BRIDGEPORT, CT – Nathan Lawson stopped 36 shots and Trevor Smith scored his team leading 24th goal of the season but it wasn’t enough to earn the Sound Tigers the two points as they were beaten 2-1 in a shootout by the Norfolk Admirals. Brandon Segal had the Admirals only goal in regulation time and Riku Helenius made 41 saves and stopped all three Sound Tiger shootout attempts to earn the game’s first star honors. The Sound Tigers do climb a point in the standings to 66 and now have a 30-17-3-3 record, two points ahead of the Binghamton Senators.
Smith opened the scoring for the Sound Tigers with two minutes remaining in the opening period. While on the power-play, Kurtis McLean hit Smith with a cross-ice pass as he was skating into the Norfolk zone. Smith wound up and blasted a slap-shot that eluded Helenius to give the Sound Tigers the 1-0 lead. Ben Walter also had an assist on Smith’s team-leading 24th goal of the season.
In the second, the Sound Tigers were in control of the game’s flow, but allowed the Admirals to tie the score on an unfortunate bounce in front of Lawson. Brandon Bochenski dumped the puck in behind the Sound Tigers’ net and Lawson came out to grab control for the Sound Tigers. The puck skipped off the Sound Tiger net-minder’s stick and in front where Segal snapped the puck into the empty net to tie the score at 1-1.
The Sound Tigers out-shot the Admirals 42-38 in the game and 1-for-4 on the man-advantage. Norfolk was 1-for-6 on the power-play.
Tuesday, the Sound Tigers will return to action when they finish this brief two-game series against the Admirals at 7 p.m. All kids tickets are free of charge for the contest. For tickets or information on how to receive group discounts, contact the Sound Tigers’ front office at (203) 334-GOAL or e-mail [email protected].