AHL Morning Skate: Oct. 18

Last night’s results || Today’s scoreboard || Standings || League Leaders

syr @ rch 7:05 ET, AHL Live
Syracuse and Rochester both take modest two-game winning streaks into their first meeting of the season tonight at the Blue Cross Arena… The Crunch are out to a 2-0-0-0 start and are coming off a 6-2 win over Adirondack on Saturday… Kyle Palmieri, who scored the overtime winner in Friday’s Crunch victory at Binghamton, recorded a hat trick on Saturday and captured Reebok/AHL Player of the Week honors with 4-2-6 and a plus-5 rating in two games… Nick Bonino (1-4-5) added five points on the weekend for Syracuse, as did Patrick Maroon (2-3-5), who was recalled by Anaheim on Sunday… Rochester earned its first home win of the season with a 7-2 decision over Grand Rapids on Sunday evening… Zack Kassian, the 13th overall pick in the 2009 NHL draft, scored twice in the win and now has 3-2-5 in his first four games… Colin Stuart and rookie Jonathan Parker notched a goal and two assists each, and Drew MacIntyre made 30 saves to move into a tie for 21st place all-time with his 143rd career AHL victory… The Crunch are 1-9-2-0 in their last 12 visits to Rochester… The Crunch’s Palmieri played for Rochester head coach Ron Rolston with the U.S. National Team Development Program.

gr @ ham 7:30 ET, AHL Live
Grand Rapids pays a visit to Copps Coliseum to take on Hamilton tonight… The Griffins are 0-2-0-0 on the road this season as they make their second stop on a five-game trip… Gustav Nyquist (2-2-4) and Tomas Tatar (1-1-2) scored Grand Rapids’ goals in Sunday’s 7-2 loss in Rochester… Chris Conner leads the Griffins in scoring with five points — all assists… Brendan Smith, an AHL All-Rookie defenseman in 2010-11, is eligible to make his season debut for Grand Rapids; Smith was ruled ineligible by the AHL until Oct. 18 after receiving a five-game suspension by the NHL for a preseason incident… Hamilton returns home after splitting a two-game series in St. John’s over the weekend… Brock Trotter (2-5-7) has had a hand in seven of the Bulldogs’ 11 goals this season… Nathan Lawson has started each of Hamilton’s first three games, going 2-1-0 with a 2.67 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage… Grand Rapids won four of the six meetings between the clubs last season.