📝 With files from Patrick Williams
Here is a look at Saturday’s action around the AHL:
TEXAS 5, MILWAUKEE 4
The Stars scored three times in the final 5:33 of regulation, capped by Marian Studenic’s tiebreaking goal with 36.3 seconds to play, to pull out a win over the Admirals in a battle of the top two teams in the Central Division. Texas, 12-1-2-0 in its last 15 games, trailed 4-2 before Oskar Back (14:27) and Ryan Shea (15:47) evened the score late in the third. Markus Nurmi had a goal and an assist for Milwaukee, which scored four times on its first 11 shots to chase starter Anton Khudobin from the Stars crease; Matthew Murray earned the win, stopping all seven shots he faced in relief.
TORONTO 7, ROCHESTER 5
Nick Abruzzese snapped a 5-5 tie with 9.0 seconds left to give the Marlies their first lead of the game and send them to victory in Rochester. Toronto, in the opener of an eight-game road swing, erased deficits of 1-0, 2-1, 4-2 and 5-4, with Noel Hoefenmayer tying the game at 5-5 with 3:58 remaining. Logan Shaw finished with a goal and four assists for the Marlies, and Marc Johnstone scored his first two career AHL goals as part of Toronto’s five-goal third period. Mason Jobst netted his first AHL hat trick for the Amerks, but Joseph Woll made 28 saves to improve to 10-0-0 on the season.
LAVAL 6, CLEVELAND 2
Alex Belzile recorded his first career hat trick and Kevin Poulin made 36 saves as the Rocket defeated the Monsters to snap a four-game losing streak. With Cleveland down a goal and on the power play in the second period, Belzile and Lucas Condotta scored shorthanded goals 27 seconds apart to put the game out of reach. Anthony Richard tallied three assists for the Rocket.
HENDERSON 4, CALGARY 2
Gage Quinney and Sheldon Rempal scored in the second period to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead and send the Silver Knights to a second straight victory over the visiting Wranglers. Maxim Marushev added a goal and an assist, and Laurent Brossoit stopped 32 shots for Henderson. Calgary, which has lost back-to-back games for the first time since Oct. 29 and Nov. 2, got goals from Radim Zohorna and Emilio Pettersen.
HERSHEY 6, SPRINGFIELD 2
On a night when they retired Chris Bourque’s number 17, the Bears scored five unanswered goals and rolled to a win over the Thunderbirds. Garrett Pilon scored twice, Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre each had a goal and an assist, and Henrik Borgstrom finished with three helpers as Hershey completed a seven-game homestand. A night after making his season debut, Matthew Peca had his second straight two-assist effort for Springfield. The win was the 500th of Todd Nelson’s pro head coaching career.
ELSEWHERE
Cross Hanas scored four minutes into the contest and Alex Nedeljkovic, making his sixth start in 11 days, stopped 27 shots as Grand Rapids shut out Chicago, 1-0… Darren Raddysh, Gage Goncalves and Cole Koepke all had a goal and an assist for Syracuse in a 5-2 win at Lehigh Valley… Martin Chromiak recorded a goal and two assists and Cal Petersen stopped 30 shots as Ontario defeated San Diego, 5-2, to sweep the teams’ home-and-home weekend set… Tyler Boland recorded a goal and an assist for Manitoba in a 4-2 win at Belleville… Santtu Kinnunen and Gerry Mayhew scored third-period goals to lift Charlotte to a 3-1 win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton… Mason Geertsen registered his first AHL two-goal game, Simon Nemec added a goal and an assist and Akira Schmid made 33 saves as Utica earned a 5-1 win in Bridgeport… Dylan Garand made 27 saves for Hartford in a 3-1 win over Providence, the first of six meetings between the teams over the next three weeks… Kyle Rau and Arshdeep Bains recorded a goal and an assist each and Arturs Silvos made 25 saves as Abbotsford defeated San Jose, 5-1… Oskar Olausson scored a power-play goal with 7:51 remaining, snapping a 1-1 tie and sending Colorado to a 3-1 win over visiting Rockford and a split of the IceHogs’ two-game visit to Loveland… Tucson rallied from a 3-1 first-period deficit and got shootout goals from former Condor Adam Cracknell and AHL scoring leader Michael Carcone to defeat Bakersfield, 4-3.
TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams has been on the American Hockey League beat for nearly two decades for outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM! Sports, and was most recently the co-host of The Hockey News On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
