Wade Dubielewicz stopped 24 shots for his second shutout in four days, and Matt Koalska and Travis Brigley each scored twice as Bridgeport pasted Lowell, 6-0, on Saturday afternoon.
The Sound Tigers improved to 4-0-0-1 in their last five games, outscoring the opposition 18-5 in that span. Dubielewicz, the 2004 winner of the Red Garrett Award as the AHL’s top rookie, has been in net for all five games, stopping 156 of 160 shots (0.79, .975).
Brigley and Koalska gave Bridgeport a 2-0 lead with goals less than two minutes apart midway through the first period. The pair then scored a little over two minutes apart midway through the third.
Jeff Hamilton extended his scoring streak with a goal on the day. Hamilton recorded a point in each of the 10 games he played for the Sound Tigers during December (9g, 9a).
Robert Nilsson added two assists, giving him points in seven straight games (2g, 9a), and Sean Bergenheim scored for the fourth time in the last three games.
Lowell goalie Kevin Nastiuk allowed the six goals on just 19 shots, falling to 1-7-3 on the year. The Lock Monsters now have one win in their last nine games (1-6-0-2).
Elsewhere on Saturday:
Dustin Penner finished off a hat trick with the winning goal in overtime and Corey Perry ran his scoring streak to a team-record 17 games with three points in Portland’s 5-4 win over Springfield… Tim Thomas stopped 49 of 50 shots as Providence rallied for a 3-1 victory in Hartford… Billy Thompson made 36 saves as Binghamton posted a 4-1 win over Syracuse, ending the Crunch’s 4-0-1-0 streak… Guillaume Lefebvre and Konstantin Koltsov scored for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in a 2-1 win over Norfolk, the Penguins’ fourth win in a row… Two goals from Mark Wotton helped Hershey roll to a 5-1 victory over Philadelphia… Lee Goren scored the game’s only goal in his return to Manitoba, helping the Moose past Toronto, 2-1… Trent Whitfield extended his scoring streak to 14 games with a goal in Peoria’s 5-1 win over Hamilton… Brad Smyth scored twice as Manchester edged Albany, 4-3… Ramzi Abid scored with 16 seconds left in overtime as Chicago ended Grand Rapids’ six-game winning streak with a 4-3 win over the Griffins… Ryan Stokes scored his first career AHL goal 1:32 into overtime as Houston won its seventh straight game, 4-3 over San Antonio… Carsen Germyn snapped a tie with 8:11 left in regulation to lift Omaha to a 4-2 win at Iowa.
A total of 83,842 fans attended the 12 American Hockey League games on New Year’s Eve, an average of nearly 7,000 per game:
| Home Team | Att. |
| Manitoba | 12,352 |
| Grand Rapids | 10,004 |
| Manchester | 9,916 |
| Hershey | 9,815 |
| Wilkes-Barre | 8,177 |
| Portland | 7,034 |
| Iowa | 5,443 |
| Peoria | 5,418 |
| Binghamton | 4,710 |
| Hartford | 4,134 |
| Bridgeport | 3,578 |
| San Antonio | 3,261 |
| Total | 83,842 |
