Marc Cantin (#67, left), traded to the Isles from Boston’s farm system last trade deadline, has seen his first action as a Sound Tiger during the AHL’s preseason. (Photo: Teka England/flickr)

With the 2012-13 AHL regular season looming, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers closed out a short preseason Friday night in New Hampshire with a 2-0 loss to Manchester.

Jordan Nolan and Andrei Loktionov were the goalscorers for the Monarchs, who are now 1-0 in preseason. Jean-Francois Berube and Martin Jones each made appearances in net. For the Sound Tigers’ part, Kevin Poulin was solid, but not perfect, and the Tigers’ offense failed to get things going.

There were also a ton of penalties during the game, including three fights during the course of the second period. All of that proved to break up the flow effectively and keep Bridgeport from executing anything.

The Sound Tigers had defeated the Providence Bruins 3-1 the previous night, on goals by Johan Sundstrom, Mike Halmo (huh??) and Nino Niederreiter. This was another spirited game with plenty of fighting, but more offensive punch. Christian Hanson was the lone scorer for Providence.

Bridgeport’s regular season begins on the same day the Islanders were set to drop the puck — Oct. 12 on the road against the Connecticut Whale. Their home opener is the next night against Providence once more. The Islanders’ website is doing a good job of covering all things BST while the league and NHLPA are hashing out a deal (or taking potshots at each other, either/or), so check it out — and of course, also check out soundtigers.com for more info. Hell, buy some tickets while you’re there. It’ll be fun.

Until next time.