Closer to farther away
There's controlling your own destiny. (No more of that.) There's a day where you can be eliminated no matter what you do. (Not quite yet.)
And then there's Friday. A loss at Hartford and an Albany win over Binghamton (and does that look more like a gimme than ever, or what?), and the playoff fantasy is over.
Another effort like tonight's, and it could come that quickly.
The start was almost OK. Not good, for sure, but almost enough. If Jeff Deslauriers doesn't stop Brandon Nolan coming off the boards 15 minutes in, maybe it's a different game.
He does. Stone hits the post the other way, James goes untouched through the slot (it's a trend), and it's 1-0.
The penalty kill breaks down again -- moving ahead too quickly on the first one, and Drew Fata can't get back to Stone; no one near Schremp on the second one -- and it's 3-0.
A bum clear, and it's 4-0.
Mixed-up four-on-four coverage, the puck goes in off Gregg Johnson (minus-4), and it's 5-0.
Can't remember how it became 6-0. Seemed like things were wrapped up by then, right?
LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: J.Johnson-G. Johnson-Nolan
Comeau-Smith-Regier
Marjamaki-Rank-Nokelainen
Magowan-(MacDonald-scratch)-Pitton
D: Fata-Berry ('A')
Fraser-Wotton (C)
Malec-Rourke (A)
WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON
F: Nilsson-Schremp-Wallace
Jacques-Pouliot-Brodziak
Stone-Spurgeon-Filewich
James-Dixon-(McLean-scratch)
D: Ratchuk-Skolney (A)
Gilbert-Carkner (A)
Young-DuPont (C)
Rourke, Comeau and Fraser all went off for brief periods with injuries that looked scary at the time, but all came back in short order and looked OK afterward.
Comeau said the misconduct was a product of frustration boiling over and saying something Ryan Fraser didn't like.
Trio of scoring changes came through too late for the stats: Add an assist to Cam McCaffrey (six points in eight games, is all); add two assists to Steve Regier and subtract one from Mark Wotton.
Some stuff I liked that didn't make the Dubielewicz feature:
--He talked about watching Toronto-Montreal on Saturday, how much it was a microcosm of this whole run. "Toronto went up 3-1? 'We're set.' Montreal went up 5-3? 'We're done.' Finally Toronto wins 6-5: It was a roller coaster. It was such an up-and-down, emotional week. And now we've got to start all over again."
--Asked him about all the attention he was getting. "Who doesn't like attention?" he said with a laugh.
--He mentioned the "We know drama" motto of cable's TNT network. "We brought new meaning to the word," Dubielewicz said.
--Asked about Tambellini being the first one off the bench to jump on him Sunday, and he said they've become pretty close the past few weeks in this run. "We're both pretty new to the situation at this level," Dubielewicz said. "We've communicated a lot how incredible the experience has been. It was neat that he was first off the bench."
Syracuse was finally eliminated tonight with Grand Rapids' shootout win over Hamilton; the Bulldogs clinched a finish ahead of the Griffins with the point, though. Peoria's shootout loss hurt; with three games to play, they need to win out and have Iowa lose out in regulation to catch (what would then be the falling) Stars. A slightly better hope is to cross over on Grand Rapids, but the Griffins lead the Rivermen by four points; a tie would go to Peoria, but it's a climb.
Worcester's win means Hartford will still be playing for second place Friday. And that can't be good for Bridgeport. (Another night like this, and it won't matter who they're playing.)
And then there's Friday. A loss at Hartford and an Albany win over Binghamton (and does that look more like a gimme than ever, or what?), and the playoff fantasy is over.
Another effort like tonight's, and it could come that quickly.
The start was almost OK. Not good, for sure, but almost enough. If Jeff Deslauriers doesn't stop Brandon Nolan coming off the boards 15 minutes in, maybe it's a different game.
He does. Stone hits the post the other way, James goes untouched through the slot (it's a trend), and it's 1-0.
The penalty kill breaks down again -- moving ahead too quickly on the first one, and Drew Fata can't get back to Stone; no one near Schremp on the second one -- and it's 3-0.
A bum clear, and it's 4-0.
Mixed-up four-on-four coverage, the puck goes in off Gregg Johnson (minus-4), and it's 5-0.
Can't remember how it became 6-0. Seemed like things were wrapped up by then, right?
LINEUPS
BRIDGEPORT
F: J.Johnson-G. Johnson-Nolan
Comeau-Smith-Regier
Marjamaki-Rank-Nokelainen
Magowan-(MacDonald-scratch)-Pitton
D: Fata-Berry ('A')
Fraser-Wotton (C)
Malec-Rourke (A)
WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON
F: Nilsson-Schremp-Wallace
Jacques-Pouliot-Brodziak
Stone-Spurgeon-Filewich
James-Dixon-(McLean-scratch)
D: Ratchuk-Skolney (A)
Gilbert-Carkner (A)
Young-DuPont (C)
Rourke, Comeau and Fraser all went off for brief periods with injuries that looked scary at the time, but all came back in short order and looked OK afterward.
Comeau said the misconduct was a product of frustration boiling over and saying something Ryan Fraser didn't like.
Trio of scoring changes came through too late for the stats: Add an assist to Cam McCaffrey (six points in eight games, is all); add two assists to Steve Regier and subtract one from Mark Wotton.
Some stuff I liked that didn't make the Dubielewicz feature:
--He talked about watching Toronto-Montreal on Saturday, how much it was a microcosm of this whole run. "Toronto went up 3-1? 'We're set.' Montreal went up 5-3? 'We're done.' Finally Toronto wins 6-5: It was a roller coaster. It was such an up-and-down, emotional week. And now we've got to start all over again."
--Asked him about all the attention he was getting. "Who doesn't like attention?" he said with a laugh.
--He mentioned the "We know drama" motto of cable's TNT network. "We brought new meaning to the word," Dubielewicz said.
--Asked about Tambellini being the first one off the bench to jump on him Sunday, and he said they've become pretty close the past few weeks in this run. "We're both pretty new to the situation at this level," Dubielewicz said. "We've communicated a lot how incredible the experience has been. It was neat that he was first off the bench."
Syracuse was finally eliminated tonight with Grand Rapids' shootout win over Hamilton; the Bulldogs clinched a finish ahead of the Griffins with the point, though. Peoria's shootout loss hurt; with three games to play, they need to win out and have Iowa lose out in regulation to catch (what would then be the falling) Stars. A slightly better hope is to cross over on Grand Rapids, but the Griffins lead the Rivermen by four points; a tie would go to Peoria, but it's a climb.
Worcester's win means Hartford will still be playing for second place Friday. And that can't be good for Bridgeport. (Another night like this, and it won't matter who they're playing.)
posted by Fornabaio at
10:48 PM
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