In what was billed as a battle for first place on Sunday, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers sent a message to Hershey Bears and the rest of the AHL that they are the early “kings of the jungle”, roaring to a decisive 4-1 win at the Arena at Harbor Yard.
Hershey net minder, rookie Simeon Varlamov, who shutout the Albany River Rats on Friday in Albany in his last start, saw his hopes for a second consecutive shutout dashed quickly, when Finnish rookie, Jesse Joensuu, tallied 1:56 into the game.
Karl Alzner’s second goal of the season, scored with 1:28 left in the first period, tied the game at 1-1. Alzner’s goal was assisted by Keith Aucoin and Graham Mink, who snapped four-game and three-game pointless streaks respectively in collecting the helpers.
Joensuu, the eventual number one star of the game, gave the boys from Bridgeport a 2-1 lead at 8:24 of the second period with his second strike of the afternoon.
Hershey’s season long penalty killing woes, partially attributed to the their propensity to take penalties at the most inopportune times, caught up with them in the latter stages of the second period. With Oskar Osala already in the penalty box serving a minor penalty, Andrew Joudrey committed a tripping infraction, giving Bridgeport a 5-on-3 power play for 1:07.
The opportunistic Sound Tigers, needing only 11 seconds, pounced upon their prone opponents, with Kurtis McLean redirecting a Chris Lee point shot past Varlamov at 4:15 to make it 3-1. The 5-on-3 power play marker was the fifth such tally allowed by the Bears this season.
Bridgeport had a chance to put the game away late in the second period when they were presented another 5-on-3 power play for 34 seconds. The advantage, which briefly carried over into the third period, was successfully thwarted by Hershey’s much-maligned penalty killing unit.
Hershey had a chance to claw back into the game early in the third period when Bridgeport’s Trevor Smith was whistled off for tripping at 3:44. However, the power play unit, which snapped a 0-for-37 drought with a third period tally on Saturday night, failed to capitalize on their fourth and final opportunity of the game.
McLean, the former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin, signed by the New York Islanders over the summer, made it a 4-1 Bridgeport lead with his second goal of the game at 6:00, only 16 seconds after the expiration of the Smith penalty.
Offering little in the way of offense in the final fourteen minutes of play, Hershey registered only 7 total shots in the third period, finishing the game with a season-low 20 shots on goal.