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AHL News by Tricia McMillan, AHL Correspondent Player of the Week (Nov. 2): Gee, what a familiar name we find here. How many times have I typed this one? A lot of times? A kazillion times? Steve Guolla is the Player of the Week, again, I mean, come on Steve, let somebody else have a turn, OK? You'd think it was your personal award or something, granted you had seven points for the week and as a result you were leading the league in scoring, but isn't it time to give peace a chance or at least another player? It's the fourth time in a year, how about a little variety?
Player of the Week (Nov. 9): The AHL has a new leader in the goal-scoring category and made him the POTW as well: Providence Bruin Shawn Bates picks up the honors. Bates had a hat trick along with two more goals and two assists last week, and is now atop the goals list with 11. He is also fourth in total points, with 16. Bates had a six-game goal-scoring streak and still has a nine-game point streak alive as of Nov. 10. Former Terrier Bates will be doing the chat thing on the AHL's web site, www.canoe.ca/AHL, on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 7:00 pm. Rookie of the Month: A lot of the kids broke out of the gate fast this year, especially the goaltenders. So it was rather surprising that only one rookie netminder, St. John's Marc Robitaille, was even nominated for this award. But all you need is a little thing that can really make a player stand out, something like, oh say, a six-point game. The AHL found it pretty tough to ignore that performance and named New Haven's Shane Willis the best newcomer for October. Willis put on his personal show in just his second pro game with two goals and four assists, then added three more goals and three more assists for a 12-point month. Not bad for starters, kid, not bad at all. Spooked: Note to the league - don't schedule games on Halloween. Apparently AHL fans were too scared to venture out to the good ol' hockey game on Halloween as some truly frightening attendance numbers materialized. Albany saw its smallest Saturday night crowd in five years as just 2,975 showed; the usually reliable Thoroughblades had a mere 4,056, less than 20% of capacity at the Rupp Arena. New Haven posted 3,257, most of whom didn't show up, Springfield hosted just 3,629, and Adirondack was at 2,603. Portland saw the second worst home crowd of any night in their history, 3,011, and the best drawing team of the night, Hershey, pulled a mere 4,806, their worst Saturday in recent memory. Overall, the average attendance for the evening was down more than 1,500 from usual.
Spooky: However, those folk who did show up had a lot of disposable income - and at least in Hershey, they were colorblind. Both the Bears and the Pirates wore one time only Halloween jerseys, and auctioned them off for charity. The Pirates jerseys, which were apparently pleasing to the eye, were silently auctioned during the game, actively auctioned after it, and some were saved for auctions at local stores, all to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The Hershey jerseys, featuring Day-Glo yellow skulls and crossbones and bright orange pumpkins which didn't quite go with maroon, much less Fredericton's blue and red, were autographed and auctioned immediately after the game, raising a total of $16,765 for the Leukemia Society of Central Pennsylvania. Three players' duds fetched four digit bids: Christian Matte brought an even grand, Mitch Lamoureux came in at $1,200, and Marc Denis' went for $3,050. Six days later, the Providence Bruins marked the 25th anniversary of the Providence Civic Center by wearing the sweater of the original tenants, the Providence Reds; these were also auctioned off for charity. Where the Players Were: The NHL opened its season with a total of 652 players listed on the 27 rosters. 417 of those players have played in the AHL at some point in their career. That's 64% of the players. A list of the teams and how many of their opening night players are AHL graduates follows; interestingly, one of the highest percentages belongs to the Los Angeles Kings, who haven't had a full AHL affiliate in ages. Also up there is Nashville, but that's less surprising - the coaching staff was plucked from the AHL. Team Grads % Calgary 22/25 88% New Jersey 22/26 85% Nashville 20/24 85% Phoenix 19/25 76% Colorado 17/23 74% Buffalo 16/22 73% Detroit 17/24 71% Los Angeles 17/24 71% Toronto 17/24 71% St. Louis 16/23 70% Montreal 17/25 68% Washington 16/24 67% Anaheim 15/23 65% Carolina 15/23 65% Edmonton 16/25 64% Boston 15/24 63% San Jose 16/26 62% Tampa Bay 15/24 62% NY Rangers 14/23 61% Ottawa 15/25 60% Vancouver 13/22 59% NY Islanders 12/23 52% Florida 12/25 48% Dallas 12/26 46% Philadelphia 11/24 46% Pittsburgh 12/26 46% Chicago 8/24 33% Howling by the Goaltenders: The full moon was supposedly on Nov. 3. It appears to have been on Nov. 6, judging by the final scores. The Rochester Americans, already boasting the best offense in the AHL, welcomed back Craig Fisher from a broken hand in time to shred Hamilton 8-0. Rochester had a six-goal second period, during which Denis Hamel had a hat trick for the Amerks. Fisher scored his first of the year and notched two assists, and Domenic Pittis had a pair of goals, as Martin Biron checked in with another shutout.
Meanwhile, Syracuse clocked Adirondack 7-1 backed by Boris Protsenko's hat trick which he finished with one second remaining in the game. The Red Wings scored first, the Crunch scored the rest primarily off rookie Jason Elliott. Martin Sonnenberg also scored two and 13 Crunch players had a point. The bright side for the Red Wings: Adirondack goaltender David Arseneault stopped Syracuse's Zenith Komarniski on a penalty shot. Also finishing up at 7-1 were Lowell and St. John's, as Marcel Cousineau stopped 39 shots in his return to the Rock and his Lock Monsters embarrassed the host Leafs. Dane Jackson, Dmitri Nabokov and Mike Kennedy all had three points for Lowell. But those games were blowouts. There were also two firewagon games, as Providence finally outlasted Hershey 8-6 on the strength of a hat trick from Shawn Bates and two goals each from Eric Nickulas and Landon Wilson, and Saint John and New Haven finally settled on a 5-5 tie after Shane Willis and Sergei Varlamov traded two-goal games. End of a Career: Last year the AHL was struck by a run of skate-related injuries, but nothing comparable to what occurred during Lowell's visit to St. John's Nov. 7. Maple Leaf Mark Deyell was flipped by a hit from a Lock Monster player - and when his skate came down, the blade struck the face of Lowell's Jeff Libby. Libby sustained extreme damage to his right eyeball and despite several hours of surgery, his physicians believe the eye will have to be removed. Libby was transferred to a hospital in Boston for final evaluation before a decision is made. The NHL prohibits players with limited or no sight in one eye from playing, so Libby's NHL career is effectively over, although the Islanders are obligated to pay him until his contract is over. The Lock Monsters' fans have established a bulletin board for get-well wishes to Libby at http://members.tripod.com/~LockMonsters/libby-board.html. Libby's injury wasn't the only blow to Lowell over the weekend, either. Defenseman Mike Gaul has left the team indefinitely after his father was killed in a car accident during the weekend. Open That Can of Worms: The Sarnia Sting won their injunction against the Colorado Avalanche stemming from the Avs assigning draft pick Evgeny Lazarev to Hershey when the Sting believed him to be their property. Under the court ruling, Lazarev was prohibited from playing for any North American team other than Sarnia until he is 20 years old. For that matter, he may not practice or attend functions of any other team, although he couldn't be prohibited from showing up as a fan, hence his presence at Bears games despite the injunction. The ruling didn't affect the Sting's lawsuits against Lazarev, agent Scott Norton, Colorado and Hershey for damages; those cases remain pending. But the upshot is Lazarev was sued for doing what he was told to do by the team holding his rights, and Hershey was sued for being affiliated with Colorado. Granted, the Avalanche, as is their wont of late, behaved arrogantly and left themselves open to legal action; but how can the Bears be held liable for Colorado's actions? Should the suit against the Bears be upheld, teams could become reluctant to affiliate with each other for fear of being held liable for the other team's actions. And suing the player, well...doesn't exactly make a guy want to play. "It's so stupid," says Lazarev. "I don't know why they sue me." But surprise, surprise, on Nov. 8 who should be on the ice for Hershey but Lazarev. "They paid them a lot of money," announced Lazarev. Indeed. The Avalanche did the All-American thing and paid Sarnia to shut up and go away. It turns out all Sarnia wanted out was a lump of cash out of someone's pocket, so the Avalanche paid Sarnia $26,000 and Lazarev is now theirs. The whole mess cost Lazarev nine games. Like Parent, Like Child: The Washington Capitals have scored the fewest goals in the NHL and likewise farm team Portland has scored the fewest in the AHL, with just 18 on the season as of Nov. 5. Not the only trickle down effect from the Caps either; two days after the Pirates loaned Martin Brochu to the IHL Utah Grizzlies, finally resolving the Pirates' three goaltender logjam, Mike Rosati was recalled to Washington to back up Olie Kolzig. Then the last of Portland's goaltenders, Sebastien Charpentier, injured an ankle. Portland recalled Jason Saal from Hampton Roads, just in time for him to injure his shoulder. The Pirates then spent the weekend with a goaltending tandem of Joaquin Gage and Jeff Salajko while trying to retrieve Brochu from the IHL, which they couldn't do because - he was injured. What fun. The Pirates did get Rosati back this week along with some highly touted prospects from both Washington and Chicago. Meanwhile, this time they really meant it. The Pirates were sold, yes for real, with signed papers and everything, effective Nov. 9. Minority owner David Fisher, his brother, and a local businessman teamed up to buy out Joyce Ebright's share of the team and the sale has been approved by the league. This after two previous deals collapsed, most recently the sale to Mentmore Holdings Corp. which died Oct. 14 over disagreements over the terms. Fisher will officially be the majority owner, with seven other owners having various degrees of ownership. Try, Try Again: Apparently the Ottawa Senators are downright serious about moving the old PEI franchise to Quebec City. GM Rick Dudley has been scouting the city with the intent of having a team intact and in place next season. A local television production company is stirring up the city's interest in the AHL and hopes to cut a deal with the Senators in the near future. The company's CEO believes QC is more suited to the AHL than the IHL and is anxious to give it a shot. Maybe he'll bring back Badaboum. Small Stuff: Providence rookie Joel Trottier had two goals Oct. 28, both against J-S Giguere...
Philadelphia's Jim Montgomery was involved in all three Phantoms goals Oct. 28 as they beat Fredericton 3-2. All three goals were in the first period. Mathieu Garon did well, though, considering he faced 49 shots... Olli Jokinen celebrated his POTW award with a goal 83 seconds into his next game, followed by a callup to the Kings... Hershey finally had a lead, two goals even - and they blew it, allowing Kentucky a pair and settling for a tie Oct. 28. The game was tame, as the primary participants from the brawl game were either injured or suspended... Dean Melanson scored two goals and missed the hat trick by a crossbar against Adirondack Oct. 28. Martin Biron continued cruising, allowing only one goal... Why did the WolfPack win their first five games? In a recent tilt with New Haven, the Beast's starting lineup had 73 games NHL experience, typical for the AHL. The Hartford starters had 1,989 games in the NHL... Breaking up a three goaltender logjam were the River Rats, who shipped Rich Shulmistra to the IHL Manitoba Moose. They also bought out Zdenek Skorepa and loaned Vlastimil Kroupa to the IHL's Kansas City Blades... Hershey's Mitch Lamoureux recorded his 400th career point against Hamilton Oct. 30... Providence goalie John Grahame had a 17-save shutout against New Haven, aided by Shawn Bates' two points... The Adirondack Red Wings were highly concerned about New Jersey sending Sasha Lakovic to Albany on conditioning for the team's Oct. 30 game. They worried about the wrong player. Vadim Sharifijanov, also down to condition, scored the game-winning goal with 1:44 left... Syracuse picked up a tie with Kentucky Oct. 30 on the strength of three goals from rookie defensemen - Michal Rozsival, Pavel Skrbek and Zenith Komarniski... Dmitri Nabokov had a pair of goals for the Lowell Lock Monsters Oct. 30, but they still lost to Springfield... Cincinnati's Mike Leclerc had two goals and an assist in a 7-4 win against the Hartford WolfPack, who played catchup the whole game without catching up. Bob Errey had three points for Hartford... He'd been almost perfect all season, but Jean-Sebastien Giguere needed the Portland Pirates to be completely perfect. Giguere had 39 saves Oct. 30 against Portland, his first shutout this season...
Rochester's Randy Cunneyworth had two goals plus an assist as the Amerks took down Worcester, 6-4... Jim Montgomery had another three-point night for Philadelphia, who sent Fredericton to a seventh straight loss Oct. 30... Things didn't get better for Fredericton the next night. The winless Hershey Bears not only beat the Canadiens, they shut them out. Not only did the Bears get a shutout, it came from backup goalie David Aebischer, who made 29 saves... All of Kentucky's three goals against Hartford were on the power play on Halloween, two from Jarrett Deuling and the game-winner from Alex Korolyuk... The Amerks got three goals in five minutes against Albany Halloween night and went on to win 5-1... Adirondack rookie goalie Jason Elliott posted his first professional shutout with 22 saves against the Syracuse Crunch, who gave up five goals in the first period... Another shutout the same day as Lowell's Marcel Cousineau stopped 35 shots and blanked the Portland Pirates, the second shutout in a row against Portland... Fortunately for Portland, it was the first time this season they didn't allow a power-play goal. Their 1-11-0 start is still by far the worst in team history... Providence finished a home-and-home sweep of New Haven with pairs of goals from Antti Laaksonen and Landon Wilson. And why did the P-Bruins want Steve Bancroft? How about three assists?... It just wasn't Cincinnati's day Nov. 1. Kentucky scored ten goals, including pairs from Mike Craig, Alex Korolyuk and Herbert Vasiljevs, en route to a 10-1 rout... Fredericton pulled the goaltender for the second time in as many nights against Syracuse, and this time they got a point out of it with a 3-3 tie. They still haven't won in their last nine tries... Hershey went from winless in seven (0-5-2) to undefeated in five - three ties and two wins... Lowell's Mike Peron made his AHL debut against New Haven Nov. 1 with a goal and an assist... After going undefeated in ten games, tying a franchise record, Saint John was finally felled by Worcester, 3-2, on Nov. 1. Terry Yake did the scoring, Rich Parent did the stopping. It was J-S Giguere's first loss of the season... Saint John rookie Chris Clarke finally scored his first pro goal after averaging a point a game, all assists... How many shutouts so far? 15, in 115 games. If the current pace keeps up, the AHL will see 99 shutouts this year. The league record for one year is 61. Think about it... Peter White has now scored more points in the AHL than any other player to appear in the league this decade... Hartford's Ken Gernander, Lowell's Craig Charron, and recent Beasties boy Mike Rucinski all skedaddled out of town to Austria to play for Team USA in the World Championship Qualification Tournament. And yes, they qualified... Cincinnati didn't lose at home until Nov. 8, and hasn't won on the road yet... The longest point streaks in the league this year, both active, are those of Rochester's Domenic Pittis and Philadelphia's Jim Montgomery, both at ten games and counting... The Wolfpack followed up winning their first five games by losing the next three, the first time in franchise history they lost three in a row... Hartford is also perfect in their division and until they defeated Hamilton Nov. 7, winless outside of it... The AHL lead in power-play goals is shared by New Haven's Scott Levins and St. John's Jason Podollan with five each... If Worcester scores first, forget it. They're unbeaten in the five games where they scored the first one... Fredericton rookie Mathieu Garon was back to leading the AHL in minutes played, with 547, although Marc Denis passed him in the saves department. Now if only there were a defense in front of him... Lowell's Marcel Cousineau didn't lose in six straight games, going 5-0-1 with two shutouts during the streak. He leads the league in wins and shutouts, and trails only Denis and Garon in minutes played... St. John's has taken over the penalty lead, now averaging 40 minutes a game... Hershey's Marc Denis started three games in one week and wound up with an OT tie in all three, facing a total of 124 shots... The Phantoms' Brian Boucher was undefeated in his first eight games, but Albany finally beat him Nov. 8... Adirondack is third in the league in penalty minutes with a 37.2 PiM per game average, but it's coming from just two players - Martin Laitre and Barry Potomski are 1-2 in the league in PiMs... Another team you don't want getting the first goal is Albany. The River Rats are unbeaten when scoring first - and have yet to win if they don't score first... The Rochester Americans have the best GAA as a team, at 2.09. Martin Biron hasn't lost a game yet, at 6-0-1, and his GAA is under two... Syracuse's Robb Gordon scored his fourth goal for the season, the same number he had for all of last season... The Hershey Bears were supposed to have an agreement with the Ottawa Senators for players. They didn't get a Sen until Erich Goldmann was assigned at the end of October. Meanwhile, the Bears acquired three Nashville Predators... The heretofore hapless Bears also managed their second shutout in five days as Marc Denis blanked Lowell Nov. 4, 3-0. All three Bears goals, two by Christian Matte, were scored in the third period... Bob Errey scored on the Hartford WolfPack's first ever successful penalty shot as the Wolfpack beat the Bruins, 4-2, Nov. 4. Shawn Bates scored both goals for Providence... If this seems devoid of news about St. John's, there's a reason. The baby Leafs went sans game for ten days... Add the Syracuse Crunch to the list of sports teams wanting new playpens. The Crunch want an arena in the 10,000 seat range, partly due to the age and lack of amenities of the current building but mostly because Rochester has a greatly renovated and much better arena... The Albany River Rats held down Philadelphia 1-0 until 14:31 of the third period Nov. 6. Then the Phantoms tied it and Jason Zent added a natural hat trick for a 4-1 Phantoms victory... The Hartford Wolfpack tackled the Springfield Falcons Nov. 6 with only eight forwards and just two centers dressed. They still won, as Derek Armstrong set up three goals in the first period alone and Bob Errey and Todd Hall each scored two goals... The Portland Pirates lost their sixth straight home game and were shut out for the third straight home game as Providence beat them 6-0 Nov. 7. Ex-Pirate Jim Carey picked up the shutout, as the Pirates have now gone 191 minutes, 24 seconds without a goal in their own barn.... Kentucky took down Fredericton 5-3 Nov. 7, but the Habs managed two goals from rookie Darcy Harris and Phillippe Derouville stopped Matt Bradley on a penalty shot... Fredericton went on the road for 18 days and didn't win a game, going 0-7-1 with a tie against Syracuse their only point. The young Habs haven't won in their last 11 games... Kentucky, conversely, won their fourth straight game and are unbeaten in six... NHL referee Paul Stewart completed a rehab assignment in the AHL, reffing a few games in his comeback from colon cancer... The Maple Leafs have exactly four power-play goals at home, in 44 chances... The Maple Leafs' Jeff Ware, in his third professional season, finally scored his first professional goal Nov. 7 against former teammate Marcel Cousineau... Of Worcester's first ten games this season, nine ended with one goaltender or the other out of the net. In other words, close games... Domenic Pittis had no problems against his former Syracuse team, picking up three assists in his first game against them Nov. 7... Adirondack's Martin Laitre and Syracuse's Larry Shapley are both pending suspensions for actions in the Nov. 6 game between the teams. Both left the bench to fight during a play stoppage... On a related note, the rule which suspended a coach if a player left the bench to fight has been relaxed. Suspending the coach is now a decision made by league review, rather than an automatic, hence no coaches have been suspended for that lately...
Saint John defeated New Haven on an OT power-play goal from Sergei Varlamov Nov. 7. New Haven's Tom Buckley scored two goals... Florida returned Dwayne Hay to the Beast, where he scored three goals in two games... Kentucky goaltender John Nabokov recorded his first shutout against Cincinnati Nov. 8, stopping 20 shots... Mike Kennedy had three assists against St. John's and three goals against Portland, as Lowell came back with four goals in the last ten minutes to beat the Pirates Nov. 8. Kennedy's goals included the tying and winning goals. Ray Giroux also had three points for Lowell and Patrick Boileau had three points for Portland... Albany's John Madden and Alexander Semak had two goals each in the Rats' 8-4 against Philadelphia Nov. 8, the first loss for the Phantoms in eight games... Hershey's Mitch Lamoreux was involved in all three Bears goals, scoring two and setting up the other, as the Bears beat the Rats 3-1 Nov. 7 to take their unbeaten streak to six games... Rangers first rounder Stefan Cherneski scored his first two professional points over the weekend... Cincinnati's Craig Reichert had a four-point night with a goal and three assists against Fredericton Nov. 6... Bruce Coles returned to Hershey - as a Falcon. He made his presence known with two goals and two assists against his old team Nov. 8 as the Falcons pasted Hershey, 9-3. Barry Nieckar, Eric Belanger and Radoslav Suchy all had three point nights, while all three Hershey goals were scored on the power play... The Rochester Amerks now lead the league in goal differential at +28... Earlier we noted Shawn Bates is fourth in scoring. That's because there's a three-way tie for first between usual suspects Steve Guolla and Jim Montgomery, and rookie Shane Willis, all with 18 points... Fredericton hasn't won much, but outside their division, they haven't won at all... The Lowell Lock Monsters were the first team to double digit wins this year, and their current pace would give them the record for points by a first-year team... Lowell's Warren Luhning leads the AHL in +/- with a +14 rating... The Hershey Bears have yet to win a game in their division... Marc Denis has taken over the league lead in total saves, and ranks second in minutes played... Yet another team who shouldn't be allowed the first goal - Kentucky is 5-0-1 in that situation... Hamilton is unbeaten when scoring first, except they've only scored first three times, the fewest of any team in the league... Adirondack, Hartford and Portland have yet to go into overtime - for which the Pirates are quite thankful...
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