Bridgeport Earns Second Straight Win
January 9, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Bridgeport Islanders News Release
PORTLAND, Maine - Kevin Poulin made 34 saves and was named the No. 1 star as the Bridgeport Sound Tigers downed the Portland Pirates 4-1 on Friday night at Cross Insurance Arena.
Colton Gillies, Harry Zolnierczyk, Alan Quine and John Persson all scored, as the Sound Tigers won their second straight game.
A scoreless first went by the wayside with neither team getting very many chances. The Pirates outshot the Sound Tigers 16-7 in the opening frame, but could not manage to solve Poulin.
The Sound Tigers dominated the start of the second, firing the first seven shots of the frame. Finally, Gillies broke the deadlock, receiving a perfect feed from Johan Sundstrom and distributed the puck into the back of the net. It was the first goal Pirates goalie Mike McKenna allowed in over 166 minutes.
Not even two minutes later, Jesse Graham sprang Zolnierczyk for a two-on-one into the Pirates zone. Zolnierczyk used Cory Conacher as a decoy and fired a shot past McKenna to make it 2-0 Sound Tigers. It was Zolnierczyk's team-leading 13th goal of the season and made him the first Sound Tiger to reach 30 points on the season.
With the Sound Tigers controlling possession in the second, Scooter Vaughan tried to give them an even bigger boost. Vaughan exploded with a huge hit into Brendan Shinnimin, who let the puck through on the play, thus leading to a five-minute interference call on Vaughan. Justin Hodgman jumped in to fight Vaughan, but the Sound Tigers now-defenseman dropped him with one punch. Hodgman earned two minutes for roughing as well, putting the teams at four-on-four for two minutes before the Pirates got a three-minute power play.
On the ensuing four-on-four, Jordan Martinook took a pass from Shinnimin and broke in all alone on Poulin. Martinook slipped the puck five hole, cutting the Sound Tigers lead to 2-1. It was all Portland would get on the night.
The start of the third period led to a pair of power plays for the Sound Tigers, but both led to grade-A chances for the Pirates. On the first power play, it was Poulin who stopped a breakaway to keep it 2-1. On the second kill for Bridgeport, it was Poulin again, this time with a sparkling pad stop going post-to-post to rob Philip Samuelsson.
Those two saves proved massive, as the Sound Tigers earned a power play midway through the third. After the teams skated four-on-four for 30 seconds, Conacher came out as the extra man on the power play. Conacher took a rink-wide pass from Graham and dropped it back to Quine, who fired home his ninth of the season to make it 3-1.
The Pirates tried to get one past Poulin to get within one, but the Sound Tigers netminder held the fort. John Persson added an empty netter to seal the win for Bridgeport.
Special teams were a key for the Sound Tigers, who went 5-on-5 on the penalty kill and 1-for-4 on the power play. McKenna made 30 saves in a losing effort.
The Sound Tigers now travel to Albany where they'll take on the Devils tomorrow at Times Union Center. Game time is set for 5:00 p.m.
Notes: The Sound Tigers handed the Pirates their first loss in six games...Cory Conacher, Jesse Graham and John Persson all had multi-point games...Graham earned the game's second star while Conacher was the third star...Shots were 16-7 Portland in the first, 16-7 Bridgeport in the second.
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