Game Preview: Sound Tigers at Manchester Monarchs

Sound Tigers at Manchester Monarchs

7pm, Verizon Wireless Center

The Sound Tigers look for back to back wins as they will face off against the Manchester Monarchs on Saturday night. Last Sunday, the Sound Tigers gave the Portland Pirates their first loss of the season, winning by the score of 4-1. The Sound Tigers found power play goals from Justin DiBenedetto and David Ullstrom to put the game out of reach for Portland.

Last time these two teams met:

The Last time the two teams met was on October 10th. Even though this was only the Sound Tigers' second game of the season, it was one of the most controversial games they will probably have this season as with .6 seconds to go in the game Matt Martin's game tying goal was called off due to a hand pass that never happened. The Monarchs would go on to win by the score of 2-1.

Manchester 2-2-0-1, who looked to have found their scoring touch, played Tuesday night against Portland. Manchester took Portland into overtime tied at two. But overtime would not settle it, so the game went into a shootout. In the ninth round, with both teams tied at one in the shootout, Portland's Whitmore scored to end the game. Manchester fell to Portland 3-2 in a SO.

Bridgeport 2-3-0-0, is coming off a strong showing on Sunday against Portland as they won 4-1. The power play was on fire, with DiBenedetto and Ullstrom score two power play goals. Also Kevin Poulin, who got his pro win, had a great performance and was named one of the stars because of it.

Key Players:

For Bridgeport, if he is played, look for center Jeremy Colliton who is signed to a PTO at the moment. He will be looking to impress the coaching staff so he can stay around for the rest of the season. When Colliton is on his game he is a point-a-game player.

For Manchester, David Meckler has been playing great hockey for Manchester and is tied for first on the team with Dwight King with five points. He also leads Manchester with 16 shots. Look for Meckler and King to be on Manchester's starting lineup.

Update: Nathan Lawson has been loaned from the New York Islanders to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Lawson was put on injured reserve at the start of season with the New York Islanders. Last year Lawson played 36 games with the Sound Tigers going 16-16-3. Look for him to get a start soon enough and if the goaltending can hold up on the Island, I would not be surprised if he took over the starting spot, as he has proved before that he can handle the work load.