Soundin' Off

Replay scoreboard: Fourth use, with… Wait.

Let’s go back. Puck bouncing. Four penalties in the first assaults the flow. Bridgeport escapes with a lead. (Blair Riley, three-game goal streak.)

Portland ties it on a bounce off a skate. Portland takes a lead through a screen. Bridgeport looks like it’s having one of those nights.

Jon Landry scores. Justin DiBenedetto collects a perfect pass in the slot and feeds Rhett Rakhshani in front of the net. (Sadly for Portland, that perfect pass to DiBenedetto was from a Pirate.)

And then Andy Miele ties it with 55.1 seconds to go in regulation.

And then Donovan tries a wraparound as overtime winds down. It bounces back off a defenseman to Frischmon. He tries once, then twice. Somewhere in there, the buzzer sounds. Somewhere in there, the puck goes into the net.

Somewhere in there, referee Tim Mayer gives the most half-hearted point toward the puck in the back of the net. He knows what’s coming at him from the team in red. There’s not much he can do about it.

Jeez. A weird game. But two big points for Bridgeport.

“Our team won with sheer character,” Brent Thompson said. “Our details weren’t good enough. Our habits within the game weren’t good enough. Character, heart, willingness to go to those areas and get dirty goals — the guys stepped up, and obviously Poulin was fantastic.”

Poulin was. Peter Mannino wasn’t bad, either.

But it’ll be remembered for two moments in overtime, one at either end, one where the new video replay system could’ve really helped.

With about 2:30 left, Brett MacLean carried it up three-on-three. He got around Ty Wishart to the outside and put it to the front, where Nick Ross had a half-step. Poulin stopped Ross’ shot and tried to cover it behind him; it kicked instead toward the goal line, where Jon Landry pulled it out of either the net or the crease, depending on how far across the goal line the puck got. The red light came on. Mayer, arriving on the scene, waved “no.” Naturally, play went on for another 90-something seconds. Mayer finally goes in to take a look.

What specifically happened in there, we don’t know. From the league: “A malfunction of the system being tested prevented proper review from taking place. Officials followed proper procedures to rule on the play.” Mayer talked to the goal judge after a while, went back to the box, exited and waved it off one more time.

Presumably, then, the system wasn’t available to check one more thing: Whether the puck went into the net before time expired in overtime.

We’ve got a VHS look at that. It’s impossible to tell for sure from the center-ice camera angle with Phil’s audio patched into it; the buzzer sounds on that tape just about as Frischmon gets his second whack. Is the audio synchronized to the video? Is there any delay to the audio? No way to know. It’s close enough that you’d almost certainly need some sort of clear visual evidence — clock, superimposed, for instance — to overturn the call. And the call, as that half-hearted point made clear, was “goal.” They’ve still got a two-point lead on the Whale.

“It was one of those games where we had to find an ugly way to win,” Thompson said.

“And we did.”

….

The Sound Tigers’ magic number for a playoff spot is five points. It can’t be done before Wednesday (Portland is off until Tuesday in St. John’s), but if things break right, they could do it that morning.

Ullstrom hurting the Cy Young candidacy with two assists. Now 21-6.

Steve Oleksy moved back to defense late in the second period and was there for the third in his usual defense spot alongside Matt Donovan. They were more or less down to three lines, with Tomas Marcinko spotting in on the penalty kill and on the wing with Frischmon. “I was just trying to shake it up,” Thompson said, adding, “every guy contributes every game, whether they play one shift, whether they play 100 shifts. Even the guys who don’t play are contributing. We want every guy to feel valued. Tonight, we needed to shorten the bench.”

The Whale beat the Phantoms to stay two points back.

Portland actually gained a spot in the standings (because Adirondack lost to the Whale, falling to 10th) but lost ground (by only gaining one while Manchester and Syracuse got two).

Speaking of, Prescout. It will be really weird to see Trent Hunter back here, particularly in another sweater. Brian O’Neill also returns, for the second time since last year’s regional ended early.

Not sure if it was mathematical before on some level, but it certainly is now: There will be a new Calder Cup champion, with Binghamton eliminated. Steve Stirling was running the bench tonight for the Sens with Kurt Kleinendorst suspended.

St. John’s win over Hershey clinched the Atlantic Division for the Caps. It also clinched the East Division for Norfolk, which wins even when it doesn’t play.

Tip of cap to Ray Whitney, 1,000 points.

Merits aside, take a look at Tim E. O’Brien’s rebranding concept for the Columbus Blue Jackets Generals… and in particular, look at his concept for the captain and alternates patches.

Beltran/Wainwright, teammates five and a half years later. Painful read. (Hat tip: Andy Martino.)

And RIP, Samuel Glazer.

“Give Worcester credit,” Brent Thompson said. “They threw everything at us.”

“The first period, there’s no excuse,” Justin DiBenedetto said. They didn’t get a lot of bounces, he said, but “we were sloppy.”

And then this happened.

I mean, if you turned this game off in disgust at 4-1, you’ve got to be excused. This was shaping up into their second clunker against Worcester in the past couple of weeks, a messy first period turned into, well, whatever it was going to turn into in the second and third.

Blair Riley got them one back, but then the Sharks capitalized again, with John McCarthy driving to the net and driven into Kevin Poulin. (And they did get some bounces to build that lead. The second goal, Kennedy’s power-play goal, was a de Haan attempt to clear the puck to the corner that bounced off Frischmon’s skate, right into the net. The third one, early in the second, they were denied a couple of times before McCarthy came in and got it.)

But then Steve Oleksy, diving for the puck, sets up Scott Howes. The power play comes through — “it continues to get better,” Thompson said — for DiBenedetto’s first of two. Kael Mouillierat scores a pretty one on his own rebound. They get another power-play goal in the third, with help from that awful delay-of-game, puck-over-glass rule. And they’re back in first place.

Figure this game out.

….

Nothing made itself apparent tonight as far as transactions, though the Islanders announced that Evgeni Nabokov left tonight’s win in Pittsburgh with a lower-body injury. Arthur Staple noted at one point that David Ullstrom wasn’t on the bench, and indeed Ullstrom apparently didn’t play in the third period after scoring a goal in the second, but I didn’t see anything further on that.

I wasn’t entirely clear on the whole sequence of events on that early-third disallowed goal, but the fact is that the replay system isn’t supposed to be used to review a kick. So there’s that.

Oleksy played another solid game up front, moving back on the penalty kill (“our defense penalty-killed very well,” Thompson said). Almost got that disallowed goal. “He’s a leader,” Thompson said.

The lines were all over the place. Everywhere. “I had to change the chemistry,” Thompson said. ” I was juggling like I’ve never juggled before, to generate some kind of chemistry, some kind of energy.” The defense pairs settled into de Haan-Wishart as usual, but Donovan-Landry and Ness-Sinkewich.

DiBenedetto scored his 20th goal in just his 48th game. He had 19 last year.

Romano becomes the seventh player to score four assists. (Colliton did it twice.)

Islanders prospect defenseman Brenden Kichton is out for the year after surgery on a broken jaw, the Spokesman-Review reports.

Yannick Riendeau was named ECHL Player of the Week.

ECHL transactions say Brandon Gentile was returned to Alaska, though Charlotte didn’t have its half of that transaction on the official books before tonight’s game.

And finally, have you waited patiently for three years to see Mikko Koskinen take a couple of swings at a guy and get a right hand to the chops for his troubles? Thanks to Lighthouse Hockey, wait no more.

One thing you miss when a team suffers like last year’s team suffered? Games like this.

Playoff intensity, which, for all you hope, doesn’t happen when a team is fighting for 29th overall instead of a division lead. Swings back and forth. The Penguins controlled the first period and a half, before a physical shift by the fourth line established a presence for Bridgeport and turned it around (nice comeback for Brett Gallant after two months). The third line got things going on the scoreboard. Soon enough, it’s 2-2. They led; they got tied up nine seconds later. They trailed; they tied it with the extra attacker (just) on.

“Really a great game to be a part of,” John Hynes said.

“Very fun,” Tony Romano said.

Man. You miss those.

“No one in the room is satisfied,” Brent Thompson said.

Wouldn’t expect that, either.

….

Replay scoreboard: Third use, first attempt of the shootout. Cal O’Reilly’s shot goes off the top-back bar of the net, but the sound is enough to get a replay. It takes Jamie Koharski about a minute to confirm the tally.

Romano on a six-game scoring streak, 1-8-9.

Scott Munroe: Solid on the penalty kill; came up big at the end; denied every shootout attempt; delivered exactly the quote I needed for the lead I’d written for my out-of-town story, to be delivered on tight deadline. No wonder he has that nickname.

Prescout. Hall of Fame night in Hartford. Norfolk helped Bridgeport out tonight. Bridgeport needs the Admirals’ winning streak to end at 14 tomorrow. Andre Deveaux with an impressive five minor penalties tonight. So Bridgeport moves two points ahead of the Whale. The Sound Tigers are still tied with/tiebreaker ahead of Hershey if it comes to that.

Thanks to the person who pointed out that Brandon DeFazio is the son of onetime New Haven Nighthawk Dean DeFazio. Speaking of, Nighthawks sweaters on the ice.

Lighthouse Hockey with some interesting stuff on potential future Sound Tiger Mike Halmo. Outstanding timing: Guess what happened with Halmo tonight. (Video.)

The Anders Lee watch begins, Arthur Staple notes.

OK, shorter rest than usual. Spring forward. More tomorrow.

Playoff intensity, playoff crowd, almost playoff weather*, and now they’re matching lines like it’s May.

“Every team has key guys,” Jeremy Colliton said. “We’re playing a team game. Everybody has to be responsible defensively.”

Colliton’s line and Trevor Frischmon’s line drew a lot of the defensive responsibilities this weekend, Frischmon against the Falcons’ big line Saturday and both (mostly Colliton, but both) against Wolski on Sunday. The Whale got one goal, when they were working to get the personnel off against the wrong matchup and then back on when Wolski hopped off the bench and stole the puck.

Bridgeport tied it soon after, won it much later. In between, it was a whole lot of Jon Landry and Ty Wishart against Wolski-Newbury-Zuccarello.

“It’s fun to be lined up against the top line,” Landry said. “Those three, they’re a pretty talented group.”

“Those guys are great hockey players,” Thompson said. “They’ve played in the NHL. … Wishart has played in the NHL. Landry’s a big guy who can move the puck.”

Thompson liked, too, that it gave Cizikas’ and Mouillierat’s line a chance against other guys.

“I really don’t care who plays against who. You get to the next level, you’ve got to be solid defensively.”

….

Speaking of the next level… Nobody saying anything, but there were signs Ty Wishart could be getting a call up. Not necessarily relatedly, ECHL transactions say Benn Olson is coming back. Olson had no points, was a minus-2 and had 46 penalty minutes in 11 games with Alaska.

Replay Scoreboard: Second use, 37 seconds of overtime. David Ullstrom shot goes in over Chad Johnson’s glove and off the back bar. Mats Zuccarello heads to the scorer’s table and asks for a review; Jon McIsaac obliges. The monitor has to come up from under the table. They take a moment to cue up the video. McIsaac confirms the play and comes out after about five minutes pointing to center ice.

(They are, as Dave Andrews said last month, working out the kinks.)

Sound Tigers shooters are back to .500 on penalty shots, 11-for-22, after Scott Howes’ miss. They’re 1-for-3 this year, Tyler McNeely stopped at Springfield on Nov. 12 and Nino Niederreiter’s goal at Hershey the next day.

Speaking of, Thompson said McNeely’s X-rays were negative.

Ullstrom now has three points in overtime, tied for 12th all-time in team history.

Cizikas’ point streak ended at eight.

Attendance was 7,693, three short of the season high and 15th all-time. Nine of the top 16 crowds have come on visits from teams from Hartford.

New Canaan’s Jack Downing has a goal in four of the past five games for Binghamton.

Haven’t read it yet, but I’m sure this is going to be great stuff on Steve MacIntyre from Jonathan Bombulie.

And birthday boy Matt Bain headed out quickly. Smart man. Though there was a conspiratorial little huddle in the hallway after he left, something about what was going to happen to his room…

*-I take that back. It has been fine out there, but it’s pretty darn cold tonight.

Gerry Cantlon suggested I use that as a euphemism in the gamer for something one of the players said tonight. I don’t know. Might’ve spoiled the mood of this one.

It looked unfamiliar, for a Bridgeport team to play a just-good-enough first, an invisible second, and then finally look right in the last seven or eight minutes.

“It’s another learning experience,” Brent Thompson said, a little calmer by then than he was in his first few words (which could have made for another one of those sum-it-up-in-one-quote, “that was easy” kind of posts). “This league… you can’t take a shift off. You can’t take a period off. We were casual in the first two periods.”

They had no shots of note for a long stretch, let Manchester take charge, weren’t getting pucks deep nor retrieving them. That continued on the power play, which didn’t help (though David Ullstrom pointed to some bad ice, which surely didn’t help, either).

“You have to work to protect the puck, and you have to work to retrieve the puck,” Thompson said. They didn’t do enough of either.

“It was definitely one of those nights,” Cizikas said. “I don’t know how to explain what we did tonight. I’m speechless right now, so you know it’s one of those nights. When we come here next Saturday, we’re going to be champing at the bit.”

Cizikas and Ullstrom sat at the bench for a good 30 seconds after everybody else was gone.

“The streak has been because we’ve been outworking all the teams,” Ullstrom said. “Today, we got outworked.”

Said Thompson, “Over the course of 70-something games, you hope that doesn’t happen again.”

…..

Replay scoreboard: First use, 14:23 first. Justin DiBenedetto second-effort stuff attempt at right post. He thought it went in. Martin Jones thought he had it covered. No red light. Jean Hebert said no goal, then went to the scorer’s table to check it out. After about a minute, he came out of the box with a washout signal.

Thompson said McNeely was a healthy scratch and that Backman could’ve played, too. Seeing what Manchester was dressing, they wanted Gillies in the lineup. Gillies didn’t play a lot; five or six shifts, including one that turned into a quick fight against Justin Johnson.

No obvious sign that anyone’s going up on defense after Travis Hamonic took a puck in the face tonight. Birthday boy Steve Oleksy is said to have re-upped on a new PTO.

From Jonathan Bombulie, Islanders draft pick and Bridgeport ATO Brian Day retired from hockey to go back to the real world.

Team’s off tomorrow. More Monday.