Hartford routs Devils, takes over second in Atlantic

Six consecutive goals, including four in the third period, led the visiting Hartford Wolf Pack to a 6-1 rout over the Lowell Devils on Friday.

Jarkko Immonen scored two goals and added an assist, while netminder Al Montoya continues to be hot between the pipes, stopping 20 of 21 shots to win his seventh game in his last eight starts.

Francis Lessard and Nigel Dawes each had a goal and an assist and Lauri Korpikoski registered a pair of helpers to give Hartford its fourth straight win.

The Wolf Pack have outscored opponents by a four-to-one margin (16-4) during their streak as they improve their record to 32-20-3-0 and 67 points, jumping past Providence for the second spot in the Atlantic Division.

Mike Pandolfo scored the lone goal for Lowell in the loss.


ALBANY 4, BRIDGEPORT 3
The Albany River Rats had four different players tally to defeat the Bridgeport Sound Tigers by a score of 4-3 at the Times Union Center.

Keith Aucoin, Dan DaSilva and Antti Laaksonen led the way with a goal and an assist each as Albany avenged a 2-1 loss at Bridgeport on Tuesday.

Tyler Weiman stopped 29 of 32 shots to earn his third win in his last four starts for the River Rats, who are 4-2-0-1 in their last seven games.

Pat Dwyer rounded out the scoring by adding what proved to be the game winner with 15:21 left in the third period.

Gregg Johnson, Robert Nilsson and defenseman Mark Wotton all provided goals in the loss for the Sound Tigers.


OMAHA 1, MILWAUKEE 0
Curtis McElhinney earned his fifth shutout of the year by stopping all 33 Milwaukee shots as the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights downed the Milwaukee Admirals by a score of 1-0.

Carsen Germyn scored the lone goal of the night for Omaha, which has won three of its last four games. The Knights are now seven points out of first place in the West Division.

Pekka Rinne made 17 saves as Milwaukee had its three-game home winning streak snapped. The Admirals fell four points back of the second-place Knights in the West.


SAN ANTONIO 4, CHICAGO 2
Jeff Taffe tallied twice as the San Antonio Rampage used the first three goals of the game to defeat the visiting Chicago Wolves by a score of 4-2.

David LeNeveu made 28 saves on the night as San Antonio won its return to the AT&T Center after a 16-game, 28-day road trip.

Randall Gelech and Jakub Koreis also provided goals in the win for San Antonio and Yanick Lehoux added a pair of assists to give the Rampage their first win of the season against Chicago, having lost the previous six match-ups.

Andre Deveaux and Brett Sterling each scored in a losing effort for the Wolves.


PORTLAND 5, WORCESTER 3
Joe Motzko had a pair of goals and defenseman Kent Huskins tallied a goal and an assist as the Portland Pirates scored three unanswered goals in the third period to defeat the Worcester Sharks at the DCU Center.

Sebastien Caron stopped 26 of 29 shots to earn his second straight win and remain unbeaten in regulation for the Pirates in his last five starts, going 3-0-2.

Simon Ferguson and Geoff Peters also scored for Portland, which ended a three game losing streak on the road.

Graham Mink led the Sharks in the loss by recording a goal and an assist.


WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON 5, BINGHAMTON 4
The Binghamton Senators erased an early two-goal deficit against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but the Penguins scored three times in the second period and held on for a 5-4 win at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

Joe Jensen recorded two goals and Daniel Carcillo added a goal and an assist to lead the Baby Pens, who ended a three-game losing skid and won its fourth consecutive game over the B-Sens.

Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers stopped 29 shots from Binghamton to earn his 15th win of the season.

The loss snapped a four-game home winning streak for the B-Sens, who were led by defenseman Andy Hedlund with a goal and an assist in the contest.

Dennis Bonvie
, playing in his 800th career American Hockey League game, scored for the Penguins.


HERSHEY 3, PHILADELPHIA 0
Maxime Daigneault stopped all 31 shots he faced as the Hershey Bears shut out the Philadelphia Phantoms by a score of 3-0 in an East Division match-up at the Wachovia Spectrum.

Defensemen Dean Arsene and Timo Helbling both scored their first goal of the season for the Bears. Alexandre Giroux added an empty-net insurance goal.

With the win, Hershey improved its record to 6-1-0-0 on the year against the Phantoms, including five straight wins.


SYRACUSE 5, HAMILTON 2
Geoff Platt tallied two goals and added an assist as the Syracuse Crunch defeated the Hamilton Bulldogs by a score of 5-2 at Copps Coliseum.

The Crunch have now won two straight over Hamilton, outscoring them 10-5 in the process.

Adam Pineault recorded three assists and Alexandre Picard had a goal and an assist in the win for Syracuse.

Marc Methot and Zenon Konopka provided the other tallies on the night for the Crunch, who plays their next three games at home.

Mikhail Grabovski and Ajay Baines scored for Hamilton in a losing effort.


GRAND RAPIDS 4, PEORIA 3 (SO)
Ryan Ramsay ‘s hat trick wasn’t enough as Peoria dropped a 4-3 shootout decision to visiting Grand Rapids on Friday.

Eric Himelfarb, Matt Ellis and Derek Meech all provided goals for Grand Rapids, and Evan McGrath and Kip Miller scored the decisive goals in the shootout.

Stefan Liv made 26 saves in regulation and overtime and stopped four of five Peoria players in the shootout to give Grand Rapids its eighth win in its last nine games.

Ramsay’s performance was the first hat trick by a Peoria skater this season. Attendance was a season-high 6,804 at Carver Arena.


IOWA 3, HOUSTON 2 (SO)
Dan Ellis stopped 38 of 40 shots from Houston to earn his third straight win as the Iowa Stars defeated the Houston Aeros for the second straight night, 3-2 in a shootout.

Ellis, who has not allowed more than two goals in his last five games, stopped four of five players on Houston for the win.

In a back-and-forth contest, Shane Endicott and Chris Conner scored in regulation for the Stars, who are unbeaten in regulation in their last five games (4-0-1-0).

Mattias Weinhandl and Bryan Lundbohm each scored for Houston, which has now dropped three straight games and six of its last seven.


MANCHESTER 1, PROVIDENCE 0
Jason LaBarbera turned away all 41 shots from the P-Bruins to earn his league-leading 31st win and seventh shutout of the season as the Manchester Monarchs edged the Providence Bruins by a score of 1-0 at the Verizon Wireless Arena.

Gabe Gauthier scored the only goal of the night just 1:37 into the game to help Manchester to its its eighth consecutive home win.

With the victory, the Monarchs extended their lead in the Atlantic Division to 12 points ahead of second-place Hartford.


MANITOBA 8, ROCHESTER 3
Alexandre Bolduc tallied four points (2g, 2a) while teammates Lee Goren and Jesse Schultz each had a goal and two assists to lead the Manitoba Moose to an 8-3 rout of the Rochester Americans in front of 8,175 fans at the Blue Cross Arena.

Manitoba earned its ninth straight win and forged a tie atop the North Divison with the Amerks, improving its record to 31-16-7-4 and 73 points.

J.J. Hunter and Brad Moran each had a goal and an assist for Manitoba.

Netminder Wade Flaherty notched his sixth consecutive win by stopping 40 shots on the night.

Greg Jacina had a goal and two assists in the loss for the Amerks, who were playing without their top five scorers in Clarke MacArthur (NHL recall), Janis Sprukts (injured), Drew Stafford (NHL recall), Michael Ryan (NHL recall) and Mark Mancari (NHL recall).