Falcons Fall To Sound Tigers 6-2

Published on December 11, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Springfield Falcons News Release


Thanks to five second period goals, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers earned a dominating 6-2 road victory over the Springfield Falcons Friday night at the MassMutual Center. Bridgeport handed Springfield their eighth consecutive loss (0-6-1-1) as the Falcons fell to 10-12-4-2 on the year.

"Hopefully we bottomed out," said Falcons Head Coach Rob Daum, "There's a time in every losing streak when you bottom out and hopefully that's now and we can get ourselves ready for tomorrow."

In a heated first period, Bridgeport struck first at 16:08 when Trevor Smith connected on a penalty shot for his 10th goal of the season. Smith snuck the puck in between Springfield Andrew Perugini's legs. This is the seventh consecutive game where the Falcons failed to score the first goal of the game. Once again Springfield would need to rally if it wanted to earn the win.

Early in the period, the rivalry between these two teams reared its head when Springfield's Theo Peckham and Bridgeport's Brett Westgarth dropped the gloves. Both players had a furry of punches, but in the end it was an even match with neither hitting the ice. The physical play continued throughout the period with some pushing and shoving on multiple occasions.

Springfield had quality scoring chances in the first period including two power play opportunities. Ryan O'Marra displayed his puck handling skills during the first power play but his wrist shot was blocked by Bridgeport goalie Rick DiPietro. During the second power play the Sound Tigers played aggressive as they stopped the Falcons again. At the end of the first, the Falcons outshot the Sound Tigers 8-6. Bridgeport led 1-0 after the first period of play.

The Sound Tigers exploded in the second period as they took a 6-1 lead into the final period. The Falcons looked like they had the momentum after tying the game up 1-1 less than five minutes into the second stanza. A huge collision between Peckham and Bridgeport's Trevor Gillies led to a 4-on-4. During the 4-on-4 Bridgeport had a pending penalty which the Falcons took advantage of as they pulled their goaltender and brought Colton Fretter in as the extra man. Fretter immediately scored his 12th goal of the year to tie the game up. It looked like Springfield had a great opportunity to gain the momentum after Fretter's goal, but that would be the only goal in the period for the Falcons.

"We had a chance to maybe gain some momentum from the goal," said Coach Daum on Fretter's game tying goal, "Then they scored right after to make it 2-1. Then the floodgates opened from there."

Bridgeport blew up for five consecutive goals following Fretter's goal on their way to the win. Bridgeport scored their second goal of the game less than two minutes after Fretter's score as Gillies notched his first goal of the season. The Sound Tigers would not relinquish the lead after Gillies's score.

Later in the period Bridgeport converted on their first power play opportunity as Sean Bentivoglio scored his third goal of the season against Springfield and ninth overall at 9:03. Bentivoglio added his second goal of the game three minutes later to give the visiting Sound Tigers a commanding 4-1 lead.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, the Sound Tigers were not finished in the period. Pascal Morency scored his second goal of the season at 13:07 in the second period. Following the goal, the Falcons coaching staff decided to pull their goalie, Perugini, replacing him with Aaron Sorochan. Perugini ended the game stopping only 10 of the 15 shots he faced.

Sorochan tried to stop the bleeding for Springfield, but at 16:23 Bridgeport's James Sixsmith tallied his second goal of the season to make it a 6-1 lead heading into the final period. Before playing the final twenty minutes, the Sound Tigers already scored the most goals as a road team against the Falcons this season with six. Springfield got off only four goals against an aggressive Bridgeport team in the second period.

"It would be easy to dwell on the negative," said Coach Daum, "But you don't want to dwell on the negative because like I say it's piling on. We got enough problems without creating more. So we just come here tomorrow and do the things that we need to do to be successful."

Early in the third period, Fretter scored his eighth power play goal of the season and second goal of the game at 57-seconds to make it a 6-2 deficit for Springfield.

Bridgeport outshot the Falcons 22-20 for the game and converted on their one and only power play to earn the two points. Springfield will look to end their skid tomorrow night when they host the Portland Pirates at 7pm.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 11, 2009


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