J.D. Forrest is encouraged by where his Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins team stands as the AHL regular season begins its final week.

He missed the first five months of the season following surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon. But Luke Philp is back and ready to lead the Rockford IceHogs into the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Some nights it all looks just right, nights like March 26 when the Providence Bruins visited league-leading Hershey and assembled a 4-1 masterpiece of a win.

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms’ goaltending picture has gotten a late-season makeover, thanks to the work of Philadelphia Flyers general manager Daniel Briere and his front office.

The past six weeks have been a here-one-day, gone-the-next existence for Matthew Phillips. But whether he’s in Washington or Hershey, nothing is diminishing his hunger to succeed.

As challenging as times have been for the Texas Stars, captain Curtis McKenzie knows that even more obstacles await.

A player’s path through the AHL is rarely an easy one. But few players embody the ups and downs quite like Jamieson Rees, a fourth-year forward now with the Belleville Senators in the most trying season yet of his pro career.

Shane Wright has been a household hockey name for years, but he’s still just a pro rookie and he’s enjoying a productive – and normal – season developing in Coachella Valley.

At 35 years old with 288 National Hockey League games to his name, Brad Hunt spent his weekend doing exactly what he wants to be doing.

In a business known for players bouncing around North America – as well as the rest of the globe – Luke Toporowski is getting a fresh start by coming home.