Borque, Lorito bring experience

BRIDGEPORT — Chris Bourque knows a bit about the heartbreak that has reigned over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers’ postseason for 15 years. He helped author a bit of it with Hershey nine years ago.

The Sound Tigers meet the Bears again in the best-of-5 first round of this year’s playoffs, beginning Friday and Saturday at Webster Bank Arena. He and Matt Lorito, both Calder Cup champions, were two of the key pieces added last summer to try to get Bridgeport to this point and well beyond.

“I think everyone knows how hard the postseason’s going to be. It’s not like the regular season,” said Lorito, a champion two years ago with Grand Rapids. “The intensity’s a lot higher. The pace of play is a lot higher.

“It’s the little things, throughout the game, over the course of the series,” he added. “I think the big thing for us is going to be staying disciplined. ... Sometimes you’ve got to take a punch for the team. At the same time, we want to play hard, too, don’t want to be sitting back. We’ve got to be aggressive but stay disciplined.”

Only one man has played more AHL playoff games than Bourque’s 133: Hershey vice president of hockey operations Bryan Helmer, Bourque’s former teammate, brother-in-law of Bridgeport assistant coach Matt Carkner.

Bourque won three championships in Hershey, as a rookie in 2006, again in 2009, and in 2010 after helping eliminate the Sound Tigers in the first round.

“Playoffs is a whole different beast. Everyone gets kind of ramped up, the pace of play, the physicality, everything,” Bourque said.

“You can’t take one shift off or it’ll be in the back of your net, and that might be the difference in the game.”

Bourque remembered one thing in particular about the 2010 series against the Sound Tigers. With 1:08 left in Game 1 and the Sound Tigers ahead 3-2, an Alexandre Giroux shot was deflected into the Bridgeport net by Mathieu Perreault to tie it. The Bears, arguably the best AHL team in decades, won in overtime and won the best-of-7 series in five games.

There was something about that deflection, though.

“I remember we got a high-stick goal that counted that probably shouldn’t have counted that won us the game,” said Bourque, who had the secondary assist on Perreault’s goal.

“(Those Sound Tigers) were a tough team. They played the same style as we played, hard-nosed. We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy series. The team we had, we had a stacked lineup, so it probably wasn’t an easy series for them, either, but they really weren’t a team we were hoping to face in the first round after winning the league that year.”

Bourque is the Bears’ all-time leader in playoff games and playoff scoring. He signed with the Sound Tigers, joining brother