Eyes On Isles

Bridgeport Sound Tigers Review : Strome Down

Bridgeport Update: Strome Injured

Sound Tigers Split 2 Weekend Games

By: Drew Casey, Contributor (@drew421)

Entering Friday night’s game in Albany against the Devils, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers were on a season long four game winning streak, and their leading scorer was beginning to get back in the swing of things at the AHL level. But both of those things came to an end on Friday evening at Times Union Center.

First, the Sound Tigers fell 2-1 in a tightly contested game. Alan Quine netted his fifth goal of the season on the power play to tie the score at one in the first period, but that was all that Devils goaltender Keith Kinkaid would surrender. Tim Sestito scored the game winner at the 8:13 mark of the third period for Albany. Anders Nilsson stopped 20 of Albany’s 22 shots in his first game back with the Sound Tigers.

The main story of the game though surrounded Ryan Strome. In the second period Strome suffered what appeared to be a hand injury. He was held out of the third period for precautionary reasons. The same occurred on Saturday at home. Officially, Strome is listed as day-to-day with an upper body injury. He will have two days to rest as the team is off until Tuesday. Head coach Scott Pellerin informed the media today that Strome is expected to play over the weekend as the injury is not considered serious.

Without Strome and despite taking 14 penalties, the Sound Tigers defeated the Northeast Division leading Springfield Falcons on Saturday 3-0 in front of a decent home crowd at Webster Bank Arena.

Anders Lee scored his 18th goal of the season off of a beautiful pass through the crease by Andrew Clark at the 18:56 mark of the first period. The goal puts Lee in the lead among AHL rookies in goal scoring. Just 16 seconds later, Scott Mayfield netted his second of the season on a drop pass from Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Mike Halmo added some insurance in the third period on the power play with his 16th of the season.

Additionally, Marc Cantin could be facing supplementary discipline for an illegal check to the head. Immediately upon exiting the penalty box after serving an interference penalty, Cantin delivered a violent hit on Sean Collins. Collins was down for a time and then skated to the locker room with the assistance of his teammates and the trainer. On first glance it appeared like a clean hit, but upon looking at a replay, it was by no means clean.

Cantin was assessed a match penalty and a five minute major for a check to the head. He was also hit with a five minute fighting major after Michael Chaput instigated him to do so. The match penalty was Cantin’s second of the season, and marks the third time that he has been disqualified from a game. On December 20, he received a five minute major for cross checking and was assessed a game misconduct.

Two nights later, he was assessed a 10 minute major for an illegal check to the head. Aside from leading to two Portland goals, Cantin was later suspended for three games for this infraction.

If I had to speculate, I see another three game ban from the AHL coming. Don’t place any bets though. It could be more, because he is now a repeat offender, or it could go untouched.

Bridgeport is currently 19-23-1-4 and nine points out of a playoff spot. The team will conclude a three game home stand this weekend with a Saturday contest against Albany and a Sunday afternoon tilt with the Adirondack Phantoms.

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