Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
The Henderson Silver Knights don’t have much time to waste.
Last night’s 7-3 win in Abbotsford brought Henderson to within 10 points of the seventh-place Canucks for the final playoff position in the Pacific Division. The teams meet again this afternoon at Abbotsford Centre in another in what will be another game that the Silver Knights desperately need.
“We know where we’re at,” captain Jake Bischoff said Friday as the Silver Knights geared up for the series. “We can’t change what’s happened already, but I think going forward we’re excited for the opportunity and the challenge ahead.”
Henderson’s offense has sputtered, totaling 15 goals and being shut out six times in the last 12 games before breaking out last night. The Silver Knights go to Milwaukee for a pair of contests against the Central Division-leading Admirals next weekend, but then finish by playing seven of their final nine games at home.
“We talked about embracing the opportunity,” first-year head coach Ryan Craig said as the team prepared for the Canucks. “Embrace the grind. We want to get back to having some swagger to our game, playing like we know we can.
“We talked about the things that we’ve done to put ourselves in a position where we’re playing meaningful hockey right now.”
Up front, captain Adam Cracknell, second on the team with 17 goals, is back after missing 13 games with an injury. Sheldon Rempal, whose 23 goals lead the team, got back into the goal column on Wednesday night in Tucson, his first marker since Feb. 17. The Vegas Golden Knights returned first-round pick Brendan Brisson to Henderson this week and he supplied two assists in last night’s victory.
The organization also brought in veteran NHL help for the Silver Knights as forward Ryan Dzingel joined the club on a professional tryout. The veteran of 404 NHL games had not played all season, and picked up his first two goals with Henderson last night.
“We’re still in the race,” Craig said. “We have to control what we can control, but that says something for what we’ve gone through this year with call-ups and injuries. Those kinds of things, those aren’t excuses. The guys that have come in here have done a good job, but now as we’re starting to get healthier and get our group back together, we need to go into games knowing we can win, feeling we can win, playing to win.”
It has been an eventful past month for new Providence Bruins defenseman Jared McIsaac.
In his fourth season in Grand Rapids, playing time had been hard to find. He dressed for just 15 games with the Griffins before the Detroit Red Wings loaned him to HC Ambri-Piotta of Switzerland’s National League on Feb. 14.
McIsaac played three games plus one more in the postseason before the Swiss team’s season ended this past week.
Now it’s back to North America, as the Red Wings reassigned McIsaac to the Providence Bruins just prior to Friday’s AHL trade/loan deadline. In exchange, the Boston Bruins assigned forward Curtis Hall to Grand Rapids. The move should provide defensive depth for the P-Bruins after losing Jakub Zboril in a trade to Columbus a week earlier. And the Boston organization will have a chance to get an up-close look at a former second-round draft pick who is still only 23.
Providence has also added defenseman Drew Bavaro on an amateur tryout after he signed an entry-level deal with Boston this week. Bavaro, 23, wrapped up his collegiate career at Notre Dame with 10 goals and 10 assists in 35 games this season and made his pro debut on Friday.
The Charlotte Checkers continued an on-the-fly makeover of their blue line this week following the announcement that defenseman Lucas Carlsson is out for the season with an injury that had already kept him out of action since Feb. 28.
Among AHL blueliners, Carlsson, an AHL All-Star this season, is tied for first with 15 goals and tied for fourth with 39 points in 52 games.
With Carlsson out and Calle Själin having been traded to the Buffalo Sabres at the NHL deadline, the Checkers went out and signed defenseman Andy Welinski to a professional tryout deal before this weekend. The eighth-year veteran has logged 27 games with Iowa this season, picking up 10 points (three goals, seven assists).
Charlotte also added experienced help earlier, acquiring Mitchell Vande Sompel from Chicago for forward Jake Wise on March 8. Vande Sompel scored his first goal as a Checker in yesterday’s 4-3 win over Springfield.
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
