Eastern Conference notebook

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Albany snapped a six-game losing streak with a 4-3 overtime win over Syracuse on Dec. 23, with Frank Doyle making 45 saves and Krisjanis Redlihs getting the winning goal. Doyle made his fifth consecutive start in net for the River Rats on Monday in Binghamton. Ivan Khomutov ended an eight-game drought with a goal in Monday’s 4-2 loss to the Senators at the Broome County Arena.

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Binghamton improved to 3-1-0-1 in its last five games with Monday’s 4-2 win over visiting Albany. Captain Denis Hamel had a goal and two assists on Monday, giving him 18 points (8g, 10a) in his last nine games and 40 for the year, good for fourth in the AHL. Steve Martins also had a goal and two assists Monday, his fourth straight multiple-point game.

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Brideport faced two of the AHL’s top teams in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Hartford last week and came away with three of a possible four points. Friday’s 3-2 loss to the Hartford marked the Sound Tigers’ first foray into the shootout this season. All 27 AHL teams have now participated in at least one shootout. Bridgeport will be home Saturday for a New Year’s Eve matinee, hosting Lowell at 1:05 p.m.

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Hartford is still unbeaten in regulation since a 5-3 loss in Portland on Nov. 20, going 9-0-1-3 in its last 13 games. The Wolf Pack’s six regulation losses on the season are second only to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s three. Dwight Helminen is currently on a nine-game scoring streak, with nine goals and six assists during that time.

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Following an impressive 21-game stretch in which they lost just once in regulation (15-1-2-3), the Bears have dropped three of their last four (1-3-0-0). Hershey has dropped from first in the league on the penalty kill to fourth, surrendering 11 power-play goals in those four games after giving up 22 PPG in their first 29 outings. Chris Bourque scored five goals for Team USA in Monday’s 11-2 win over Norway to open the 2006 World Junior Championships.

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Lowell’s winless slide reached seven games (0-5-0-2) with a 3-2 shootout loss in Providence on Monday. The Lock Monsters have scored just 16 goals in 12 games during the month of December (2-8-0-2). Keith Aucoin has eight points in nine games this month after leading the AHL with 21 points in 13 games during November.

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Adam Hauser is tied for second in the AHL with 14 victories this season. Brad Smyth leads all AHL forwards with a plus-16 rating on the year. Jeff Giuliano scored his first NHL goal in Los Angeles’s 4-2 win over Calgary last Wednesday.

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Norfolk established a club record with 52 shots on goal in last Wednesday’s 8-6 win over Binghamton. Martin St. Pierre has recorded a point in seven straight games (4g, 6a) and an assist in five straight. Norfolk takes a six-game points streak (5-0-0-1) into this week’s games against division rivals Philadelphia, Hershey and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

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Now scoreless in his last three games, John Slaney remains with 452 career points entering the week, one shy of Steve Kraftcheck’s career scoring record for an AHL defenseman. Matt Ellison, who played the last two seasons for rival Norfolk, made his Phantoms debut on Friday night. Ben Eager scored his first two NHL goals in the Flyers’ 3-2 shootout win over Florida on Monday night.

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Corey Perry extended his scoring streak to 13 games (10g, 14a) with an assist in Friday’s 3-2 shootout loss to Manchester. Perry has a point in every game he has played as a Pirate. Dieter Kochan made 35 saves in his Portland debut on Friday night. Tim Brent leads the club with 13 goals on the season.

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Nathan Robinson is on a torrid eight-game scoring streak, with 15 points (8g, 7a) and a plus-11 rating in that span. He also scored the deciding shootout goal in Monday’s win over Lowell. Pascal Pelletier, who made his AHL debut on Dec. 16, has five points in his last three games for Providence. The Bruins are playing five games in six days this week, closing out 2005 with visits to Springfield (Tuesday), Lowell (Wednesday), Portland (Friday) and Hartford (Saturday).

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Jason Jaspers, Norm Milley and rookie Ryan Vesce are locked in a three-way tie for Springfield’s scoring lead, each with 30 points in 30 games. After playing two games in a 15-day span from Dec. 12-26, the Falcons close out the calendar year with four games in five nights. Of the 118 AHL alumni named to Olympic rosters last week, 12 are former Falcons, including Nikolai Khabibulin, Shane Doan, Robert Esche, Sami Kapanen and Marek Malik.

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Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is 4-2-0-0 since the Dec. 15 coaching change, outscoring the opposition 18-6. The Penguins became the first AHL team in nearly seven years (Providence, Feb. 3, 1999) to score seven goals in a period during Monday’s 8-1 win over Hershey. New assistant coach Al Sims, who played parts of seven seasons in the AHL with Rochester and New Haven, made his Wilkes-Barre debut on Monday.