The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Schneider leads Islanders into series against Checkers
He was signed to be a veteran third goalie for the parent club with high hopes, part of a second straight run to the semifinals last year.
The big club didn’t repeat its success this year, so Cory Schneider has spent most of the season with the Bridgeport Islanders. And suddenly Bridgeport is the one thinking about a playoff run, meeting the firstplace Charlotte Checkers in a best-of-5 series that opens Tuesday night at home.
A strong homestretch sneaked Bridgeport into the AHL playoffs. They won the franchise’s first playoff series in 19 years last week, sweeping a best-of-3 from Providence. Schneider allowed one goal in both games.
“Not only how great he’s playing right now, just the way he approaches the game, approaches practice, his leadership in the locker room,” Bridgeport coach Brent Thompson said after the Game 2 win. “He’s been through everything, as far as going to a Stanley Cup Final, the pressures. He can really help this group.”
Games 1 and 2 against Charlotte are Tuesday and Thursday nights at Bridgeport’s Total Mortgage Arena, both at 7 p.m. Saturday afternoon’s Game 3 and, if necessary, games next Monday and Wednesday nights are at Bojangles’ Coliseum in Charlotte, N.C.
Schneider was part of a Vancouver Canucks team that reached the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, losing in seven games to Boston.
Two years earlier, after he was the AHL’s goalie of the year, he helped the Manitoba Moose to the Calder Cup Final, falling to Hershey in six.
“You learn, no matter where you are playoff hockey’s the best, whether it’s this level, the next level, anywhere else,” Schneider said. “These are the games you love, you enjoy. For me, this stage of my career, it’s a lot of fun. It’s fun to watch our team, the young guys, get this experience and learn how to play in these circumstances.”
Injury had slowed a long NHL career for Schneider, 36. But he was in vintage form at the end of this season.
Since Feb. 2 (interrupted by a couple of callups), over 17 regular-season and two playoff games, Schneider has a 2.18 GAA and .938 save percentage. His fullseason numbers were plenty good, a .921 save percentage that ranked him fifth in the AHL and a 2.71 GAA that put him 18th.
He made 46 saves in an overtime win at Providence in Game 1 of last week’s series, then followed with 29 more in the Game 2 overtime win.
“You have goaltending like that, we have a chance against anyone,” Bridgeport winger Michael Dal Colle said. “Schneids played unbelievable both games.”
The best two might have come 43 seconds apart, off the same Bruin. Schneider made a right-pad save on Justin Brazeau’s one-timer
from the slot 8:35 into the second period Wednesday. Late in the shift, Brazeau was tied up with Bridgeport defenseman Mitch Vande Sompel at the top of the crease. Schneider made a save and got tangled up in that battle in front of him, winding up on his back.
Brazeau reached to his left for the puck and backhanded it toward the net, where Schneider, still flat on his back, got a piece of it.
“I just channeled my best, y’know, street-hockey, floor-hockey, you’re a kid, Dominik-Hasek,” Schneider said, invoking the name of the acrobatic Hall-ofFame goalie of the 1990s and 2000s, “and just roll around and try to get a piece of it. Fortunately I made a save on it.
“This time of year, these
games, that’s the effort, the battle level you have to have, especially even for a goalie. You’ve just got to find a way to make the save, and that’s all I’m trying to do right now.”
On top of Schneider’s play, Thompson said the veteran has been a help to Jakub Skarek, the Islanders’ 22-year-old goaltending prospect.
Skarek’s 2019-20 Bridgeport Sound Tigers teammate Christopher Gibson is part of the goaltending tandem for Charlotte, affiliate of the Florida Panthers and Seattle Kraken. Gibson, who missed much of the season injured, and Seattle prospect Joey Daccord split time down the stretch of the regular season.