Bridgeport Ties Franchise Record, Nine Straight Home Wins Near Playoffs

Pierrick Dube's overtime winner with 37.8 seconds remaining capped a four-goal comeback as the Bridgeport Islanders defeated the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 6-5 Thursday night at Total Mortgage Arena, extending their home winning streak to nine games and tying a franchise record. With one regular season home date remaining, Bridgeport sits poised to clinch its first playoff berth in four years.

The win looked anything but inevitable midway through the third period. Atley Calvert scored off a rebound 1:55 into the third period to extend the Penguins' lead to 5-2. What followed was a sustained comeback built on individual skill and situational hockey. Joey Larson cut into the deficit at 2:29, roofing his 17th of the year off a feed from Adam Beckman. Then, in the final sixty seconds of a five-minute power play, Liam Foudy cut Bridgeport's deficit to one as he netted his 25th of the year off a rebound from Cole Eiserman.

The game's early exchanges gave little hint of the drama to come. Just 92 seconds in, Daylan Kuefler pickpocketed a Penguin defender along the left boards before making a nifty move on Sergei Murashov, giving Bridgeport a 1-0 lead with his tenth goal of the season. On a 4-on-4, Harrison Brunicke netted his first AHL goal to help the Penguins retake a two-goal advantage before Calvert extended it.

The backdrop to the streak makes the numbers even more striking. The Islanders finished the 2024-25 season with a 15-50-4-3 record, their worst in team history, including a home record of 4-28-1-3 that set the AHL standard for fewest home wins in a season. This year's edition, under head coach Rocky Thompson, has rebuilt the roster around measurable improvements. Henrik Tikkanen carries a .900 save percentage and a 2.48 goals-against average this season, a dramatic improvement from the .865 and 4.12 GAA he posted a year ago. Paired with Marcus Hogberg, the Islanders have stable-enough goaltending to sustain a playoff push.

Offensively, the roster has leaned on its depth. Victor Eklund has been catalytic in recent weeks, while Cam Thiesing and Marshall Warren have contributed on the scoresheet during the streak. Beckman, who set up Larson's third-period goal Thursday, leads the team in points and goals and has been at the center of Bridgeport's best hockey. The article noting the team's turnaround points to the arrival of Ethan Bear as another inflection point in Bridgeport's second-half surge.

The Islanders entered Thursday's contest with sole possession of fourth place in the Atlantic Division standings for the first time this season, a position that carries direct playoff implications. The nine-game streak ties the franchise record, and one final home game remains: Bridgeport travels to Lehigh Valley on Saturday, April 11, before returning to Total Mortgage Arena for the final regular season home game on April 12 against the Hartford Wolf Pack.

The Wolf Pack game carries extra weight as the possible record-breaker and, potentially, the clincher. The franchise is set to relocate to Hamilton, Ontario for the 2026-27 season, which means this postseason run would be the last playoff appearance Bridgeport's fans ever see at Total Mortgage Arena. Thursday's overtime thriller made that possibility feel real.