AHL Bridgeport Islanders

Sound Tigers Nip Phantoms in Shootout

Published on January 10, 2007 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Bridgeport Islanders News Release


The Bridgeport Sound Tigers, behind goaltender Wade Dubielewicz's strong return to the lineup, edged the visiting Philadelphia Phantoms 2-1 in a shootout before 3,467 fans at the Arena at Harbor Yard on Wednesday night. The Sound Tigers won their second straight game and improved to 15-16-1-3 and the Phantoms dropped to 14-20-1-2 despite outstanding goaltending by Dubielewicz's counterpart, Martin Houle.

The Sound Tigers scored just once on 40 regulation and overtime shots against Houle, but cashed in on three of their four shootout opportunities. Peter Ferraro, Jeff Tambellini and Blake Comeau all scored in the shootout for the Sound Tigers and Niko Dimitrakos scored the Phantom's lone shootout tally. After surrendering a goal on the first shot of the shootout, Dubielewicz poke-checked the puck from Philadelphia's Denis Tolpeko, then stopped Matt Ellison and got some assistance from the goalpost on Darren Reid's shot. Comeau's fourth round goal sealed the win.

The Phantoms earned a point thanks largely to the efforts of Houle, who made 39 saves after making 40 stops in the first meeting of the season between these teams, a Phantoms win back in November. Dubielewicz, meanwhile, was also stingy between the pipes, kicking aside 33 shots in his return the ice after more than a month out of the lineup while nursing an injury.

In overtime, Sound Tiger defenseman Drew Fata hustled back in the neutral zone to negate a possible Philadelphia breakaway and Dubielewicz robbed John Slaney's one-timer in the waning seconds of the extra session to extend the game into the shootout.

Sound Tiger Petteri Nokelainen drew first blood with his first period goal when he redirected a feed from defenseman Allan Rourke. Jason Pitton also earned an assist on the Nokelainen's second tally of the year, at the 15:50 mark. The Phantoms evened the score on Reid's ninth of the season at 8:44 of the second period. Pete Zingoni, who was born in Bridgeport and whose hometown is up the road in Newtown, Conn., assisted the goal along with Slaney.

Both team's penalty killing units were solid, as the Phantoms went 0-for-8 on the power play and the Sound Tigers were 0-for-7 despite a multitude of good scoring chances for both man advantages. The Sound Tigers had 18 of their 41 shots in the second period and the Phantoms piled up 14 of their 34 shots in the first.

The Sound Tigers will be at the Arena at Harbor Yard to host the Hershey Bears on Saturday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. Great seats are available at the Arena at Harbor Yard Box Office. For schedule and ticket information, including group discount opportunities, visit soundtigers.com or call 334-4625.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 10, 2007


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