Cassivi earns 200th career win in overtime thriller

Frederic Cassivi took home his 200th career American Hockey League victory in dramatic fashion, making 21 saves as he backstopped the Bears to a 3-2 overtime win against the Norfolk Admirals at Norfolk Scope Arena and moved Hershey into a first-place tie atop the East Division. He improves his record to 10-5-3 on the season and is tied for second in the league in wins.

Cassivi, who is a two-time Calder Cup champion (Chicago ’02, Hershey ’06) and the MVP of the 2006 playoffs with the Bears, becomes the 11th goalie in AHL history to win 200 games, joining legends Gil Mayer (346) and Johnny Bower (359). The feat was last accomplished in 2005 when Neil Little got his 200th win.

Jonas Johansson ended the night for the Admirals, scoring 2:43 into the overtime to secure the win for Cassivi and the Bears. Johansson also registered an assist for a two-point night along with teammate Tomas Fleischmann who had a goal and an assist in the contest.

Troy Brouwer and Jonas Nordqvist added the goals for Norfolk, who remain in second place in the East Division.


LOWELL 4, SPRINGFIELD 2
Justin Papineau tallied three points, scoring a goal and and two assists as the Devils ended the Falcons’ winning streak at three games with a 4-2 win at the MassMutual Center.

Chris Minard scored two goals on the night while netminder Frank Doyle stopped 25 of 27 shots for the Devils who ended a three-game winless streak.

Marek Kvapil and Eric Healey recorded goals for Springfield and while Jonathan Boutin stopped all six shots he faced coming in relief of Karri Ramo in the third period.


BRIDGEPORT 3, BINGHAMTON 2 (OT)
Jeff Tambellini played the hero for the Sound Tigers on Wednesday night, scoring with just 23 seconds remaining in overtime to give Bridgeport a 3-2 win over the B-Sens.

Blake Comeau and Jeremy Colliton each had a goal and an assist while defenseman Rick Berry had two helpers on the night for Bridgeport.

Wade Dubielewicz stopped 29 of 31 shots for the Sound Tigers to earn his third straight win.

Brian Maloney and Bobby Robins provided tallies for Binghamton.


HAMILTON 5, TORONTO 3
Kyle Chipchura scored the game winner for the Bulldogs at 10:55 of the third period and added an empty-net goal to secure a 5-3 victory at the Ricoh Coliseum, giving Hamilton its fifth win in the last six games.

Jonathan Ferland recorded a goal and two assists in the contest while Mikhail Grabovski (1g, 1a) and defenseman Ajay Baines (2a) had two points and goaltender Yann Danis made 37 saves for the Bulldogs.

Brett Engelhardt, John Mitchell and Erik Westrum provided goals for the Marlies in the losing effort.


ROCHESTER 3, MANITOBA 2
Three unanswered goals, including two late in the third period gave the Rochester Americans their second-straight win by the score of 3-2 over the Moose at the MTS Centre.

Stefan Meyer kicked off the Amerks rally registering a goal with just under four minutes left in the second period and Drew Stafford tied the game at 4:40 left in the third period and added the assist on the game-winning goal scored by Janis Sprukts with 1:29 left in regulation.

Jason Jaffray and Lee Goren each had a goal and an assist for the Moose, who scored both goals on the power play.