Looking Back at the Sound Tigers 2016-17 Season
After being swept out of the 2016 Calder Cup Playoffs by the Toronto Marlies, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers were set to have a better season in 2016-17. Brent Thompson and Eric Boguniecki made an addition to the team’s coaching staff as Matt Carkner hung up his skates and traded them in for a coach’s whistle.
Same Core Returning
The Sound Tigers returned a similar core from the previous three seasons. For the 2016-17 season, Bracken Kearns, Devon Toews, Kane Lafranchise, Connor Jones, Chris Gibson, Ross Johnston, Ben Holmstrom, Adam Pelech and Carter Verhaeghe came back. In came veteran Josh Winquist, along with rookies Josh Ho-Sang, Michael Dal Colle, Kyle Burroughs, Travis St. Denis and Eamon McAdam. Tanner Fritz, like Verhaeghe, earned a full-time AHL job with the Sound Tigers. Bridgeport also saw cameos from veterans like Steve Bernier. Former Sound Tiger Tim Wallace returned and Stephen Gionta and Jaroslav Halak played over 20 games with the Sound Tigers. Halak joined the team after losing the Islanders starting job to Thomas Griess.
A difference from 2015-16 was the playoff format, as instead of the mixed format where if the fifth seed in the Atlantic had a better seed than the fourth seed in the North the Atlantic team was in, the AHL changed to the conventional format where the top-four in each division made the Calder Cup Playoffs. This was important for the Sound Tigers near the end of the season.
Memorable Season
For the 2016-17 Season, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers were picked as a favorite to make the Calder Cup Playoffs. With a team that was battle-tested in the 2016 playoffs with AHL Veterans and top Islander prospects like Pulock, Ho-Sang, and Dal Colle, the future was bright in Bridgeport.
The Sound Tigers started off strong, with a 14-6 start after the first 20 games. The team was clicking, and some unexpected players were helping out the cause. Players like Fritz, Andrew Rowe, rookie Travis St. Denis among others were pleasant surprises for Thompson. But heading into the New Year, Bridgeport lost nine of 11 games and had them in third place. On January 15, the Sound Tigers went on an eight-game winning streak, this was kickstarted by the appearance of Halak. Halak joined the team right before the streak, and his leadership had helped the young club. In the standings, the run had put them back in the hunt for the playoffs after falling below the cutline, but they were ahead of every team in the North Division exception of first-place Toronto. The win streak was followed by another seven-game win streak, which had Bridgeport winning 15 of 16 into the back-half of February.
A Mad Dash to the Playoffs
With the pieces set, Stephon Williams and McAdam were the two guys to lead the Sound Tigers to the playoffs in goal, as Halak had a career rejuvenation with Bridgeport and returned to the Island. The Sound Tigers had to do it without Ho-Sang, who was called up to the Islanders. In his place was Steve Bernier.
Bridgeport played well during the stretch but was behind Providence and Hershey with only a handful of games left. Bridgeport was tied with Providence heading into April 7 and 8, where they played Providence in a home-and-home.
The Sound Tigers lost both games, and their season was on the line and needed to win the last three games of the season. In the first game, the Sound Tigers took care of last-place Hartford in the home finale. It led up to a meeting with Springfield the next Friday, and Bridgeport had good news. Ho-Sang and Chris Gibson were returning to the Sound Tigers. But, when the puck dropped at the MassMutual Center, disaster had struck. Springfield, who had nothing to play for, was all over the Sound Tigers and scored four quick goals on Gibson, taking him out of the game. Bridgeport couldn’t get any life, and even with Providence losing, the Sound Tigers lost 7-0 to the Thunderbirds and were eliminated from the playoffs.
Bridgeport lost the next night in Wilkes-Barre and missed the playoffs by four points to Providence. Bridgeport was better than the entire North Division and finished the season fifth place in the Eastern Conference, and eighth overall in the AHL.
“It really sucks for them, they have a great hockey team, and they really got screwed out of the playoffs by this format,” Hershey coach Troy Mann said.
For the Sound Tigers, it was the sixth-best team in history and they missed the playoffs.
It was a tough end to the season for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and with a new defensive core coming in 2017-18, the team was poised to return to the Calder Cup Playoffs after missing it controversially in 2016-17.
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.
