AHL Bridgeport Islanders

Boguniecki Lifts Sound Tigers

Published on March 11, 2007 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Bridgeport Islanders News Release


Eric Boguniecki scored a hat-trick and added an assist to lift the Bridgeport Sound Tigers to a 5-4 victory over the Hershey Bears before 5,502 Bridgeport fans at the Arena at Harbor Yard on Sunday afternoon.

The Sound Tigers overcame 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to beat the Bears for the sixth time in seven tries this season and improve to 30-26-1-5. The Bears, meanwhile, lost in regulation for the first time in their last seven games and fell to 39-14-6-5.

Special teams play was pivotal for the Sound Tigers who were 3-for-6 on the power play, 6-for-7 on the penalty kill and scored a shorthanded goal.

Boguniecki had a four-point effort in back-to-back 5-4 wins after he scored a goal and assisted on three others in Saturday's victory over Philadelphia. The Sound Tigers earned five of a possible six points in three games against Pennsylvania teams this weekend after earning a point in a shootout loss to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday. They currently hold the fourth and final playoff spot in the East Division.

The Sound Tigers trailed the Bears 2-1 heading into the second period but scored three unanswered goals for a 4-2 lead through two stanzas and never looked back. Boguniecki scored his second of the night six minutes into the middle period when he took a long feed from Drew Fata and roofed a shot past Hershey goaltender Maxime Daigneault to tie the game 2-2. Boguniecki scored his third goal of the night and 21st of the season during a power play for a 3-2 lead, Bridgeport's first advantage of the game, at 17:55. Jeff Tambellini made 4-2 with a shorthanded goal at 19:47. Picture-perfect passing by the Sound Tigers on a breakout from the defensive zone set up the fourth goal. Defenseman Mark Wotton fed Masi Marjamaki who was joined by Tambellini for a two-on-one rush. Marjamaki slid a pass through the slot to Tambellini who registered his 25th goal.

The Bears clawed back from a pair of two-goal third period deficits to get to within a goal each time but couldn't get the equalizer. Dean Arsene scored when he fired a shot from the red line to pull Hershey within 4-3 just 2:08 into the third. Boguniecki and Dustin VanBallegooie assisted Gregg Johnson's third tally of the year for some much needed insurance and a 5-3 cushion at 8:24. Johnson backhanded the puck past Daigneault during a power play. VanBallegooie has three assists in his first four games with the Sound Tigers.

Hershey's team-leading scorer Alexandre Giroux scored his second of the night and 38th of the season during a five-on-three power play at 12:06 to get the Bears to within 5-4.

The Bears scored just 22 seconds into the game on their first shot of the afternoon - Giroux blasted a slap shot off the far post past Sound Tiger goaltender Billy Thompson. Boguniecki tied the game with a power play goal at 6:08 of the first.

Recent Sound Tiger newcomer Stephen Wood and Tomas Malec both had assists and Wotton and Tambellini each had a pair of assists.

Thompson stopped 31 shots and Daigneault made 24 saves as the Bears outshot the Sound Tigers 35-29.

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American Hockey League Stories from March 11, 2007


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