LAKE ERIE 6, CHICAGO 3
Patrick Rissmiller played just six games in six weeks with Chicago to start the 2010-11 season. He haunted his old mates with a four-goal performance on Friday to lead Lake Erie to a 6-3 win over the Wolves at Quicken Loans Arena.
Rissmiller, who also played four seasons in Cleveland with the AHL Barons from 2002-06, set a Monsters franchise record for goals in a game and added an assist for a five-point night, giving him 5-4-9 in seven games with Lake Erie. His first three goals of the game came consecutively and broke open a 1-1 tie.
Ben Walter added a goal and two assists for Lake Erie and John Grahame stopped 33 of 36 shots to help the Monsters improve to 6-2-1-0 in their last nine games.
Ryan Garbutt, Paul Postma and Jaime Sifers scored for the Wolves, who allowed at least six goals in a game for the fifth time this season.
Chicago’s three-game weekend road trip around the Great Lakes continues in Hamilton on Saturday afternoon.
NORFOLK 7, MANCHESTER 2
Mike Angelidis notched five points and was one of three Norfolk skaters with two goals on the night as the Admirals rolled past Manchester, 7-2, at Verizon Wireless Arena.
Norfolk is an impressive 8-1-0-2 in its last 11 visits to Manchester dating back to the start of the 2005-06 season.
Angelidis finished the evening with two goals, three assists and a plus-5 rating, and now has 4-4-8 in his last three games. Matt Fornataro had two goals and an assist and Marc-Antoine Pouliot also scored twice for the Admirals, who broke the game open with a four-goal second period.
Mathieu Roy, in his return to Norfolk after an NHL stint with the parent Tampa Bay Lightning, notched three assists and a plus-6 rating for the game. His defense partner Ty Wishart was a plus-5.
Cedrick Desjardins made 23 saves for his fifth consecutive win.
Dwight King and Bud Holloway scored for the Monarchs, whose four-game winning streak came to an end.
TORONTO 6, ABBOTSFORD 4
Fourteen different Marlies recorded a point to pick up Jussi Rynnas on a rare off night as Toronto held off Abbotsford, 6-4, at Ricoh Coliseum.
The Marlies improved to 10-2-0-3 in their last 15 games, coinciding with the arrival of Mike Zigomanis from the parent Maple Leafs in early November.
Zigomanis opened the scoring on Friday just 1:24 into the contest, and Matt Lashoff, Simon Gysbers and Brayden Irwin helped Toronto open a 4-1 lead early in the second period.
Darryl Boyce and Marcel Mueller had the other Marlies goals and Rynnas made 23 saves to get the win despite allowing more than two goals in a game for the first time in 11 appearances.
All four Heat goals came on the power play, with Bryan Cameron, Matt Keith, Stefan Meyer and Lance Bouma finding the net.
SPRINGFIELD 5, BRIDGEPORT 3
Nick Tarnasky and Jay Pandolfo scored in the third period to give Springfield a 5-3 win over visiting Bridgeport on Friday.
The victory snapped a 20-game losing streak for the Falcons in the month of December. Springfield had been 0-15-5-0 in December games since a 4-3 shootout win in Hartford on Dec. 13, 2008.
Grant Clitsome had a goal and an assist, Theo Ruth netted his first professional goal and Matt Calvert added his team-high 10th goal of the season for Springfield, and David LeNeveu finished with 24 saves to earn the win.
Rhett Rakhshani, Jeremy Colliton and Robin Figren scored for the Sound Tigers, who fell to 2-9-0-1 on the road this season.
ROCHESTER 6, SYRACUSE 5
Scott Timmins had two goals and an assist to lead an unexpected offensive charge as Rochester defeated Syracuse, 6-5, at the Blue Cross Arena.
It was the Americans’ 11th win in their last 12 meetings with the Crunch.
Timmins, Eric Selleck, David Marshall and A.J. Jenks entered the game with a combined four goals in 50 AHL games this season before accounting for five goals tonight. Selleck scored his first professional goal and Evgeny Dadonov took over the team lead with his eighth of the year for the Amerks, who tied a season high with their six goals.
Trevor Smith scored a pair for goals for Syracuse, Josh Green had a goal and an assist and Joffrey Lupul notched three assists in the final game of his conditioning stint. Lupul returns to Anaheim after notching 1-3-4 in three games with the Crunch.
Jake Newton and Leigh Salters registered their first career professional goals for Syracuse.
HERSHEY 3, ALBANY 2
Steve Pinizzotto scored early in the third period to break a 2-2 tie and send Hershey to a 3-2 victory over Albany at the Times Union Center on Friday night.
The Devils grabbed a 1-0 lead five minutes into the second period on David McIntyre’s fifth goal of the season, but Jay Beagle drew the Bears back even 31 seconds later.
Albany regained the lead on Vladimir Zharkov’s power-play goal, but Dmitri Kugryshev got that one back for Hershey before the second intermission.
Dany Sabourin stopped 22 shots as the Bears won for the fourth time in their last five road games. Jeff Frazee (29 saves) took the loss for the Devils, who have now dropped nine of 12 at home this season.
PEORIA 2, HAMILTON 1
Graham Mink’s power-play goal with 3:45 left in regulation gave Peoria a 2-1 win over Hamilton in a battle of Western Conference powers at Copps Coliseum.
The Rivermen, with points in seven straight games (6-0-1-0), got 29 saves from Jake Allen, whose league-leading goals-against average dropped to 1.24 as he improved to 9-1-0 on the season.
Rookie Phil McRae also scored for Peoria, which wraps up a four-game road stretch at Lake Erie on Saturday night.
Andreas Engqvist netted the only goal for the Bulldogs, who played their fifth straight one-goal game. Curtis Sanford entered the game ranked third in the AHL in GAA and save percentage, and stopped 18 of 20 shots in falling to 8-2-0 on the season.
CONNECTICUT 3, PROVIDENCE 1
Oren Eizenman and Jeremy Williams scored third-period goals to give Connecticut a 3-1 win over Providence at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
Eizenman scored the go-ahead goal at 6:07 of the final frame, his second goal and third point in four games since joining the Whale.
Evgeny Grachev also scored, Kris Newbury recorded two assists and Cameron Talbot recorded 27 saves as Connecticut extended its points streak to five games (3-0-0-2).
David Ling scored his third goal in four games for the Bruins, who have lost three in a row – all at home – by a combined score of 12-3.
WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON 4, BINGHAMTON 2
Chris Collins broke a third-period tie and added an empty-net insurance goal to help the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to a 4-2 win over the Binghamton Senators on Friday night at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.
The win was the Penguins’ fourth straight and seventh in their last eight.
The Penguins got the important first goal of the contest at 8:18 of the opening frame while both teams were skating one man down as Joe Vitale tipped the puck behind Senators goaltender Barry Brust for his sixth goal of the campaign.
Dustin Jeffrey netted his league-leading fourth shorthanded goal of the season to give the Pens a 2-0 lead at the break.
In a second period dominated by the Penguins’ offensive zone chances, Binghamton managed to even the score with two strikes in just over six minutes. Bobby Butler tallied his league-best 15th goal of the year at 13:29, and Kaspars Daugavins beat Brad Thiessen with a wrist shot from the left circle with 27 seconds remaining in the period.
Collins fired a high wrist shot that caromed in off the back of the neck of Brust at 6:47 of the third period to break the tie, and he added an empty-netter by backhanding the puck in from neutral ice with 35 seconds left in the game.
Thiessen (11-2-0) finished with just 12 saves as the Penguins finished with a 29-14 advantage in shots. Brust (8-9-1) made 25 saves in the loss.
The clubs teamed up to support Foundation 58, whereby a portion of ticket sale proceeds went to the organization responsible for helping emergency medical service personnel who are diagnosed with cancer. The Penguins wore firefighter-themed jerseys while the Senators wore jerseys with a police theme.
GRAND RAPIDS 5, MILWAUKEE 2
Tomas Tatar and Francis Pare had three points each to lead Grand Rapids past Milwaukee, 5-2, at the Bradley Center on Friday.
Just back from Detroit, Joey MacDonald made 26 saves to get the win in his first AHL action since Oct. 22. MacDonald saw just one period of game action in his extended stint with the Red Wings.
Tatar had two goals and an assist and Pare recorded a goal and two assists for the Griffins, while Cory Emmerton notched a goal and a helper.
Mike Bartlett and Chris Mueller scored for the Admirals, who were without goaltender Mark Dekanich after his recall to Nashville earlier in the day. Jeremy Smith allowed four goals on 22 shots before being lifted in favor of Chet Pickard (six saves).
MANITOBA 3, OKLAHOMA CITY 2 (SO)
Eddie Lack made 31 saves and shut the door in the shootout as Manitoba defeated Oklahoma City, 3-2, in the opener of a two-game set between the teams at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.
After Liam Reddox and Colin McDonald scored in the first period for the Barons, Lack stopped all 19 shots he faced over the final two periods plus overtime, then denied all five Oklahoma City attempts in the shootout to nail down the Moose’s sixth win in their last seven home games.
Lack (7-4-2, 1.89, .929) has allowed two goals or fewer in seven consecutive starts.
Jordan Schroeder and Lee Sweatt scored in regulation for Manitoba, with Marco Rosa notching two assists. Sergei Shirokov picked up the only goal of the shootout.
Martin Gerber finished with 29 saves but saw his personal seven-game winning streak snapped.
SAN ANTONIO 2, TEXAS 1 (SO)
Mathieu Beaudoin scored the game-clinching goal in the shootout and Matt Climie made 26 saves as the two former Stars helped San Antonio to a 2-1 victory over their former club at the Cedar Park Center.
The victory keeps the Rampage in first place in the West Division, one point ahead of Peoria.
Texas’s Fabian Brunnstrom and San Antonio’s Brett MacLean traded goals in the first period, the only scoring in regulation. MacLean’s goal was his 61st in a Rampage uniform, a new franchise record.
Beaudoin and Mikkel Boedker scored in the shootout for the Rampage while Tomas Vincour, Ondrej Roman, Colton Sceviour and Mathieu Tousignant failed to put a shot past Climie.
Richard Bachman made 30 saves but dropped to 6-1-1 in his last eight decisions.
ROCKFORD 2, HOUSTON 1
Alec Richards made 38 saves as Rockford held on for a 2-1 win over Houston at the Toyota Center on Friday night.
The IceHogs earned three of four possible points in their two-game visit to the Aeros.
Ivan Vishnevskiy and Ryan Potulny scored for Rockford in the second period after Robbie Earl had staked Houston to an early lead 3:21 into the game.
Matt Hackett stopped 27 of 29 shots for the Aeros.
