mfornabaio@ctpost.com
BRIDGEPORT -- All it took for Marko Tuomainen to salvage his season was to stop thinking.
The veteran right winger for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers went through what he calls the worst stretch of his career -- of his life -- earlier this season. He went 14 games without a goal and was a healthy scratch three times.
He won't let it excuse him, but a back injury affected Tuomainen's play, leaving a player who had never scored fewer than 25 goals in three AHL seasons with only one through 18 games.
"We had a couple of meetings with the coaching staff after I was sitting out. I took some tapes home to see what I was doing wrong," Tuomainen said.
"I was definitely thinking too much instead of playing to my own strengths. Right after that, I decided to relax and play my own game, skating, passing, shooting."
That's worked out well for the 29-year-old native of Kuopio, Finland, in his seventh pro season.
Tuomainen has a goal and five assists in his last four games and looks more like the top forward the Sound Tigers expected him to be.
"He's got some jump in his stride. He's skating and making plays," Bridgeport coach Steve Stirling said. "I think he was always working, but when things aren't going right, you've got to work harder."
Tuomainen's frustration was obvious during the slump, which culminated in two straight nights as a healthy scratch in games against Albany and Portland.
His first game back was a 1-0 loss to Springfield Nov. 30, and though he and his teammates were shut out, Tuomainen got eight shots and was involved all night.
The next night, a 6-3 win over St. John's, he had a goal and three assists.
"He's a great player. He's one of those guys that can make things happen out there," said Trent Hunter, who scored off of two of those assists. "He sees the ice well. He can make plays, or he can score goals. He's an all-around, solid player."
In addition to his usual even-strength role on the top two lines, Tuomainen kills penalties for the Sound Tigers, and of late has played the point on the power play. He had played that role at times for Lowell last year when he was in the Los Angeles Kings' organization.
"He's a veteran guy we count on to take shifts," Stirling said. "He's the reason for a number of our successes lately."
In 196 career AHL games coming into this season, Tuomainen was nearly a point-per-game scorer. He had 84 goals and 95 assists over three seasons with the old Cape Breton Oilers, the Hamilton Bulldogs and Lowell.
In those seasons, he had rarely gone more than two or three games without a point, making this season's struggle -- he went 10 games with only three assists -- all the more confounding. Though the team was winning, he was struggling.
"On and off the ice, it was really frustrating," Tuomainen said. "It just wasn't me playing out there."
The videotape work allowed Tuomainen to see what Stirling and assistant coach Dave Baseggio were trying to tell him: He needed to react more and think less.
"Some guys channel (frustration) in the wrong direction," Stirling said. "He took his medicine and did (find his game). That's what you'd expect of a quality, veteran, professional hockey player."
Tuomainen played one game earlier this season with the New York Islanders, who signed him this summer as a free agent. He's played 79 games in his NHL career with Edmonton, Los Angeles and New York.
"He's a quality guy and a quality player," Stirling said. "He's certainly played enough games in the National Hockey League that if we have injuries up top, he can step in."