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Wisniewski’s hat trick paces IceHogs past Wolves

Saturday’s boxscores

ROCKFORD 7, CHICAGO 2
On the second game of a conditioning assignment from the parent Chicago Blackhawks, defenseman James Wisniewski scored three goals and assisted on another to lead the Rockford IceHogs to a 7-2 win over the visiting Chicago Wolves at the MetroCentre on Saturday night.

Wisniewski is returning from off-season knee surgery. He was expected to rejoin the Blackhawks following the game.

Tim Brent and Evan Brophey each tallied a goal and an assist, Pete MacArthur and Pascal Pelletier potted single markers and Corey Crawford made 42 saves for his fifth consecutive victory.

Petri Kontiola (3a), Danny Groulx (2a), Jack Skille (2a) and Mike Radja (2a) also had multiple-point nights for the IceHogs.

Joe Motzko and Jeff Hamilton scored power-play goals for the Wolves, who finished with a 44-31 edge in shots on goal.

Rockford’s win leaves the top five teams in the West Division separated by just one point.

MILWAUKEE 6, IOWA 2
Kelsey Wilson and Teemu Laakso each scored twice as Milwaukee pulled into a tie for first place in the tight West Division with a 6-2 win at Iowa.

Stephen Werner and Patric Hornqvist also scored and Mike Santorelli and Cal O’Reilly picked up two assists each for the Admirals, who have won five in a row. Milwaukee’s 33 points are tied with the Chops and the Peoria Rivermen atop the West.

Drew MacIntyre made 21 saves for the Admirals, improving to 10-2-0 in his last 12 decisions.

Ryan Donally and Ryan Dingle scored for the Chops, who are 1-3-1-1 in their last six home tilts.

SAN ANTONIO 3, QUAD CITY 2 (OT)
Joel Perrault scored 1:48 into overtime as San Antonio extended its winning streak to six games with a 3-2 win over Quad City at the AT&T Center.

Brett MacLean scored his team-leading 10th goal and Kevin Porter added his first career AHL goal for the Rampage, who are a perfect 6-0-0-0 in December after going 0-14-0-1 in November.

Kyle Greentree got the Flames a point in the standings by tying the game with nine seconds left in regulation. Greentree, who also scored late equalizers on Dec. 6 at Peoria and on Nov. 29 at Chicago, now has seven goals in his last seven games.

MANITOBA 4, GRAND RAPIDS 2
Michel Ouellet and Guillaume Desbiens scored third-period goals to lift Manitoba to a 4-2 win over Grand Rapids at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.

Ouellet and Jason Krog finished the night with a goal and an assist each and Dan Gendur notched the first goal of his AHL career as the Moose snapped a three-game losing streak and avenged Friday’s 6-5 loss to the Griffins.

Karl Goehring made 31 saves in the win.

Jamie Tardif and Mattias Ritola scored for Grand Rapids, which saw its three-game road winning streak come to an end.

HOUSTON 6, HERSHEY 1
Krys Kolanos scored twice and registered an assist, Jesse Schultz notched a goal and two assists and Barry Brust made 31 stops as Houston rolled past Hershey, 6-1, in the first-ever regular-season meeting between the clubs.

The Bears, who entered their two-game Texas road trip on an 11-game winning streak, were outscored 9-1 in their visits to San Antonio and Houston.

With the game tied at 1-1, the Aeros broke it open by scoring five times in a span of 6:01 during the second period.

Corey Locke, Jason Deitsch and Peter Olvecky had a goal and an assist each for Houston, which moved to 3-0-0-2 in its last five games.

The teams’ only previous meetings came during the 2002 Calder Cup Playoffs, with the Aeros sweeping a conference semifinal series in four straight.

Attendance at the Toyota Center was 9,113.

SPRINGFIELD 4, HARTFORD 3 (SO)
Springfield scored three times in 2:27 midway through the third period and Carl Corazzini scored the only goal of the shootout to give the Falcons a come-from-behind 4-3 win over Hartford at the XL Center.

Tyler Spurgeon, Bryan Lerg and Ryan Potulny scored for Springfield to help end a six-game road losing streak. Devan Dubnyk (12-13-1) finished with 24 saves.

Jordan Owens led the Wolf Pack with a goal and two assists, and Tommy Pyatt added a goal and an assist.

BINGHAMTON 3, ALBANY 0
Brian Elliott made 33 saves for his first shutout of the season, backstopping Binghamton to a 3-0 win over Albany at the Times Union Center.

Elliott, who was coming off a 41-save effort vs. Portland on Friday, won his fourth straight decision to improve to 12-6-1 on the year.

Danny Bois, Greg Mauldin and Ryan Shannon scored for Binghamton, who played without defenseman Brian Lee and forward Ilya Zubov, recalled by the parent Ottawa Senators earlier in the day.

Justin Peters stopped 33 of 35 shots in the loss for the River Rats.

WORCESTER 4, LOWELL 2
Thomas Greiss made 35 saves and defenseman Derek Joslin had a big night to lead Worcester to a 4-2 win over host Lowell on Saturday.

Joslin scored a shorthanded goal, tallied an assist, was a plus-3 and took a game-high eight shots for the Sharks.

Cory Larose, Steven Zalewski and Ryan Vesce also scored for Worcester, which closed to within four points of first place in the Atlantic Division.

Petr Vrana and Brad Mills scored for the Devils, who are winless in their last four (0-3-0-1). Jeff Frazee made 41 saves in defeat.

MANCHESTER 5, PROVIDENCE 4 (SO)
Trevor Lewis notched a goal and two assists and Vladimir Dravecky netted the only shootout goal as Manchester overcame a Providence rally and earned a 5-4 victory over the Bruins.

Viatcheslav Voynov, Brian Boyle and Lewis staked the Monarchs to a 3-0 lead at the first intermission, and Eric Werner made it 4-2 after two.

But the B’s rallied on third-period goals by Zach Hamill and Mikko Lehtonen to earn a standings point and take over sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division.

Peter Schaefer and Martin St. Pierre led Providence with a goal and two assists each.

Marty Murray tallied three assists and Jonathan Bernier made 39 saves for Manchester.

WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON 5, PORTLAND 1
Chris Minard took over the AHL lead with his 18th and 19th goals of the season, sparking Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to a 5-1 win over visiting Portland.

Minard opened the scoring just 4:16 into the game, and Danny Richmond and Jean-Michel Daoust made it 3-0 by the 7:30 mark of the first period.

Bill Thomas, Janne Pesonen and Luca Caputi each had two assists and John Curry made 23 saves for the Penguins, who are 6-1-1-0 in their last eight games.

Portland fell to 1-4-0-2 in its last seven road outings.

BRIDGEPORT 6, NORFOLK 4
Even with linemate Kurtis McLean out of the lineup, Bridgeport’s top line kept humming with Trevor Smith notching a hat trick and Mike Iggulden recording four assists in a 6-4 Sound Tigers victory at Norfolk.

Smith’s second goal of the night snapped a 4-4 tie with 3:13 remaining in regulation, and his empty-netter just before the final horn sealed the second three-goal game of his AHL career.

Chris Lee, Rob Hennigar and Jeff Tambellini also scored for Bridgeport, which won in regulation for the first time in seven contests.

Justin Keller scored twice for Norfolk and Steve Downie assisted on all four Admirals goals.

ROCHESTER 3, LAKE ERIE 1
Jacob Micflikier and David Brine scored third-period goals to lead Rochester to a 3-1 win over Lake Erie at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

It was the Americans’ second straight road win after starting the year 0-10-0-1 away from home.

Mike Brodeur made 20 saves for Rochester and improved to 3-2-0 (1.39, .948) since joining the Amerks.

Chris Durno scored the lone goal for the Monsters.

TORONTO 4, SYRACUSE 2
Ben Ondrus scored twice and former Crunch goaltender Adam Munro made 20 of his 37 saves in the third period as Toronto doubled up Syracuse, 4-2.

Alex Foster and Staffan Kronwall registered a goal and an assist each for the Marlies, who sent the Crunch to their fifth straight defeat.

Kevin Harvey and Tom Sestito had the Syracuse goals.