WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — They saw a rebuilding team and a young team in their first two games. Saturday at Wachovia Arena, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers got a look at the big boys. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton scored goals 102 seconds apart in the first period, one on a five-on-three and another just after the second penalty expired, sparking a 4-1 victory over Bridgeport in front of 7,787 fans.

The Sound Tigers lost for the first time after a 5-3 win at Binghamton and a 6-3 come-from-behind win Friday at Hartford. "They were tough, but we believed all the way. We did it (Friday) night," rookie centerman Frans Nielsen said. "We've got to skate more. We got outskated."

The early penalties were killers against the Penguins, one of the favorites in the Eastern Conference.

Defenseman Jason Goulet, in his AHL debut, took the first one, called by referee Joe Ernst for interfering with Maxime Talbot. Soon after, defenseman Rick Berry had to grab a Penguin's stick in front of the net to deny a scoring chance. Rob Schremp scored his first AHL goal on a wrist shot from the slot 25 seconds into the two-man advantage. After the Berry penalty ended, the Sound Tigers let Talbot swat a rebound through goalie Billy Thompson's legs for a 2-0 lead.

Regardless of Friday's heroics, in a hostile building against a good team, that was going to be a tough comeback, even though the Penguins failed to score on their final eight power plays.

"They've been a good team for a while. They've had good

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leadership for a while," said Bridgeport captain Mark Wotton, who played against last year's Penguins a lot with Hershey. "They've got a good core group over there. They work hard every game, and that's somewhere we want to be."

Bridgeport nearly cut the lead to 3-2 with a minute left in the second period, but Jeff Tambellini's pass just missed Jeremy Colliton at the back door. Instead, Kyle Brodziak's goal from the slot 3:15 into the third put the game away. Thompson, in his first start as a Sound Tiger — he played 35 seconds in the opener — made 24 saves. The parent New York Islanders recalled goalie Wade Dubielewicz to back up Mike Dunham, with Rick DiPietro out. Stephen Dixon scored on a breakaway at 7:28 of the second after he slashed Drew Fata across the hands — no call — and took the puck away on a four-on-four. Peter Ferraro scored a power-play goal from the side of the net soon after, but Bridgeport could do little else offensively against goalie Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers (22 saves). Johan Halvardsson, Matt Koalska and Jason Pitton were scratched for Bridgeport. Michael Mole came up from Pensacola of the ECHL to back up Thompson.