Looking Back at the Sound Tigers 2017-18 Season
The Bridgeport Sound Tigers missed the 2016-17 playoffs in a controversial matter and the team was determined to return to the playoffs in the 2017-18 season. With an almost entirely new team, plus a young defense, the Sound Tigers still had a good group and wanted to build on the excitement from the year prior.
Roster:
Upfront, returning to Bridgeport was Josh Ho-Sang and Michael Dal Colle. Veterans Ben Holmstrom, Steve Bernier, Travis St. Denis, Tanner Fritz and Connor Jones all returned, too. On defense, Kyle Burroughs, Kane Lafranchise and Parker Wotherspoon were back. And in goal, Chris Gibson was joined by newcomer Kristers Gudlevskis, who was picked up in an offseason trade from the Lightning for Carter Verhaeghe.
Other newcomers included veterans Casey Bailey (from Binghamton), Chris Bourque, Stephen Gionta and Seth Helgeson. Defensemen Mitchell Vande Sompel, Sebastian Aho and forwards Scott Eansor and John Stevens were the rookies. Jeff Kubiak came in near the end of the season from the new ECHL affiliate in Worcester. Making cameos with the Sound Tigers were Shane Prince and Anthony Beauvillier, too. Beauvillier had seven points in his three games as a Sound Tiger, which prompted a call back up to the Islanders.
Streaky Season
As is the case in many of the seasons for Bridgeport, it has always come down to streaks that happened throughout the season. Bridgeport opened the season with a 12-7-0 record after November, a very solid start for the Sound Tigers. But after that, Bridgeport lost five straight to head back to .500.
Aho came into his own and made his first All-Star Game. He was joined by Tanner Fritz, but replaced by Chris Gibson when Fritz was called up to the Islanders. Bridgeport had a solid group together, but they couldn’t get past a super talented top-four teams in the division.
As the Sound Tigers hit the All-Star break, They were 22-16-6 and right in the hunt for the playoffs. But like the Islanders, who had also struggled and had injury trouble, the Sound Tigers had the same problem. But things looked up as March came around. Bridgeport won five straight, but that was halted. The Sound Tigers only won seven more games in their last 20 games.
Bridgeport’s two five-game losing streaks cost them as they missed the playoffs for the second straight year, this time by 15 points as the fifth-place team. But, some of the high points were the progress of St. Denis, Aho and Vande Sompel. A lot of that was helped by the veterans including Bernier and Andre Benoit.
In all, the 2017-18 Sound Tigers season was a solid year, but the Sound Tigers couldn’t get into the playoffs as again, they were the best team to not make the playoffs. Going into the next season, the team got older and needed more veterans to join them. With that formula, the Sound Tigers were determined to get back to the playoffs and try to get to the second round for the first time since 2003.
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.
