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AHL Morning Skate: Oct. 21

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

bri @ stj 6:00 ET, AHL Live
Bridgeport opens a two-game set against St. John’s at Mile One Centre tonight… While the Sound Tigers have never played the IceCaps, they have played seven games at Mile One (3-2-2), including two wins over the St. John’s Maple Leafs in the 2002 playoffs and a 6-2 win over Binghamton in an off-site home game there on Nov. 12, 2008… Both wins this season for Bridgeport (2-3-0-0) have come on the road… Justin DiBenedetto (5-0-5) is tied for the league lead in goals, scoring five times on just 11 shots… Former Sound Tigers goaltender Peter Mannino is 2-0-0 (1.00, .956) with one shutout in his first two starts for the IceCaps, who have won three of their first four games on the year.

her @ alb 7:00 ET, AHL Live
Hershey takes its perfect 3-0-0-0 road record up to the Times Union Center for a visit to Albany tonight… The Bears opened the season with wins in Binghamton, Wilkes-Barre and Norfolk before losing its home opener to the Admirals on Oct. 15… Keith Aucoin (2-6-8) and Chris Bourque (4-4-8) have both found the scoresheet in each of Hershey’s first four contests… Hershey’s power play is clicking at 26.1 percent (6-for-23) early on… The Devils, playing six of their first seven games at home, is off to a 1-4-0-0 start… Vladimir Zharkov (1-2-3) enters the weekend on a three-game scoring streak for Albany… The Bears swept all six meetings from the Devils in 2010-11.

hou @ cha 7:00 ET, AHL Live
Houston pays a weekend visit to Charlotte for the first meeting between the clubs… Checkers forward Jon Matsumoto (3-6-9) is one point off the league scoring lead, picking up a point in all four games to date… Casey Wellman has four goals in four games for Houston… Rookie defenseman Justin Faulk, a second-round draft pick by Carolina in 2010, was assigned to Charlotte by the Hurricanes earlier this week; defenseman Justin Falk, who played the last three seasons in Houston, remains with the Aeros’ parent club in Minnesota.

MCH @ ct 7:00 ET, AHL Live
Manchester and Connecticut open their six-game season series in Hartford tonight… The Monarchs have lost two in a row by identical 5-3 scores (Sunday at Springfield, Wednesday at Portland), while the Whale are coming off shootout losses to Albany and Bridgeport last weekend… Monarchs forward Andrei Loktionov, a 21-year-old third-year pro, leads the AHL in assists (7, tied), points (10) and plus/minus (+9) entering the weekend… Martin Jones allowed five goals in four appearances vs. Connecticut last season (4-0-0, 1.33, .953)… With Kris Newbury (4-4-8) on recall to the parent New York Rangers, Carl Hagelin (3-1-4) and Andre Deveaux (2-1-3) are the only players on the Connecticut roster with goals this season.

adk @ por 7:00 ET, AHL Live
Adirondack begins a three-game road weekend tonight at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, where the Pirates are 6-0-0-1 against the Phantoms franchise since the 2004-05 season… Adirondack lost leading scorer Brayden Schenn (4-4-8) to recall by Philadelphia this week… Denis Hamel has 4-3-7 on the year for the Phantoms, and former Pirate Michael Leighton is 3-0-0 (2.51, .915) in four appearances… Rookie forward Andy Miele had five points (2-3-5) and Ryan Duncan added a goal and two assists in Wednesday’s 5-3 Portland victory over Manchester… Miele (2011) and Duncan (2007) are both former winners of the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in U.S. college hockey.

wor @ pro 7:05 ET, AHL Live
After playing just two games over the first 14 days of the season, Worcester hits the ice for a three-in-three weekend beginning tonight in Providence… The Sharks posted convincing wins over the Bruins (4-1 on Oct. 9) and Albany (6-1 on Oct. 15) to open the season at 2-0-0-0 for the first time since 2007-08… Worcester allowed a total of 36 shots in the two games, and is tied for first in the AHL in both power-play efficiency (33.3 percent, 5-for-15) and penalty killing (100 percent, 9-for-9)… After losing their first three games by a combined count of 15-3, the Bruins rebounded for a pair of wins to close out last weekend… Josh Hennessy, a former San Jose draft pick who played for Worcester head coach Roy Sommer in Cleveland in 2005-06, leads the B’s in scoring with 2-1-3 in three games played.

bng @ nor 7:30 ET, AHL Live
With 21 goals scored (and 20 allowed) in its first four games, Norfolk brings its offensive fireworks into a two-game set at Scope against the defending Calder Cup champions… The Admirals have been off since a come-from-behind 6-5 overtime win in Hershey last Saturday in which they erased a 4-2 second-period deficit… Norfolk’s "Kid Line" of Carter Ashton (4-3-7), Cory Conacher (3-3-6) and Tyler Johnson (3-3-6) are all among the AHL’s top five rookie scorers this season, and Mark Barberio (1-5-6) and Radko Gudas (2-2-4) are among the top-scoring defensemen in the league… Kaspars Daugavins (4-2-6) has a point in all five games for the Senatorsthis season and is riding a four-game goal-scoring streak.

wbs @ spr 7:30 ET, AHL Live
A week after posting a 7-4 victory in Wilkes-Barre, Springfield hosts the Penguins for a rematch at the MassMutual Center tonight… Fourteen different Falcons earned a point in last Friday’s victory, with Nick Drazenovic, Martin St. Pierre and Mike Thomas tallying a goal and an assist each… Bryan Lerg (4-2-6 on the season) scored twice for the Penguins in the loss… Springfield signed goaltender Manny Legace, an original Falcon, to a tryout contract yesterday; Legace made his professional debut with Springfield on Oct. 1, 1994… Wilkes-Barre forward Colin McDonald played 226 games in a Falcons uniform from 2007-10.

le @ syr 7:30 ET, AHL Live
The last team in the league still looking for its first standings point, Lake Erie will try to snap a five-game losing streak in the first of a two-game visit to Syracuse… The Monsters, 7-2-1-0 all-time at the Onondaga County War Memorial, are also looking for their first power-play goal of the campaign (0-for-19)… Greg Mauldin, who played his first two pro seasons with the Crunch (2004-06), has two of Lake Erie’s five goals this season… Syracuse’s Kyle Palmieri is the reigning Reebok/AHL Player of the Week after notching four goals and two assists in two games last week, and he added another goal in Tuesday’s 3-2 shootout loss in Rochester.

ham @ rch 7:35 ET, AHL Live
Rochester hosts Hamilton in the teams’ second of three October meetings… The Bulldogs were 5-2 winners over the Americans in Hamilton to open the season on Oct. 8, with Brock Trotter picking up two goals and two assists… Trotter totaled 2-5-7 in the first two games of the season (both wins), but has been held scoreless in the last two (both losses)… The Amerks, on a three-game winning streak, are coming off a 3-2 shootout win over Syracuse, a game they tied on a Nick Crawford power-play goal with 4:58 left in regulation.

gr @ okc 8:00 ET, AHL Live
Winners of three in a row following their season-opening 7-0 loss to Texas, Oklahoma City hosts Grand Rapids for the opener of a two-game series tonight… The Barons outscored their opponents 15-3 in sweeping San Antonio, Texas and Houston within 48 hours last weekend… Yann Danis made 28 saves and Philippe Cornet scored both goals in OKC’s 2-0 win over the Aeros on Sunday… Griffins scoring leader Chris Conner (2-6-8) had two goals and an assist in a 3-0 win at Hamilton on Tuesday… Joey MacDonald stopped 31 shots for his 22nd career AHL shutout, tying Moe Roberts and Gordie Bell for 16th place all-time.

peo @ sa 8:00 ET, AHL Live
Coming off a 4-3 win at Texas last night, San Antonio opens a six-game homestand by taking on Peoria at the AT&T Center this evening… Scott Timmins‘ second goal of the game came with 1:48 left in regulation last night and gave the Rampage their first non-shootout victory of the season… Michal Repik added a goal and an assist and Angelo Esposito recorded two assists… Peoria (0-3-0-1) is looking to stop its first four-game slide in the regular season since Oct. 24 to Nov. 5 of last season… Brett Sterling (2-2-4) and T.J. Hensick (1-3-4) share the Rivermen team scoring lead with four points each.

rfd @ chi 8:30 ET, AHL Live
Chicago, off to an 0-2-0-2 start under first-year head coach Craig MacTavish, hosts Rockford tonight in the front end of a home-and-home series… Kevin Doell, Darren Haydar and Mark Mancari lead the Wolves in scoring with 1-2-3 apiece through four games… After splitting a pair of games in Abbotsford last weekend, Rockford will play 17 of its next 20 games in the state of Illinois… Brandon Segal has 4-0-4 in his first four games for the IceHogs… All five of these teams’ meetings at Allstate Arena last season were decided by a single goal, with the Rockford winning three.

mil @ abb 10:00 ET, AHL Live
Milwaukee, which has gone an AHL record 18 consecutive regular-season road games without a regulation loss (12-0-4-2), heads to Abbotsford to open a two-game set tonight… At 3-0-0-0, the Admirals are the only unbeaten team left in the Western Conference… Chris Mueller (2-4-6) is the only Milwaukee skater with points in all three games… The teams have not met since last Oct. 30, when the Heat salvaged the finale of their four-game season series with a 4-2 victory… Abbotsford’s Leland Irving (3-1-0, 1.76, .917) and Milwaukee’s Jeremy Smith (3-0-0, 1.63, .929) are among the top-ranked goalies in the AHL in the early going.