Soundin' Off

Just another one of those “wow” nights, where your jaw drops with about five minutes left and stays that way until everyone finally leaves the ice…

<rant> Tonight might present the greatest arguments both for and against the shootout*.

“For” is obvious. The sucker is exciting. And tonight, PAT (point after tie) on the line, there was tension. There was a little buzz in the crowd — and jeez, that actually could be described as a “crowd” tonight — as the thing went on. And when Jeremy Colliton clinched it, the tension was released.

But come on. At the end of 65 minutes — hard-fought but sloppy, given-away but reclaimed — why should either team deserve a chance for a second point? Yes, Cody Rudkowsky played darn well. Frederic Cassivi wasn’t at his best, but he wasn’t horrible, either. Both teams did some good things. Both teams made mistakes. Hershey’s desperation got them a lead. Bridgeport’s desperation got them even. It’s a tie. Go home and be happy. Instead, these two teams come out with a total of three points. </rant>

Whew. Where was I? Oh yeah, five minutes to go…

Too many penalties. Dave Baseggio was not happy; another “I don’t understand the decisions” quote could have made the paper. Ryan Caldwell took two penalties early in the third and didn’t play again. Bruno Gervais had a great game but took a late penalty that turned into the tying goal. Then a rush turned into the go-ahead goal…

And then Bridgeport pulls Cody Rudkowsky, and then Dave Steckel takes a penalty, and it’s on….

Bridgeport won, I think, four draws in the offensive zone with the goaltender pulled. Lots of Wyatt Smith, though Jeremy Colliton might have been in on one or two, too. Frantic, frenetic, fantastic. Rob Collins’ deflection is stopped. Colin Forbes blocks Collins. Gervais gets it to Smith, glove save. Smith wins another draw, and Gervais’ shot gets blocked. Time’s disappearing. Mark Wotton blocks Colliton, Colliton gets it around to the right corner to Robert Nilsson, Nilsson fires it into the crease…

I didn’t expect it. I actually flinched when the Sound Tigers began celebrating with 1.0 seconds on the clock, because I didn’t expect it to go in.

According to Sean Bergenheim, it hit his stick, then hit Colliton’s stick. “The last thing I knew, it was under (Cassivi’s) pads,” Bergenheim said. “I just hit it as hard as I could, and I saw it go in. It was a really good feeling.”

The only goal later in regulation in a Sound Tigers game? That Steve Regier goal on Dec. 22, 2004, that went in with 0.1 seconds left. That also turned into a shootout win.

Rudkowsky let in an early goal from a bad angle — I’m not sure if he yet knows where it came from — after a weird carom off the end boards, shades of that Worcester game last season, a few games before the Regier-goal night. He was otherwise phenomenal. He disagreed a little when I said he didn’t have much of a chance on Joey Tenute’s goals, but making him go across left-to-right, high shots, they were tough.

Gervais scored his 13th goal, tops among AHL defensemen, as the Sound Tigers kept the puck in after a power play. Bergenheim dug the puck out of the corner, Colliton took a turnaround shot, and Nilsson chipped the rebound back to Gervais, who has five goals in the past six games.

Gervais set up Travis Brigley on a quick turnover-and-transition rush in the third to take the lead; Brigley slapped it high-glove side on Cassivi. But Bridgeport couldn’t hold the lead. But they earned a chance to win it in the shootout.

“This wasn’t our best game,” Bergenheim said, “but when we play the way we can play, we can beat any team.”

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Bergenheim-Colliton-Nilsson
Marjamaki-Koalska-Masse
Thompson-Brigley-Regier
Smith (A)/Collins
D: Jarrett-Gervais
Bouchard-Caldwell
Rourke (A)-Karpa (A)

HERSHEY
F: Forbes-Aulin-Fehr
Fleischmann-Tenute-Klepis
Fussey-Steckel-Johansson
Bourque**-(Zinger-scratch***)-Robitaille
D: Wilde-Arsene (A)
Cutta-Wotton (A)
Nycholat (A)-Green

*-Shootouts are also bad for me on deadline, because they’re an extra 5-10 minutes on top of an already long game. There, I said it.</rant>
**-Chris Bourque flew in from Vancouver to join the team after playing for the U.S. at the World Junior Championship. He drew a couple of penalties and shot a bunch of pucks wide from the point on the power play.
***-Coming back from a shoulder injury.

Pregame fun:

–The day is at hand: Cody Rudkowsky will start tonight wearing No. 30. Every number up to and including 40 will then have been worn by a Sound Tiger in a game. Backing up tonight on a PTO after flying in from Dayton is Gregg Naumenko. He’s wearing the more familiar No. 34. (Update: Off-ice official Stan Capp claims credit for Rudkowsky wearing 30. In an e-mail this afternoon, he said it was time for it to happen.)

–Canada earned a repeat victory at the World Juniors with a 5-0 win over Russia Thursday night in Vancouver. Islanders draft pick Blake Comeau scored one of the goals and led the champs in scoring (3-4-7). If not for that zany third period in Helsinki two years ago yesterday, it’d be a three-peat. (Sorry, Jeremy Colliton.) The U.S. lost to Finland 4-2 in the bronze-medal game, with Manchester Monarchs forward Lauri Tukonen scoring the game-winner and assisting on the insurance tally. The all-tournament team is here, along with links to game recaps. Tukonen’s on the media’s team; the tournament directorate and the press agreed on Leafs pick Tuukka Rask of Finland as the top goalie. Interestingly, the directorate picked Rangers draft pick Marc Staal of Canada as the top defenseman; the media picked the Americans’ Jack Johnson (Carolina) and Canada’s Luc Bourdon (Vancouver) as their two defensemen. Magnitogorsk/Pittsburgh forward Evgeni Malkin was the press’ MVP and the directorate’s top forward. U.S. totally-draft-eligible forward Phil Kessel led the tournament in scoring at 1-10-11 but didn’t make the press team; the media went with Malkin (4-6-10), Tukonen (3-7-10), and Philly pick Steve Downie (2-4-6), who’s an interesting story to say the least.

I wish this tournament could somehow come to this area again. I’m sorry I missed 1996.

(more…)

…for the obvious reason. He signed an NHL deal this morning and practiced on the Island.

That Al Maio start looks closer than ever.

They were looking for at least one, maybe two, goalies to ride out the storm; heard a name in the morning, but I’ll wait for confirmation. Updates on that situation as they become available. UPDATE 1: BST have signed G Cody Rudkowsky to a PTO; another goalie is possible.

Chris Madden continues to practice even though he’s hurting; surgery is probably early next week. Rick DiPietro might be back sometime this weekend, but it sounds like Cloutier will at least make the trip to Raleigh, and Dubielewicz will start. Snow’s injury, the official word hasn’t come yet, but it sounds like it might be a couple of weeks at least.

And, of course, it’s Thursday. The Chris Thompson feature is here. Nice sum-it-up quote that didn’t make the story: “He’s physical. He gets dirty. He gives a lot of energy,” Dave Baseggio said. “The guys rally around that. It picks up the level of the game, and in practice, too.”

And the notes and rail stuff are online this week as well. A quick supplement to the “Offsides with the Sound Tigers” feature today… Intrigued by Matt Koalska’s response, I did a little searching and wound up here. The song, confirmed this morning with Koalska, is “Go Seawolves,” in the left column. A word of warning: If you do choose to click on it, I cannot be held responsible, ’cause Koalska is right.

While Worcester might be coming back, word came down this week that Lowell is up for sale. One to watch.

No shockers in this list: “The first inductees into the AHL Hall of Fame are Johnny Bower, Jack Butterfield, Jody Gage, Fred Glover, Willie Marshall, Frank Mathers and Eddie Shore.”

BTW, my compy somehow picked up this “WinFixer” adware. Out of nowhere, a window pops up encouraging me to scan my system; when I close the window, a dialog box pops up telling me I didn’t finish the scan; when I close that, it gives me another dialog box, then hijacks one of my IE windows to go to its own Web site. My Antivirus program finds it but can’t kill it*. Anyone had experience with this? If so, any advice you can e-mail would be awesome. I’ve found some sites that give instructions how to get it out, but I get twitchy going into the registry for some reason…

*-Much like my own immune system. Darn three-week cold…

This is a bad time to be the knee of a New York Islanders goalie. First Chris Madden. Then Ricky DiPietro. And now Garth Snow.

So what happens now? Guess we find out tomorrow. Madden is the only other guy on an NHL deal, and he’s a doctor’s appointment away from surgery, the poor guy. If DiPietro isn’t ready for Friday, wow. This’ll be interesting.

But heck, if they have to sign a guy, Frederic Cloutier looked good Wednesday.

(more…)

…is not in the AHL right now. Wade Dubielewicz is BPT’s fifth POTW, one for each season.

Remember this guy?

Pretty impressive if you do. Alexandre Burrows — he was also known as Alex Menard-Burrows back then — went to training camp with the Islanders in 2002 as an undrafted free agent out of the Q. He stuck around with the Sound Tigers at the very beginning of their camp, even played in a couple of exhibition games, before all the ECHL-tryout guys came to town. When they did, Steve Stirling had to let him go, but the coach wasn’t happy about it, and he hoped to find Burrows a place to play. “There was just, unfortunately, no room at the inn,” I quoted Stirling in my Oct. 1, 2002, story. “(Bridgeport’s ECHL affiliate) Trenton had no room for him. He’s a pretty good player who works his tail off.”

Four days after that, Burrows signed with Grrrrrrreenville of the ECHL. Then he was traded to Baton Rouge. He moved on to Columbus and got a two-game sniff of the AHL with Manitoba. The Moose brought him back the following year, last season. And he returned to Winnipeg again this year. And tonight, in St. Louis, Alex Burrows made his NHL debut.

Kinda cool, eh?

To summarize what will appear in already pretty much summary form in the morning: Cloutier’s up, Madden will see the doctor and probably get scoped, Bouchard is back in white and could play next week, Smith is on his way, Papineau will be back in town to rehab but is still out for the year, and Robinson’s surgery is scheduled for Wednesday.

And if anyone’s interested, I’ll try to agitate and get Al Maio a start this week.

Wade Dubielewicz got a little camera time on national TV tonight. So too, now, has Jeff Hamilton, who just scored here on a five-on-three…

U.S. junior team plays the Czech junior team tonight in the WJC quarters. Winner gets Russia tomorrow. Jack Johnson didn’t get suspended for that elbow on Steve Downie, but Jack Todd calls him names in the Gazette.
(UPDATE: Bring on Russia. Three goals in 13 minutes, none in 47, but it’s enough.

Oh, and apparently the great Bill Ballou (I miss the guy) has reported that the Cleveland Barons will move to Worcester next season. That’ll be interesting to follow in the days to come…