Highlights: Kevin Poulin Shuts Out Whale in Bridgeport Sweep

Bridgeport played without its leading scorer -- Nino Niederreiter had the night off after Wednesday night's stick to the face -- and Kevin Poulin made sure it didn't matter as he stopped 36 shots for a 3-0 shutout and Sound Tigers sweep of the Connecticut Whale.

Niederreiter's absence wasn't the only one: Bridgeport was also still without second-leading scorer Brock Nelson (to say nothing of Travis Hamonic and Calvin de Haan on the blueline), and Marc Cantin left the game early after taking an elbow from debutante ruffian Dylan McIlrath, who then faced the wrath of Brett Gallant.

(Play-by-play man Phil Giubileo, for one, found McIlrath regularly hitting with his elbows. Separately, neither Micheal Haley nor Nathan McIver played after McIver gave Haley a beating the night before.)

Goals came from Chad Costello (the first in the AHL for the PTO) early in the game, as well as Matt Donovan and John Persson.

The Whale outshot Bridgeport 36-26. Poulin enjoyed silencing the home crowd (and his followers enjoyed that chirp). It was his first shutout in almost a year, though what a run that was 12 months ago.

Video Highlights

Via TheSoundTigers on YouTube:

Coverage Links

• Box score | Game sheet
• Official site recap
• Soundin' Off blog | Post game coverage with praise for and quotes from Poulin
• The Courant runs the Whale's version

Lines

From the Sound Tigers recap:

23 John Persson - 11 Casey Cizikas (A) - 13 Colin McDonald (C)
24 David Ullstrom - 28 Johan Sundstrom - 42 Brandon DeFazio
5 Jack Combs - 14 Matt Watkins - 18 Chad Costello
44 Brett Gallant - 4 Scott Campbell - 20 Blair Riley

46 Matt Donovan - 6 Ty Wishart
27 Aaron Ness - 25 Jordan Hill
15 Marc Cantin - 7 Jon Landry (A)

38 Kevin Poulin (starter)
45 Anders Nilsson