OKLAHOMA CITY 3, LAKE ERIE 0
Goaltender Martin Gerber turned in a 35-save shutout – including 28 saves over the final two periods – as Oklahoma City continued its recent surge with a 3-0 home-ice win over Lake Erie on Tuesday at the Cox Convention Center.
It marked Gerber’s first AHL shutout since Jan. 21, 2009, when he blanked Philadelphia on 32 shots as a member of the Binghamton Senators.
After a scoreless first period, defenseman Shawn Belle gave Oklahoma City the lead with a power play goal at 1:22 of the second frame. Brad Moran extended his scoring streak to three games (3-3-6) with an assist on the play, and Alexandre Giroux earned the other helper.
Liam Reddox padded the lead later in the second, and Giroux added a power play tally in the third frame. Giroux is now riding a four-game scoring run (3-3-6) after going without a point in back-to-back games to begin the year.
Since an 0-2-1-0 start in which they totaled just three goals, the Barons have put together a three-game winning streak and outscored opponents 15-5 in that span. Oklahoma City now sits in second place in the West Division, three points back of front-running Peoria.
Conversely, the Monsters are 0-2-0-1 since starting the season with two straight wins. Lake Erie continues a stretch of seven straight road games with a visit to San Antonio on Wednesday.
PORTLAND 3, MANCHESTER 2 (SO)
Portland prevailed in an epic nine-round shootout to take a 3-2 win over visiting Manchester on Tuesday at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
With the victory, the Pirates improved their perfect home-ice record to 5-0-0-0 and their overall record to 5-1-0-0 (10 points), good for first place in the Atlantic Division early on.
Last season, Portland did not claim its fifth victory until a 5-0 win over Hershey on Nov. 6, which brought its record to 5-8-0-0.
Pirates goaltender David Leggio and Manchester counterpart Jeff Zatkoff traded saves through the first seven shootout rounds. Monarchs defenseman Viatcheslav Voynov converted in the eighth round, but rookie Corey Tropp answered for Portland.
After Leggio denied David Kolomatis in the ninth round, Derek Whitmore beat Zatkoff to give the Pirates the victory.
Rookie Luke Adam and Colin Stuart notched regulation goals for Portland, which was 15 seconds away from a regulation victory before Manchester rookie Brandon Kozun tied it up. Dwight King also scored for the Monarchs.
Leggio, making his season debut, stopped 35 of 37 shots through regulation and overtime.
HAMILTON 5, ROCHESTER 2
Hamilton jumped out to a 3-0 lead and rolled to a 5-2 win over visiting Rochester at Copps Coliseum on Tuesday, marking the Bulldogs’ second win in five days over their North Division rivals.
Defenseman Yannick Weber led the way with a pair of goals for the Bulldogs. Rookie forward Alexander Avtsin recorded a goal and an assist for his first career AHL points, and Andrew Conboy also had a goal and an assist in the victory.
Rearguard Mathieu Carle also scored, and goaltender Robert Mayer turned aside 23 of 25 shots to improve to 2-1-0 on the young season.
The Americans, who are 0-2-0-0 against Hamilton and 3-1-0-0 against everyone else, received goals from Kenndal McArdle and Michael Duco in the losing effort.
