Cam Talbot made 41 saves to record his second straight shutout and Marek Hrivik scored twice as the Connecticut Whale blanked the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 3-0 at Webster Bank Arena on Saturday night. The Sound Tigers trail the Whale 2-0 in the best-of-five, first-round series. Game 3 is Sunday at the XL Center in Hartford at 5:00 p.m.

The Sound Tigers had a golden opportunity to take an early lead as J.T. Miller and Kris Newbury took penalties 14 seconds apart, giving Bridgeport a 5-on-3 power play for 1:44. However, the Sound Tigers were unable to capitalize as the Whale killed the two penalties.

The Whale capitalized on a turnover in front of the Sound Tigers net to take the lead at 5:32 of the opening frame. Jonathan Audy-Marchessault intercepted a clearing attempt in the slot and had his initial shot stopped by Kevin Poulin, but buried the rebound to give the Whale a 1-0 lead.

The Whale increased its lead to two when Hrivik scored the first of his two goals on the evening. Casey Wellman won the puck behind the Sound Tigers net and fed Hrivik, who was all alone in the slot. Hrivik fired over Poulin’s glove for his first tally of the postseason to put the Whale up by two at 6:44 of the middle period. The Sound Tigers dictated much of the action in the middle period and had two more power play opportunities, but could not solve Talbot despite outshooting the Whale 15-8.

Hrivik netted his second goal of the night on the power play with 5:45 left in the game. He skated the puck down the left side into the circle and snapped a shot into the top corner over Poulin’s right shoulder.


FORWARD LINES
John Persson – Casey Cizikas – Rhett Rakhshani
David Ullstrom – Brock Nelson – Micheal Haley
Blair Riley – Tomas Marcinko – Tony Romano
Justin DiBenedetto – Trevor Frischmon – Sean Backman

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
Matt Donovan – Steve Oleksy
Aaron Ness – Jon Landry
Calvin de Haan – Ty Wishart

GOALTENDERS
Kevin Poulin
Kenny Reiter