with files from Patrick Williams
The Islanders’ farewell to Bridgeport will include playoff hockey on the shores of the Long Island Sound for the first time since 2022.
The New York Islanders’ AHL affiliate will move to Hamilton, Ont., in the fall after 25 seasons at Total Mortgage Arena. Between Bridgeport and New Haven, there has been AHL hockey in southern Connecticut for 61 of the AHL’s 90 years of operation.
Bridgeport came on strong late, winning 10 of its last 13 games to grab fourth place in the Atlantic Division. They were also 7-0-0 at home after the Mar. 31 announcement that the team was moving.
“It’s been a long year so far,” head coach Rocky Thompson said, “and a lot of hard work was put into it to get to this point from where we started. I give the guys a ton of credit. They persevered through a lot of adversity this year.”
Bridgeport won reached the Calder Cup Finals in its inaugural season in 2002 and reached the second round in 2003, but the franchise has just one series victory since then – a best-of-three sweep of Providence in 2022.
