Recap: Islanders 5, Wolf Pack 2
Oct 23, 2022The Bridgeport Islanders (4-1-0-0), American Hockey League affiliate of the New York Islanders, used a strong performance on special teams to win their fourth straight game, a 5-2 victory over the Hartford Wolf Pack (0-2-1-1) at Total Mortgage Arena on Sunday.
The Islanders went 1-for-2 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill, including their first shorthanded goal of the season from Kyle MacLean. Andy Andreoff, Paul Thompson, Hudson Fasching and Cole Bardreau also scored.
Ruslan Iskhakov took over the team lead in points (six) with his second consecutive multi-point effort (two assists) including the primary helper on Thompson’s game-winning goal at 14:29 of the third period. Cory Schneider (3-0-0) made 34 saves for his third win in as many starts.
Just one minute into the game, Thompson was called for elbowing but the Islanders killed it off. Then with five seconds left in the first period, William Dufour was pinned with a holding call that gave Hartford a power-play early in the second.
MacLean buried a shorthanded goal on a breakaway to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 1:01 of the second. MacLean’s first tally of the season came unassisted.
Bridgeport erased an early holding penalty against Hudson Fasching in the second before it conceded an equalizer from the New York Rangers’ affiliate at the 10:35 mark. The Islanders bounced back when Andreoff redirected Samuel Bolduc’s slap shot from the left point on their first power play of the game less than four minutes later. Iskhakov was credited with the secondary assist.
For the fourth straight game, the Islanders went into the second intermission with a lead. Hartford’s Lauri Paujniemi buried another game-tying goal from the left circle with 6:19 left in the third, but the stalemate did not last long. Thompson converted on a cross-ice pass from Iskhakov in his season debut, which came 1:08 after the Wolf Pack equalizer. Vincent Sevigny recorded the secondary assist, the first point of his professional career in his debut.
Fasching extended his goal streak to three straight games when a rolling puck found its way past Hartford goaltender Dylan Garand at 16:16 of the third, giving Bridgeport a 4-2 lead with under four minutes to play.
Cole Bardreau iced the game with an empty-netter at 17:33 of the third, his first goal of the season. Jeff Kubiak and Paul Wotherspoon earned the assists.
Next Time Out: The Islanders open a two-game road trip on Friday with a 7:05 p.m. matchup against the Springfield Thunderbirds at the MassMutual Center. All games this season can be heard live online through the Bridgeport Islanders Radio Network, or seen via AHLTV, beginning with the pre-game show 20 minutes before puck drop.