Spare change

Fascinating well before the start: Koalska for Malec.

Fascinating before the start: Joe Ferras and Bernie Cassell upstairs.

Fascinating at the start: Dan Marshall changing the defense, and Jack Capuano changing the forwards.

Fascinating at 13:02: a lead.

Fascinating at 36:07, 15 seconds after Albany came back to tie the game (Jakub Petruzalek sighting) and threatened to blend, puree or dice whatever dicey confidence Bridgeport had left: Mitchell in deep, Boguniecki recovers, centers to Ferraro, and Bridgeport is on its way to a win.

That's right. A win.

A 7-4 win.

(Blink.)

So while scoring half the number of goals they had scored in their previous eight, Bridgeport paid attention to detail, created traffic, worked hard, did all those little things they have talked about ad nauseam for the past month.

So Jeremy Colliton went down with a shoulder injury after five shifts, and Steve Regier, pressed into the middle when Frans Nielsen went up, then hurt his Achilles in the second. Peter Ferraro and Eric Boguniecki play probably the most they've played all year, and oh boy does that work out. Brandon Nolan gets the Gordie Howe Hat Trick. Jamie Fraser scores again. Kevin Mitchell goes plus-5. The team looks entirely different.

It's a dumb little thing, but one thing that caught my eye in the third was, on one shift, Nolan and Robert Nilsson both certain to stay high, staying out of the scrums, staying back. Bridgeport had a two-goal lead at the time and didn't need to go chasing more.

As it turned out, they got more later, anyway. And isn't that a change.

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Comeau-Colliton (A)-Boguniecki
Tambellini-Regier-Nilsson
Nolan-Nokelainen-Ferraro
Marjamaki/Pitton
D: Fata-Berry
Mitchell-Fraser
Lee-Wotton (C)

ALBANY
F: Dwyer-Aucoin (C)-Willis (A)
Angelidis-Richardson-Murley
McLeod-Gove-McCormick
Estrada-Petruzalek
D: Vernace-Boychuk
Love-Conboy
Carson-Flood

The Bridgeport lines devolved to this after Regier left:
Comeau-Ferraro-Boguniecki
Tambellini-Nolan-Nilsson
Marjamaki-Nokelainen-Pitton

They were going in Central Red Armyish units of five to start the third: Ferraro's with Lee and Wotton, Nolan's with Fata and Berry, and Nokelainen's with Mitchell and Fraser. I'll let you pick out which one is the Green Unit.

Hey, maybe those meetings do pay off.

Now I gotta go look up plus-5's and Gordie Howe Hat Tricks. (Regier said he'd frame the scoresheet for Mitchell, BTW.)

The boys have two days off, so maybe not much between now and Monday. Unless there's more coming. When Rourke rejoins, there's six veterans, including four defensemen, with Malec's arrival.

Ryan O'Marra had an assist as Canada won World Juniors gold for the third year in a row. The United States won the bronze over Sweden.

Anon 5:43 noted it in previous comments, but it's got to be beheld in agate type: a four-point night for Eric Godard. Two goals, two assists. (Jason Guerriero had two points, too.)

Patrik Stefan's blown-empty-netter-turned-tying-goal (James Mirtle has the video embedded in this blog entry) reminded me of a story Steve Stirling told a couple of years ago, though I never did hear if they found out the details: Stirling said the Isles' Czech scout had sent around a clip of a player in Europe skating alone toward an empty net, and the player put on a fake -- a fake on the empty net -- and missed.

Can someone help John Dellapina out? (I remember the incident well, but not the line.)

(Pls pardon any formatting errors. Incredible Crashing Work Computer has shut itself down six (six!) times in the Knick Pepsi Times Union Center heat.)