Drawing the line

The credit for this victory gets spread out, to hear them talk afterward.

You can give it to Tambellini and his three goals, as Blake Comeau did, shouting "Thanks for the win, Jeff!" as Tom Liodice and I talked to Tambellini.

Or, you can listen to Steve Regier, who demanded a moment with us.

"I want to dedicate this win to the whole Sullo family," he said. "John, for working on my shoulder. Mom and sis, for their great work on my truck." (The truck was most important, right?) "I dedicate that gee-dub (game-winning goal) to them."

There you have it: Victory for the Sullo family. Get a banner ready.

Really, though, credit for this victory does get spread out.

Billy Thompson came on in relief and shut them down. Barry Tallackson could have cut it to one with about 28 seconds left, but Thompson got across to stop him. He made 25 saves and got an assist.

The assist was on Jeremy Colliton's breakaway goal, on which Colliton burned Dan McGillis, salary-cap victim and veteran of 634 NHL games.

Then came Petteri Nokelainen's first goal, which was probably only his second- or third-best play of the night. He skated better than I've ever seen him skate tonight to force a third-period turnover. He might finally be getting toward full strength.

Kevin Mitchell had a couple of assists. (The five defensemen combined for four assists, in fact.) The third line played well. Brandon Nolan continues to be effective. The team continues to show the ability to climb off the canvas.

Oh, yeah, and that Tambellini-Nielsen-Nilsson line? They're OK. If you like lines that can move the puck at will.

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Comeau-Colliton (A)-Regier
Tambellini-Nielsen-Ferraro
Marjamaki-Nokelainen-Nolan
Pitton-Ogorodnikov-Ferraro
D: Fata-Berry
Mitchell-Wotton (C)
Rourke (A)

LOWELL
F: (Marshall-scratch)-Papineau-Bergfors
Murphy (A)-Vrana (A)-Tallackson
Ryznar-Pihlman-Gionta
Voros-Davis-Clarkson
D: Greene-McGillis (C)
Malmivaara-Fraser
Lachance-Fahey

Nilsson said he felt "all right" today and will see how the back feels tomorrow. "I don't want to rush anything. I'll see tomorrow morning ... if it feels like it did today, or the last two weeks." My first question was how many he would have had if the back felt all right.

If you missed the afternoon fun, the Isles traded Alexei Zhitnik to Philadelphia for Freddy Meyer, a guy who always impressed with the Phantoms, and a draft pick. Chris Campoli went up, and Blake Comeau came back down once Alexei Yashin was good to go. Jason Goulet was called up from Pensacola but didn't make it in time; he was in the room afterward.

That's 10 wins in a row against teams from Lowell -- eight against the Lock Monsters, two against the Devils.

Don't think there's a name on Bridgeport's hat-trick list that's too surprising: Mapletoft, Krog twice (including one in the playoffs), Kolnik, Torres, Hunter, Bekar, Hamilton twice, Papineau twice, Bergenheim (the four goals Feb. 22) and now Tambellini. Nilsson assisted on two of Bergenheim's four goals to go with his two on Tambellini's three.

This is the third time both teams have changed goalies in a Sound Tigers game. The first was the craziest comeback ever seen on this ice, Jan. 26, 2002 against Worcester. The 'Cats switched for the last 1:24 of the second -- Cody Rudkowsky, in fact, was the short-term reliever -- then put Reinhard Divis back in as Bridgeport took a 5-1 lead; then Bridgeport switched after Worcester tied it up, and Rick DiPietro took the 6-5 loss in relief of Steve Valiquette. Then last year, Dec. 2 at Lowell, was the night Chris Madden got hurt and Wade Dubielewicz came on after one; the Lock Monsters switched, Vitaly Kolesnik for Kevin Nastiuk, when Bridgeport took a 3-0 lead on the way to 4-0.

Update: Alain Nasreddine scored his first NHL goal today. Jonathan has WBS coach Todd Richards' reaction in the game entry on his blog.

Glitch in the software has Milwaukee-Chicago going to a second overtime tonight. Deadlines aside, that's a tiebreaker I could really get into. (Haydar didn't need the extra time -- that's 29 games.)

All kinds of extremes on the out-of-town scoreboard, from the double shutout (your magic tiebreaker bonus point doesn't change it for Messrs. Valiquette and Grumet-Morris) to, good gravy, 10-4 (nine Amerks with more than one point) and 7-1 (Zingoni's the only Phantom on the plus side). And forget about what went on in the NHL. (Hamilton hits double digits in the NHL, BTW.)

And Syracuse has a lease agreement. Five years, with a team option for three more.