AHL Bridgeport Islanders

Last second rally highlights first half of home-stand

Published on December 27, 2004 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Bridgeport Islanders News Release


The Sound Tigers opened a four-game, holiday home-stand by going 2-1 last week sandwiching a 3-2 shootout win over the Philadelphia Phantoms Wednesday between a 3-1 loss to the Worcester IceCats Monday and a 3-2 loss to the Hartford Wolf Pack Sunday. Wednesday's win was highlighted by a pair of last-second goals, including the equalizer with less than a second left to play in regulation. The Sound Tigers finished last week in fifth place in the East Division with 31 points and a 15-14-1 record, including 13-4 at home, 2-10-1 on the road and 5-4-1 in their last ten games.

MON DEC 20th vs. WOR, 3-1 L: Missing six regulars due to injuries and skating with two players who signed earlier in the day and a pair of defensemen playing forward, the Sound Tigers stayed within striking distance until the final half-minute of play. BLAINE DOWN scored a power-play goal in between tallies by Worcester's BRIAN BONIN and JON DiSALVATORE. PETER SEJNA added an empty-netter for the IceCats. The Sound Tigers were 1 for 2 on the power play and lost despite outshooting Worcester 32-27. The IceCats were 1 for 3 on the advantage.

WED DEC 22nd vs. PHI, 3-2 SOW: The Sound Tigers used a pair of last-second goals to beat division-leading Philadelphia in their first-ever trip to the shootout. CHRIS CAMPOLI scored on the power play with :10.1 left in the first period, and STEVE REGIER tied the game with one-tenth of a second left in regulation. PATRCIK SHARP and JOSH GRATTON scored for the Phantoms. KEITH ALDRIDGE, ROB COLLINS and BLAINE DOWN scored in the shootout for the Sound Tigers while DIETER KOCHAN followed a 28-save performance by stopping three of four Phantoms attempts. The Sound Tigers were 1 for 7 on the power play, 6 for 6 on the penalty kill and won despite being outshot 30-29.

SUN DEC 26th vs. HAR, 3-2 L: BLAINE DOWN opened the scoring 1:27 into the game and JIM CAMPBELL pulled the Sound Tigers back to within striking distance with 7:03 left to play, but GARTH MURRAY, JOZEF BALEJ and DOMINIC MOORE scored in between and former Sound Tiger STEPHEN VALIQUETTE made 20 saves to lead Hartford to the win. WADE DUBIELEWICZ made 21 saves in a losing effort. The Sound Tigers were 0 for 4 on the power play while the Wolf Pack were 1 for 3 and had a 24-22 shots on goal advantage, including 10-4 in the third period.

SOUND TIGERS PLAYER OF THE WEEK – C BLAINE DOWN Down, who has missed six games due to injuries this season and was battling a bad case of the flu all last week, scored his first goal of the season Monday, sealed Wednesday's shootout win by converting the final attempt and opened the scoring Sunday for a two-point week. The Oshawa, Ontario native was named one of the game's three stars twice last week. Down has two goals, one assist, three points and 28 penalty minutes and is a +4 in 24 games this season.

THIS WEEK – Home-stand ends, road stretch begins as 2004 draws to a close The Sound Tigers will say good-bye to 2004 with a pair of games this week hosting the Portland Pirates Tuesday and visiting the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Friday. This Tuesday's game will mark the end of a four-game, holiday home-stand and will be the team's last at Bridgeport's Arena at Harbor Yard until Friday, January 21st. This Friday's contest will be the first of seven straight on the road.

TUE DEC 28th vs. POR, 7:05 p.m.: This will be the third of four meetings of the teams this season, the first of two in Bridgeport. The Sound Tigers are 6-4 all-time versus Portland, including 1-1 this season with an overtime loss in the most recent meeting on the road December 18th. Including that last game, three of the Sound Tigers' last four meetings with the Pirates, including last season's two-game series which they swept, have been decided in overtime. Portland finished last week in sixth place in the Atlantic Division with 29 points and a record of 11-14-3-4, including 2-7-3-1 on the road where they are on a nine-game winless skid at 0-6-2-1

FRI DEC 31st at WIL, 5:05 p.m.: This will be the fourth of eight meetings of the teams this season, the second of four in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It will also be the first meeting since the teams combined for 222 penalty minutes, seven game misconducts and one double game misconduct in a 4-3 Sound Tigers home win on December 3rd. Including last spring's playoffs, 16 of the 20 all-time meetings have been one-goal games; a 17th ended in a tie. The Sound Tigers are 9-3-1 all-time, 2-1 with a shutout loss on the road this season, versus the Penguins who finished last week tied with the Binghamton Senators for second place in the East Division with 37 points and a 15-8-4-3 record, including 11-4-1-1 at home and 6-3-0-1 in the last ten games. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will host Portland this Wednesday. Friday's game will mark the third New Year's Eve road contest in as many years for the Sound Tigers.

SOUND TIGERS TEAM LEADERS

Goals – ROB COLLINS, 10
Penalty Minutes – ERIC GODARD, 121
Assists – ROB COLLINS & JUSTIN MAPLETOFT, 11
Wins – WADE DUBIELEWICZ, 9
Points – ROB COLLINS, 21
Goals Against Average – WADE DUBIELEWICZ, 2.28
Plus / Minus – CHRIS CAMPOLI, +7
Save Percentage – WADE DUBIELEWICZ, .919

SOUND TIGERS SPECIAL TEAMS; AHL RANK

Power Play – 20 for 145, 13.8%; 21st Shorthanded Goals Against – 1; t-3rd

Penalty Kill – 156 for 190, 82.1%; 21st Shorthanded Goal For – 3; t-14th

SOUND TIGERS STREAKS

D KEITH ALDRIDGE is on a two-game assist streak (2a).

SOUND TIGERS TRANSACTIONS

C MIKE BAYRACK and RW JOHN MORLANG signed professional tryout contracts last Monday, December 20th. • The Sound Tigers recalled D VINCE MACRI from the ECHL's Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies Tuesday, December 14th. • RW BLAKE BELLEFEUILLE was released from a PTO Wednesday, December 1st. • C BRETT NOWAK remains with the Sound Tigers on a PTO he signed Tuesday, November 30th.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR & PROMOTIONAL NEWS

The Sound Tigers were scheduled to visit the Milford-Orange YMCA for an equipment demonstration today. • This Tuesday will be "Students Night" with $10 tickets for children 18 and under, as well as those who show their college identification. • BLAINE DOWN will visit the Fairfield YMCA this Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. • KEVIN COLLEY will read to students at Orange Avenue Classroom in Milford next Wednesday, January 4th. • The team mascot STORM will visit Wilcoxson School in Stratford for Town Bingo Night Friday, January 7th at 6 p.m. • STORM will visit Osbourne Hill Elementary School in Fairfield on Monday, January 10th. • RYAN CALDWELL will serve as a celebrity reader at Side By Side Community School in Norwalk on Tuesday, January 11th. • Immediately following the Sunday, January 30th game versus Hartford, the Sound Tigers will present a CVS Pharmacy All-Star Hockey Game to benefit the Children's Glaucoma Fund. Scheduled to appear are: JIM CRAIG, KEN MORROW, BRAD PARK and KEN HODGE. All fans with a ticket to the Sound Tigers – Wolf Pack game will be admitted to the celebrity game. • Sound Tigers individual-game tickets for the second half of the 2004-05 season are now on sale. Individual-game tickets can be purchased in-person at Bridgeport's Arena at Harbor Yard box office, by calling Ticketmaster at 203-368-1000 and on-line at www.ticketmaster.com. • The Port Jefferson Ferry offers special packages and fares for Long Island fans who will be attending games in Bridgeport. On all Friday and Saturdays that the Sound Tigers play at home, the last ferry will also wait until 10 p.m. or a half-hour after the end of the game, whichever is later, to depart for Long Island. Additional information is available by calling 631-473-5138 or logging on to www.bpjferry.com.

SOUND TIGERS ON AIR

Both of this week's games will be web cast live at www.soundtigers.com. Most games, including this coming Friday's, are also broadcast live on 600 WICC-AM. Fans can click on the "Ask The Broadcaster" link on the front page of www.soundtigers.com and email questions and comments to Voice of the Sound Tigers BILL McLAUGHLIN who will respond live on the air during all broadcasts.

THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE

The Sound Tigers are scheduled to practice at Bridgeport's Arena at Harbor Yard this Monday through Thursday at 10 a.m. The team will depart Thursday at 2 p.m. for Friday's New Year's Eve road game versus in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 27, 2004


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