In the first two months of the season, Bridgeport Sound Tigers forward and Islanders top prospect Kieffer Bellows had been struggling. Downgraded to the bottom-six with a team struggling on the ice, Bellows only had six points in the first two months of the season with a 14-game pointless streak from mid-October to late-November. Bellows had first turned on the jets after scoring five goals in six games following the Thanksgiving break.

Then, after a game where he hadn’t scored a goal against Springfield, he would score two goals in two games leading to a post-Christmas game against the Thunderbirds where Bellows would notch his first professional hat-trick. This would end his month with an impressive 11 goals in ten games.
On the first Monday of the new year, Kieffer Bellows became the second Bridgeport Sound Tiger to be named the AHL CCM Player of the Month, joining Casey Cizikas, who won the award in January of 2012. Cizikas would stay with a Bridgeport team who would win the Northeast Division that year until the playoffs, then joined the Islanders after the 2012 lockout and was a key piece to the Islanders’ first playoff appearance in six years.

For Bellows, the depth up top is way deeper than it was for Cizikas in 2012, but he has been working on the defensive side of his game, something Sound Tigers head coach Brent Thompson and assistant coach Eric Boguniecki have been known to do with young, high-scoring forwards. Some prime examples include Michael Dal Colle, Oliver Wahlstrom, and even Anthony Beauvilier when he was sent down for a short stint in 2018.
Will Kieffer get his chance to shine at the next level? Or will it have to wait? Bellows has also recorded only four assists, but he is also one point shy of breaking his point plateau from last season where in 73 games he had totaled 19 points. He’s at 18 right now, with only 36 games played so far. However, another problem is his +/-. Bellows had a -20 last year and currently has a -13. For Bellows, the end of this season and the offseason will be critical for him and his future as an Islander.

Christian Gardecki

A Native of Danbury, CT. Christian is one of the longest tenured Drive4Five writers, Christian Gardecki began writing for Drive4five In May of 2017. Christian covers Minor League Hockey and the Bridgeport Islanders for Drive4Five. Outside of Drive4Five, Christian was the captain of his High School Hockey team and currently attends Hofstra University with a major in journalism. Christian was the play by play broadcaster for the Danbury Westerners summer collegiate baseball team during their 2021 NECBL Championship. Christian also was the Public Address Announcer for the Danbury Hat Tricks Minor Pro Hockey team in the Federal Prospects Hockey League and NAHL Junior team from 2019-21.