But gimme some good news

Here's some good news for the Sound Tigers: When Wade Dubielewicz needed a couple of extra seconds late in OT, it sure enough wasn't for the groin. The puck missed the pad and hit him in the knee. Not pretty, but it wasn't the groin.

Here's some good news for the Sound Tigers: Dubielewicz looked just fine. He was moving across the crease to make saves. He used that goal stick in the bonus round to pokecheck the puck away. He was beaten only on a wide-open shot in the slot. Not bad for the all-star.

Here's some good news for the Sound Tigers: The penalty kill was solid again. Missing three of its top forwards and its defensive workhorse, the units limited Philly's scoring chances.

Here's some good news for the Sound Tigers: Petteri Nokelainen was a force tonight, doing just about everything right, playing with an edge, and getting open for a nifty little Allan Rourke pass for the Sound Tigers' goal.

Here's some good news for the Sound Tigers: Robert Nilsson did some penalty killin'... and looked pretty good at it. Steve Regier was behind me in the press box, and it was funny to hear him talking quietly to his teammates up there. He was whispering out some instructions to Nilsson, and Nilsson was following along.

Here's some good news for the Sound Tigers: Sounds like Regier may be ready for the weekend.

Here's some good news for the Sound Tigers: They played a tough game, and they were rewarded. After Jeff Tambellini got nailed in the neutral zone and lost his helmet, Tambellini stayed right in the play and got Martin Grenier good behind the net. At the end of it all, Grenier was slugging Brandon Nolan; Nilsson went to keep Matt Ellison out of the scrum and got popped for his trouble. For their troubles, the Sound Tigers got a power play.

Here's some good news for the Sound Tigers: With Dubielewicz still hurting and Boyd Kane a stride away from a breakaway in the closing seconds of overtime, Drew Fata came back to catch up to him and break it up.

Here's some good news for the Sound Tigers: a two-game winning streak for the first time since Nov. 29-Dec. 2.


LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Tambellini (A)-Nolan-Nilsson
Comeau-Ferraro-Boguniecki
Marjamaki-Nokelainen-Pitton
Griffith
D: Fata-Berry ('C')
Mitchell-Fraser
Malec-Rourke (A)

PHILADELPHIA
F: Tolpeko-Ellison-Reid
Kane (A)-Cabana-Dimitrakos
Grant-Voce-Cote
Zingoni-Davis-(Pisellini-scratch)
D: Slaney (C)-Guenin
Jonsson-Baumgartner (A)
Morrison-Grenier

Shootout+7:30 start=frazzled sportswriter. Technically, we missed first-edition deadline. Here's some good news for me: Day off tomorrow. (Which is today by now, I suppose.) You'll get a follow-up notebook Friday, because even for second edition tonight, basically all I had time to do was gut the first four grafs and quote Dubielewicz a couple of times.

Berry wore (didn't wear) a phantom C with Wotton the vets scratch. Like the A he had (didn't have) a couple of weeks ago, it was on the sheet but not on the sweater. Tip o'cap (ha) to veteran commenter Stan, who saw Tambellini had a road-white A in warmup; it was blue by gametime. In either color, that's the first time he's worn one here.

I don't think anyone was designated a C-for-a-day ever before for Bridgeport.

No special reason to start with Wotton, was the word tonight, except that the rotation had to start somewhere, and he had played a lot in the past few weeks; remember, there were a couple of games where he played just about every second of every kill.

(There is, incidentally, no vets rule for commenters. A couple of you guys are probably up around 260.)

Scouting meetings this week, so almost every one was there tonight. Made the dressing room a maze, too.

Good to see Peter Zingoni notch an assist in his return home. Gave the cheering section something to, y'know, cheer about.

Luch Aquino surfaced in Utah tonight.

Michael Sharp up in Bingo has a Matt Koalska/Grant Potulny story today.

Tomorrow is (or may not be) the 250th birthday of Alexander Hamilton. Given his alma mater and his adopted hometown, you can probably guess why I feel a kinship. (Among the other reasons.)