My eyes are firmly cast upon the NHL playoffs (and lingering Sunday errands), but several Islanders of the future have fallen behind 0-2 in Bridgeport's first-round AHL playoff series with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton(icity).
Like three years ago when these teams played a tight seven-game series, Game 2 was yet another one-goal game, leaving the Sound Tigers winless in their two-game "home" visit to Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Attendance in this second one was 5,903.
Bridgeport led 4-2 in the third (and outshot them 37-23 overall) but blew that lead and lost in OT, 5-4. Mike Iggulden scored but was later upper-body-injuried in the head, on a hit coach Jack Capuano said should draw a suspension. Kyle Okposo finished his two-game stint before heading to the Worlds by potting a goal on a reportedly very effective line with Ben Walter and Jesse Joensuu.
- Sound Tigers-Penguins Game 2 game sheet
- Game story from the Connecticut Post
- More on the game and Nathan Lawson in Fornabaio's blog
- Greg Logan has an update on current Sound Tiger Jon Sim, who says all the right things about wanting to prove he can still play in the NHL for the third and final year of his NHL contract and $1 million salary. It's glaring that we never get anything out of Scott Gordon or Garth Snow on this Sim situation. I assume Logan has tried...
- Live blogs from Tiger Track and from 7th Woman; Kevin guesting at PointBlank, too.
- This is from Game 1, but it's a great read about The Palm Isle's experience at the game ... and meeting Mitch Fritz.
- No rest for the weary: Game 3 is at 5 p.m. tonight. [Update: Botta has lineup changes -- DiBenedetto, Mannino...]
Meanwhile, at the big-league level...
- Lotta talk about Toronto drooling over the #1 pick they can't have. Barry Melrose Rocks comes up with a helpful graph.
- Mark Herrmann in Newsday has several anonymous voices assessing Garth Snow's performance as GM. Repeats the erroneous meme that Snow was "trumped" with Zhitnik. Once again: uh, no. Don Waddell was trumped.
- Snow's position on the #1 pick via Logan (as noted earlier in the FanShot)
- [Update] Official site has Doug Weight on his decision to re-sign.
- As for the NHL playoffs, don't forget there is a wide selection of news links, insights and hilarious game reactions around SBN hockey sites, accessible through the NHL playoffs hub.