Stir it up

If this was a Game 7, I'd tell you I know exactly how the fans feel.

The chances were there. They didn't get buried, and on this one I think you credit the goalie more than the Tigers. Were there mistakes? Yeah. But they still could have won.

If any one of those five or six really good scoring chances gets past Ramo in the first period, this is probably a very different game. And the way the Tambellini-Nielsen-Nilsson line started out, it really looked like it might be.

But it wasn't. Springfield got it done. Hey, Steve Stirling has done nothing in Bridgeport but win.

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Comeau-Colliton (A)-Regier
Tambellini-Nielsen-Nilsson
Marjamaki-Koalska-Nokelainen
Aquino/Ogorodnikov
D: Fata-Berry
Mitchell-Wotton (C)
Halvardsson-Rourke (A)

SPRINGFIELD
F: Healey (A)-Jones-Milley (C)
Blatny-Aulin-Kvapil
Keller-Cavanaugh (A)-Reid
Fritz/Spina
D: O'Brien-Smaby
Egener-Dufresne
Rosehill-Rogers

(I appear to have left my notes at the barn, so those are from memory, hopefully accurate. Annoying more because that's three games of line combos gone...)

Good news: PK keeps rolling (though I have them for a chance fewer than does the league, 47-for-51 rather than 48-for-52 -- the difference appears to be opening night). Bad news: PP is 0-for-28 since mid-WBS.

Nice job on the tribute to Stirling's return.

Elsewhere, Raffi Torres is down on the fourth line for now.

And did I hear something about something happening in Philly or something?

Unrelatedly, the only good thing about my team's not making the World's Serious is that they don't have to wear those goofy patches on their caps.