Eastern Conference notebook

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Oddly, neither of Albany’s last two regular-season shutout performances have resulted in victories for the team; Justin Peters recorded a 43-save shutout on Saturday at Syracuse but wound up losing in a shootout, 1-0, and Michael Leighton posted a 29-save whitewash on Mar. 14, 2008, at Binghamton before also dropping a 1-0 shootout decision… Friday’s 3-1 win over Syracuse was the River Rats’ first victory at the Times Union Center this season… Their only other “home” win had come in Glens Falls, N.Y., on Oct. 17, a 5-4 triumph over Worcester.
 
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Binghamton snapped a four-game winless skid (0-3-1-0) with a 2-1 win at Syracuse on Sunday… The Senators, who had been blanked in three straight games entering Saturday’s tilt against Philadelphia, snapped their franchise-record 218:57 scoring drought when Josh Hennessy scored off his own rebound at 7:56 of the second period… Binghamton took a season-high 43 shots in that game against the Phantoms, a 4-3 overtime loss… Wednesday’s game against Hershey marked the seventh-year Senators’ 500th AHL contest… Hennessy entered Wednesday’s action with three goals and four points in his last two games.
 
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Bridgeport avoided its first two-game losing streak of the season when it doubled up Philadelphia on Sunday, 4-2… The Sound Tigers are now 5-0-0-1 in their last six home games since a 4-3 loss to Albany on Nov. 2… Yann Danis returned from the parent New York Islanders last weekend and went 1-1-0 in two appearances, bringing his AHL season mark to 4-3-0 (2.56, .909)… Ben Walter is riding a four-game scoring streak (3-3-6), while rookie Jesse Joensuu has a goal in his last two outings… Leading scorers Kurtis McLean and Mike Iggulden have combined to go scoreless in two straight games for the first time this season.
 
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Before getting the call to start on Saturday at Portland, goaltender Matt Zaba hadn’t played since a First-Star performance on Nov. 1 vs. Albany and had watched Miika Wiikman start six straight games; Zaba put up another First-Star performance with 27 saves in the Wolf Pack’s 6-2 win over the Pirates… Rookies Devin DiDiomete and Matthew Ford each tallied his first career AHL goal for Hartford last weekend… Second-year forward Artem Anisimov struck for his first two-goal game in the AHL in Friday’s 4-3 shootout loss to Lowell.
 
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Hershey entered Wednesday’s game against Binghamton looking for a season-high sixth straight victory… The Bears also won five in a row to open the season, from Oct. 8-18… Hershey has outscored opponents 28-8 during its current five-game run, all of which have come against division rivals… Goaltender Daren Machesney entered Wednesday having allowed just one goal over his last two starts (.977), both victories… Due to injuries in Washington, Karl Alzner, Sami Lepisto, Chris Bourque, and Graham Mink were all recalled from the Bears to the parent Capitals on Wednesday.
 
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Lowell entered Wednesday’s game against Providence searching for its fourth straight win, which would be its longest run since winning four in a row from Dec. 22-30, 2007… Jon DiSalvatore’s selection as Reebok/AHL player of the week on Monday was the first time that a Devils player captured the league’s weekly honor since David Clarkson did so for the week ending Jan. 14, 2007… DiSalvatore entered Wednesday with a six-game scoring streak (4-8-12) and a team-high 19 points overall (5-14-19)… The Devils visit Portland and Worcester this weekend.
 
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Manchester has outscored opponents 16-6 during the four-game winning streak that it brought into Wednesday’s road trip finale at Grand Rapids… The Monarchs had been 1-3-0-0 on the road prior to winning the first four games of this trip… Reigning AHL rookie of the year Teddy Purcell, who scored just two goals in his first 10 games of the season, entered Wednesday with six goals in his last six outings… Rookie Justin Azevedo had five points (2-3-5) over his first four games with the Monarchs entering the tilt in Grand Rapids… Manchester returns home to host Portland on Friday.
 
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Norfolk brought a four-game losing skid into Wednesday’s home game against Springfield, their first tilt at the Scope since Nov. 8… The Admirals finished 2-4-0-1 on a seven-game swing through New England, including a 7-6 loss to the Falcons on Friday… That marked the first time in team history that Norfolk suffered a regulation loss when scoring six or more goals (39-1-0-1-1)… After only three of their first 12 games were decided by one goal, the Admirals played six one-goal contests on their seven-game road trip… Goaltender Karri Ramo was returned to the Admirals by parent-club Tampa Bay on Tuesday.
 
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Wednesday’s game at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton wrapped up a stretch that had the Phantoms playing 14 of their first 21 games on the road… Philadelphia hosts Springfield on Friday night at the Wachovia Center, home of the NHL’s Flyers… The Phantoms have failed to win consecutive games since their six-game winning streak from Oct. 25 to Nov. 7… Rookie Claude Giroux’s seven-game scoring streak came to an end in Sunday’s 4-2 loss at Bridgeport… Fellow first-year pro Patrick Maroon totaled five points (3-2-5) in four games last week.
 
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Portland entered Wednesday’s home tilt against Worcester winless in consecutive games (0-1-0-1) for the first time all season… The Pirates totaled just four goals in the two games after netting at least four in seven of their previous eight contests, all victories… Nathan Gerbe brought an eight-game scoring streak (5-8-13) into the game against the Sharks, while Mathieu Darche is without a point in two straight after posting eight points (6-2-8) in his previous four tilts… Through Tuesday, the Pirates are 10-0-0-0 when scoring three or more goals in a game.
 
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Two members of the Bruins brought six-game scoring streaks into Wednesday’s match-up with Lowell: Martin St. Pierre (2-9-11) and Martins Karsums (3-5-8)… Johnny Boychuk shows three assists over his last two games… Goaltender Kevin Regan is 4-0-0 at home this season entering Wednesday’s action… Vladimir Sobotka netted his first two-goal game of the season for Providence in Sunday’s 6-3 win over Hartford… After enjoying Thanksgiving off, the Bruins host Worcester on Friday before traveling to Springfield on Saturday and welcoming Hartford back to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center on Sunday.
 
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Ryan Potulny collected seven points (2-5-7) and a plus-5 rating in three games last week for the Falcons… Rob Schremp netted his first goal of the season in Saturday’s 5-1 win over Providence; Schremp entered Wednesday’s action with a team-high 15 assists and tied with Potulny for the team lead in points (16)… Rookie Bryan Lerg tallied four points (2-2-4) in three games last week, and first-year goaltender Glenn Fisher made his first AHL start on Sunday at Lowell, a 4-1 loss… Captain Tim Sestito earned his first career NHL recall to parent-club Edmonton on Sunday.
 
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Wilkes-Barre/Scranton entered Wednesday’s home game with Philadelphia trying to avoid its first three-game regulation losing streak since Oct. 7-14, 2007; Oddly, all three of those losses came at the hands of the Phantoms… After the Thanksgiving holiday, the Penguins will travel south to Norfolk for a pair of games this weekend… Chris Minard entered Wednesday’s action ranking second in the league with 27 points, including an AHL-high 16 goals, and riding a three-game scoring streak (2-1-3)… Janne Pesonen (0-4-4) also had a point in his last three outings.
 
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Worcester brought a four-game winning streak, including three on the road, into Wednesday’s game at division-leading Portland… Riley Armstrong scored the game-winning goal in both of the Sharks’ victories in Texas last weekend, extending his scoring streak to five games (4-2-6)… Cory Larose has found the scoresheet in 11 of his 14 games played (9-5-14) entering Wednesday’s action… His nine goals lead the Sharks, and his 14 points rank second behind Tom Cavanagh’s 15 (7-8-15)… The Sharks travel to Providence on Friday before hosting Bridgeport and Lowell to close out the weekend.