Ken Appleby and Spencer Knight traded blows for more than 61 minutes in a goaltending clinic on Saturday night, with Appleby prevailing to push the Bridgeport Islanders (23-34-6-1), American Hockey League affiliate of the New York Islanders, to a 1-0 win over the Charlotte Checkers (35-23-7-0) at Total Mortgage Arena.
Appleby (9-9-0) made a season-high 36 saves to earn his seventh career AHL shutout, and recorded an assist on Dennis Cholowski’s game-winning, power-play goal 1:44 into overtime. Cholowski, a former Checker, scored his sixth goal of the season, which was also his first game winner.
Matt Kopperud (pictured) made his AHL debut after signing an ATO with the Islanders on March 20th.
Both teams had their chances in regulation and at least four power-play opportunities in the game, but the goaltenders were lights out and the contest remained scoreless past regulation. Charlotte outshot Bridgeport in all three periods and 36-22 for the game.
Checkers forward Mackie Samoskevich slashed Cole Bardreau out of frustration just as regulation ended – an undisciplined penalty that gave the Islanders a power play to begin overtime. In the extra frame, Matt Kiersted blocked a hard slap shot with his left leg and was down for several seconds, allowing extra room for Ruslan Iskhakov to set up Cholowski in the right circle. Cholowski blasted home a one-time shot past Knight. Appleby recorded the secondary assist.
Bridgeport finished the game 1-for-5 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill. The Islanders completed their eight-game series against the Checkers with a 3-4-1-0 record. All three wins came against Knight in overtime.
It was Bridgeport’s first shutout as a team this season.
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