Looking Back at the 2013-14 Sound Tigers Season
After a disappointing and emotional 2012-13 season, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers came back hungry for the 2013-14 season. With that came a new captain and a new crop of young, talented prospects who would once make big steps in the NHL who suited up for Head Coach Scott Pellerin.
Future NHL Players Fill the Roster
Garth Snow built a very impressive team with the New York Islanders, just coming off of their first playoff appearance in six years. Down in Bridgeport, a lot of highly touted prospects that Garth Snow drafted, were making their professional debuts. Gone was Nino Niederreiter who was traded for Cal Clutterbuck, but in came prospects Anders Lee, Scott Mayfield, Ryan Strome, Alan Quine, and Aaron Ness. Bridgeport added veterans Dallas Jackson, Justin Johnson, and new captain Chris Bruton. In goal, for the third straight season, were Anders Nilsson and Kevin Poulin, but they also added Kenny Reiter, who had played 13 games with Bridgeport the last two years.
A Challenging Season
The Bridgeport Sound Tigers struggled during the 2013-14 season. They ended the first two months of the season with a record of 5-10-4, the worst two-month start in Sound Tigers history. The Sound Tigers really struggled into the new year, while they had a couple of wins and lose streaks, it still was a challenging season for Scott Pellerin and company.
The Sound Tigers did get contributions from rookies Anders Lee, Alan Quine, and Scott Mayfield. Mayfield played the most games on the team with 71. The Sound Tigers continued to struggle towards the end of the season, and they had their worst full-season record in franchise history, as they finished with a record of 28-40-0-8, for 64 points on the year. It was the second-worst record in the league, behind the Portland Pirates who had 61 points. For the Sound Tigers, it was a year that had a lot of changes, and a revolving door went through the locker room at Webster Bank Arena for a majority of the season.
A Revolving Door of Players
The 2013-14 Sound Tigers had a revolving door of players, as many went up to the Islanders with Lee, Ness, Donovan, de Haan, Johnson, Halmo, Sundstrom, and Poulin among others playing on Long Island, while Bridgeport got veterans like Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Philip-Michael Devos. A lot of players spent time with their ECHL affiliate, the Stockton Thunder. The shuttle from Bridgeport to Stockton never stopped, and the Sound Tigers used 65 players. It was not a fun experience for the Islanders staff at all. At the end of the season, prospects Ryan Pulock and Kyle Burroughs both made their professional debuts for Bridgeport. Parker Milner also saw time in the crease, and Jon Sim ended his professional career with the Sound Tigers as well after almost 16 years.
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This was a season that many fans want to forget, but even with the changes that are going to come in the 2014 offseason, they might want to skip ahead two seasons. The Sound Tigers were definitely in a dark period in their assistance in the middle portion of the 2010s.
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.
