Bridgeport Islanders Look to Avoid Last Place in Final Homestand

While Bridgeport is tied with Iowa, the Minnesota Wild’s affiliate does have a game in hand. They will face the Grand Rapids Griffins at home on Wednesday night (April 17) and again on Friday. The Griffins have been strong this season, currently sitting in second place in the Central Division. The Wild will then head to Illinois on Sunday where they will take on the Chicago Wolves, who sit just two points ahead of the team from Iowa and the Islanders.

Competitive Matchups With Lehigh Valley

The Islanders have found themselves in competitive matchups with their first opponent of the weekend all season. In five matchups on the season, the Islanders have won two in regulation, lost one in a shootout, one in overtime, and one in regulation. All but one of these matchups has been a one-goal game, and in the games the Islanders won they held the Phantoms to one goal in each, with Ruslan Iskhakov and Matt Maggio each registering game-winning goals. 

Keeping games low-scoring has played in the Islanders’ favor all season; the team has scored the fewest goals in the AHL, so to be competitive in games, they have had to be strong defensively. They have found some success on that front thus far against Lehigh Valley this season, and they will aim to elaborate on that come Saturday.

Tikkanen Returns

The Islanders called up goaltender Henrik Tikkanen from the ECHL this week. The 23-year-old netminder is perhaps the one who has shown the most promise of any Islanders’ goaltending prospect thus far this season, though he has struggled with inconsistent play at times. On the season, Tikkanen has a save percentage (SV%) of .927 when playing for Bridgeport, the best on the team. At 6-foot-8, when he is clicking on all cylinders, it is nearly impossible to score on him; he went on a six-game stretch in January and February where he allowed just eight goals. Given the chance to play this weekend, Tikkanen will look to build some momentum as he heads into his sophomore season in the AHL.

Finishing Strong

While the 2023-24 Bridgeport Islanders season was likely not what the team had hoped for when they kicked it off in October, the team will look to close out the year strong, avoiding a last-place finish in the AHL and heading into the offseason with some momentum. A few players to keep an eye on over these last few games will be Alex Jefferies, who made his pro debut for the Islanders on March 22 and has three goals and six points in ten games for the club since. He will be joined this weekend by Marshall Warren, a defenseman who just wrapped up a post-grad year playing for the University of Michigan that saw the Long Island native put up 18 points in 41 games for the Wolverines.