Bridgeport Sound Tigers Fan Blog Player Of The Month: Kevin Poulin

I have picked the Bridgeport Sound Tiger Fan Blog player of the month for the month of November. The player of the month is Sound Tigers goaltender Kevin Poulin.

Poulin finished the month strong with four great starts. In his last two games, he has shut out the opposing team, earning the first star in both games. However, it was no easy task, the first shut out came against the Portland Pirates. Portland, whose offense was first in the league, took 29 shots and kept Poulin on his guard, but they just could not get the puck past him. The second shut out came days later when the Sound Tigers played another highly ranked offensive team, the Norfolk Admirals. Poulin was peppered with shot after shot, but the Admirals could not get anything by him. He ended the game with a 40 save shut out and a standing ovation from the crowd at Arena at Harbor Yard.

In 9 games this season, Poulin has made 275 saves, only letting in 18 goals. He has 6 wins and 3 assists so far this season and boasts the best recored among all three Sound Tiger goaltenders.

Islanders sign forward Jeremy Colliton to a one year, two way contract

The New York Islanders have signed center Jeremy Colliton to a one year, two way(NHL/AHL) deal. Colliton was signed to a Professional Tryout Contract on October 21 and has been with the team since that time. He is also one of the assistant captains on the team.

The 25 year old has played 18 games so far this season and has tallied two goals and an assist. It may not look like much, but he is a great leader on the ice and a tremendous penalty killer.

This isn't the first time that Colliton has played for the Sound Tigers. He has played three seasons, skating in 250 career games. At 25, he is already an AHL veteran. Last year he played in the Swedish Elite League and has come back faster than ever.

Game Preview: Sound Tigers.vs.Hartford Wolf Pack/Connecticut Whale

Sound Tigers.vs.Hartford Wolf Pack on Friday

7pm, Arena at Harbor Yard

Sound Tigers at Connecticut Whale "Hartford Wolf Pack" on Saturday

7pm, XL Center

The Sound Tigers are looking to rebound after a tough overtime loss to the Providence Bruins on Wednesday. With three games on this weekend the Sound Tigers will need to leave it all out on the ice if they want to get the six possible points available. Two of the games will come at home on Friday night against Hartford Wolf Pack in what will be the last game ever played by the Wolf Pack. The next day the Hartford will switch from the Wolf Pack to the Connecticut Whale and the Whale's first game will come against the Sound Tigers on Saturday night. By changing the team's name to the Connecticut Whale Hartford's Management is looking to bring back some old Hartford Whalers fans even through a lot of Wolf Pack fans are up set with the change.

Last time they played each other:

The last time the Sound Tigers played Hartford the game was a one sided shalacking for the Sound Tigers. The Sound Tigers poor play lead to a 7-1 loss with four of Hartford's goals coming on the power play.

Records/Last games:

Hartford 6-11-2-2 is currently in 7th position in the Atlantic Division is coming off a 4-1 loss to the defending Calder Cup champions the Hersey Bears. Hartford leads the Atlantic Division in penalty minutes with 433.

Bridgeport 8-11-1-0 is currently in 6th position in the Atlantic Division and is coming off a 2-1 overtime loss to the Providence Bruins. Though the Sound Tigers had a tough time getting things going Kevin Poulin stood tall keeping the Sound Tigers in the game and earning the third star.

Key Players:

For Hartford, Chad Kolarik who was just acquired in a trade from Springfield has three goals and two assists in only five games for Hartford and had four goals and six assists in thirteen games for the Springfield Falcons.

For Bridgeport look for Josh Bailey to be in and around the play more. Bailey, who was sent down to Bridgeport in a shocking move by the New York Islanders went pointless in his first game as a Sound Tiger but was all around the play. In overtime against Providence he had a breakaway he was pulled down on but there was no call. Look for Bailey to be eager to score.

Under Construction Will be down for a couple days

Trying to figure out what is going on with pictures and other things, should be back up after this weekend hopefully.

Game Preview: Sound Tigers.vs.Norfolk Admirals

Sound Tigers.vs.Norfolk Admirals

7pm, Arena at Harbor Yard

Card set #1 night

The Sound Tigers are looking to end a three game losing streak tonight as the Norfolk Admirals come into Arena at Harbor Yard tonight. The Sound Tigers played on Thursday and Friday against the Charlotte Checkers and Charlotte dominated both games winning 6-1 and 6-5. The Sound Tigers hope to respond tonight and get a win.

Norfolk 7-3-2-1 have 17 points this season and ranks fourth in the Eastern Conference. Norfolk is coming off a tough 4-3 overtime loss to the Adirondack Phantoms Friday night. The last two goals Adirondack scored came on the power play. The Sound tigers will need to take advantage of Norfolk's penalty kill if they hope to win.

Bridgeport 5-9-0-0 have 10 points this season and and rank fourteenth in the Eastern Conference. They are coming off back to back loses against the Charlotte Checkers 6-1 and 6-5. If the Sound Tigers want to win this game they will have to put in some more effort in there zone in front of the net.

Key Players

For Norfolk, look to their goal. Two young stars play between the pipes for Norfolk, Dustin Tokarski and Cedrick Desjardins. Tokarski, lead the the Canadian Junior National Team to a gold medal in 2009 and had a break out year with the Admirals last year. Desjardins, had 29 wins and 9 loses in 09-10 with Hamilton. They will make it a real challenge for Bridgeport tonight.

For Bridgeport Tony Romano has been on fire lately with a goal in the last two games, He looks to have found his game as he is always in the play and putting forth an extra effort to get a stick on the puck or stay on for another ten seconds to get the puck in deep. He will try and keep his goal streak going tonight

Sound Tigers drop two in a row to Charlotte

The Sound Tigers were looking to bounce back from there 7-1 lose last Sunday but that wouldn't be as they came out with the same lack luster performance and lost to the Charlotte Checkers 6-1. Sound Tigers goalie Nathan Lawson was hung out to dry on Thursday with no team defense at all, Poulin got some help Friday but at least the Tigers found some offense.

Thursday, 6-1 lose to Charlotte.

Thursday's was one of the worst the Sound Tigers have played this year, and the score indicated it. Nathan Lawson got starting his second consecutive game and he played well. Six goals against does not show how well he played. The team came out flat with no motivation. As the Charlotte broadcaster put it "If it wasn't for Lawson the game would be 6 or 7-1. Now we can see what every one is talking about, he is alone out there." . Tony Romano would get the only goal for the Sound Tigers as they just could not find any offense. The power play continues to struggle now 10 for 63 this season which makes you ask, why put a guy like Micheal Haley or Jeremy Yablonski out on the power play, guys who are meant to fight are not goal scorers. Charlotte broadcasters also said "You know things are bad when Yablonski's out there on the power play." which i couldn't help but agree with and laugh a bit. In the end Charlotte won 6-1 with Micflikier getting a hat trick. Lawson has to be getting fed up with the poor performances his team is putting out in front of him. As the Charlotte broadcasters put it , "Lawson has pored his heart out but his team hasn't" that means alot coming from another teams broadcast.

Friday, 6-5 lose to Charlotte.

It didn't take more than a minute for Charlotte to take the lead as a shot hit off of Sound Tiger goalie Kevin Poulin and trickled into the net, Poulin would have liked to have had that one back but from then on he was on fire. He made a couple key saves on breakaways and cross crease passes to keep the Tigers in the game but the defense was no where to be seen again to night as Charlotte got goals off a redirection in front and a turn over down low with a man wide open out front for an easy goal. Haley dropped his gloves twice in the first when no one else on the ice did and made him look pretty dumb. The only bright spot of the first was Tony Romano's second goal in two games to make it 3-1. Figren slipped one by the Charlotte goalie to make it 3-2 in the start of the second but it wouldn't last long as Charlotte scored two goals on plays where Poulin was screened by his own man and made it 5-2 Charlotte. Rakhshani would bring the Sound Tigers within two as he burred the lose puck off a rebound with 9.8 seconds to go in the second.

Another man wide open in front tipped a puck past Poulin to make it 6-3 in the third. A late rally by the Sound Tigers saw Svendsen and Colliton get there first goals of the season but Charlotte held off the Sound tigers and took the game 6-5.

Game Preview: Sound Tigers at Charlotte Checkers

Sound Tigers at Charlotte Checkers

7pm, Thursday and Friday night

Time Warner Cable Arena

Sound Tigers look to get a win in their first ever meeting against the Charlotte Checkers. Charlotte is in their first year in the American Hockey League and face back to back games against the Sound Tigers. The Sound Tigers will be without the help of John Sim since he has been recalled by the New York Islanders, but they have signed forward Trent Campbell to a Professional Tryout Contract, he has 1 goal and 4 assists in eight games in the East Coast Hockey League this year.

Charlotte 6-7-1-2 is coming off of a 5-2 loss against the defending Calder Cup champions, the Hershey Bears. Zac Dalpe and Chris Terry both scored for Charlotte in the loss.

Bridgeport 5-7-0-0 is looking to rebound from an embarrassing 7-1 loss to the Hartford Wolf Pack. Robin Figren tallied the only goal for the Sound Tigers

Key Players:

For Charlotte, look out for Zach Boychuk who is on fire and leads Charlotte in points with 16, 6 goals and 9 assists. Although he is leading in points, he is a minus 5.

For Bridgeport, David Ullstrom is leading the Sound Tigers in goals with 4. He is impressing a lot of people in the Islanders organization, always involved in both ends of the the ice.