something, the timing seems to pretty much eliminate him from coming back here. He’d have to be in the minors Monday at 3 to be sent down this year, and to do that, he’d have to be placed on waivers by Saturday and claimed by the Islanders and only the Islanders. So, good for Wallace.

(Without Klementyev, including Koskinen, not including the two in junior, and now without Wallace: 43 NHL contracts? I should recount those at some point.)

And so, Bridgeport is stuck with the cast that has won 16 of the past 18. For now. It’s logical, as Arthur Staple tweeted Wednesday, that a call-up could be coming; there didn’t seem to be a tip here about who might be going. The forward lines looked a smidgen odd, actually, until someone pointed out that Tomas Marcinko, skating with Justin DiBenedetto and Casey Cizikas, was probably a placeholder for No. 36. Well, neither Marcinko (three-game suspension announced Wednesday afternoon, if you missed it) nor Wallace will be available Friday in Springfield.

With Ty Wishart back, Bridgeport released Wes Cunningham from his PTO. Brent Thompson said he thought Calvin de Haan could play this weekend, and — “big maybe” — Mark Katic was also possible. They don’t plan to rush Rhett Rakhshani back; he seems to be doing well.

The team announced Blair Riley’s and Steve Oleksy’s AHL contracts.

Aaron Ness gets the call to the Islanders to fill in for Travis Hamonic and Milan Jurcina. He could make his NHL debut tomorrow night in Philadelphia. The Sound Tigers, without him, practiced with the five healthy defensemen plus Mark Katic (who said he’s really feeling his conditioning coming along; another couple of weeks before he could be cleared). Trevor Gillies filled in on defense a few times in the contact drills. Brent Thompson said they’ll take the hole on defense “day-to-day.” They have plenty of time to worry about it.

Edit: The Providence Journal reports that the AHL all-star game is going to Providence next year. Bridgeport has expressed some interest in the event since the Sound Tigers took over the building.

Edit2: ECHL transactions say Barry Goers has been loaned from Las Vegas to Bridgeport. Probably a PTO to come at some point.

We’ll chat here Tuesday at 1:30.

And finally, you knew from the start the road was going to be hard for the Giants. You knew that stretch in the middle of the season was going to make it a tightrope. Still, after they, to steal a phrase, laid an egg against Washington in Week 15, you figured they had to win six in a row to win a championship. Six memorable games later, well, they found a way.

Cough mostly suppressed and pee wee projects done, sneaked down to the Island this morning, mostly to put together some kinda advance for Saturday (well, Saturday’s game, Friday’s paper); also collected stuff for a future story. A thought or two:

–As noted by several, including this Katie Strang tweet, there’s some buzz around Aaron Ness’ camp. Which isn’t said to be read as a knock on Matt Donovan or Calvin de Haan or anybody else; just that Ness has been particularly good.

–Brent Thompson, for one, is glad to have an extended stint with the big club, rather than a split camp where he’d have been up here for almost a week already. “I’ve been learning about Cappy, getting a feel for the staff,” he said. “I’m learning about the players, too,” and he means everybody, from the big names up top to all of the guys that’ll be here next week. Lots of different players have stood out for various reasons, he said; mentioning things like Frans Nielsen’s work habits, Mark Streit’s speed and ability, the young defensemen and their daily improvement, the (six) goaltenders… He could have gone on, I’m sure. I asked how he’ll watch these last two games, if he can use them at all to try to get a handle on what his lineup might look like, and he said that’s kind of tough. “There are jobs available,” he said. Too much would depend on decisions that haven’t been made yet.

–Wounded Jeremy Colliton and Rhett Rakhshani were, at least, walking. Both were trying to stay positive; from those two, you’d expect nothing different. Rakhshani had an MRI on the knee in the morning and was hoping his injury wouldn’t turn out too serious. Colliton’s still not skating from the groin injury last week.

–All five players on waivers cleared, but Jack Capuano said he expected them to play this weekend. Obviously no sense in sending them to Bridgeport when there’s no Bridgeport camp.

…where you take the little moments when you can, when even those moments come with an asterisk, when the moment you get on the positive side of the injury ledger, more come along.

But hey, let’s start with the fun, a tying goal, short-handed and extra-attacker with 22.3 seconds left, which sent Rob Hisey into celebratory hysterics.

“It was kind of a lucky goal,” he said of his backhander of a rebound of a Justin DiBenedetto shot that three or four times could have been turned anywhere other than Hisey’s path. “Those are the goals we weren’t getting this year.

“The last couple of games, the team has been battling hard,” he added. “There’s no quit in here. We’ve got to keep playing hard to the last. It’s a good atmosphere. Hopefully we keep it going this weekend and get some points.”

But then there’s Mark Katic’s boarding major, following close on the heels of Dustin Kohn keeping weight off his right knee — the opposite side from the knee that kept him out through the middle of the season. So there are four defensemen, down to three on four different occasions because of other minor penalties, splitting up the time. Ty Wishart played 35 minutes; Dylan Reese, 32. Aaron Ness played about 24.

They gave up two goals — thought Chris Terry kicked in the second one — but came back with two of their own. Yet another shootout loss, but another point.

“For the players to battle that hard, to believe that much — we’re on a little bit of a roll,” Pat Bingham said. “The guys are starting to believe again.”

….

Story is on Ness’ debut, tossed into the fire right away, but some other quotes from him: He mentioned that the game was faster, and I wondered if that was the biggest difference. “The speed — just the style, too,” he said. “It’s a possession game. There’s a lot more dumping, chipping.” Stepping on the ice for the first time? “Pretty cool,” he said, “to finally make it to that part of the goal, anyway. You always dream of getting that first game under your belt.”

And, yeah, he had to play a little bit.

“He did not look out of place in the American Hockey League, against a very fast team,” Bingham said. “He hasn’t even skated with us, just a pre-game skate.

“He didn’t hurt us one bit. He actually helped us quite a bit.”

Marcinko had the boot on the foot again. The slight saving grace: They do have extra bodies at the moment.

One of those never-seen-before things: In the shootout, Bryan Rodney went so far right to begin his attempt that he almost ran into linesman Dave Spannaus in front of the Bridgeport bench. I have no idea what would happen if such a collision disrupts a penalty-shot try. But it would have been funny.

Fifth time the Sound Tigers have gone through a season series of four or more games without a win: 2009-10 against Adirondack (0-2-0-2), 2005-06 against Portland (0-4 against one of the better AHL teams I remember recently, which lost to Mark Wotton and Hershey in the conference final), 2002-03 against Manitoba (0-4), and in the first season, 0-2-1-1 against Providence (tie-OTL at the end, so of course they’d have had a 50-50 shot of winning that game under today’s bonus-round rules).

Wes O’Neill played his first game back in Kalamazoo on Friday night.

Prescout. You realize Portland has five games in hand on Manchester? The Monarchs could take a week off and the Pirates wouldn’t catch up to them in games. (They certainly could in points, though.)

And finally: Neat picture. (caution: astronomy.) Neat story, too.

Sunday’s game has in fact been moved to 6 p.m. to allow for the Fairfield University NIT game at 12:30. One tight turnaround.

Edit2: Those holding tickets for Sunday’s hockey game can bring them to the box office Sunday morning and get a free ticket to the basketball game as well, the Sound Tigers announced. The stub will also be good for a ticket to one of the last four home games.

Nathan Lawson is expected to get the start tonight, and in addition to the pro debut of Aaron Ness, tonight appears to mark the returns of Tomas Marcinko and Dylan Reese from injury.

We’ll put the lineups and any other pregame notes here around 6:45.

Edit: Meanwhile, check out this story on Cole Jarrett‘s experience in Japan.

Lineup notes: Marcinko returns to the lineup on right wing, where he has had some good shifts in a pinch in the past. Should be interesting. Looks like a little shuffle on the right for the Checkers. And Ness begins on a pair with Wotton.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Hisey-Colliton (A)-Rakhshani
DiBenedetto-Ullstrom-Marcinko
Bourbeau-Romano-Figren
Gallant-Svendsen-Ginand
D: Kohn (A)-Reese
Katic-Wishart
Ness-Wotton (C)
G: Lawson
Martin

CHARLOTTE
F: Terry-Dodge-Blanchard (A)
Micflikier-Matsumoto-Pistilli
Sutter-Dalpe-Boychuk
McKenzie-Nash-Herauf
D: Rodney (C)-Sanguinetti
Jordan-Bellemore
FitzGerald (A)-Borer
G: Murphy
Pogge

R: Krebsbach. L: Galvin, Spannaus.

When the team finished practice today, they went back inside to discover Aaron Ness. He flew in last night, stayed on the Island, got his physical this morning and then arrived here. Stuff from him in the paper tomorrow.

(With a hat tip to a Gopher: We’ve seen the Sound Tigers rumored to move to about 7,000 places over 10 years, but Newport was never one of them.)

Tomas Marcinko skated and thinks he’s just about ready to go. Mikko Koskinen and Dylan Reese also practiced. Jeremy Colliton got the day off but should be good to go.

And thoroughly unrelated: Baseball plus calypso? Well, this is awesome.

So the flow of the day is something like:

–Koskinen: Took the skate; head OK, everything else, not so much.
–Hisey, Ullstrom, Olson good to go.
–After the skate, word that Lawson and DiBenedetto are coming down.
–Emmerson and Petizian released.
–And now this afternoon, Aaron Ness signed his entry-level deal and will be coming here on an ATO.

We’ll see now who actually pops out of the runway tonight. And when they go in line rushes, we’ll put those lines here.

Edit: And here they are.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Hisey-Colliton (A)- Rakhshani
DiBenedetto-Ullstrom-Schepke
Bourbeau-Romano-Figren
Gallant-Taylor-Svendsen
D: Kohn (A)-Motherwell
Katic-Wishart
Olson-Wotton (C)
G: Martin
Lawson

CHARLOTTE TWEETERS… er, CHECKERS
F: Terry-Dodge-@ZachBoychuk
Blanchard (A)-Matsumoto-Micflikier
Sutter-@ZacDalpe-@Matt_Pistilli
@MikeMcKenzie11-Nash-Herauf
D: Rodney (C)-Sanguinetti
Jordan-Bellemore
FitzGerald (A)-Borer
G: @MichaelMurphy31
Pogge

R: Cozzan, Lemelin. L: Cooke, Redding.

The lack of Joensuu makes one imagine that he’ll be the recall in place of DiBenedetto.