Islanders AHL affiliate get much needed playoff win in round 2

The New York Islanders AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders, are alive in the second round of the AHL playoffs. This is their first trip past the first round in nearly 20-year hasn't gone too well for Bridgeport.

In the best-of-five series against the Charlotte Checkers Bridgeport dropped the first two games. And both of those games were at home. One more loss and they're out of the tournament.

New York Islanders AHL affiliate get much needed playoff win in round 2

Making that a bit more challenging for the B-Isles is that the next three games (if necessary) are on the road. Bridgeport is in the bottom portion of the league away teams in the league with a 13-16-5-2 record and a 0.458 points percentage. So stacked deck against Bridgeport.

But all you need is one to get back in the series. On Saturday, the B-Isles did it. They got that much-needed win to get into the series.

Cory Schneider stood tall yet again for the Isles, with 32 stops on 34 shots. Once again a majority of those shots came in the first 40 minutes; 10 in the first and 16 in the second.

When it comes to the production the big names stepped up. Chris Terry, Austin Czarnik, and even Simon Holmstrom.

Chris Terry opened the scoring for Bridgeport with an excellent through pass from Austin Czarnik. Alone on the keeper, and Terry usually doesn't miss.

Later, Simon Holmstrom finished off a 2on1 with Chris Terry leading the way. That was Holmstrom's second goal in the playoffs and third point in four+ games. Simon's impact is just growing at the AHL level and could be ready to make the jump to the NHL next year.

Holmstrom would add another goal (on an empty net) to put him at three goals and four points in five playoff games.

With the empty-net goal, the Isles take the W from Charlotte and get into the series. But now they've got to take the next two road games to move onto the next round. Not unlikely but it's going to be very difficult for them. If they can get that production from their top guys and get solid goalkeeping from Cory Schneider they just might have a shot now that their alive in this series.