SHARKSPAGE

WorSharks end seven game skid with 2-1 win over Bridgeport

The Worcester Sharks went into Saturday night’s contest against Bridgeport without a win in their seven games since the AHL’s All Star break, and with the Sound Tigers in the midst of a seven game winning streak of their own and them getting NHL goaltender Kevin Poulin down from the New York Islanders odds weren’t that good that the Worcester losing streak would end, but WorSharks netminder Harri Sateri made Travis Oleksuk’s late first period tie-breaking goal stand up the rest of the way as Worcester shocked the Sound Tigers 2-1 at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut in front of 5,711 fans.

Worcester Sharks forward Travis Oleksuk made his first game winning goal in his pro career count
as his late first period strike held up as the WorSharks ended a seven game losing streak with a
2-1 win over Bridgeport Saturday night. The goal was Olesuk's 12th on the season.
File photo courtesy of TEAMSHRED

For video highlights we’ll use the Sound Tigers YouTube channel. For a game with only three goals it’s inexcusable to not show all of them, but with no highlight packages on AHLlive.com or sendittonews.com this is what’s available

Scratches for the WorSharks were Sena Acolatse (leg), J.P. Anderson (finger), John McCarthy (lower body), Matt Pelech (hand), Lane Scheidl, and Rylan Schwartz. Troy Grosenick was the back-up goaltender.

There was only one fight in the contest, with Taylor Doherty taking on Brett Gallant in an pretty even battle about half way through the first period. Two other times the flame almost got to the powder keg sending the game spiraling out of control of the officials. The first was at the 2:23 mark of the second period when Eriah Hayes ran over Sound Tigers goaltender Kevin Poulin in a hit reminiscent of Logan Couture’s charging major against Hartford netminder Matt Zaba several years ago in the AHL’s Calder Cup playoffs. Cooler head’s prevailed and Hayes was sent off for goaltender interference. The second time was at 7:40 of the third period when Dan DaSilva was leveled on a hit by Bridgeport defenseman Matt Donovan on an offside play. As the players got together DaSilva, who was at that point laying on his back, got up and skated directly over to Bridgeport winger Joe Diamond, pulled him out of the pile, and cross-checked him in the head. Credit the officials for keeping the peace on that one as DaSilva was ejected and given a major for cross-checking. One can expect DaSilva will be hearing from the AHL soon.

Video review was used once in the game, although the WorSharks would have loved to have seen it used a second time. It was used after DaSilva thought he had scored short side on Poulin during the first period. The video on AHLlive was too grainy to tell, but referee Fred Leblanc had access to much better video, and after a long delay ruled no-goal. The time it should have been used was late in the third period when Bracken Kearns threw a centering pass that appeared to deflect off the skate of Daniil Tarasov and into the net. The goal was waved off by the front referee, but the back referee apparently saw it differently. After a brief conference between the two no-goal was the call. Worcester head coach Roy Sommer was livid and demanded an explanation, and shockingly–or perhaps not so much–neither official went to video replay to confirm the call on the ice.

Sommer was unhappy with many incidents in the game, and was quite frank in comments to Worcester Telegram and Gazette reporter Bill Ballou: “They tried to do it again to us,” said Sommer of the officials, “and you can put that in the paper. Tarasov never touched that puck, and how could that hit on DaSilva not have been a penalty? He might have a concussion.” More from Tarasov via Ballou: “I never touched it,” Tarasov said. “If they could do a replay, they would have seen that, but the ref said it wasn’t something they could review.” As Sharkspage found on recently, that is most definitely something that can be reviewed.

The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – 12 Freddie Hamilton (g)
2. WOR – 35 Harri Sateri (25 saves)
3. BRI – 39 Joe Diamond (g)

The Sharkspage player of the game was Travis Oleksuk.

Even strength lines, courtesy of Michael Fornabaio (Connecticut Post)
Tarasov/Kearns/Hamilton
Gourde/Oleksuk/DaSilva
Livingston/Viedensky/Reid
Bonneau/Rau/Hayes

Davison/Comrie
Abeltshauser/Doherty
Petrecki/DeMelo

BOXSCORE

Worcester 2 0 0 – 2
Bridgeport 1 0 0 – 1
1st Period-1, Worcester, Hamilton 16 (Tarasov, Petrecki), 5:38. 2, Bridgeport, Diamond 7 7:39. 3, Worcester, Oleksuk 12 (DaSilva, Gourde), 19:46. Penalties-Davison Wor (high-sticking), 2:08; Doherty Wor (fighting), 9:54; Gallant Bri (fighting), 9:54; Sundstrom Bri (tripping), 13:59.

2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Hayes Wor (goaltender interference), 2:23; Donovan Bri (slashing), 11:19; Hayes Wor (interference), 14:40.

3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-DaSilva Wor (major – cross-checking, game misconduct – cross-checking), 7:40; Johnson Bri (roughing), 7:40.

Shots on Goal-Worcester 14-8-5-27. Bridgeport 8-8-10-26.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 2; Bridgeport 0 / 4.
Goalies-Worcester, Sateri 13-19-1 (26 shots-25 saves). Bridgeport, Poulin 0-1-0 (27 shots-25 saves).
A-5,711
Referees-Jarrod Ragusin (54), Fred Leblanc (30).
Linesmen-Mike Baker (11), Glen Cooke (6).