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.

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.

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.

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

Andrew MacDonald is going up… front, at least by the line rushes here. The suspensions of Morency (more to come?) and Gillies leave the Sound Tigers short up there. Edit: Well, not to start, anyway: MacDonald-Flood is the starting defense pair along with the Smith-Moore-Martin unit.

Lowell comes back with McKenna, who shut the Sound Tigers out a couple of weeks ago up there.

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

LOWELL
F: Zharkov-Walter-Perkovich
Vasyunov-Gionta (C)-Palmieri
Snetsinger-Swift-Cormier
Robitaille-Davis-Kell
D: Magnan (A)-Corrente
Davison (A)-Eckford
Taormina-Cohen
G: McKenna
Frazee

R: R.Fraser. L: Galvin, Wahl.

Adam just did an unintentionally hilarious advertising read about how the Sound Tigers are “earning your applause.” Actually, I haven’t felt it so poisonous in here in about three years. A win would probably help things. But maybe not.

I would have loved to have heard that just once. But a men’s team called the Nighthawks just won the Sound Tigers’ tournament here. They’re walking off with the championship trophy (not a cup, but that’s OK).

The Wotton-Westgarth pair sits out tonight. Did not see a third letter in Wotton’s place. Romano sits out as Joensuu returns. And Chad Johnson starts his fourth game in a row for the Pack; he won the first three.

BRIDGEPORT
F: Smith-Moore (A)-Bentivoglio
DiBenedetto-Mauldin (A)-Joensuu
Martin-Marcinko-Haley
Gillies-Morency-Figren
D: Kohn-Klementiev
Katic-Gleed
MacDonald-Flood
G: Lawson
Munroe

HARTFORD
F: Owens-Locke (A)-Parenteau (A)
Grachev-Arnason-Weise
Garlock-Dupont-Couture
Soryal-Crowder-Ambuhl
D: Heikkinen-Sanguinetti
Sauer-Dandeneault
Henley-Potter (A)
(Williams-apparent scratch)
G: Johnson
Zaba

R: J.Koharski. L: Galvin, Redding.

If you haven’t noticed, been trying to tweet a little during games when the one-liners present themselves. FornabaioCTP.

Bobby Hughes is out on bail and on his way upstate, if he’s not there already. Howard Saffan (”We stand by Bobby. … We look forward to him getting back on the ice”) said Hughes has an expected court date within a week. Will he then be back with the team? Could depend on what happens in that court date, but it doesn’t sound as if the team will keep him away.

Anyway, they’re playing tonight in Springfield. Joensuu is out sick. Rechlicz apparently has a hand infection that’s keeping him out. Saw Klementyev here, but he’s not playing.

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

SPRINGFIELD
F: Trukhno-Potulny (A)-Thomas
Linglet-Wiseman-Fretter
Reddox-O’Marra-McDonald
Brennan/Paukovich
D: Arsene (C)-Taylor (A)
Armstrong-Motin
Peckham-Plante
Nickerson
G: Dubnyk
Sorochan

R: L’Ecuyer. L: Colby, Redding.

Edit: Change on Springfield. Guess I gave up on their rushes too soon./Edit2: BTW, Mauldin is starting with Smith and Moore.

Interesting swap on the third line, with Martin playing the left and Haley on the right.

L’Ecuyer usually let them play last year, though he had one or two whistle-happy games.

Meanwhile, Chris Armstrong. Not a whole lot of links to the 21 Finalists floating around this league anymore. (Except, of course, for the one who keeps dominating this league and has been to a couple of more finals.)

Jonathan said it last year: “Cool Fun 101 games are neither cool nor fun.”

I’ll try not to complain about the time anymore, either. These tend to get easier once I wake up.

Those who were out yesterday appear to be out again, though I’m not sure if Jack Capuano is here or not Capuano is here.

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

ADIRONDACK
F: Nodl-Ross (C)-Ward (A)
Maroon-Matsumoto-Legein
Dingle-Beaulieu-Bellamy
Klotz-Kalinski-Clackson
D: Bartulis-Sloan
Marshall-Bourdon
Lehtivuori-Mormina (A)
G: Backlund
Riopel
R: D. Banfield. L: Galvin, Spannaus.

Adirondack’s defensemen are 7-6, 4-5 and 2-3. How beautiful is that? (Particularly on the orange Flyers-throwback style sweater, with the black-on-white nameplate and everything.) (I’m short a letter for the Phantoms at the moment.)

Will liveblog a little on this file as events warrant.

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–Big crowd of kids. Only a handful of sparsely-populated sections as the puck drops.

–The kids love the rough stuff. Gillies and Clackson fought a few minutes ago. Now Haley becomes the second Sound Tiger to take a good run at Bartulis, and he was getting a penalty when Klotz went after him. Klotz spun him around a few times. Meanwhile, Martin, Bartulis, I think Bellamy and Romano went down in a pile in front of the Adirondack net. No penalties on the board out of all that.

–Strike that: Bridgeport has a power play out of it. Double rough on Klotz; charge on Haley.

–Bentivoglio is going off in some pain here; a collision near the blue line. I was peeking down to blog about how the Phantoms were short-handed because, in all the penalty confusion, no one had served Klotz’s second minor, so there was no one to come out of the box. Oops.

–Bridgeport didn’t score on a 58-second five-on-three and now have a Haley slashing penalty to kill. Shots were 4-2 Adirondack; they were 5-4 Bridgeport after the back end of the two minors and are 8-4 now.

–Off a draw, Matsumoto scores on a rebound (or blocked shot, couldn’t tell which) right in front; 1-0 Adirondack.

–Trevor Smith cut Nodl up high inside two minutes to go in the period; it’s a double minor.

–Bentivoglio is back and killing penalties. Morency has been killing, too, and ragged off about 20 seconds on this minor. That’s it for the first period.

–Those sparsely populated sections appear to have filled in nicely. They are full of kids screaming for a T-shirt. My head will not survive.

–They’re playing Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA” for not less than the second time. I get the feeling I’ll hear it at least once more. Calls to mind the 50-Cent Riot of 2003. You remember that? They cut out “In Da Club” to play the bells as the team was about to come back on the ice… and several thousand kids started booing and yelling? Ah, memories.

–Mormina interferes with Bentivoglio to cancel the last 43 minutes of the double minor.

–Adirondack’s Marshall has had words with Haley, Martin and someone on the bench in the past two minutes.

–Gillies-Morency-Haley have played together the past two shifts. Morency drew a penalty last time; he had a scoring chance this time.

–Moore got a stick into Bellamy and Mauldin caught Ward from behind, so Bridgeport’s down two men here with 7:09 left in the second. Big moment, obviously.

–Bridgeport killed it off with only three shots, and now Bartulis hooks Mauldin as he races out after Martin’s chip — it’s a penalty shot. Mauldin takes it in slowly, goes backhand and scores with 4:49 to go. Yep, big moment. Game’s tied.

–End of two, 1-1. BPT has 18-15 shots edge.

–When Bertani first pointed “Party in the USA” out to me a couple of weeks ago, I thought it evoked Lily Allen’s LDN. Your mileage may vary.

–Attendance: 8,035 (and the Nighthawks thank you), seventh-highest in team history here.

–Nov. 4 is apparently a good day for penalty shots. Last BST goal on a penalty shot: Rob Collins, Nov. 4, 2005, vs. Manchester, a landmark night on the blog.

–They’d been rolling four lines, and my computer had crashed, when Joensuu chipped ahead to Mauldin, and Mauldin scored on a two-on-one. But off the draw, the Phantoms put in a rebound off a left-wing slapper to tie it. Adirondack killed off a Bridgeport power play; the Phantoms are going on the advantage with 7:08 left.

–Bridgeport killed the first but now has another to kill with exactly five minutes left.

–And off the draw, the Phantoms’ Nodl scores on a rebound. The call was MacDonald for kneeing. He did not seem to believe it.

–Surreal moment. Ross and Bentivoglio collided near the Adirondack blue line, and Joensuu went straight for Ross. The penalty puts Bridgeport down with 1:58 to go.

–Joey Mormina came in with no points in nine games; he’ll leave with three points after scoring the Phantoms’ third power-play goal.

That’s it: Adirondack 4, Bridgeport 2. Back to morning-normal. More in a bit.

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.

There are nights you expect the gates of hell to open up, and they just don’t.

Then there are nights like two weeks ago.

Tonight’s lineup has the clear potential for chaos. Brookbank had words for Gillies just about every time they passed each other at the red line.

Northeastern boy Brad Thiessen makes his AHL debut for the Pens.

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

WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON
F: Bayda-Letestu-Johnson
Caputi-Smith (A)-Conner (A)
Brookbank-Vitale-Boulerice
Wallace-Jeffrey-Boogaard
D: Lee-Guenin
Strait-D’Aversa
Lovejoy-Engelland (A)
(Bortuzzo)
G: Thiessen
Curry
R: C.Brown. L: Galvin, Redding.

Word is that the audio situation should be resolved and you’ll get Phil tonight… but tonight turns out to be free preview night for the AHL Live, so you can get video, too, if you’ve got the bandwidth. (Oh, and Internet at your current location. You’ve got one more chance, SBC AT&T. But I digress.)

Nathan Lawson gets the start. They’re going off rotation. What is he, C.C. Sabathia or something?

Meanwhile, meet Bobby Hughes:

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

MANCHESTER
F: Zeiler-Elkins-Segal
Gauthier (A)-Cliche (A)-Meckler
Moller-Loktionov-Holloway
Mikus-Azevedo-Westgarth
D: Bagnall (A)-Piskula
Campbell-Kolomatis
Hickey-Voynov
G: Bernier
Zatkoff
R: C.Brown. L: Ross, Lovett.

The Kings recalled Chris Parse, the second-leading scorer in the AHL. And that Hickey-Voynov pairing is Nos. 37 and 76, which is one odd-looking note.

Feels like forever since I’ve been here. It’s actually only 18 months and 21 days, but that’s almost forever in hockey terms. (Check out some of those names.) I’ll throw out another musical thought: “House of the Rising Sun” by the Animals gets better every time I hear it.

All kinds of stuff going on. Chris Chelios landing in Chicago with the Wolves. Jaime Sifers getting shipped to Houston. Ottawa sent Ilya Zubov back to Russia. Hartford picked up Mathieu Dandeneault on a PTO. Philly traded for once-burned-out Stefan Legein and sending him to Adirondack — see you bright and early Nov. 4.

Things are a little more normal for the Sound Tigers, with the lines back to opening-night style, though Brett Westgarth gets the night off on the blue line.

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

LOWELL
F: Snetsinger-Walter-Perkovich
Zharkov-Swift-Gionta (A)
Davis-Sestito-Vasyunov
Robitaille-Mills-Cormier Palmieri Cormier*
D: Davison-Eckford
Leach (C)-Corrente
Murphy-Taormina
(Magnan (A)-scratch)
G: McKenna
Coleman
R: T.Koharski. L: Boyle, T. Low.

(I may have messed something(s) up w/ that Lowell lineup. Edit: Yep. Edit2: Maybe not. Cormier was announced as a scratch but is listed as playing on the various sheets. I thought I saw “29.” I’ll stick with Cormier in. Until proven otherwise.)

In other news, the chicken-tenders place is closed here. I’m not coming back.