Soundin' Off

Jonathan Bombulie’s afternoon post points out the one glaring deficiency in the Pittsburgh and WBS lineups: experience. That Mark Eaton wound up playing, short-circuiting Chris Lee’s potential NHL debut, only improved the situation a bit. The NHL (part 2) and AHL results probably aren’t so surprising. Wild numbers, though.

On one hand, it’s not a win for the 11th time in 15 games. (It also messes up the W-L-O-S columns, but that’s just me.) On the other hand… well….

You take that Munroe is in one of those stretches where he’s making every save he can.

“A lot were kind of from outside,” he said (as tweeted, some of those outside shots were still open, not exactly point shots, and dangerous). “I was able to cover up a lot of rebounds. Early on I was kicking out some rebounds and the guys were clearing them.”

You take that they have been good this weekend when they’ve been right.

“We’ve just got to be a little better in our own zone,” Munroe said.

It’s three out of four this weekend, and tomorrow’s all the bigger because of that, to see if they have taken a step forward, or if they’ll falter against a fresher opponent.

—-

The fourth line was mostly a non-factor in the third, playing one shift together to start, and then maybe one shift each separately. At even strength, Capuano went heavily to Bentivoglio, Smith, Mauldin, Joensuu, Marcinko in varying combinations, along with Haley and, mitigated by four power-play shifts, Moore. Martin got about as many power-play shifts as he did even-strength; DiBenedetto played a smidge more at five-on-five. “I felt some guys were going pretty good,” Capuano said. “I liked the way they played without the puck, which is more important to me than with the puck at that point in the game.” He said he thought some players seemed to be tiring as the game went on. His only option up front is Bobby Hughes, which might at least be a possibility for tomorrow.

The D-pairs went down to, more or less, MacDonald-Flood and Kohn-Wotton in the last five minutes. Gleed got in for a couple of OT shifts. Klementyev might have been banged up.

Remember how J.S. Aubin’s mask needed some repairs last year, and he went to the bench to borrow one from some guy named Munroe? Nothing new under the sun: Munroe’s needed some tweaking, so he had to wear Nathan Lawson’s for a while in the first. (Forgot to ask about that.)

It’s not really clear whether that Nodl attempt in the shootout went through the net or not. Ciamaga checked it with the goal judge and everything, so I’d imagine they were pretty confident about the “no.” But other people were not so sure. (I really thought “no,” but I thought the net moved, too.) No harm, no foul, unlike most other goal/no goal controversies in this team’s history.

Jon Gleed said he had his stick broken and was cross-checked down before the Phantoms’ first goal. Yeah, he still wasn’t very happy about it.

Bridgeport might miss Portland rookie (’08 late-first-rounder) Tyler Ennis, who made his NHL debut and scored a goal. The rest of the Bucs were off tonight.

Dean Arsene gets the call and could make his NHL debut tomorrow for Edmonton. (Hat tip: Tim Leone.)

Tell ‘em, Rat.

All right, been a fun visit here today, but hitting the highway. Enjoy Cotto-Pacquiao, if you paid for it.

Why Munroe back to back, getting a win and making bigger saves than the raw 21 saves might necessarily indicate?

“Just changing it up,” Jack Capuano said. “I don’t know where the rotation’s going to go. Maybe Scotty will go against his old team, then we’ll get Lawson a couple of games. … We’ve got to get them feeling comfortable, too.”

(Asked Munroe about some of the bigger saves, including two or three good chances for NHL star Ryan O’Marra: “You’ve got to (make them),” he said.)

And what about going without the lids in warmup?

“Sometimes you just do something to rally the troops,” Greg Mauldin said.

Well, it worked out.

“We had good pressure on them, but we were keeping the third guy high. They weren’t getting many odd-man rushes,” Munroe said.

They talked about the week of practice, the focus on keeping things simple, working on tightening up the systems. They looked much more consistent with them.

Springfield caught a break to end the second period, when Greg Moore’s stick broke, and took advantage. Bridgeport got one in overtime, when two Falcons hopped off the ice, and took advantage.

—-

Bridgeport stayed out of the box. Amazing. Three power-plays against, one for only seven seconds; that’s the fewest in nine games.

The Falcons took a couple of penalties for some nasty hits and had some other hard ones that weren’t penalized. “They were playing hard, we were playing hard,” said Bentivoglio, who took one that looked uglier than, maybe, it was in the second period. But Greg Mauldin, who took three or four vicious hits and kept going, was proud of they way they battled through that, pointing to one time when Jesse Joensuu took a hit behind the net, went down but still had the puck when he got up.

Prescout. Maybe they won’t be happy.

Len DiCostanzo had been with Mississippi in the SPHL and spent some time with Charlotte before getting a concussion. Hope Matt Broyles comes back from the flu as well as Kyle Okposo did. (Though the Big Club gave up a lead, too.)

Four overtime wins is already halfway to the team record (eight, 2003-04) and more than they had in three complete seasons.

Faith Night here, which helps account for the attendance: 5,479. I have this urge to read my Bible. Gonna try to beat the kids out of here.

Daniel Tkaczuk signed with Charlotte.

Syracuse signed a long-term lease to stick around up there.

How about Central, smoking New Canaan 42-7 to get back to the FCIAC football title game?

And best of luck to Mike Murphy in his treatment.

There’s a line in tonight’s walkout song — well, in the original version, not Bill Haley’s and his Comets’ — about rolling of eyes and gritting of teeth.*

This team might make you do that sometimes this year.

They gave up another quick one. Then they gave up three quick ones. The game was more or less over, dropping Bridgeport to 7-8, and for whatever it’s worth, they fell to fifth place, too. (And that eighth-place team is a-coming after them, too.)

There were all kinds. There was a pretty power-play setup. There was an intercepted clear. There was a bad break, where they blocked two shots only to have the second bounce straight to the open man. There was one funky one that deflected back through Munroe’s legs; there was one from the other side that somehow got through.** Five goals in 16 shots, and the Falcons were gone.

Bridgeport’s 36 shots probably included about 14 on the power play — maybe more, but give or take — including eight on that first chance that produced the goal. Of the 36, 12 came from either Flood or MacDonald. (Flood had four in the first period, and they might all have come on that one power play.)

At 12:22 of the first, Trevor Smith forced a turnover and got the puck to the net, where Devan Dubnyk stopped Greg Mauldin.

“It’s a whole different game, with Trevor Smith going to the net, if Greg Mauldin puts that in,” Capuano said.

The cynical response is that Springfield would then have taken its 2-1 lead at 12:37 instead of 19:01.

—

Prescout. Typically good day for the usual suspects.

Montreal plucked Jay Leach off re-entry waivers. Jersey, meanwhile, signed Dean McAmmond.

Coupla-time Sound Tiger Jean Desrochers retired, his team announced.

Ryan Kinasewich was the ECHL’s Player of the Month.

Good stuff on Faith and Fear in Flushing today. Greg is happy with a Neil Best report on SNY’s Thursday offseason programming, and I’ve got to agree. (MSG had a Harry Howell film this morning that was fun to see.) Jason imagines the afterlife.

Good story from Ken Levine.

And there’s brighter Hughes family news.

*-In a breathtakingly different context, of course.
**-I say “somehow” because I was twitterin’ on the previous one at the time and couldn’t get a handle on the replays. Stupid technology.

Two guys appeared this morning in the little-used white practice jerseys: Mark Flood, and Micheal Haley. Uh-oh. “Haley had a setback,” Jack Capuano said. That didn’t sound good for the weekend, though Capuano wouldn’t go that far.

Going the other way, Flood got through the practice and was one of the last ones off the ice, spending time working on skills with Martin and Westgarth and Matt Bertani. “It felt great, actually,” Flood said as he came off.

Top three lines were as they began Tuesday night; Morency was with Marcinko and Figren this morning.

Manchester leads the division to begin the first three-in-three. “They’re a puck-possession team, a quick team,” Capuano said. “They’re a team whose guys have been there for a while together, so they’ve got some chemistry. The power play is pretty dynamic.” It went 4-for-6 Sunday.

Tomorrow’s story references this.

Elsewhere, Hartford has shipped Patrick Rissmiller to Grand Rapids. (Only two more years at $1 million-per on that one.) Peter Zingoni is making an impression in Houston. Washington called up Aucoin and Giroux. Sergei Kostitsyn left Hamilton.

*-Bobby Fuller, 10/22/42-7/18/66

Awaiting official word on Flood. Edit: He’s been assigned to Bridgeport. Jack Capuano had no comment on his situation. Assuming Flood cleared, he could practice for the first time Thursday. (The report that he was a couple of weeks away? Was a couple of weeks ago.)

Captain’s practice this morning. The Blue Team won and raised their sticks to the crowd afterward. Rick and I were rude and weren’t cheering. Though I did tap the pen a little afterward, when Romano banked one in off the boards from the opposite goal line. There’s the finish.

Hamilton, west: The new Chicago bench braintrust is Don Lever and Ron Wilson, last seen getting curiously fired by Montreal.

The four smallest (announced) crowds ever to see a Bridgeport Sound Tigers game saw them in Lowell: Oct. 24, 2007 (876, against the World Series); March 10, 2009 (1,018); last night (1,103); and Dec. 7, 2008 (1,117), a Sunday (a date which will live in infamy). And, again, those are tickets distributed. They could toss a bunch into the Merrimack River just before gametime, and technically, they’d count. (Though that would be littering.) Anyway, the next 12 are home games, including Dec. 21, 2005, which at the time was the smallest crowd ever to see a Bridgeport game, but which turned out to be the day that turned the season around.

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.

Fighting dialup to note that Chicago has fired Don Granato and Jason Christie, six games into the season.

I called it a joke in the game story, but then again, Jack Capuano’s the guy who started five defensemen in back-to-back periods one afternoon in March 2007.

Even though the Sound Tigers outshot Norfolk by four in the first period of this one, I kept thinking “shoot the puck.”

They seemed to pass up chances, especially on the power play. Katic had chances in the high slot, I think including one sequence when Ryan Craig had lost his stick; more passes.

They put the puck toward the net a lot more in the third, and Capuano said that’s something they did talk about after two periods. On the other hand, as Andrew MacDonald notes in the gamer, the Ads got in shooting lanes, too.

On the other hand, they cut down on some turnovers (Mark Wotton raised his hand on the one to end the first period, saying he’d let his team down). On the other hand, they took some penalties in the first period.

So, well, they’re not going 80-0.

—

Moore confirmed that it was just a straight-up numbers swap with Romano. Got him to crack a smile, anyway. It had appeared from my look that his shot to end the second period was a Dustin Tokarski robbery; he said he was surprised when Kohn’s pass got to him, and he kind of redirected it toward the net and it hit the post.

Ben Guite was assigned to Milwaukee

Capuano on Klementyev: “I thought he did great: 19 years old, his first game, you look down their roster at Craig, Hall, Bochenski, Mark Parrish, Smolenak, some high-powered forwards.”

I assume they stay on rotation and go with Lawson on Sunday. Capuano wouldn’t go that far. Speaking of the Phantoms, Prescout. Ooh, la la. That was the first meeting between the teams.

Mark Parrish had a goal and an assist for the Admirals in a loss at Syracuse. Meanwhile, the Sound Tigers enjoyed their last Friday off until Christmas.

Apologies for the lack of communication. Spent an hour and a half on the phone with the phone company yesterday. Tech support says my line is bad. Maintenance says my line is good. Dollars to donuts says I’ll try something different if changing the jack fails.

Anyway.

Trevor Gillies has been hit with a two-game suspension for his part in the brawl Saturday in Wilkes-Barre. He’ll miss the weekend. Drew Fata received a four-game suspension in the same press release. Haven’t heard what he did.

Joel Rechlicz was in town and skating with Gillies on a shortened fifth line; Pascal Morency was with Haskins and Martin, because Sean Bentivoglio was given a day off, Capuano said. A good day to get a breather. Capuano said the other day he was upset at the conditioning level? At the end of a 45-minute practice, he had them sprinting. Three times, goal line to blue line, goal line to red line, goal line to far blue, goal to goal. That’s about a half a mile of stops and starts in full gear. “I didn’t like our third period,” Capuano said.

Micheal Haley remains out, and since he has a doctor’s appointment on the Island on Thursday, it doesn’t sound all that promising. “Upper body” is the only report.

Meanwhile, Allentown may be a little closer. (HT: Dartmouth writer Tris Wykes.)

And forget Houston. The official unofficial nonlocal local team is Olimpija Ljubljana. I count five Tigers and a Beast.

So the Devils trapped, and the Sound Tigers threw pucks around (did everyone put a pass behind Katic at one point tonight?), and it wasn’t always the prettiest game, but hey, you get a crowd like that (biggest announced crowd ever by five), you give them a win, a lot can be forgiven.

The Bentivoglio-Haskins reunion paid dividends. Haskins came out hitting, they drew a power play, and a pretty power play later, 1-0.

Six power plays later…

Weird first period to watch, that way. The second was a little better. The third wasn’t terrible, but… The ice, only skated on a few times and in a crowded house, couldn’t have been great, especially by the end of the night, and they were being too fancy on it. (At the same time, if Zharkov could have pulled the trigger, he’d have had two or three.)

In overtime, Haskins won a draw, got it to Bentivoglio, who got it back to MacDonald. MacDonald shot as Haskins went to the net. Goal.

Simple won out.

—

A moment of silence for Roy Boe before the game, eight years since he stepped out at center ice to introduce this Sound Tigers team.

Chris Elsberry’s column today is on the Sound Tigers’ on-ice results since 2002.

I never got Nighthawks tickets for reading. Darn it.

The Lighthouse deadline is gone, “and apparently (Charles) Wang’s patience is through, too,” Chris Botta writes. Then the kid went out and scored a goal.

Oh, Louis Robitaille. How you’ve been missed.

And so Bridgeport is tied for first with Springfield (with four former Sound Tigers), Worcester (spoiling Glens Falls’ return) and Manchester (coupla points for Kevin Westgarth).

Back-to-back Bombulie tweets tonight: “Wyatt Smith tips in a Chris Lee point shot as Eric Tangradi crashes the net. 1-0 WBS.” “@fornabaioctp No, the second assist didn’t go to Masi Marjamaki.” Smith finished with two goals and an assist in his first Penguins game.

Two goals for Peter Zingoni tonight.

Jason Krog was named captain of the Wolves.

Austin to San Antonio is about 80 miles. The American Statesman didn’t staff the Stars’ first game. Well, it was Friday night.

If Safety Graphic Fun isn’t in the RSS reader by now, I mean, c’mon.

Wha? OK, second source.

And deepest condolences to Phil Giubileo, whose brother passed away today.