Sound Tigers 3-0: Nino scores again; de Haan hurt late

After holding on for a 3-2 win in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's home opener, the Sound Tigers are 3-0 (and the Pens, for shame, are 0-3). Michael Fornabaio points out Bridgeport opens 3-0 for just the third time.

The notable performance probably rests with the Swedes, the Ullström-Persson-Sundström line that delivered (sorry) two of the three goals.

Highlights

After Johan Sundstrom opened scoring with his first North American goal that counts (assists to Ty Wishart and Calvin de Haan, though it fell to Sundström after Wishart's shot went wide), Nino Niederreiter extended a goal-scoring streak that goes back to last season, sprawling to knock the puck into a vacated net.

(Nino would also take an unsuccessful penalty shot -- his second in his brief career as a Sound Tiger -- after old friend Dylan Reese covered the puck in the Penguins crease.)

The Penguins got one back in the second period, but John Persson re-extended the lead on a goal that featured all three Swedes and a nifty play from David Ullstrom.

With time winding down in the third period, Eric Tangradi shoveled a rebound in to make it 3-2 with just four minutes left, an accomplishment that apparently got him the second star of the game.

Kevin Poulin would finish with 34 saves as the Sound Tigers were outshot 36-22 in what Scott Pellerin called an "opportunistic" win in the Post game wrap.

But things wrapped up on an ominous note as Calvin de Haan skated off with an injury in the final minute. Kevin Schultz at IPB has some footage of the sequence, which you just hope did not affect a joint that rhymes with "boulder."

No word on de Haan's status as midnight struck. The Sound Tigers play three in three next weekend.

Game Thread: 2-0 Sound Tigers vs. 0-2 Penguins

The Bridgeport Sound Tigers visit the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, with the undefeated visitor hoping to spoil the winless host team's home opener. The Penguins lost last night 4-2 to Springfield.

Broadcasts

Consider this your game thread. [GameCenter is here | Away Audio feed (free) should be here]

Game Notes

The older thread with some pre-updates is here. Other further notes and lineups below:

Game preview from the official site; BST was 1-2-0-1 against WBS last season.

From the Post, here's the gameday primer as well as a feature on goalie coach Stephen Valiquette (with an interesting detail about Anders Nilsson wondering about gaps that weren't there).

The big change was inserting Mike Halmo for Brett Gallant. To that end, the Sound Tigers posted expected lines:

Niederreiter-Cizikas-McDonald
Ullstrom-Sundstrom-Persson
DeFazio-Nelson-Kabanov
Halmo-Watkins-Riley

Donovan-Hamonic
de Haan-Wishart
Ness-Landry

Kevin Poulin is expected to start in goal for the third consecutive game.

Update: Fornabaio's blog update is here, so look for that to be added to. Here is his Twitter feed. Here's the team's.

Sound Tigers Weekend: Baby Penguins, Dylan Reese on the Menu

With a light early schedule, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers have just one game this weekend. They'll try to continue their nice start in a visit to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.