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SOUND TIGERS 2, WOLF PACK 1 (SO)

Dec 21, 2007 | Photo Gallery

Joey MacDonald turned aside 33 shots for the Sound Tigers, keeping his team in the game long enough for Jeff Tambellini to tie the score at 1-1 with less than two minutes to go in the third period. Tambellini would seal the victory in a shootout for the Sound Tigers snapping a shot over the glove of Montoya to give the Sound Tigers their fourth straight victory.

The Wolf Pack opened the scoring at 3:33 when Hugh Jessiman stole a loose puck on the Sound Tigers' blue-line, streaked into the zone and back-handed a shot past Sound Tigers' starting goalie, Joey MacDonald's blocker for the 1-0 lead. Jessiman's seventh goal of the season was unassisted.

Goaltending was the story of the second period as both MacDonald and Hartford net-minder Al Montoya kept both teams off the score-board. MacDonald turned aside six shots as Montoya stopped 10, holding the Sound Tigers scoreless entering the third period. Frans Nielsen had the best chance for the Sound Tigers on the power-play when he snatched a loose puck in the crease away from Montoya but could not chip a shot over the blocker of Montoya.

Jeff Tambellini would tie the score at one with just under two minutes to play in regulation. Montoya tried to move the puck around the boards but the puck took a bad bounce and Montoya lost sight of the puck. Montoya scrambled to the front of his net not knowing where the puck was but at the last second felt it as Tambellini threw the puck off the goal-tender's skate for his 13th goal of the season, unassisted. The goal sent the game to overtime where neither team could bury the winner so the Connecticut rivals went to a shootout.

In the shootout, MacDonald set the tone, stopping Hartford's Pierre Parenteau on the first attempt. Frans Nielsen would shoot next and back-hand a shot over the Montoya's glove to grab the 1-0 lead in the shootout. Greg Moore, who was recently reassigned by Hartford's NHL affiliate, the New York Rangers, back to the Wolf Pack, tied the shootout at 1-1. The Sound Tigers buried their next two chances, the first by Steve Regier and the clincher by Tambellini to win in comeback style 2-1 over Hartford.

MacDonald finished the game with 33 saves on 34 shots and Montoya had 24 saves on 25 shots. The Sound Tigers finished an impressive 8-8 on the penalty kill and were 0-3 on the man-advantage.

The Sound Tigers will return to action tomorrow night against the Manchester Monarchs for the first time this season, face-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

3 Stars:

1. Joey MacDonald - 33 saves only allowing one goal in regulation to earn his fifth win of the season
2. Jeff Tambellini - Scored the game tying goal with less than two minutes to play and collected the decisive shootout goal
3. Hugh Jessiman - Opened the scoring just under four minutes into the opening period

Going all Access: The Sound TigersTV crew took the show on the road tonight following the team to Hartford. Within the next week, look for the episode on "Players' Reel" as the crew was behind the scenes for the bus ride, pre-game talk and post-game.

Homecoming: Keith Johnson, a recent call-up of the Sound Tigers, grew up in Windsor, CT, which is only 15 minutes away from Hartford. Like his brother Gregg, who played with the Sound Tigers earlier this season, Keith had a lot of family in the crowd to witness his first game in his home town.

Where's Phil?: The voice of the Sound Tigers, Phil Giubileo, was only heard through the B2 feed during the first period due to a technical problem with the team's streaming media provider. For the second and third periods, the feed reconnected so fans could listen to the game through the web-site feed.

Lineups

SOUND TIGERS

Forwards
7 Jeff Tambellini - 51 Frans Nielsen - 8 Ryan Kinasewich
39 Steve Regier - 9 Ben Walter - 27 Darryl Bootland
12 Tyler Haskins - 21 Jeremy Colliton - 23 Keith Johnson
37 Kip Brennan - 18 Micheal Haley

Defensemen
44 Drew Fata - 6 Matthew Spiller
4 Mark Wotton - 40 Jamie Fraser
50 Dustin Kohn - 19 Scott Ford

Goalies
35 Joey MacDonald (starter)
33 Mike Morrison

WOLF PACK

Forwards
34 Dane Byers - 15 Greg Moore - 27 Hugh Jessiman
8 Brodie Dupont - 42 Artem Anisimov - 17 Pierre Parenteau
28 Lauri Korpikoski - 47 Tom Pyatt - 16 Alex Bourret
44 Mike Ouellette - 10 Ryan Murphy

Defensemen
71 Thomas Pock - 25 Jake Taylor
23 Ivan Baranka - 4 Michael Sauer
3 Corey Potter - 5Andrew Hutchinson

Goalies
29 Al Montoya (starter)
62 Miika Wiikman