Opening draw
The Providence Bruins will place their 2-0-0 road record and Saturday record with a visit to Webster Bank Arena for their season-series opener with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
Providence and Bridgeport alike have already had three of their respective games spill beyond regulation. The Baby Bs are 0-1 in overtime and 2-0 in shootouts while the Tigers are 1-0 in lightning rounds and 1-1 in the bite-sized bonus stanza, their latest overtime affair being a 3-2 home loss to Worcester on Friday.
Notable names
Captain Jeremy Colliton, in his sixth nonconsecutive year with the team, hit two milestones on Friday. With his first shift, he officially surpassed Steven Regier for No. 2 on Bridgeport’s all-time appearance leaderboard by playing his 291st game for the Sound Tigers. And with an assist on Ty Wishart’s second-period goal, he became the franchise’s all-time leading playmaker with 111 career helpers.
Colliton had already entered the season as Bridgeport’s most prolific point-getter and currently has 177 and counting.
Third-year team member Justin DiBenedetto leads Bridgeport with seven points, all of them goals, including half of the team’s six power-play conversions. That puts him a four-way tie for fourth place among AHL goal-getters. Although, as of Friday’s falter to Worcester, he has been held off the scoresheet in consecutive games for the first time on the year and his rating has steadily dipped to a minus-4 in the last three outings.
Defenseman Benn Olson could potentially face P-Bruins forward Stefan Chaput for the first time since they were teammates with the Albany River Rats for two brief periods in 2008-09 and 2009-10.
Dan Kissel, who made his debut on Friday after signing a professional tryout agreement on Wednesday, spent three years at Notre Dame with Providence rookie Calle Ridderwall. Kissel split all of last season, his first in the professional ranks, between three different ECHL clubs.
Miscellany
The P-Bruins and Sound Tigers will cross paths eight times this season, though only twice before this calendar year is up. After Saturday, they will not lock twigs again until they converge on the Dunkin Donuts Center on Dec. 18.
