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The first of back-to-back sellouts (thanks to free admission post-Sandy) was a success for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers: A close game, a parade of crowd-pleasing fights, and a 3-2 win.
Travis Hamonic had the honor of drawing both penalties that created a Sound Tigers 5-on-3, and he was on the ice as Bridgeport converted on both ends of it.
Brock Nelson, Nino Niederreiter and Matt Donovan had two points each, while Kevin Poulin turned away 19 shots while the team in front of him forced 39 saves from Braden Holtby. That shot disparity was helped by Bridgeport having eleven powerplays to Hershey's three -- and all three Bridgeport goals came via the extra man/men. The gamesheet is quite the rap sheet.
From the Hershey perspective in the Patriot-News, it was an unusual penalty explosion for the Bears. (One of them, as you'll see below, was a fight between Casey Cizikas and ex-Sound Tiger Steve Oleksy after Oleksy high-sticked Niederreiter in the face.)
Highlights below, via the Sound Tigers YouTube channel:
On the bad side, David Ullstrom left mid-way through with a "lower body" injury. No update on his status yet from Scott Pellerin in Michael Fornabaio's post-game blog. That post does include a healthy portion of Pellerin's pre-game speech to the gathered crowd of 8,525, a post-Sandy sentiment that sounded spot on.
DiPietro: Groin. Strome: Fire
Meanwhile, in other organizational lower body news, Rick DiPietro was set to start again for SC Riessersee in Germany but has been held back due to groin issues this week. (h/t LHHer Paumanok)
Bridgeport is back at it again this afternoon as the Baby Penguins visit. Free admission and sold out again.
We'll have a fuller prospect roundup later, but a teaser: Ryan Strome and Mitchell Theoret had huge games on the same line last night in Niagara's 9-4 win over Guelph.