Bridgeport, CT, – Matt Carey scored late in the third period to force overtime for the Hartford Wolf Pack Friday night at Webster Bank Arena, but the Bridgeport Sound Tigers recovered to win in a shootout, 3-2.
Josh Winquist scored both Sound Tiger goals in regulation, and Andrew Rowe and Michael Dal Colle scored for Bridgeport in the shootout. Jaroslav Halak made 21 saves
and stopped three of four in the shootout.
Chris Brown had the other Wolf Pack goal, and Adam Tambellini had a shootout goal for Hartford. Magnus Hellberg made 22 stops in regulation and overtime, and went 2-for-4 in the shootout.
“Frustrating,” said Hellberg of the result. “I think we made a really good comeback, obviously it’s a really tight game, with a team in our division. So these points are really important. I thought we did a great job coming back, we fought hard in overtime, obviously we didn’t get the result we wanted.”
With time growing short in the third period, the Wolf Pack capitalized on a power play, after Ben Holmstrom was called for boarding at 14:38.
On the man advantage, Mat Bodie carried down the left side in the Sound Tiger end and handed the puck to Carey at the left side of the goal mouth. Carey turned and backhanded a shot underneath Halak’s left pad and into the goal.
That sent the game to overtime, which was scoreless, with Bridgeport getting four shots to the Wolf Pack’s two.
The Wolf Pack had won 11 of their previous 12 shootouts going back to last season, but this one would not go their way.
Rowe scored on the Sound Tigers’ first attempt, while Steven Fogarty and Nicklas Jensen were stopped on the Wolf Pack’s first two chances. Tambellini made good on the Wolf Pack’s third shot to keep Hartford alive, but after Halak denied Marek Hrivik, Dal Colle put a backhand shot into the top corner on Hellberg’s stick side for the win.
Brown got the Wolf Pack off to a good start only 2:08 into the game, with his 11th goal of the season and third in the last three games.
After linemate Tanner Glass, covering the left point, put the puck toward the net, Brown thought he had scored on one close-in opportunity, and after that stayed out of the net behind Sound Tiger goaltender Jaroslav Halak, Brown re-gathered the loose puck and ripped it in.
That was the Wolf Pack’s only offense until Carey’s late goal in the third, though, and Bridgeport would get the next two.
The Sound Tigers drew even on a power play at 14:12, with Glass off for tripping. Kane Lafranchise got the puck to Winquist in the right circle, and his high snap shot got past Hellberg. The Wolf Pack argued that the puck had gone off the crossbar, but after a lengthy video review, referees Ben Moser and Dave Lewis ruled it a good goal.
The Sound Tigers then scored the only goal of a second period they dominated, outshooting the Wolf Pack 11-2.
Winquist gave Bridgeport the lead at 4:12 of the second with his second of the game. Josh Ho-Sang threaded a perfect pass across the slot from left to right, and the left-handed-shooting Winquist one-timed it from below the faceoff dot past a helpless Hellberg

You must be logged in to post a comment.