RSS
Home
Sound Tigers turn up the 'Heat' on Abbotsford with 3-1 transcontinental victory
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Making the longest trek in the nine-year history of the franchise, Trevor Smith had a goal and an assist and Nathan Lawson made 47 saves in goal to lead the Bridgeport Sound Tigers to a 3-1 victory over the Abbotsford Heat before 3,184 fans at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre in Abbotsford, British Columbia, on Friday night. The Sound Tigers entered the game on an upnote, having earned five of six possible points last weekend before making the 3,000-mile plane trip to Canada's westernmost province.
“Coming in, knowing what we did last weekend, we’re feeling relaxed,” said Smith, who grew up right around the corner in nearby North Vancouver, before the game. “We got our systems down pat. Our forechecks are working well, and that creates scoring opportunities. We’ve got to come out hard in the first five minutes of the game, let ’em know we’re in it, we’re not tired from the flight, and that we’re ready to go for a tough weekend.”
Then, as if on cue, Greg Mauldin put Bridgeport on the board just one minute into the game. Abbotsville starting goaltender Leland Irving turned aside Justin Dibenedetto’s first scoring opportunity, but the rebound landed on Mauldin’s stick and he snapped a wrister just under the cross-bar for his team -eading eighth goal of the season.
Midway through the first period, Mark Flood doubled the Bridgeport lead with a power play goal. Smith and Sean Bentivoglio had the helpers on Flood’s first goal as a Sound Tiger. The Heat finally got on the board with just one second left in the first when Matt Pelech poked the puck through Lawson’s legs during a scrum in front of the crease, cutting the Bridgeport lead to 2-1 entering the first intermission.
Smith scored the only goal of the second period with Bentivoglio getting his second assist of the game with 8:32 remaining. The third period was scoreless.
Even though the Heat finished the game with a 48-27 advantage in shots on goal, Bridgeport goaltender Nathan Lawson came up huge, turning away 47 Abbotsville shots. Irving made 24 saves in the loss for the Heat.
While the Sound Tigers were only 1-for-7 on the power play, they have been making tremendous strides of late in staying out of the penalty box, which had taken them out of many games at the beginning of the year. On Friday night, Bridgeport skated shorthanded just three times, killing off all three power plays.
“We’ve had some success when we cut our penalties down,” noted assistant coach Pat Bingham, who, like Smith, was also returning home to his native Vancouver. “Step one was keeping our shifts a lot shorter. When we were pressing for wins, guys were wanting to do a little too much, and what happens then is that you start pressing and making poor decisions. We should be thinking about 30 seconds into our shift when would be a great time to get off the ice and get a [shift] change so we can keep momentum going. Those were some of the things we did last weekend, and it lent itself to a lot of our success—gaining momentum, keeping momentum, and staying out of the penalty box. We just have to continue with that, use our whole bench, play our four lines, stay out of the penalty box, and try to swing momentum in our favor every chance we have with good dumps, good changes, and keeping our shifts short. If we do those things, our individual skills will come out within the framework of our team concept.”
With the win, Bridgeport improves to 10-10-0-1, reaching the elusive .500 mark for the season. The Sound Tigers and Heat now close out their two-game set on Saturday night at the Abbotsford Entertainment and SportsCenter. Face-off is set for 9:00 p.m. ET. While this West Coast swing is long in terms of mileage, it is also short and sweet as the Sound Tigers will return home on Wed., Nov. 25, when they host the Manchester Monarchs in a pre-Thanksgiving game at 7:00 p.m.
Game Highlights
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
