By BRUCE BERLET, Courant Staff Writer
It wasn't like some of the Wolf Pack's recent masterpieces, but at least the bottom line was attained Friday night.
Brad Isbister, who didn't have a point in the previous six games, scored twice, including one of the Pack's two power-play goals in a 4-2 victory over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers before 5,519 at the Civic Center.
The Pack were 2-for-7 against the AHL's top penalty-killing unit thanks largely to strong work on the point by Bryce Lampman and lots of screens in front of All-Star goalie Wade Dubielewicz. Dwight Helminen's conversion of Lauri Korpikoski's rebound off a Lampman shot on a power play at 8:25 of the second put the Pack ahead to stay, 2-1. After West Haven native Eric Boguniecki got the Tigers to 3-2 off Steve Tambellini's rebound on a power play, Isbister deflected another Lampman shot with a man advantage past Dubielewicz for an insurance goal with 1:26 left in the second.
"We always want to establish point shots and a net-front presence," Pack assistant coach Ken Gernander said. "We had guys not reluctant to shoot from the points and good traffic that the goalie had to keep his eye on, then Izzy gets a deflection, which is even better. I thought Lampman had a great game. He had an active stick on the penalty kill, was lugging the puck out of trouble in our zone and made a good look on Helminen's goal."
Isbister said the strategy wasn't any different against Dubielewicz, who had been 8-0-1 since a 3-2 overtime loss at the Civic Center Nov. 25 and hadn't lost in regulation in 13 games since Nov. 10.
"He's a good goalie, so we tried to get as many shots as we could because the more you throw at him, the more chance you have of sneaking a few by him," said Isbister, reunited with Jarkko Immonen and Nigel Dawes, all of whom have had sporadic ice time with the Rangers this season. "We didn't have a great start and made some mistakes, which we have to learn from. But the big positive is we found a way to win."
The Pack (26-17-3-0) won their fourth in a row and ninth in 10 starts, and are on an 11-1-1 run. It also was their fifth consecutive victory over the Sound Tigers (19-18-1-4), who had won three in a row and were on a 6-1-1 run.
The Pack spotted the Tigers a 1-0 lead when Masi Marjamaki's shot from the right circle went in off Al Montoya (29 saves) at 9:33. But the Pack tied it as Isbister took a pass from Darius Kasparaitis, broke around Kevin Mitchell and put a bad-angle shot between Dubielewicz's legs with 2:45 left in the period.
The Pack took the lead for good when they scored twice in 46 seconds in the second on goals by Helminen and Dane Byers, who got the winner off Brandon Dubinsky's rebound.
Montoya, 9-0-2 since a 6-4 loss to Lowell Dec. 9, robbed Jason Pitton alone in front with 6:55 left, then the Pack killed three late penalties, including a 5-on-3 for 32 seconds.
"We made some poor decisions, but we made good efforts to recover," Gernander said. "On a different night, it could turn around to hurt you, but overall the effort was pretty good. And Al made some very good saves at the end on redirections in tight and in traffic and was able to freeze the puck and get us some draws."
