AHL Bridgeport Islanders

Sound Tigers Finish Busy Early Stretch

October 25, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Bridgeport Islanders News Release


The Sound Tigers finished a season-opening stretch in which they played five of six games at home, all in a nine-day span, by going 2-2 last week. They beat the Albany River Rats 3-2 in overtime at home Wednesday, lost 5-1 in Albany Friday, lost 3-2 at home to the Hartford Wolf Pack Saturday and beat the Binghamton Senators 3-2 at home Sunday to finish the stretch and last week in second place in the East Division and tied for second place in the Eastern Conference with eight points and a 4-2 record, including 4-1 at home and 0-1 on the road.

WED. OCT 20th vs. ALB, 3-2 OTW: SEAN BERGENHEIM and KEITH ALDRIDGE scored in regulation, and ROB COLLINS scored on the only shot of overtime for either team. WADE DUBIELEWICZ made 25 saves. The Sound Tigers were 1 for 8 on the power play while Albany was 2 for 7 and had a 27-21 shot on goal advantage.

FRI OCT. 22nd at ALB, 5-1 L: BARRETT HEISTEN scored in the first period before Albany scored four times on the power play and once at four-on-four strength getting goals from ILKKA PIKKARAINEN, AARON VOROS, ERIC JOHANSSON and ALEKSANDER SUBLOBOV who scored twice. DIETER KOCHAN made 38 saves in a losing effort as the River Rats had a 43-30 shots on goal advantage. Albany was also 4 for 17 on the power play and 8 for 8 on the penalty kill in a game that had 138 penalty minutes called.

SAT OCT 23rd vs. HAR, 3-2 L: Former Sound Tigers JEFF HAMILTON, one goal and one assist, and STEPHEN VALIQUETTE, 26 saves, led Hartford. JOZEF BALEJ and CHAD WISEMAN also scored for the Wolf Pack while JUSTIN PAPINEAU and MATT KOALSKA, his first professional goal, tallied for the Sound Tigers. The Sound Tigers were 1 for 6 on the power play. Hartford was 1 for 4 on the advantage. The shots on goal were tied 28-28.

SUN OCT 24th vs. BIN, 3-2 W: RYAN KRAFT, CHRIS CAMPOLI and JUSTIN MAPLETOFT scored; SEAN BEGENHEIM assisted on all three goals; MATT KOALSKA assisted on two; and DIETER KOCHAN made 31 saves, including one on a third-period breakaway by DENIS HAMEL. The Sound Tigers were 0 for 3 on the power play and 6 for 7 on the penalty kill, denying Binghamton on back-to-back, second-period major advantages. Binghamton outshot the Sound Tigers 33-29.

SOUND TIGERS PLAYER OF THE WEEK – LW MATT KOALSKA Koalska posted the first three points of his professional career, including his first goal Saturday, and was a +2 in four games. The St. Paul, Minnesota native was the third star of the game at home on both Saturday and Sunday.

THIS WEEK – Sound Tigers Head Out Of Town For Five Straight Games The Sound Tigers will begin a stretch of five straight road games when they visit the Philadelphia Phantoms Wednesday. They will also visit the Manchester Monarchs Friday and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Saturday.

WED. OCT 27th at PHI, 7:05 p.m.: This will be the second of eight meetings of the teams this season, the first of four in Philadelphia. Wednesday's game will be played at the Wachovia Center, which is home of the Phantoms' NHL affiliate, the Philadelphia Flyers. The Sound Tigers are 8-7-2 all-time versus Philadelphia, 1-0 this season and 2-2 on the road last year. The Phantoms finished last week in fifth place in the East Division with four points and a 2-2 record, including 1-0 at home. They do not play until Wednesday.

FRI OCT. 29th at MCH, 7:35 p.m.: This will be the first of four meetings of the teams this season, the first of two in Manchester. The Sound Tigers are 5-4-3 all-time versus the Monarchs, including 2-1-1 last year. Manchester finished last week tied with Hartford and the Portland Pirates for first place in the Atlantic Division and with the Sound Tigers for second place in the Eastern Conference with eight points and a 4-0 record, including 2-0 at home. Friday's game will mark the return of former Monarchs Captain RICHARD SEELEY to Manchester as a member of the Sound Tigers. The Monarchs do not play until Friday.

SAT OCT 30th at WIL, 7:05 p.m.: This will be the first of eight meetings of the teams this season, the first of four in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It will also be the first meeting since the Penguins rallied to eliminate the Sound Tigers four games to three in last spring's East Division semi-finals, winning game seven in Bridgeport in overtime. The Sound Tigers are 7-2-1 all-time versus Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, including 5-2-1 with an overtime win and an overtime loss in last year's regular-season series. The Penguins finished last week in sixth place in the East Division with three points and a 1-4-1 record, including 0-2 at home. They will host the Syracuse Crunch Wednesday and visit Albany Friday.

SOUND TIGERS TEAM LEADERS

Goals – R. KRAFT & J. PAPINEAU, 3 Penalty Minutes – ERIC GODARD, 45 Assists – JUSTIN MAPLETOFT, 5 Wins – WADE DUBIELEWICZ & DIETER KOCHAN, 2 Points – R. KRAFT & J. MAPLETOFT, 6 Goals Against Average – WADE DUBIELEWICZ, 1.98 Plus / Minus – SEVERAL, +3 Save Percentage – WADE DUBIELEWICZ, .924

SOUND TIGERS SPECIAL TEAMS; AHL RANK Power Play – 5 for 38, 13.2%; 17th Shorthanded Goals Against – 0; t-1st

Penalty Kill – 44 for 53, 83.0%; 19th Shorthanded Goal For – 1; t-8th

SOUND TIGERS STREAKS

C JUSTIN MAPLETOFT (1g,1a) and LW MATT KOALSKA (1g,2a) are both on two-game point streaks.

SOUND TIGERS TRANSACTIONS

D VINCE MACRI was assigned to the ECHL's Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies by the Islanders on Tuesday, October 12th.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR & PROMOTIONAL NEWS

The Team Mascot STORM will appear at the Roger Ludlow School in Fairfield this Wednesday at 10:30a.m., the Stratford Recreation Department Halloween Carnival this Saturday, the Lions Club of Monroe Children's Halloween Party this Sunday between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. and the Kids Open Skate at the Rinks at Shelton this Sunday between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. • Roberto's Restaurant will sponsor the first of this season's five player-card set giveaways when the Sound Tigers return home to host the Norfolk Admirals on Saturday, November 13th at 7:05 p.m. • The second-annual "Cool Fun 101" educationally-themed morning game will take place when Norfolk visits at 11:05 a.m. on Wednesday, December 1st with half-price tickets for all students and free admission for all teachers and chaperones.

SOUND TIGERS ON THE AIR

All games are web cast live at www.soundtigers.com. Most games are also broadcast live on 600 WICC-AM. All game broadcasts begin 15 or 20 minutes prior to opening face-off on the quarter hour, and fans can email questions and comments to the Voice of the Sound Tigers BILL McLAUGHLIN who will respond live on the air. Fans can also email Bill with the name of the player they'd like to hear interviewed while the team is on the road for the next five games.

THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE

The Sound Tigers are scheduled to practice at the Rinks at Shelton Monday and Tuesday at 10 a.m. The team will bus to Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon, play there Wednesday night and return home immediately following that game. The Sound Tigers will also leave for this weekend's road games Thursday afternoon.

SOUND TIGERS TICKETS

Individual-game tickets can be purchased at Bridgeport's Arena at Harbor Yard box office, which is open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturdays. The box office also opens at 12 noon on Sunday game days and remains open until the end of the first period during all games. Individual-game tickets can also be purchased over the phone by calling Ticketmaster at 203-368-1000 and on-line at www.ticketmaster.com. Information regarding Sound Tigers ticket packages; including 20-game and 10-game plans, flex books, suite rentals, birthday parties, group discounts and fundraisers; is available by calling 203-334-GOAL or logging on to www.soundtigers.com.

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