AHL Bridgeport Islanders

Sound Tigers Outpowered 6-4 In Hartford

Published on November 18, 2005 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Bridgeport Islanders News Release


HARTFORD, CT - The American Hockey League's Bridgeport Sound Tigers, top affiliate of the National Hockey League's New York Islanders, lost 6-4 on the road to the Hartford Wolf Pack Friday. The loss snapped the Sound Tigers' six-game win streak and three-game road win steak.

Hartford took the first lead when Bruce Graham redirected a Chad Wiseman shot for his first goal of the season 5:43 into the game with Dwight Helminen also assisting on the play. However, the Wolf Pack advantage held up for just 18 seconds until Matt Koalska jammed home a rebound for his fifth goal of the season off assists from Steve Regier and Evgeny Tunik to pull the Sound Tigers even at 1-1.

The Sound Tigers snapped an 0 for 24 drought on the power play, and took their first lead of the evening at 2-1, when Koalska scored another goal from Regier and Tunik with just one second left on an advantage at the 17:06 mark, but Hartford came right back as Alexandre Giroux notched the Wolf Pack's sixth shorthanded goal, his sixth overall on the year, with 13.8 seconds left in the opening frame off an assist from Jeff Taffe to knot the score at 2-2.

Allan Rourke lofted a wrist shot through traffic for his fourth goal of the season, a power-play marker, off assists from Jeff Hamilton and Wyatt Smith 8:37 into the second period to make it 3-2 Sound Tigers, but the Wolf Pack tied the score at 3-3 on the second goal of the evening by Giroux at the 12:56 mark off assists from Joe Rullier and Taffe.

Hamilton put the Sound Tigers back in front 4-3 with another power-play goal, his first tally of the year, off assists from Jeremy Colliton and Koalska at 14:21, but Hartford tied it again, this time at 4-4, on an unassisted goal by Nigel Dawes, his sixth marker on the season, with 1:50 left in the middle frame.

The Wolf Pack had pulled starting goaltender Chris Holt in favor of Bernd Bruckler after the Hamilton goal, and Bruckler made two big stops as soon as he entered the game to keep his team close enough to tie the score on the Dawes goal.

The Sound Tigers took a pair of tripping penalties mid-way through the third period, and Hartford converted both ends of the ensuing two-man advantage in a 20-second span to take the largest lead of the night at 6-4. First, Giroux completed the hat trick off assists from Wiseman and Jarkko Immonen at 11:32 then Graham notched his second goal of the contest at 11:52 off assists from Rullier and Dawes.

The Sound Tigers pulled netminder Chris Madden in favor of an extra attacker with just over a minute-and-a-half to play, but put him back between the pipes when they took a penalty at the 19:29 mark.

Giroux was the first star of the game, Koalska the second and Wiseman the third. Bruckler finished with ten saves on ten shots while Madden made 32 as the Wolf Pack had a 38-30 advantage. The Sound Tigers were 3 for 8 on the power play while Hartford was 2 for 8.

The Sound Tigers will continue a stretch of four games in five days when they return to Bridgeport's Arena at Harbor Yard to host the Springfield Falcons this Saturday at 7:05 p.m. on "80's Night" and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins this Sunday at 4:05 p.m. on "Honey I Took The Kids Day" and "Norwalk Town Day".

Information regarding Sound Tigers tickets and promotions is available by calling 203-334-GOAL or emailing info@soundtigers.com. All Sound Tigers games are web-cast live at www.soundtigers.com. Fans can also watch all games live on the B2 Networks.

Check out the Bridgeport Islanders Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



American Hockey League Stories from November 18, 2005


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central