AHL Bridgeport Islanders

Sound Tigers Come Back to Earn Point in 4-3 Shootout Loss to Falcons

March 24, 2013 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Bridgeport Islanders News Release


BRIDGEPORT, Conn. "" Bridgeport Sound Tigers defenseman Matt Donovan scored twice and forward Brock Nelson tied the game midway through the third period to erase a 3-0 deficit, but Andrew Joudrey beat Kenny Reiter in the fifth round of the shootout to give Springfield a 4-3 win on Saturday night at Webster Bank Arena. With the win, the Falcons improve to 37-18-5-4. The Sound Tigers earn a point with the shootout loss as their record moves to 26-26-6-5.

Springfield led 1-0 on a Trent Vogelhuber goal with 6:30 left in the first period, and extended its lead to two when Nick Holden scored from the left point on the power play with 4:12 remaining in the middle period. The Sound Tigers looked to answer when they earned a power play soon after, but Springfield capitalized when Vogelhuber broke in shorthanded and fired over goaltender Kenny Reiter's blocker to give the Falcons a 3-0 lead with 1:38 left in the second period.

Donovan began the Sound Tigers' charge back with 33.5 seconds left in the middle period, one-timing a feed from Blair Riley from the left circle past Curtis McElhinney just as a power play expired to cut the deficit to 3-1 through two periods.

Donovan then brought the Sound Tigers within one goal with 10:28 left in regulation, when he took Johan Sundstrom feed in the slot and snapped a shot over McElhinney's glove for his second goal of the night. Just 47 seconds later, Nelson tied the score on a broken play, collecting the loose puck by the right circle and beating McElhinney for his 18th goal of the season.

The game went to overtime tied at three and the Sound Tigers had a golden opportunity to win the game late in overtime when Will Weber was sent off for tripping with 1:19 left in the extra session. However, McElhinney made his biggest save of the night at the buzzer, lunging to his left to stop Jon Landry as time expired to send the game to the shootout.

Bridgeport shot first in the bonus round, and Johan Sundstrom backhanded his shot off of the left post and past McElhinney to give the Sound Tigers the lead. Reiter stopped Michael Chaput and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault and McElhinney denied Nelson and Landry before Nick Drazenovic beat Reiter in the bottom of the third round to even the score.

Kirill Kabanov was robbed by McElhinney's glove, and Cody Goloubef fired off of Reiter's arm as the puck trickled over the goal line to give the Falcons the lead. Joey Diamond kept the Sound Tigers alive in the bottom of the fifth round, firing past McElhinney in his first pro game after signing an ATO on Friday to knot the shootout at two. However, Joudrey clinched the win for Springfield in the fifth round, firing past Reiter's blocker to give the Falcons the extra point.

Reiter made 28 saves in the shootout defeat, while McElhinney stopped 36 shots to earn the win for the Falcons

The Sound Tigers close out their weekend tomorrow afternoon when they host the Albany Devils at 3:00 p.m.

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