Sounds Tigers can’t hold early lead in loss

Stamford’s Haggerty scores winning goal

The Bridgeport Sound Tigers jumped out to an early lead on Friday, but couldn’t hold on in a 31 loss to the Springfield Thunderbirds at MassMutual Center.

Nick Schilkey scored his fourth goal in seven games within the first five minutes, but the Thunderbirds responded with three unanswered for their first win against Bridgeport since Oct. 25. The Sound Tigers had won four straight games in the season series prior to Friday.

Bridgeport is 4300 against Springfield this season.

Sebastian Aho set up Schilkey at 4:53 of the first period to give Bridgeport a 10 advantage. The third

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SOUND TIGERS 1 year defenseman danced through traffic while skating over the Thunderbirds’ blue line and handed the puck to Schilkey, who put a shot off the post and in for his seventh goal of the season. It beat the blocker of goaltender Phillippe Desrosiers.

TBirds captain Paul Thompson brought the contest back to square one with his seventh of the year just 5:04 into the middle frame. He collected a loose puck in the Sound Tigers’ zone and hustled in transition to begin a 2on1 rush. Thompson looked off the pass and buried a shortside wrist shot past Jared Coreau’s glove to make it 11.

Stamford native Ryan Haggerty, in his Springfield debut, scored the eventual gamewinner at 12:34 of the third period from a sharp angle. Anthony Greco and Ethan Prow both pressured the Sound Tigers back line, including Prow’s wrist shot that was blocked by Grant Hutton. Prow gathered his own rebound and circled the net before finding Haggerty below the left circle, where he filtered home his first goal since being traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins organization earlier in the week.

Greco sealed Springfield’s win with an emptynet tally at 19:09, his 10th goal of the season.

Both teams went 0for3 on the power play and Bridgeport outshot Springfield 3332. Coreau (481) made 29 saves, while Desrosiers stopped 32.