4 a.m. update

('Cause it's a long ride with time to think)

Suggest you read the regular entry below first, but hey, it's your dime...

Update - probably should have talked a bit about the goals. The first one was interesting, because it came soon after a penalty kill, on which Blake Comeau took a shot off a leg and looked like he had been shot. Someone (Tambellini, maybe?) was just about holding him up on the bench. Paul Camelio and John Sullo got him down the runway, I noted the time, and looked up to see Masi Marjamaki fight off a defenseman and center to Peter Ferraro in the slot for a one-timer off the post and in. (That's two of his three off the post.) Dan Marshall was impressed with the one-timer; a younger kid might have tried to do too much with it. (Comeau, BTW, maybe missed one shift, if that.)

The second goal was also interesting. Lots of credit to Robert Nilsson on this one. He took the puck up-ice against Tyler Sloan, had a half-step from the red line, got leaned on in the neutral zone and drew a penalty. Ref was well behind the play, but he must have had the better angle. Anyway, puck winds up in the corner, Frans Nielsen chips it back out to Nilsson, who puts it right to the crease to Tambellini.

Hershey's tying goal is worth a little more explanation than it gets in the story, too, because Frederic Cassivi came up huge. Alex Giroux had just scored to cut the lead in half, and the physical game was developing, and who knows which way it's going to go? And then Steve Regier comes down the right side and uncorks this near-perfect shot to the far side, except Cassivi sticks out the right pad and makes the stop, but Rick Berry's coming down the slot and gets enough of it to send it toward the five-hole, except Cassivi knocks it away. And as you write all that down, Eric Fehr has the puck and finds Tomas Fleischmann alone out in center ice. Breakway, bingo, tie game. Yeah, that Cassivi, he's OK.

Update a couple of dumb stats: That was the sixth-largest crowd ever to watch a Sound Tigers game, fifth-largest in the regular season.

And the Sound Tigers have defeated Hershey five times in a row now, including two shootout victories, dating back to the middle of last year's season series. That includes two wins in a row out there, erstwhile Other House of Horrors. (They broke the Providence jinx last year, too, so we'll see what happens Friday.) Bridgeport's longest active road losing streak: 3, in Portland (0-2-1-0) and Wilkes-Barre (0-3-0, regular season, anyway). If you get freaky and include the playoffs, the building in which Bridgeport has its longest active winless streak? Harbor Yard, 4 (0-3 playoffs, 0-0-0-1 regular season).


Update - How could I forget? In the process of going to Calvary Cemetery... Over the summer, research turned up four more interborough bridges, one of which I'd already crossed. So...

Metropolitan Avenue Bridge? Check.

Pulaski Bridge? Check.

J.J. Byrne Memorial Bridge? That's a big check.

Progress, baby. But I've just taken a peek at this, and I'm wondering how many of these I ought to count. (The "Eastern Boulevard Bridge" has to be the Bruckner Blvd. drawbridge under the Interchange*, and even though it's a drawbridge, I'm not sure it should count as even semi-major. But hey, if we get near the end, might as well make it tougher...)

(Click here if you really want the background; the count is out of date by an uncertain number. No refunds, no exchanges, no tears shed for your waste of time -- or mine.)

* - UPDATE: Actually, the Eastern Blvd. Bridge turns out to be the Hunts Point Drawbridge on I-278. Also done, though. The one under the Bruckner Interchange is the Unionport Bridge.