Matchless

For a while, this felt like an old Albany game.

The way the Devils play the matchup game, lines hopping off at the opening draw to avoid a checking line or a certain set of defensemen? Even with new affiliates, that was the beginning of this one, when Tom Rowe tried to keep Keith Aucoin away from Drew Fata and Rick Berry.

Bridgeport kept getting them on, though, every shift, all night. And except for one Fata turnover on a change, it worked just fine.

"You look at New Jersey, look at the Islanders, all the top teams now, they have to have goaltending and defense," Dan Marshall said. "We haven't given up an on-ice goal, a real five-on-five goal, in two games. Hats off to those guys. They were ready to go."

It looked like Frans Nielsen might be going back up. He left a nice present behind, that own-rebound goal after the initial shot hit a stick.

Eric Boguniecki made a goal-scorer's play to give the Sound Tigers the lead.

And Bridgeport kept some pressure on, and Dubielewicz stopped everything.

The lead's nine points, minus a game in hand. Since the New Year's Eve Massacre, that's a 17-point swing.

LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: Nilsson-Nielsen-Boguniecki
Pitton-Colliton (A)-Nokelainen
Marjamaki-Regier-Nolan
G. Johnson/Magowan
D: Fata-Berry
Wotton (C)-Fraser
Malec-Rourke (A)

ALBANY
F: Murley-Aucoin (C)-Laaksonen
McLeod-Gove-McCormick (A)
Bayda-Petruzalek-Dwyer
Estrada-DaSilva-(Carson-scratch)
D: Cumiskey-Babchuk
Vernace-Conboy
Love-Boychuk

Might put that first Albany line against any in the league.

There was a bit of Magowan-Johnson-doubleshiftingforward against Aucoin's line, no fewer than three times, plus two other instances where Magowan joined other forwards. They performed admirably.

Good Marshall line: "I'm just managing rest. I'm not managing ice time."

Heads-up play by Brandon Nolan... before the game started. As you can see, the Sound Tigers tweaked their lineup a bit. Didn't ask who filled out the lineup card, but whoever did, probably out of force of habit, circled the numbers of Marjamaki, Regier and... Nokelainen. When Nolan heard Adam Goodman (also back from the NHL) announce Nokelainen's name instead of his, he skated over to the bench to check with Jack Capuano. Capuano checked the card, saw the circle, and sent Nokelainen on. Nokelainen hopped off right after the draw (as did Aucoin's line), but they had saved a two-minute penalty.

Bridgeport wore the thirds, but one sweater was unique: Tomas Malec's No. 12 sweater was from the first set of the season and had black numbers on his sleeves, while everyone else's was from the second and had white numbers on the sleeves.

Dubielewicz had been 4-for-4 on penalty shots for Bridgeport; the Sound Tigers had been 8-for-8 (Mole 1/1, Valiquette 1/1, Kochan 2/2).

The Sound Tigers are 5-2 at home on Tuesdays*. Tuesdays on the road? 0-4. What do those numbers mean? Nothing.

Edit: Kevin Mitchell ist da! (As always, Babelfish it for translating fun. "Fishing rods and bowling must line up first in the back," indeed.

*-Almost forgot Dec. 26.