(The sequel.)
The Sound Tigers and the Pirates meet for the third time in nine nights in Portland. Sitting home, we’ll keep tabs and post thoughts here along the way.
–Jamie tweets that Justin Taylor is in tonight. Don’t know who’s out.
–Phil says in the pregame show that David Ullstrom is out tonight, and Jeremy Colliton will fill his spot in the lineup.
–Appears to be Koskinen vs. Leggio.
–Taylor for Ullstrom, Poulin to back up Koskinen, Lawson scratched, otherwise the same as last night.
–Other pregame reading (in the couple of minutes pre-game): Trumbull’s Craig Breslow leads the Sporting News’ smartest athletes. (Hat tip: Newmark’s Door.)
–Here’s the box.
–The Pirates take a lead at 22 seconds. Phil thought he saw a deflection, but it’s credited to T.J. Brennan’s point shot.
–From Tom Gulitti: “Devils say Ilya Kovalchuk is a healthy scratch.” Um… Huh.
–Too many penalties last night… Two restraining penalties in the first 10 minutes tonight.
–Sounds like the Sound Tigers had some chances on their first power play, including a Hamonic shot that hit a post.
–But now Colliton back to the box with a little over five minutes left in the period.
–Bridgeport survives those three penalty kills and trails 1-0 after one.
–”Live Is Life” plays the teams off the ice. When the talk kicked up about that song being chosen as the Islanders’ goal song, I knew I’d heard it, but I had no real memory of where. Guess Portland was one place.
–Bridgeport’s about to go on its second power play, four and a half minutes into the second period, and it sounds as if Justin DiBenedetto has drawn both of them.
–The Sound Tigers go to the penalty kill after some pushing. Phil says Rob Hisey takes a hit from M-A Gragnani and goes off a little shaky. And Ellis scores on the power play to make it 2-0.
–Hisey is back out there, so I guess he’s OK.
–A couple of times, Phil has said a player appeared to be tripped up with no call. Is it fair to imagine that he said the same thing a few times last night?
–Oh, yeah, the second period ended like 15 minutes ago. 2-0. Third should start in a moment.
–Colin Stuart gets a penalty for boarding Colliton, who was slow to get up.
–Colliton played on the PP, but Bridgeport didn’t score, 0-for-3.
–Joensuu cuts the lead in half with 9:43 to play.
–Colliton gets cross-checked by Tim Conboy with 8:50 left. Meanwhile, tempers are flaring in the NLCS game. Benches cleared after Sanchez hit Utley with a pitch and they had words. Someone should throw bat shards at someone else.
–Martin and Schiestel scuffle with 37.8 seconds left. Worse for Bridgeport, it brings the faceoff back.
–That’s it: Portland 2, Bridgeport 1.
–Final shots were 37-31 for Bridgeport. Leggio made 16 of his 36 saves in the third.
–On the phone, Capuano credited Leggio: “We should have won the game.” The Joensuu save late and a Marcinko/Haley flurry early in the third were what came to his mind first. “Top to bottom, it was one of the better games we’ve played. You come into Portland, any time you get almost 40 shots, with less power plays than they did,” you’re doing all right. The early penalties didn’t bother him too much: “A couple were questionable on our part, but I thought we could have had a few more power plays. He let the guys play. I don’t think (penalties were) a big factor.” Taylor did a good job in his debut, he said. “That line played well. … Everybody contributed.”
Off tomorrow. Back Monday. We’ll do the livechat Tuesday, of course.
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