BRIDGEPORT, CT – After trailing 3-1 to the San Antonio Rampage in the third period, the Sound Tigers tallied twice in the final ten minutes of regulation time to tie the score at three and then used Mike Iggulden’s power-play goal in overtime to beat the Rampage 4-3. Kurtis McLean scored a shorthanded goal in the first period and Jamie Fraser and Jeremy Colliton had the third period markers for the Sound Tigers. Brett MacLean, Adam Keefe and Kevin Porter had the goals for San Antonio. With the win, the Sound Tigers improve to 29-17-3-2, giving them 63 points and claim of third place in the East Division after the Binghamton Senators lost to the Albany River Rats tonight, 4-2.
Brett MacLean opened the scoring for San Antonio 3:33 into the first period. Stationed behind the net, Rampage winger David Spina fed a pass to MacLean in the left circle where he snapped a shot past Sound Tigers’ starting goaltender Tobias Stephan for the 1-0 lead. With 4:56 left in the opening frame, and the Sound Tigers shorthanded, Kurtis McLean caused a San Antonio turnover at the blue-line and came in alone on Rampage starting goalie, Josh Tordjman. McLean faked to his backhand, then quickly slid the puck past Tordjman’s pad for his 12th goal of the season and second shorthanded tally of the year.
In the second period, Adam Keefe would regain the one-goal lead for the Rampage. Line-mate, Adam Perry intercepted a pass in the San Antonio zone and streaked in alone of Stephan. Instead of firing a shot, Perry pulled up and fed a backdoor pass to Keefe who was trailing the play for the easy tap in. The goal was Keefe’s second of the year coming at the 15:47 mark of the period to give the Rampage the 2-1 lead.
Kevin Porter would make it a 3-1 lead for San Antonio 3:57 into the third period. Former Sound Tiger Wyatt Smith had the only assist on Porter’s sixth goal of the season. Down by two goals, the Sound Tigers would battle back and cut the Rampage’s lead to 3-2 with 7:53 remaining in the final period of regulation. Jamie Fraser set up at the center-point position and fired a slap shot through a screened Tordjman for his fifth goal of the season. Dennis Packard and Pascal Morency had the assists on the marker. Eight seconds later, the Sound Tigers would tie the game at two when Colliton scored his fifth tally of the season. Mark Wotton fed a pass to Colliton as he was skating into the Rampage zone along the near-wing boards. Colliton dropped his shoulder to shield the puck from an oncoming San Antonio defenseman and backhanded a shot over Tordjman’s glove to tie the score at three. Iggulden also had an assist on the game-tying goal.
In overtime, Colliton drew a hooking penalty on Rampage defenseman Sean Sullivan to give the Sound Tigers a one minute power-play. After working the play around in the zone, Kurtis McLean blasted a shot from the point that deflected off of Trevor Smith in front and bounced to Ben Walter in the right circle. Walter hesitated to draw the San Antonio defenseman towards him, then sent a cross ice pass to Iggulden just off the far-post for the tap in goal, giving the Sound Tigers the 4-3 overtime victory.
Stephan finished the game with 21 saves on the 24 shots, while his opposing goaltender, Tordjman stopped 32 of 36 shots he faced. The Sound Tigers were 4-for-4 penalty kill and 1-8 on the man-advantage.
On Friday, the Sound Tigers will return to action at Arena at Harbor Yard against the Philadelphia Phantoms at 7 p.m. The Norfolk Admirals will come to town on Sunday to take on the Sound Tigers at 4 p.m. For tickets or information on how to receive discounted group tickets, contact the Sound Tigers at (203) 334-GOAL or e-mail [email protected].