AHL Bridgeport Islanders

Sound Tigers Named Minor League Team Of The Week

Published on February 25, 2003 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Bridgeport Islanders News Release


BRIDGEPORT, CT – The American Hockey League's 2001-02 Regular Season Champion and Eastern Conference Playoff Champion Bridgeport Sound Tigers, top affiliate of the National Hockey League's New York Islanders, have been named the Minor League Team of the Week by SportsTicker, the official statistician for the AHL and a number or the minor hockey leagues. SportsTicker's David J. Decter wrote the column which follows.

Playing five games in six days, including three consecutive road games, is virtually unheard of in the American Hockey League, but that is exactly what faced the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at the start of last week. The Sound Tigers, however, took it in stride and not only swept the five-game week to pick up 10 points in the standings, surpassing Binghamton for the top spot in the East Division, but did it in dominant fashion.

Bridgeport outscored its opponents 20-8 over the last five games, and even with a three-goalie rotation of Stephen Valiquette, Rick DiPietro and Scott Stirling, held its opposition to two goals or less in each contest. The success of the last five games matches or betters any other five-game stretch for the Sound Tigers this season, and with a record of 9-1-0-1 with one game to go in February, they have a chance for one of their best months of the season. This was a total team effort, with five different players recording a game-winning goal, including right wing Trent Hunter, who was named the AHL Sher-Wood Player of the Week with eight points in four games. The first two games of the week were played at home in the Arena at Harbor Yard and Valiquette, the goaltender for both, turned aside 57 of the 59 shots he faced.

San Antonio came to town on Tuesday riding a three-game winning streak amidst its 12-game road trip. The game was scoreless through 40 minutes with the Rampage outshooting the home team, 23-16. However, 18 seconds into the third period, forward Mattias Weinhandl, in his fourth game back from the Islanders, netted his eighth of the year to give his club the lead for good. Eric Manlow added an empty-netter with 29 seconds to go and Valiquette stopped all 35 shots he faced for his first shutout of the season and first AHL win since December 23, ending a personal five-game losing streak. Chris Mason saved 26 of 27 shots in the loss that snapped San Antonio's winning streak.

Albany arrived the next day and fell, 5-2, to Bridgeport as goaltender Ari Ahonen allowed five goals for the third time his last four starts. Center Jeff Hamilton, a two-time Hobey Baker Award finalist from Yale University, opened the scoring late in the first period, assisted Manlow on his 16th of the season early in the second and buried his 13th goal four minutes later. Center Justin Mapletoft, who had a season-high three assists in the contest, combined with Hunter to set up defenseman Brandon Smith on the power play for his eighth of the season at 3:10 of the second for a 3-1 lead. Valiquette turned aside 22 of 24 shots to pick up his second straight win and 10th of the season.

After a day's rest, the Sound Tigers headed out on the road for three straight games over the weekend. The Islanders recalled Valiquette and reassigned top netminding prospect Rick DiPietro.

First up was a clash with division-rival Hartford on Friday. After a scoreless first period, Weinhandl and Hunter combined to assist Mapletoft on the power play for his ninth of the season, tying the score at 1-1, and with 30 seconds remaining in the period, Raffi Torres scored his 15th to tie the score at 2-2 after 40 minutes. DiPietro, in his first AHL start since January 19, stopped all eight shots in the first period and all six he faced in the third to give his club a chance to rally. Hunter tallied a power-play goal at 5:02 of the final frame for a 3-2 lead and his team-leading sixth game-winner and Weinhandl buried an empty-netter to seal the victory. DiPietro stopped 25 of 27 shots in the 4-2 victory for his 13th win of the season.

With no time to absorb its success, Bridgeport headed north for a matchup with Springfield at the Springfield Civic Center on Saturday the 22nd. This time, Stirling was between the pipes for the Sound Tigers, but the outcome was the same as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead and held on to defeat the Falcons, 4-2. Defenseman Alain Nesreddine and Jeremy Adduono scored the first two goals of the game and Manlow picked up his second assist of the night on the 10th goal of the season by Konstantin Kalmikov 30 seconds into the third period. Hamilton added his 14th seven minutes later and Stirling stopped all 21 shots over the first two frames and 31 overall to improve to 6-0 with a 2.16 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage for Bridgeport.

With a tough division matchup the following night at Binghamton, DiPietro was back in the cage and ready for the challenge. Hunter, however, would be in the spotlight on this night as the 22-year-old netted his first career hat trick to lead his club to a 5-2 triumph on just 17 shots over the Senators. The Red Deer, Alberta native gave his team a 2-1 lead on the power play with 1:25 remaining in the opening frame, assisted by Smith and Manlow, and buried a shorthanded marker at 13:45 of the third period, from Manlow and DiPietro. The 6-3, 191-pound wing capped the scoring with his second man-advantage tally of the game exactly six minutes later. DiPietro made 21 saves for his third straight win and Adduono scored the game-winner, extending Bridgeport's road winning streak to four games. The special teams for the Sound Tigers were also extremely effective, going 6-for-17 on the power play and allowing only one goal in 24 shorthanded situations.

Playing five games in six days and eight in its last 10 is a huge challenge in and of itself, but coming out with a record of 6-1-0-1 showed how ready Bridgeport is for the final 19-game stretch of the regular season.

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American Hockey League Stories from February 25, 2003


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