Greg Mauldin cut the Sharks lead to 3-2, but that was as close as the Sound Tigers would get.

If the early start had a negative effect on the Sound Tigers who had just completed a 24-hour round-trip bus ride to Albany, one would never know it in the game’s first five minutes, all of which were played in the Worcester zone. Worcester was also dealing with the aftereffects of an emotional 3-2 win in Manchester on Saturday night, pulling within two points of the division-leading Monarchs on Saturday night. Bridgeport showed some early life putting four early shots on Sharks’ goaltender Alex Stalock, but Stalock came up huge each time to keep Worcester in the game.

Just over four minutes into the game, Sharks’ coach Roy Sommer had seen enough and called a time-out, at which point the game took a sharp turn in Worcester’s favor.

“Stalock made some big saves to keep us in early,” said Sommer after the game. “He allowed us to weather the storm,”

A little over three minutes later, Worcester’s Dwight Helminen fired a shot from the right point that was stopped by Bridgeport goalie Greg Monroe. The puck popped up in the air in front of the crease and Cory Quirk swatted the loose disc past Munroe’s shoulder to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead. Defenseman Danny Groulx also picked up a helper on Quirk’s third goal of the season. Groulx would end up having a hand in all three goals by the Sharks.

The Sharks doubled the lead midway through the first period. After Bridgeport’s Jesse Joensuu was sent off for charging at the 8:44 mark, the Sound Tigers successfully killed the miscue. But no sooner had Joensuu returned to the ice when Tyler Haskins was sent off for slashing. This time, the Sharks made the Sound Tigers pay when Jamie McGinn got behind the the Bridgeport defense and wristed a shot past Munroe from the right circle to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead at the 11:42 mark, quieting the 4,716 fans in attendance. Groulx and Steven Zalewski picked up assists on the play.

Bridgeport cut the lead in half just over three minutes into the middle period when Matt Martin fed Sean Bentivoglio in the slot who snapped a wrister past Stalock’s glove at the 3:01 mark. Worcester answered back a minute and a half later when Groulx sent a shot through traffic that Logan Couture deflected past Munroe. McGinn also picked up a helper on Couture’s 14th goal of the campaign.

At 6:21 of the third period, Worcester’s Nick Petrecki jumped Bridgeport’s Micheal Haley behind the Worcester goal, and the two engaged in the Texas two-step, both sent off for fighting with an additional two-minutes tacked on to Petrecki for roughing. As they skated to the box, Bridgeport’s pugnacious center appeared to make a threatening gesture at Petrecki. That incident seemed to awaken the Sound Tigers (and the slumbering crowd) as Greg Mauldin scored his 14th goal of the year on the ensuing power play to cut Worcester’s lead to 3-2. But after that, Stalock again rose to the occasion, shutting down the Tigers for the rest of the contest.

After Munroe was pulled for an extra skater with less than a minute to go, Zalewski picked up an empty-net goal by firing a shot from his own blue line to close out the game.

“It was a tough one for our guys,” said Bridgeport head coach Jack Capuano after the game. “It was definitely our best game of the weekend. [The Sharks are] a really good hockey team, and for their coach to come over to me after the game and praise our team like he did—that’s the best game we played and they deserved better, but we’re just not getting the puck in the net.

Thanks to flurries at the very beginning and very end of the game, Bridgeport outshot Worcester by a 32-23 margin. Both teams were 1-for-2 on the power play.

On the bright side, the sixth-place Sound Tigers enter the All-Star break only two points behind Portland and Hartford, and only 10 points separate the Tigers from first-place Manchester. Before the game, it was announced that defenseman Dustin Kohn would replace teammate Mark Katic at the All-Star Classic due to an injury to Katic.

The Sound Tigers return to action on Friday night when they visit the Albany River Rats at the Times Union Center. Bridgeport’s next home game will be on Tues., Jan. 26, when they host Albany at the Arena at Harbor Yard at 7 p.m.