Saturday’s AHL boxscores
BRIDGEPORT 7, WORCESTER 2
Micheal Haley’s second goal of the night snapped a 2-2 tie with 6:57 left in the second period and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers went on to a convincing 7-2 victory over Worcester at the Arena at Harbor Yard.
Haley, who now has five goals in his last three games after going his previous 26 outings without scoring, was one of seven Bridgeport skaters with two points on the night. Five of his six goals this season have come against the Sharks.
Rob Hisey recorded a goal and an assist, and Rhett Rakhshani, Tomas Marcinko, Anton Klementyev, Robin Figren and Mark Katic were all credited with two assists. Dylan Reese, Josh Bailey, David Ullstrom and Tony Romano also scored for the Sound Tigers, and Kevin Poulin (8-3-0) made 30 saves.
Bridgeport scored seven goals in a game for the first time since a 7-3 win over Springfield on Dec. 5, 2009.
David Marshall and T.J. Trevelyan scored for Worcester in the loss.
ROCHESTER 6, TORONTO 5 (SO)
The Rochester Americans earned a home-and-home sweep of the Toronto Marlies with a 6-5 shootout win over their divisional rivals on Saturday afternoon at Ricoh Coliseum.
The Amerks have now won back-to-back games for the first time since a three-game run in late October and move within three points of third place in the American Hockey League’s North Division.
Michael Duco led the Amerks with a pair of goals and assisted on another as Tyler Plante earned the win with a 41-save effort before stopping all five shootout attempts.
Four different skaters tallied multi-point games for the hometown Marlies, while Ben Scrivens made 17 stops in the losing effort.
The Amerks jumped out to a 2-0 lead with first-period tallies from Duco and Scott Timmins, starting with Duco’s team-leading 10th goal of the season just 5:17 into the contest. Rochester’s lead was cut in half in the final minute of the opening frame as Juraj Mikus potted his first of the season to make it a 2-1 game.
Rochester regained its two-goal cushion again very early into the second stanza, just 51 seconds to be exact, with Duco’s second of the game on the power-play. The lead would be short-lived, however, as Toronto reeled off three straight goals in the latter part of the second period with goals coming from Danny Richmond, Christian Hanson and team captain Alex Foster to a turn a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead.
The Amerks opened the final frame with two quick goals from Paul Baier and newcomer Jeff LoVecchio just 69 seconds apart to put Rochester back on top 5-4. The Marlies answered right back and evened things up at five apiece as Brayden Irwin capitalized on the power-play at 16:09 to send the game into overtime.
After a scoreless extra session, it was Rochester’s A.J. Jenks with the lone goal in the shootout, proving to be the deciding factor to lift the Amerks to a win. Jenks is now 3-for-3 in shootouts this season.
ADIRONDACK 2, ABBOTSFORD 1
Denis Hamel had a goal and an assist and Nic Riopel made 26 saves as Adirondack edged Abbotsford, 2-1, at the Glens Falls Civic Center.
Adirondack has won consecutive games for the first time since Mar. 13-14, 2010.
Michael Ryan scored a shorthanded goal 1:51 into the game and Hamel notched a power-play marker – his 11th goal in 20 games with the Phantoms – early in the second period.
Matt Keith netted his team-leading 12th goal of the season for the Heat, ending a personal eight-game drought.
PROVIDENCE 2, HERSHEY 1
Kirk MacDonald and Jamie Arniel scored 52 seconds apart to break a 0-0 tie in the third period and Nolan Schaefer finished with 26 saves as Providence held on for a 2-1 win over Hershey at Giant Center on Saturday night.
It was the second consecutive loss to a last-place club by the two-time defending Calder Cup champions, who are now 7-7-0-0 on home ice in 2010-11.
Schaefer and Braden Holtby were locked in a scoreless duel for more than 47 minutes before MacDonald scored his first goal in 26 games and third of the season. Arniel came back less than a minute later with his team-leading 12th goal and 20th point of the year.
Andrew Joudrey scored the only goal for the Bears, who are on their first three-game losing streak since dropping Games 3, 4 and 5 of the division finals vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton during the 2009 Calder Cup Playoffs more than 19 months ago.
MANCHESTER 2, PORTLAND 1 (OT)
Justin Azevedo scored 53 seconds into overtime as visiting Manchester beat Portland, 2-1, for a home-and-home sweep of the weekend series between the top two teams in the Atlantic Division.
The Monarchs now own a three-point lead over the second-place Pirates.
Thomas Hickey’s shorthanded goal 8:10 into the third period tied the game after Jhonas Enroth (42 saves) had stopped all 29 shots he faced over the first two frames.
Marc-Andre Gragnani scored for the Pirates, the only blemish on a 36-save night by Monarchs rookie goaltender Martin Jones (8-2-0).
CHARLOTTE 4, BINGHAMTON 2
Jerome Samson snapped a 1-1 tie with 13:42 remaining in regulation and Jon Matsumoto added a pair of insurance goals as Charlotte knocked off Binghamton, 4-2, for its seventh consecutive road win on Saturday.
Jared Staal added his first career AHL goal for the Checkers and Mike Murphy made 30 saves to lead Charlotte to its third straight win. The Checkers are now 15-3-0-3 in their last 21 games overall.
Colin Greening scored twice for the Senators, who got 36 saves from Barry Brust in defeat.
NORFOLK 5, ALBANY 1
Led by a four-point night by James Wright, the Norfolk Admirals posted a 5-1 victory over Albany on Saturday night at Scope Arena.
Norfolk, the highest scoring team in the AHL, scored at least five times in a game for the 12th time this season and ran its points streak to eight (6-0-2-0). The Admirals improved to 5-2-3-1 at home.
Wright scored one of Norfolk’s two power-play goals on the night as well as one of its two shorthanded markers, and added two assists to pull into a tie with Johan Harju, Blair Jones and Marc-Antoine Pouliot for the team scoring lead at 24 points.
Paul Szczechura recorded three assists, Mark Barberio had a goal and an assist and Matt Fornataro scored while Norfolk finished with a 47-27 edge in shots. Cedrick Desjardins made 26 saves to improve to 12-5-1 on the year.
Michael Swift scored for the Devils, who suffered their fourth loss in five games.
SYRACUSE 3, WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON 1
A night after a 7-0 loss to Binghamton, the Syracuse Crunch rebounded against the league’s top team and took a 3-1 decision from visiting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Saturday.
Trevor Smith scored at 9:58 and 11:45 of the third period and Jean-Philippe Levasseur stopped 42 of 43 shots for the game to give the Crunch their second win in as many meetings with the Penguins this season.
Dan Sexton also scored for Syracuse, while registering a game-high eight shots on goal.
Ryan Craig had the lone tally for Wilkes-Barre, which has lost three of five to fall to 23-7-0-0 on the year.
HAMILTON 3, TEXAS 2 (OT)
Dustin Boyd scored with 2:52 left in regulation and again 1:07 into overtime to give Hamilton a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Texas at Cedar Park Center on Saturday.
It was the first meeting between the teams since May 26, when the Stars won the Western Conference championship with a Game 7 win in Hamilton.
Boyd, assigned to the Bulldogs by the parent Montreal Canadiens earlier this week, has three goals in two games for Hamilton.
Travis Morin and Aaron Gagnon staked Texas to a 2-0 lead and Richard Bachman (30 saves) was less than seven minutes away from his second consecutive shutout until J.T. Wyman got the Bulldogs on the board with 6:27 to play in the third. Boyd then converted on a late Hamilton power play to tie the score before winning it in overtime.
Curtis Sanford made 31 saves in the win for Hamilton, which is 2-0-0-0 halfway through a four-game road swing through Oklahoma and Texas.
SAN ANTONIO 4, OKLAHOMA CITY 2
Andrew Ebbett and Ryan Hollweg scored third-period goals to propel San Antonio to a 4-2 road win over Oklahoma City.
The first-place Rampage have made three visits to the Cox Convention Center this season and have won them all.
Ebbett added two assists for a three-point night, Garrett Stafford chipped in a goal and an assist and Petr Prucha scored his sixth goal in 10 games for San Antonio.
Taylor Chorney and Colin McDonald had the goals for the Barons. Alexandre Giroux assisted on McDonald’s goal late in the second period, becoming the 44th player in AHL history with 600 career points.
Brett MacLean had two assists for the Rampage, becoming the franchise’s all-time leading scorer with 134 points.
PEORIA 2, GRAND RAPIDS 1
The Peoria Rivermen managed just six shots over the first 40 minutes of the game, but they scored on two of them and that was enough to pull out a 2-1 win over visiting Grand Rapids on Saturday night.
The Rivermen have now earned points in 12 straight games (10-0-2-0), including three wins over the Griffins in the last eight days.
Phil McRae had a goal and an assist, Derek Nesbitt potted the eventual game-winning goal and rookie Jake Allen made 25 saves, allowing no more than one goal for the seventh time in 13 starts this season.
Tomas Tatar provided the only Griffins offense on the evening, his eighth goal of the year.
ROCKFORD 2, LAKE ERIE 1 (OT)
Jeremy Morin’s goal with 14 seconds left in regulation tied it, and Peter LeBlanc’s strike 53 seconds into overtime won it for Rockford, 2-1 over Lake Erie at the MetroCentre on Saturday night.
LeBlanc has a goal in four straight games for the IceHogs and five in his last six – including two game-winners – since rejoining the team from a stint in Toledo (ECHL).
Hannu Toivonen made 25 saves in the win as Rockford improved its record to 4-1-1-2 in the month of December.
Curtis Fraser scored for the Monsters, who have just one win in their last seven games (1-3-1-2) but have earned points in eight of 11 (4-3-2-2).
CHICAGO 5, MILWAUKEE 1
Nigel Dawes and Spencer Machacek recorded three points apiece and former Admirals netminder Drew MacIntyre stopped 22 shots for his long-awaited first win of the season as Chicago rolled past Milwaukee, 5-1, at Allstate Arena.
Patrice Cormier opened the scoring for the Wolves 12 minutes into the game, and Jason Krog gave the Wolves a 3-0 lead with his 5-on-3 power-play goal just before the horn at the end of the second period.
Dawes then scored twice in the third to salt away Chicago’s third win in their last four outings.
MacIntyre, a Second Team AHL All-Star in both 2007-08 and 2008-09, entered the game with an 0-3-0 record, a 5.30 goals-against average and an. 841 save percentage in four appearances this season. But he allowed only a Linus Klasen goal early in the third period en route to his 119th career AHL victory.
MANITOBA 1, HOUSTON 0
Sergei Shirokov scored 3:51 into the third period and Eddie Lack made 20 saves for his first career AHL shutout as Manitoba blanked Houston, 1-0, at the MTS Centre.
The Moose scored one goal or fewer for the eighth time this season, but still extended its winning streak to three games and completed a sweep of the Aeros’ two-game visit to Winnipeg. Manitoba is now off until hosting Peoria on Dec. 27-28.
The Aeros dropped their third in a row and wrapped up a five-game road trip at 1-4-0-0. Anton Khudobin made 19 saves for Houston in the loss.