Justin Papineau scored a pair of power-play goals to help Bridgeport to a 3-2 win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday night.
The game was played before a capacity crowd of 16,297 at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., home of the Sound Tigers’ parent club, the New York Islanders. That comes in at number 36 on the list of largest regular-season crowds in AHL history.
Papineau’s second goal, at the end of a 5-on-3 advantage with 10:52 left in regulation, stood up as the difference.
Papineau spent the entire 2003-04 season on Long Island, playing 64 games for the Islanders.
Matt Murley scored twice for the Penguins in the final 5:02 of the contest, once on a power play and once shorthanded with Marc-Andre Fleury pulled for an extra attacker.
Sean Bergenheim scored on a shorthanded breakaway and Dieter Kochan finished with 31 saves for Bridgeport.
Elsewhere on Friday:
Kirby Law had three goals and an assist to lead Houston to a 5-4 win over Chicago… Defenseman Duncan Keith potted a hat trick in Norfolk’s 6-1 rout of Hershey… Jeff Hamilton and Dominic Moore had a goal and an assist apiece and Jason LaBarbera made 30 saves as Hartford defeated Worcester, 4-1… Ahren Nittel scored two goals and Scott Clemmensen turned aside 45 shots for Albany in a 4-1 win at Providence… Matt Ellis scored with 2:19 left in regulation and Jiri Hudler netted the deciding shootout goal as Grand Rapids edged Milwaukee, 3-2… Jason King‘s overtime goal gave Manitoba a 3-2 win over visiting Edmonton… Billy Thompson made 38 saves to preserve Binghamton’s 2-1 win at Syracuse… Ben Eager picked up a goal and an assist and Antero Niittymaki made 36 saves as Philadelphia blanked Cincinnati, 3-0… Eric Staal‘s second goal of the game was the shorthanded winner with 4:09 remaining as Lowell win in Manchester again, 3-2… Daniel Paille‘s second hat trick of the season — both against Cleveland — led Rochester over the Barons, 7-3… Brian Eklund made 30 of his 42 saves in the third period and overtime, then stopped all four shootout attempts as Springfield beat Portland, 3-2… Justin Cox scored and Jamie Storr made 35 saves as Utah edged San Antonio, 1-0.
