Recap: Thunderbirds 2, Islanders 1 (OT)
Dec 14, 2022Vincent Sevigny tied the game with an unassisted goal just over eight minutes into the third period on Wednesday, but the Bridgeport Islanders (14-6-5-0), American Hockey League affiliate of the New York Islanders, suffered a 2-1 overtime loss to the Springfield Thunderbirds (10-10-1-4) at Total Mortgage Arena.
Cory Schneider (10-2-2) made 32 saves. It was his fifth straight game with 30 or more stops.
Springfield’s Nikita Alexandrov opened the scoring 9:04 into the first period, taking advantage of the T-Birds’ first power play of the night. Samuel Bolduc committed a holding penalty and Matthew Highmore and Greg Printz teamed up to create a rebound that Alexandrov forced home for his eighth goal of the season.
The Islanders enjoyed three power-play opportunities in the second period, one that carried into the third, but could not find much space. Through two periods, Bridgeport led 21-16 in the shot column but was blanked on the score sheet.
Bridgeport finally pulled through to tie the game when Sevigny intercepted an errant pass from the Thunderbirds defense and sent a wrist shot past goaltender Joel Hofer, who had stopped 22 consecutive shots to that point. The rookie defenseman’s third goal of the season came 8:02 into the third period.
Bridgeport and Springfield both went to overtime for the eighth time this season. After a failed two-on-one for the Islanders on one end, Jake Neighbours raced in transition and sniped a shot over Schneider’s shoulder that hit the inside of the back bar and ended the game at 3:03, giving Bridgeport its fourth straight setback at home (0-3-1-0).
The Islanders fell to 2-1-2-0 in the season series.